#Hamilton becomes the 1st Governor General of the British United States of America

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AH’s political prospects in 1798; Or, how a white man continually falls upwards

It’s a bit difficult to gauge the real-time reaction and consequences of AH’s late August 1797 publication of the Reynolds Pamphlet. We have newspaper articles, sure, and scattered letters here and there. 

But this is even more interesting: Kaminski and Levinson (Levinson is a lawyer and publisher at statutesandstories.com; Kaminski is Founder and Director of the Center for the Study of the American Constitution at UWisc) published a blog post last year confirming that AH’s “secret” (all the discussions were supposed to be secret) plan, delivered on June 18, 1787 at the Constitutional Convention, was leaked and published in early 1798.

Kaminski and Levinson continue: 

James Madison’s Convention notes were not published until 1840, after his death as the last surviving member of the Philadelphia Convention. Accordingly, historians have generally assumed that the full text of the Hamilton Plan only became public in 1840 after Madison’s death. As set forth below, recently rediscovered sources prove that the verbatim text of the Hamilton Plan was leaked to the press in January of 1798, during the vitriolic newspaper war of the 1790s.

[From Benjamin Franklin Bache’s Aurora on January 13, 1798]: The following document, which so complete unmasks the political character of the man who has been most instrumental in entailing on the United States those pernicious systems under which they now groan, comes to us thro’ a certain tho’ indirect channel, from a member of the Grand Convention.

...It has recently been discovered that after the Aurora published Hamilton’s Plan several Democratic-Republican newspapers quickly followed suit. In early 1798 the following newspapers republished the Hamilton Plan as a means of “unmasking” and attacking Hamilton’s “political character” as a monarchist:

Greenleaf’s New York Journal, January 17, 1798

The Alexandria Advertiser, January 23, 1798

The Independent Chronicle, January 25, 1798

The Bee, January 31, 1798

The Albany Register, February 2, 1798

The Poughkeepsie Journal, March 13, 1798

Whether Madison personally authorized the leak will require additional scholarship, which will be discussed in the pending book, My Most Ardent Wish: New discoveries and insights into the framing of the Constitution.

In the months to follow Statutesandstories.com and the Center for the Study of the American Constitution invite scholars to join in a deep dive into the Madison, Jefferson and Monroe papers looking for clues as to the reason(s) for releasing the confidential Hamilton Plan. While generations of historians and biographers have written about the growing schism between Madison and Hamilton, as far as can be determined no biographer has cited the leak of the Hamilton Plan in the Aurora on January 13, 1798. Why then? And to what end?

Look at these guys promising me a good time! A lot of interesting work has been published on the blog about the Constitutional Convention, how AH may have been in Philadelphia for more days than usually noted, done more politicking towards the other NY delegates than previously known, and how he may have been more active in the writing of the Constitution than usually attributed (hi Gouverneur Morris), in what they term the Hamilton Authorship Thesis. They also have provided some more information about missing/ previously unknown Hamilton legal cases (I’ll link one here), among other topics. 

So even with the Reynolds Pamphlet and the publication of AH’s “monarchist” views, John Jay (then NY Gov) was willing to name Hamilton U.S. Senator from NY in April 1798 - without even asking him if it was okay!

The present delicate State of our public affairs, and the evident Expediency of filling this Vacancy without Delay, induce me without requesting your Permission and waiting for your answer, to determine to send you a Commission to fill that place, by the next Post. I can say nothing that will not occur to You. [19April1798, Jay to AH]

And then took a breath and sent off another note: 

On further Reflection I doubt the propriety of appointing you without your previous permission, and therefore shall postpone it untill I receive your answer. If after well considering the Subject you should decline an appointmt. be so good as to consult with some of our most judicious Friends and advise me as to the Persons most proper to appoint and at the same time likely to accept. [19April1798, Jay to AH]

The situation was that Philip Schuyler had been elected Senator again in 1797, but then had to resign (3Jan1798) due to poor health. John Sloss Hobart had been NY Supreme Court justice for over 20 years and was appointed to Schuyler’s seat on 11Jan1798. But then he was nominated for the federal NY District Court by Pres. Adams. Did Jay think AH wanted to warm his father-in-law’s seat that badly? AH responded to Jay (24Apr1798):

I have received your two favours of the 19th instant. I feel as I ought the mark of confidence they announce. But I am obliged by my situation to decline the appointment. This situation you are too well acquainted with to render it necessary for me to enter into explanation. There may arrive a crisis when I may conceive myself bound once more to sacrifice the interest of my family to public call. But I must defer the change as long as possible.

I do not at present think of a person to recommend as adapted to the emergency. I shall reflect & consult and write you by the next post. This, the first day, is not decisive of our election here; but there is as yet nothing to discourage. With respect & attachment...

He’s already lawyering and anonymously publishing and meddling all over Adams’s administration and reading every newspaper mention of himself to respond to that too (and tending to his family, I guess)- when did Jay think AH would also have time to be a senator? The lucky fellow appointed Senator until the next legislative session instead was - William North. (James Watson was elected to the position in August 1798.) 

And of course, in July George Washington would appoint Hamilton Inspector General with the rank of first Major General, jumping both Pinckney and Knox in rank. Yeah, Hamilton’s reputation and prospects were really suffering. And the biggest problem remained unaddressed - that Hamilton needed to make more money. 

I believe it’s first attributed to Jefferson, but some of the Federalists also took to calling Hamilton “Colossus.” If he lived now, he could have made shirts with his picture and the logo “Too Big to Fail.”

#Alexander Hamilton #John Jay #George Washington #Philip Schuyler #William North #Quasi War #Hamilton lives - the War of 1812 never happens #Hamilton becomes the 1st Governor General of the British United States of America