Transcripts For CSPAN3 Alexander Hamilton Myths 20170218 : v

Good afternoon. Welcome to United Methodist church. I am the pastor of this congregation. We welcome you to this exciting event, sponsored by the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society. An important event in their organization and for our aggregation here as well. John Street Church is the oldest methodist congregation in the United States. In very many ways, it is fair to say that this congregation grew up with this country. Themes that are present in American History have defined this conversation as well. When we have learned the importance of the Founding Fathers in this country, i bring that lends to my experience here today. I look for the ways in which threads and influences of this church, the way those things are impacted by the likes of Alexander Hamilton. Whatever you hope to learn, whatever questions you bring, whatever insights you plan to bring, hope you will find them fulfilled and i look 5 forward to sharing this time with you this afternoon. [applause] my name is rand, president of the american Alexander Hamilton american society. More commonly known as the aha society. Thank you to the congregation of john street method in Methodist Church for hosting this event which is part of happy birthday hamilton, 2017. We invite you to join us tomorrow at 2 00 p. M. For the wreathlaying ceremony at hamiltons grave monument. It will include the u. S. Coast guard, dignitaries, and officials from where hamilton spent the first 18 years of his life. They will be there and speaking and presenting. It will be a nice even. I would like to let you know s willhe premier from navi be there tomrrow. The ambassador will be there tomorrow. Another of our partners will be there. A partnership in furthering Alexander Hamilton. We have bob white who is the president of the Alexander Hamilton society in st. Croix. Congratulations to the john street Methodist Church. This building is the third which is so rating its 175th anniversary. Do you know what is behind this wall . Maiden lane. That is where Thomas Jefferson lived. That is where the story goes that jefferson, madison, and hamilton got together to work out the nations debts and where the permanent capital should be. Inspired the musical when it want to be in the room where it happened, the room where it happened, the room where it happened. It happened right on the other side of this will. Want to be in the room where ittwo years ago, a show dd offbroadway hoping to make it to broadway. An show, Hamilton American musical. This visa a call has introduced millions of people around the world to Alexander Hamilton. People are looking into his background with a positive spirit. Why had hamilton been considered a less significant founder in the mind of the public . Mischaracterization, a convenient villain. It was based on myths. New readers of the new hamilton musical go in and read this characterization and it is very confusing. On our website we shared the recommended books that relay Accurate Information about hamilton. Subsequent authors on hamilton would previously rely on other accomplished writers that ended up propagating a lot of this mischaracterization. That is why hamilton was not so well known and revered before the look he is getting now. Our speaker today has done the actual hard work of getting past the books and getting to the primary sources. Getting to the actual letters. He has written a monumental book, Alexander Hamilton and the persistence of myth. Which, outside of biographies, is one of the most important books on Alexander Hamilton. Stephen knott is a professor of National Security affairs at the United States Naval War College and served as cochair of the university of virginia he received his phd from Boston College and has taught at the United States air force academy and the university of virginia. He is the author of the book we , dr. Knott recently coauthored a book entitled washington and hamilton, and if you will prepare concise questions, that will help for after the talk. Knott. Welcome stephen [applause] dr. Knott thank you. Thank you all. Thank you very much. I appreciate you coming out on this cold winters today. I particularly want to thank nicole and everyone involved with the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society. You guys do terrific work in terms of keeping hamiltons legacy alive for your statuses for your fellow citizens. I also want to thank the johns street Methodist Church for providing such a nice venue for my talk today. Let me begin by saying that i never believed in my life, when i wrote Alexander Hamilton and the persistence of myth, well over 15 years ago, that hamilton would be restored to his rightful place as a founding father, buting would also become a broadway celebrity. I never dreamed in my wildest imagination that that would happen when i was writing this book back in 1998 and 1999. Let me start by noting that i believe Alexander Hamilton was the first victim of the politics of personal destruction. Thomas jefferson, james madison, james monroe and other jeffersonian lieutenants made it their lifes work in the 1790s and even after hamiltons death to this march his reputation. Part of the reason for this was their objection on policy grounds to the federalist presidency of George Washington. It was simply easier it was more politically palatable to attack Alexander Hamilton than it was to attack George Washington, the father of this country. Washington, for the most part, was offlimits to the kind of personal and political attacks directed against Alexander Hamilton during his life. Even after the duel, even after the death of hamilton at the hands of aaron burr, jefferson and his lieutenants understood the damage that a dead hamilton could do in terms of presenting a threat to the jeffersonian agenda. Their Immediate Reaction there is a chain of correspondence that goes back and forth between madison, monroe, noah webster and other jeffersonians expressing concern the emotional reaction of hamiltons death and the concern for what it might do to the jeffersonian agenda. Hamiltons death in 1804 gave john adams some 22 years to spin the historical record. In 1804, jefferson and adams died on the fourth of july in 1846. 1826. They use that time to spend Historical Records in a direction favorable to the jeffersonians. James madison outlives outfitter hamilton by 32 years and as we know now, he actually goes back and doctors some of the notes that he took from the Constitutional Convention to make hamilton look bad in a sense. This desire to be little and besmirch hamiltons reputation continues apace throughout the democratic party. In the 19 century, Andrew Jackson believed that hamilton was the tribune of the moneyed aristocracy. Jackson comes to see the bank of the United States and Nicholas Biddle as a personification of all that was wrong without with Alexander Hamilton. Jackson plays the class card to the hilt and hamilton is a key figure in terms of appealing to populist sensibilities in terms of generating animus towards the bank of the United States. During the american civil war, you briefly see a kind of resurrection of hamiltons reputation. His antislavery stance, his strong nationalism appeals to many in the north, in the new Republican Party, and especially future president s such as james garfield, rutherford b. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison and others all revered out of vendor hamilton as the father of the American Union and perhaps the greatest of the founders to George Washington. The 20th century at the beginning, briefly, hamilton retains his status as an impressive founder at least for those who consider themselves progressive. Im thinking particularly of Teddy Roosevelt, henry cabot lodge, if you can call him a progressive. Mostly in the Republican Party these are people who revere Alexander Hamilton. He is not particularly wellliked in the populist wing of the democratic party. William Jennings Bryan sees him as the founding plutocrat. Hamiltons reputation in the 20th century begins to decline fairly rapidly. While he is revered by president s such as Warren Harding and calvin coolidge, those two president s are not guaranteed to make him a revered figure in the academic circles. It is hardings secretary of the treasury, andrew mellon, who erects the statute we see to this day on the grounds of the in may 1923. But when the great crash comes , as i say in my book, Alexander Hamilton might well have been the chair of the Republican National committee in terms of his reputation in the media. Because he was so warmly embraced by harding and coolidge and mellon, that perception of his as the founding father of wall street, you begin to see a radical decline in hamiltons reputation in the late20s and late 1920s and throughout the new deal year. It is Franklin Roosevelt more than any other president who elevates Thomas Jefferson into the pantheon of american greats. It is roosevelt who erects the Jefferson Memorial. The beautiful title basin memorial in washington, d. C. In so doing there is an iron law in american historiograpy, one rises. And the other jefferson comes into his on in the American Mind in the 1940s. The only book review that Franklin Roosevelt ever wrote was of a book by Claude Bowers called jefferson and hamilton and the struggle for democracy in america. And if i can be blunt, this is a godawful book that took the nation somewhat by storm and fdr found this book to be brilliant in his review in the new york world. An obscure newspaper that no longer exists. It was a glowing review. If you look at this book by portrayed aston is a dictator, or a budding dictator. The author repeatedly uses the term dictatorial when characterizing hamilton. He says hamilton considered himself to be quote part of the race of military masters end quote. Hamilton was a budding fascist during the founding era. This caricatured account of hamilton resonates with millions of americans, including jeffersons most famous malone, whodumas says that the work is a brilliant piece and inspired him to get into the business of writing biographies. His famous six volume biography of Thomas Jefferson. Erects theho Jefferson Memorial in washington, d. C. He even has a hand in the quote that adorns the wall of the Jefferson Memorial. It is Franklin Roosevelt who invites a Staff Sergeant in the United States army by the name of sydney tingly sidney kingsley, who writes the most successful broadway play of 1943, the patriot. It was the most successful musical of its day. If you go back and read the script, you can see why fdr loved it. You have a cigar chomping fdr a cigarchomping Alexander Hamilton referring to the American People as a drunken swine. All the while eliza hamilton sits beside him in a sort of ntoinette outfit, popping bon bons, and expressing her approval of her husbands contempt for the American People. It is beyond belief. If you are invited a performance in washington, d. C. General George Marshall is in attendance and all of Washington Society attends the play and kingsley is invited to the dedication of the Jefferson Memorial. I say this in my book and i dont think this is a overstatement. By the time of the second world war, alexander, in many quarters, is seen as a Joseph Goebbels in a white coat and breaches. Maybe a bit of an overstatement that not by much. Fortune magazine have to write a quote in which they say if hamilton were alive today, we think he would fight the nazis. Things to do begin to change in the late 20th century in terms of hamiltons reputation these vis a vis, jefferson. That is partly due in good measure to the back to that civil rights and the whole africanamerican area becomes very much part of the scholarly and political agenda of the 1960s. Also due to the fact that hamilton was the lone immigrant amongst the key Founding Fathers. That also begins to play in a sense to hamiltons favor. You see this in the works of richard burrookehiser, ron chernow, and eventually working its way into lin nmanuels musical. Many myths still persist to this day regarding Alexander Hamilton and i believe these myths persist partly due to the ideological agenda of various scholars and writers. For instance, i go to Great Lengths in the persistence of myth to chip away at this idea that Alexander Hamilton referred to the American People this way. As a great beast. The source of this goes back to inry adamss book, written 1889, the history of the Jefferson Administration and adams is the first one to pull this quote. Hamilton allegedly said at a dinner party around 1800 that the people are a great beast. Adams pulls this out of a memoir a theophilus parsons, jr. , somewhat obscure juror in massachusetts. The point im getting at here is the quote was allegedly uttered in 1800. B, whoa, told source who told source c, published a book six years later with a. Quote. R with the no scholar worth his salt should cite that quote. It is a fourth hand account published 60 years after the fact by a person who despise despised hamilton. Close friends of the adams family. This quote has taken on a life of its own and scholars who should know better continue to cite it. Some will Say Something to the effect of, he may not have actually said it, but it sounds like hamilton. In my view, that is very professionally irresponsible. Let me talk about a few more myths associated with hamilton that despite the great work of brookhiser, chernow, and miranda, and michael newton, who is in the audience today. The idea that Alexander Hamilton was an opponent or a foe of liberty. This was another midfirst another myth, first propagated by the jeffersonians and by jefferson himself. Jefferson is the source of the quote that Alexander Hamilton believed that Julius Caesar was the greatest man who ever lived. Jefferson reports this 20 years after the fact in 1811, long after Alexander Hamilton is a dead and not in a position to refute it. I would urge you to look at the work of a historian who has done a great job in terms of dismissing that quote as fiction. Again these things have taken on a life of their own. I have to give jefferson credit. Jefferson and his lieutenants. They were masterful in terms of spinning the historical record. Persists to this day. You are probably picking that up from me. These myths are proving very resilient. Another myth is hamilton was only concerned with the wellbeing of the rich and the or bankersnd banks in particular. It was true that hamilton was not a friend of, or a supporter of precip atari participatory democracy. He wanted as many elements of stability and purpose as he and permanence as he could possibly infuse into the system. He did propose a president elected for life and a senate life, but i believe, among others, and i believe harrelson hamilton himself even made this case, what he was trying to do with the Constitutional Convention was pull his fellow delegates as far in the direction of permanence and stability as he could. So he staked out what seemed a more extreme position and made the more moderate, nationa