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If George Washington had not Run for President . . . ?
byThis month we asked our contributors: If George Washington had not run for President in 1789, who would you like to have had as…
Alexander Hamilton
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Alexander Hamilton’s Missing Years: New Discoveries and Insights into the Little Lion’s Caribbean Childhood
byAlexander Hamilton’s life has been documented extensively and his exploits as an adult are well known. His early childhood, however, has long been a…
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Ten Revolutionary War Patriot Graves
byThis list presents the graves of ten soldiers who made remarkable contributions to the founding of the United States and who have a headstone…
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Creating Order: Rufus King and the Nascent American Republic
byOn the afternoon of April 30, 1789, George Washington stepped onto the balcony of the freshly-renovated and renamed Federal Hall on Wall Street in…
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An American Bolingbroke: John Taylor of Caroline’s Republican Opposition, 1792–1794, Part 2 of 2
byHenry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, in the first half of the eighteenth century, and John Taylor of Caroline in the 1790s, both feared that…
An American Bolingbroke: John Taylor of Caroline’s Republican Opposition, 1792–1794, Part 1 of 2
byFrom 1792 to 1794, John Taylor of Caroline, a senator from Virginia, was engaged in a heated party struggle between Jeffersonian Republicans and Hamiltonian…
John Marshall: Hamilton 2.0
byCelebrated for his stirring words in the Declaration of Independence, and having profited upon the popularity since, Thomas Jefferson was now America’s chief magistrate—and…
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Hylton v. U.S. and Alexander Hamilton’s Defense of Congressional Taxing Authority
byIn 1796 Daniel Hylton, a wealthy Virginian farmer, brought a suit before the United States Supreme Court arguing that a federal tax on carriages…
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George Washington’s 1777 Wilmington, Delaware, Headquarters: Insights to an Unmarked Site
byOn the 170th anniversary of Washington’s Birthday in 1902, the Delaware Society of the Cincinnati formed a procession of dignitaries and marched up Quaker…
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Washington’s Head of Elk Reconnaissance: A New Letter (and and Old Receipt)
byThe Philadelphia Campaign of 1777 took definitive shape when Gen. William Howe successfully landed his 16,000 officers and men near Head of Elk (now…
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Hamilton Versus Wall Street: The Core Principles of the American System of Economics
byHamilton Versus Wall Street: The Core Principles of the American System of Economics by Nancy Bradeen Spannaus (Bloomington: iUniverse, 2019) “The purpose of this book,”…
This Week on Dispatches: David Head on the Run-up to the Newburgh Conspiracy
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews author and University of Central Florida historian David Head on his recent article about events leading up…
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A Crisis of Peace: George Washington, the Newburgh Conspiracy, and the Fate of the American Revolution
byA Crisis of Peace: George Washington, the Newburgh Conspiracy, and the Fate of the American Revolution by David Head (New York: Pegasus Books, 2019)…
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Impeachment: The Framers Debate and Discuss
byAuthor’s Note: Selections from all resolutions and working drafts are italicized. Most of what we know about the framers’ discussions comes from James Madison’s…
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The Officers’ Spirited Memorial: A Prelude to the Newburgh Conspiracy
byThe officers of the Continental Army were sullen. It was December 1782, and they were stationed in and around Newburgh, New York, and neighboring…
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Uplifting Moments in American Revolution History
byFor every historian, there’s an event that makes them feel good every time they read about it. We asked our contributors: What event from…
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Isaac Roosevelt: Merchant, Federalist, Banker, New Yorker
byOn Saturday September 17, 1938 New York governor Herbert H. Lehman and 5,000 others assembled in Poughkeepsie to observe the sesquicentennial of the Empire…
This Week on Dispatches: Mark Edward Lender on the “Cabal” Against George Washington
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews distinguished historian, Mark Edward Lender, about his new book, Cabal! The Plot Against General Washington, the first…
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The Fight Behind the Declaration of Independence
byPut yourself, in your mind’s eye, back in June 1776, specifically, the period between June 7 and July 1. It is precisely at that…
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The Tragedy of Henry Laurens
byIt wasn’t really their fault, they said. Slavery, men of the founding generation liked to argue, was brought to the colonies by Britain. It…
The Annapolis Convention of 1786: A Call for a Stronger National Government
bySpeaking at South Carolina’s ratification convention in 1788, Charles Pinckney derided the Articles of Confederation as a “miserable, feeble mockery of government.” Pinckney was…
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This Week on Dispatches: Geoff Smock on Alexander Hamilton’s Childhood in the Caribbean
byIn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor and Seattle-area middle school history teacher Geoff Smock about how Alexander Hamilton’s difficult childhood experiences…
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Hamilton’s Revenge
byHaving just attained his thirteenth (or eleventh) birthday, he found himself confined to a bed on the second floor of a small two-story house…
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Contributor Question: Best Strategic Defeat?
byThis month, we asked our contributors to consider the many changes of fortune that occurred over the tumultuous four decades that transformed thirteen British…
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Retracing Alexander Hamilton’s Steps Through the Remnants of Revolutionary New York
byWhen Alexander Hamilton arrived in New York in the early 1770s, the city was already the one of the largest in the colonies, second…
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Caught Between the Lines: Eastchester, New York, During the American Revolution
byWhen one thinks of the American Revolution, the places that most quickly come to mind are Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill, Valley Forge, Yorktown. Yet…
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Who was the most promising person of the Founding Era?
byFor our first post of the New Year—a time when resolutions are announced, new leaves are turned, and anticipation and hope for a fulfilling…
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Stephen Moylan: More than a War Hero
byServing on George Washington’s staff were many talented young men, including some who became famous later. Alexander Hamilton served on the staff ably for…
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The Constitutional Debate over a Standing National Navy
byThere is a gap in most histories of the United States Navy. The blank space lies between the end of the American Revolution and…
The Sea Battle that Paid Off for the Continental Army
byAs the Revolutionary War was coming to an end, financial problems came to the forefront: to name a few, the country’s debts to France,…
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Continental Congress vs. Continental Army: The Officer Corps
byWhen the Continental Congress first met it was intended to bring the American colonies together to find a solution to the growing disputes with…
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Eliza Hamilton: The Extraordinary Life and Times of the Wife of Alexander Hamilton
byBook Review: Eliza Hamilton: The Extraordinary Life and Times of the Wife of Alexander Hamilton by Tilar Mazzeo (Simon and Schuster: 2018). BUY THIS BOOK…
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The Glorious Career and Unfortunate Death of John Laurens
byGeorge Washington surrounded himself with the best and the brightest young men involved in the revolutionary cause. Alexander Hamilton, Tench Tilghman, Robert Harrison, the…
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The Counterbalance: Explaining James Madison
byThe charge was leveled often in his own time, as it has been ever since: James Madison is and was a hypocrite—a man inconstant…
A Second Bonaparte: Searching for the Character of Alexander Hamilton
byThomas Jefferson, that American Sphinx,[1] is perhaps Alexander Hamilton’s only rival within the high pantheon of the founding generation for enigma. Hamilton’s character recalls…
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Hamilton: An American Biography
byBook Review: Hamilton: An American Biography by Tony Williams, (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018). BUY THIS BOOK FROM AMAZON Alexander Hamilton fever has certainly swept the…
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The Battle of Valley Forge
byThe name Valley Forge evokes strong emotions and memories that are indelibly embedded on the collective American psyche with legendary stories of immense misery,…
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Alexander Hamilton’s Extramarital Escapades
byThere’s a legend that in the Continental Army winter camp of Morristown, Martha Washington, who spent many winters with her husband,[1] had a prowling…
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Washington and Hamilton: The Alliance that Forged America
byBook review: Washington and Hamilton: The Alliance that Forged America (Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks, 2015) by Stephen Knott and Tony Williams [BUY ON AMAZON] The American…