Alexander Hamilton was Right: True Liberty Demands Economic Independence
byOne of the most insightful monologues in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton musical comes from King George, who raps to the following effect: Well, now that…
Alexander Hamilton
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Insurrection and Speculation: A Farmer, Financier, and a Surprising “Sharper” Seeded the Constitution
byThe January 6, 2021 assault on the Capital rocked America, but it was by no means the largest, or even the most threatening, armed…
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Williamsport, DC? How a Maryland Town Vied to be the Nation’s Capital
byAfter seven years of fighting in the Revolutionary War, Otho Holland Williams returned home. It was the Spring of 1782. When he left Frederick,…
A Bolingbrokean Argument Hidden in Hamilton’s Federalist 71
byAlexander Hamilton penned most of the famous series of essays called the Federalist Papers. In Federalist 71, published in March 1788, he wrote this…
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Review: The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton
byBOOK REVIEW: The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton by Andrew Porwancher (Princeton University Press, 2021). While Alexander Hamilton has attracted his fair share of attention…
Justice, Mercy, and Treason: John Marshall’s and Mercy Otis Warren’s Treatments of Benedict Arnold
byIn the early years of the nineteenth century, the founders of the new American Republic were lurching forward from the shockingly successful outcome of…
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Patriotism and Profit
byBOOK REVIEW: Patriotism & Profit: Washington, Hamilton, Schuyler & the Rivalry for America’s Capital City by Susan Nagel (Pegasus Books, 2021). In Patriotism & Profit:…
Review: Radical Hamilton
byBOOK REVIEW: Radical Hamilton: Economic Lessons From a Misunderstood Founder by Christian Parenti (New York: Verso, 2020) Alexander Hamilton’s legacy has undergone a radical shift…
Examining Public Opinion during the Whiskey Rebellion
byThe Whiskey Rebellion often falls into the background of the Federalist Era, overshadowed by the rise of a divisive two-party political system. This armed…
The Politics and Iconography of Tammany in the Early American Republic
byOn the morning of Saturday, July 14, 1804 the funeral cortège for Alexander Hamilton proceeded northward to Trinity Church where the former Revolutionary War…
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“A Mere Youth:” James Monroe’s Revolutionary War
byLate in his life, after retiring the presidency, James Monroe drafted his own history. He was still struck, five decades after the War for…
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Contributor Question: Remembered for the Wrong Reason?
byWe asked our contributors: Which personality of the American Revolution or the founding era (other than Benedict Arnold) is remembered for the wrong reasons,…
Review: Political Thought and the Origins of the American Presidency
byPolitical Thought and the Origins of the American Presidency edited by Ben Lowe (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2021) In Political Thought and the…
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The Incredible Story of Hercules Mulligan
byWhen you are a spy, you want to go unnoticed. With a colorful name like Hercules Mulligan, that can sometimes be difficult, especially if…
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Review: Colonel Hamilton and Colonel Burr
byColonel Hamilton and Colonel Burr: The Revolutionary War Lives of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr by Arthur S. Lefkowitz (Stackpole Books, 2020) Students of…
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Comte d’Estaing’s Georgia Land Grants
byOn the morning of October 9, 1779, one of the bloodiest and most forgotten battles of the American Revolution took place during the Siege…
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Partly National, Partly Federal: James Madison, the Amphictyonic Confederacy, and the Republican Balance
byFollowing the Constitutional Convention’s completion of the United States Constitution in the Fall of 1787, many of those involved in its creation embarked on…
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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…
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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…