122 ALEXANDER HAMILTON 



zens, but to none does she owe such a debt of gratitude 

 as to Alexander Hamilton for inscribing her name on 

 this immortal record. In the desperate struggle which 

 followed, every inch of ground once gained counted 

 as a victory ; and it was much that when the Constitu- 

 tion was first published to the world the name of New 

 York was attached to it. 



In the ten months which followed the close of the 

 convention we see Hamilton at the most interesting 

 period of his life. Still buoyant with youthful energy, 

 just finishing his thirty-first year, his rare flexibility of 

 mind was now most strikingly illustrated. Like a wise 

 statesman, when he could not get the whole loaf, he 

 made the most that he could out of the half. His 

 noble, disinterested patriotism, not content with leading 

 him to sign a constitution of which he only half ap- 

 proved, now urged him to defend it with matchless 

 ability in the papers which make up that immortal 

 volume, the " Federalist." The Constitution, as finally 

 adopted by the convention, was very far from being 

 the work of any one man, but Madison's share in fram- 

 ing it had been very great, and it represented his theory 

 of government much more nearly than Hamilton's. 

 The thoroughness, however, with which Hamilton 

 made the whole work his own, is well illustrated by 

 the difficulty in deciding from internal evidence what 

 parts of the " Federalist " were written by him and what 

 parts by Madison. In the controversy which has been 

 waged upon this question, it has been shown that we 

 can seldom light upon such distinctive features of treat- 

 ment and style as to lead to a sure conclusion. This 

 shows how completely the two writers were for the 

 moment at one, and it shows Hamilton's marvellous 



