ALEXANDEE HAMILTON 



255 



A National 

 Policy 



life so developed ; but he was destined for sometliing 

 higlier. 



A\"hen the eiid of the war was in sight, Hamilton re- 

 signed his commission, took up the study of law at 

 Albany, and in four months was admitted to the bar. 

 In the fall of 1782 he was elected to the Continental 

 Congress, where he devoted his genius to the financial 

 and political problems that threatened the destruction 

 of the new Confederation. He adopted the national or 

 republican principle, as against the strictly democratic 

 idea. He believed that the best people must rule. He 

 felt that unless a stronger central government was formed 

 the people must lose what they had gained by the long 

 war. To create such a government became his passion. 

 He did more than any other man to secure the conven- 

 tion that wrought out the Constitution of the United 

 States, and in that convention he was a leading spirit creating the 

 and power. Then he threw himself into the struggle to 

 secure the adoption of the constitution by the States. 

 His ends were gained, and two Huguenot descendants — 

 Jay and himself — had much to do with the success 

 achieved, which meant stability for the new Republic, if 

 not existence itself. 



Washington as president made Hamilton the first 

 secretary of the treasury, and in this office his genius 

 blossomed. He was secretary of a treasmy that had no secretary of 

 treasure in it. The government was not only moneyless 

 but in debt. Public credit had to be created. And 

 Hamilton created it. He caused the adoption of the 

 dollar first used by the United States in 1793. He in- 

 duced Congress to assume the whole of the war indebted- 

 ness and pledge the resources of the United States for its 

 payment. In the process, to secure the necessary votes, 

 he made the famous bargain with Jefferson whereby the 

 national capital was located on the Potomac, a wise 

 choice. By financial measures which evoked the admira- 

 tion of foreign statesmen, he bound the States into a 



the Treasury 



