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FOR THE LITERARY MAGAZINE.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

with a portrait.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON is
one of the most eminent persons
who have flourished in the United
States, and yet, like most other emi-
nent personages, he has died with-
out leaving any memorial from his
own pen behind him. He has left
behind him celebrated works imme-
diately connected with his political
sentiments, character, and situation,
but, except in two instances, he has
never thought proper to take up the
pen, in order to explain the real
motives and circumstances of his
conduct. Over his early, juvenile
history, even over the place and pe-
riod of his birth, a veil of impene-
trable obscurity is now drawn by
his death, since, at these times, he
was no object of public attention,
and there is no one living who re-
members, what he has neglected to
record.

History furnishes but few exam-
ples which are parallel to his. It is
only by going back to the Roman
period, that any examples can be
found which bear any likeness to
him. Men then appeared, who ap-
plied, with the utmost zeal and with
splendid success, to the study and
practice of the military art, without
neglecting the accomplishments of
the orator and statesman. Their

fame and their triumphs in war
were not always purchased by fore-
going or abjuring the honours of elo-
quence and of civil knowledge..…
When they laid down the sword,
after their exploits were finished,
they took up the pen to record them,
or rose in the senate or the forum
to defend them, and in all these pro-
vinces displayed the same genius
and skill. In some respects, the
same complex character has been
displayed by Hamilton; but there
are some striking diversities be-
tween this ornament of our country,
and any name, the most illustrious
of the Roman annals: that for the
eloquence and civil accomplishments
of Cæsar and Brutus we have only
vague rumour to build our faith
upon; for the judicial and senatorial
abilities of Hamilton, we have the
testimony, not only of our ears, but
the immortal monuments of his own
pen.

The mere talent of haranguing
armies and senates appears to have
been possessed to a great extent, by
many eminent Romans, but the to-
pics of this eloquence were drawn
from obvious and superficial sources;
they were merely efforts of ingenu-
ity in throwing new lights and form-
ing new combinations, upon topics

―492―

accessible to every understanding,
and drawn from the funds of ordi-
nary observation and experience.

In modern times, law has become
the most abstruse and most volumi-
nous of sciences. While all the Ro-
man fire, energy, and subtlety are
demanded from forensic eloquence,
much more is also demanded. Pa-
tient investigation, intense sedentary
study, and voluminous reading, are,
likewise, and no less, indispensible.
To be learned in the law is the re-
compense of a laborious life. The
price usually given for this know-
ledge is eloquence itself: for the
requisite materials are so vast and
so widely scattered, that all the time
is consumed in collecting them,
none is left to polish them into
glossy elegance, or adjust them into
lucid order.

This is no less true of the science
of the statesman than of the lawyer.
The complicated forms of adminis-
tration, and the infinitely various
relations of a trading country, and a
manifold revenue, make the pro-
vince of government far more ar-
duous and laborious than it ever was
in former times.

We need not dwell upon the hack-
neyed distinctions made in favour of
Hamilton, arising from the impor-
tance and the novelty of the scenes
in which he was engaged: the for-
mation of a new constitution, and
the organization of a new revenue
department in the state. The intri-
cacy of these arrangements, the in-
tense application of thought which
they required, have been frequently
noticed; but we may often repeat
our admiration of that man's mind,
who could fill this laborious pro-
vince, without losing his zeal or im-
pairing his capacity for eloquence
or the military art.

To address a numerous audience
with the tongue, and to address the
world at large and posterity with
the pen, on subjects the most inte-
resting and momentous that can
occupy the attention of a member of
human society, are provinces in
which it is the surest criterion of a
great man to excel. The merit of

Hamilton in this respect was such
as to place him beyond the reach
even of competition. His excellence
in both these provinces has not been
doubted even by his enemies. All
the world acknowledge that, in A-
merica, the most eloquent orator,
and the most skilful and perspicuous
political writer, was Hamilton.

As a member of a free commu-
nity, he was of course enrolled in
one of those parties in which such a
community can never fail to be di-
vided. Hence, while all admire his
genius and his knowledge, and the
purity of his motives, a part only
acknowledge the force of his reason-
ings, the truth of his opinions, and
the wisdom of his conduct.

In the prime of life he was snatch-
ed away. Ere half the ordinary
course of nature was run, while yet
the better half remained, an untime-
ly accident has cut him off.

The next twenty years may be
expected to teem with great events
and revolutions in our country. Had
Hamilton lived, his genius would
have towered high, if it had not
actually presided in the storms of
the state. A mysterious fate has
drawn away his genius and intelli-
gence to another sphere, and who
shall venture to call in question the
rectitude of this decree?