prosperity of the people
is the prosperity of the Nation." To such a degree of confidence did
Hamilton raise the public credit that in a very short time the government
found no trouble in borrowing all the money it needed at four per cent;
and yet this was done in face of the fact that its debt had increased.

Just here was where his policy invited its strongest and most bitter
attack. For there are men today who can not comprehend that a public debt
is a public blessing, and that all liabilities have a strict and
undivorceable relationship to assets. Alexander Hamilton was a leader of
men. He could do the thinking of his time and map out a policy, "arranging
every detail for a kingdom." He has been likened to Napoleon in his
ability to plan and execute with rapid and marvelous precision, and surely
the similarity is striking.

But he was not an adept in the difficult and delicate art of
diplomacy--he could not wait. He demanded instant obedience, and lacked
all of that large, patient, calm magnanimity so splendidly shown forth
since by Abraham Lincoln. Unlike Jefferson, his great rival, he could not
calmly and silently bide his time. But I will not quarrel with a man
because he is not some one else.

He saw things clearly at a glance; he knew because he knew; and if others
would not follow, he had the audacity to push on alone. This recklessness
to the opinion of the slow and plodding, this indifference to the dull,
gradually drew upon him the hatred of a class.

They said he was a monarchist at heart and "such men are dangerous." The
country became divided into those who were with Hamilton and those who
were against him. The very transcendent quality of his genius wove the net
that eventually was to catch his feet and accomplish his ruin.

* * * * *

It has been the usual practise for nearly a hundred years to refer to
Aaron Burr as a roue, a rogue and a thorough villain, who took the life of
a gentle and innocent man.

I have no apologies to make for Colonel Burr; the record of his life lies
open in many books, and I would neither conceal nor explain away.

If I should attempt to describe the man and liken him to another, that man
would be Alexander Hamilton.

They were the same age within ten months; they were the same height within
an inch; their weight was the same within five pounds, and in temperament
and disposition they resembled each other as brothers seldom do. Each wa