*

When two men of equal intelligence and sincerity quarrel, both are
probably right. Hamilton and Jefferson were opposed to each other by
temperament and disposition, in a way that caused either to look with
distrust on any proposition made by the other. And yet, when Washington
pressed upon Jefferson the position of Secretary of State, I can not but
think he did it as an antidote to the growing power and vaunting ambition
of Hamilton. Washington won his victories, as great men ever do, by wisely
choosing his aides. Hamilton had done yeoman's service in every branch of
the government, and while the chief sincerely admired his genius, he
guessed his limitations. Power grows until it topples, and when it
topples, innocent people are crushed. Washington was wise as a serpent,
and rather than risk open ruction with Hamilton by personally setting
bounds, he invited Jefferson into his cabinet, and the acid was
neutralized to a degree where it could be safely handled.

Jefferson had just returned from Paris with his beloved daughter, Martha.
He was intending soon to return to France and study social science at
close range. Already, he had seen that mob of women march out to
Versailles and fetch the King to Paris, and had seen barricade after
barricade erected with the stones from the leveled Bastile; he was on
intimate and affectionate terms with Lafayette and the Republican leaders,
and here was a pivotal point in his life. Had not Washington persuaded
him to remain "just for the present" in America, he might have played a
part in Carlyle's best book, that book which is not history, but more--an
epic. So, among the many obligations that America owes to Washington, must
be named this one of pushing Thomas Jefferson, the scholar and man of
peace, into the political embroglio and shutting the door. Then it was
that Hamilton's taunting temper awoke a degree of power in Jefferson that
before he wist not of; then it was that he first fully realized that the
"United States" with England as a sole pattern was not enough.

A pivotal point! Yes, a pivotal point for Jefferson, America and the
world; for Jefferson gave the rudder of the Ship of State such a turn to
starboard that there was never again danger of her drifting on to
aristocratic shoals, an easy victim to the rapacity of Great Britain.
Hamilton's distrust of the people found no echo in Jefferson's mind.

He agreed with Hamilton that a "strong government" administered b