5345. MONARCHY, Hamilton and.—[continued].
Hamilton was not only
a monarchist, but for a monarchy bottomed on
corruption. In proof of this, I will relate an
anecdote, for the truth of which I attest the
God who made me. Before the President
[Washington] set out on his southern tour in
April, 1791, he addressed a letter of the fourth
of that month, from Mount Vernon, to the Secretaries
of State, Treasury, and War, desiring
that if any serious and important cases should
arise during his absence, they would consult and
act on them. And he requested that the VicePresident
should also be consulted. This was
the only occasion on which that officer was
ever requested to take part in a cabinet question.
Some occasion for consultation arising,
I invited those gentlemen (and the Attorney
General as well as I remember), to dine with
me, in order to confer on the subject. After
the cloth was removed, and our question agreed
and dismissed, conversation began on other
matters, and, by some circumstance, was
led to the British Constitution, on which Mr.
Adams observed, “Purge that constitution of
its corruption, and give to its popular branch
equality of representation, and it would be the
most perfect constitution ever devised by the
wit of man”. Hamilton paused and said,
“purge it of its corruption, and give to its
popular branch equality of representation, and
it would become an impracticable government;
as it stands at present, with all its supposed
defects, it is the most perfect government
which ever existed”. And this was assuredly
the exact line which separated the political
creeds of these two gentlemen. The one was
for two hereditary branches and an honest
elective one; the other for an hereditary King,
with a House of Lords and Commons corrupted
to his will, and standing between him and
the people.
The Anas. Washington ed. ix, 96.
Ford ed., i, 165.
(1818)
