Free Republic

Hamilton's big idea is still with us today. John Steele Gordon recalls the history of the debt On Sept. 18, 1789, the new secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton, entered into negotiations for a temporary loan with the Bank of New York and the Bank of North America—the only two banks in the country at that time. The following February, the deal went through and the government borrowed $19,608.81. It was the start of the American national debt under the new Constitution. The United States was not exactly a good credit risk at that time, so the government was, perhaps,...

As Major League Baseball showcased its stars in famed Yankee Stadium, the player who emerged from the All-Star break as the biggest star of all, Texas Ranger outfielder Josh Hamilton, spent most of his time pointing to someone greater than himself. Hamilton, whose career and his life were nearly ended by drug addiction, wowed the masses in person and on TV during Monday night's Home Run Derby, but he used his national platform to give credit to God for his athletic ability. "I can't believe what God has done in my life and how quickly He has done it," Hamilton...

Burr-Hamilton duel A contemporary artistic rendering of the July 11, 1804 duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton by J. Mund. The DuelIn the early morning hours of July 11, 1804, Burr and Hamilton departed by separate boats from Manhattan and rowed across the Hudson River to a spot known as the Heights of Weehawken in New Jersey, a popular dueling ground below the towering cliffs of the Palisades. Hamilton and Burr agreed to take the duel to Weehawken because dueling had been outlawed in New York (The same site was used for 18 known duels between 1700 and 1845.).In...

Last month, workmen jacked up a 206-year-old yellow clapboard house, levered it onto a set of remote-controlled dollies, and trundled it two blocks to a new site in St. Nicholas Park, overlooking East Harlem in New York City. The Grange, as it is called, was the home of Alexander Hamilton, best known as co-author of the Federalist papers and America's first secretary of the Treasury. But this founding father also had an extraordinary role in the infant nation's attempt to come to grips with the curse of slavery. Born in the West Indies, Hamilton was one of the most ardent...

NEW YORK — Two hundred and eighty tons of American history were on the move Saturday in Harlem. The home of Alexander Hamilton, who conceived the country's banking system and was killed in a duel with a political rival, rolled inch by inch down a Harlem hillside to its new location overlooking a park. "This was the only home Hamilton ever owned," said Steve Laise, a National Park Service official dressed in a vest, tie and pants typical of the 1800's. "It represented the consummation of Hamilton's lifelong dream — a successful social position for a man who came to...

Name your three top American Revolution Heroes

Founder’s Quotes – Jefferson and Hamilton on Citizens Duty to be Armed “The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves in all cases to which they think themselves competent, or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the press.” Thomas Jefferson (letter to John Cartwright, 1824) ”If the representatives of the people betray...

"A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one." -Alexander Hamilton

Dennis of Damascus and Tehran Tom September 14, 2007 FrontPageMagazine.com Kenneth R. Timmerman As Democrats in Congress and the organized left denounce the cautious optimism of Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus (“General Betray Us,” according to moveon.org), some Members continue to consort with the enemy in ways reminiscent of Hanoi Jane Fonda in the early 1970s. Dennis Kucinich is the latest among the Congressional Democrats to travel the road to Damascus, to give aid and comfort to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. In an interview with a tarted-up reporter for Syrian state television, Kucinich laid out his plan for...

War On Terror: The co-chairmen of the 9/11 Commission buy the Democratic line that the war in Iraq is a diversion from the war on terror and a recruiting tool for al-Qaida . But it's the bad guys who are less safe. In a Washington Post op-ed, 9/11 Commission chairman Thomas Kean and vice chairman Lee Hamilton ponder the question of whether we are safer now than we were on that tragic day. They conclude the war in Iraq has made us less safe. They are wrong. "No conflict" they opine, "drains more time, attention, blood and treasure and support...

Yesterday I commented somewhat extensively on Jack Hamilton, who is considered to this day a hate object because of the tragic beaning of Boston Red Sox star Tony Conigliaro in 1967. The tragedy ruined Conigliaro’s career and may—may—have contributed long-term to his premature death. It certainly hung Hamilton with a reputation as a careless headhunter. And he doesn’t deserve it. The Red Sox plan to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the Conigliaro beaning Saturday night, before playing the team for whom Hamilton pitched when Tony C. went down for the count, the team known then as the California Angels. It’s...

Iran: The Conspiracy that Wasn't July 20, 2007 The New York Post Amir Taheri . . . THOUGH IT DOES SEEM A FINE IDEA Esfandiari: Hardly a "foreign plotter." EVER since its creation in 1979, the Islamic Republic in Iran has been obsessed with conspiracy theories, especially "foreign plots" to topple it. This paranoia was demonstrated again Wednesday with the televised confessions of two U.S. citizens of Iranian origin arrested in Tehran and accused of working for the "Great Satan." To most Iranians who watched the sordid show, the two "enemies of Islam" seemed unlikely heroes of an international conspiracy....

WASHINGTON - Former Rep. Lee Hamilton, co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group, said Monday he's "extremely doubtful" that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will be able to secure the country and allow American forces to leave any time soon. President Bush, however, reaffirmed his strong support for al-Maliki. And in what has become a drumbeat from the region, yet another military commander said Monday it would be a mistake to draw down U.S. troops just as the buildup is making its best progress. "There is no chance that the Iraqi forces could take over at any time, or certainly by the...

MOSCOW, Idaho – A man who shot himself this weekend at the end of a shooting spree that left his wife and two others dead talked to a mental health professional in February about killing himself in a way that would take many others with him. That prophecy came true over the weekend, when Jason Hamilton, a 36-year-old janitor, shattered the quiet of this bucolic college town with some 200 gunshots before killing himself in a church. Hamilton had a history of domestic violence and mental health concerns, but left no note or other indication of what motivated the rampage,...

On July 6, 2006, Stonebridge International, a global strategy firm, announced that it had added a new member to its high-profile, five-member advisory board—former Democratic Congressman Lee Hamilton. True to form, the major media ignored the Hamilton appointment. They should not have. Hamilton, who had served as Vice-Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, had just joined a firm headed by the man who had criminally undermined that very Commission, Stonebridge chairman and founder, Samuel "Sandy" Berger.

The United States Senate has started its process of deciding the future course of the United States in Iraq. This process will last for at least two or three weeks and will undoubtedly include extensive testimony, give and take behind closed doors, floor votes and amendments, and finally votes on funding. The report below shows some of the complexity of the committees and personalities that shaped up during the first day…. It is become clearer by the day now that there are clearly two or perhaps three “camps” or “sides” forming within the United States Senate. One side, made up...

Rockets center Dikembe Mutombo, seated next to first lady Laura Bush and proudly flashing his familiar broad smile, was honored by President George Bush Tuesday at the State of the Union Address in Washington. Mutombo, working almost daily, raised $29 million (donating $15 million himself) for the construction of the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital and Research Center in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mutombo plans to open the hospital — Kinshasa's first new one in 40 years — this summer. It is named for his mother, who died nine years ago when civil unrest and...

Before the Long-Term Capital Management collapse nearly paralyzed the world's capital markets, and before the stock market crashes of 1987 and 1929, there was America's first widespread financial crisis: the Panic of 1792. Today it's a little-known footnote to American financial history. But if it weren't for the quick thinking of a New Yorker named Alexander Hamilton, and his actions as America's first central banker, the events surrounding Wall Street's first bona fide crash could have meant doom for the struggling, cash-strapped republic. Descendants of Hamilton, as well as an ambassador, historians, and grateful Wall Street executives, will gather around...

The Iraq Study Group Report is the last thing one would have hoped to see in the New World Order. Sadly, it seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Gone were the days, we thought, when the fate of a nation was decided by outsiders consulting with everyone and every nation except the one most affected by, and concerned with, the decision. Yet, that is precisely what happened with this commission. The President of Kurdistan received a telephone call from Baker a couple of days before the release of the report assuring him of taking...

. . . . From its paltry discussion of America's counterinsurgency in Iraq, to its recommendations about troop levels, to its scathing condemnation of American diplomacy under Condoleezza Rice and Iraqi politics under Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, to its embrace of "engagement" with Syria and Iran, and to its unstated but clear call for American pressure on Israel to concede more "land-for-peace" to the Palestinians, the ISG report is strong on assertions but weak on arguments. . . . . . And what does the Baker-Hamilton Commission recommend? More of the same, except faster. We are going to embed more...

Since its release, much has been said and written about this report that took about six months and millions of tax payer dollars to be prepared. The report in general is stating the obvious and has not come up with any new and creative blueprint, except for the recommendations that are seen by a wide range of concerned parties and observers as nothing, if implemented by Bush administration, but a perfect resume for disaster and chaos. So far, the report has been sharply criticized by Kurds and Shiites who compromised more than 80% of Iraqi people as well as many...

How is it journalism is supposed to go: "Who, What, Where, When"? Isn't that the purported standard for "reporting" on a story? So, should that be true, the just-the-facts-ma'am style of reporting, informing the reader so that he may decide, is obviously as rare as a white Unicorn appearing every 13th month on a blue moon in the newsroom of the Washington Post -- or the Washington comPost as it is lovingly referred to by so many. Today's ridiculously biased and overly emotive "report" took two people to pen, apparently. Robin Wright and Peter Baker held each other's hands and...

All the backslapping over the Baker panel’s report ignores the fact that the Iraq Study Group didn’t say much. In Washington, sometimes it’s preferable to be wrong in a group than to be right alone. Nothing demonstrates the triumph of this truism better than the release Wednesday of the final Iraq Study Group report. The commission’s chairman, James A. Baker III, could not have been more obvious if he had used hand puppets to illustrate what he thought was most important about this supposedly momentous occasion: the fact that all the report’s authors actually agree with its contents. Their product,...

The report lacks the fundamental understanding of the Iraqi and Middle Eastern issues; hence it is the total distortion of facts. It does not approach the Iraqi or the Middle Eastern issue from the contemporary human and ethnic rights issues; rather it would build Iraq and the Middle East upon fear of the strongest, killers and abusers, and those who have no respect for human rights. It satisfies the greed of the killers by giving them more catches; it feeds more blood to the Dracula by providing them more lives; it keeps the oppressor happy by persecution of the defenceless....

Who can disagree with the report of the Iraq Study Group? It says, “Iran should stem the flood of arms and training to Iraq,” and “Syria should control its border with Iraq to stem the flood of funding, insurgents and terrorist in and out of Iraq”. It would be wonderful if Iran and Syria did those things, but unless some reasonable means of making them do so is advanced, saying that they “should” is airy wishfulness rather than strategy. Welcome to the non-reality-based world of bipartisan commissions. Even commissions flying under the banner of realism, such as the James Baker/Lee...

Today, President Bush met with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez at the White House. And Vice President Dick Cheney met with Republican leaders on Capitol Hill. That’s about it. Enjoy your visit to-- Oh wait. Almost forgot … A group of self-centered, short-sighted fools led by James Baker and Lee Hamilton released their report on how we can surrender to our enemies. Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

Isn’t the main problem with the Iraq Study Group that it’s just majorly lame? Almost anybody could crank out this kind of generalized boilerplate (“We were told by a general/a translator/my taxi driver/my Ukrainian hooker…”), and most of us could do it without a budget of gazillions of dollars and an Annie Leibovitz photo session. Of course, Syria “should” do this and Iran “should” do that and, if they were Sandra Day O’Connor, I’m sure they would. But they’re not. And the only specific strategic proposal is a linkage between Iraq and a “renewed and sustained commitment” to a “comprehensive...

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryDecember 2, 2006 President's Radio Address       Audio      In Focus: Renewal in Iraq      THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. I returned home this week from a visit to the Middle East. On my trip, I met with Prime Minister Maliki of Iraq to discuss how we can improve the situation on the ground in his country and help the Iraqis build a lasting democracy. My meeting with Prime Minister Maliki was our third since he took office six months ago. With each meeting, I'm coming to know him better, and I'm becoming more impressed by...

Why Quantum Mechanics Is Not So Weird after All Richard Feynman's "least-action" approach to quantum physics in effect shows that it is just classical physics constrained by a simple mechanism. When the complicated mathematics is left aside, valuable insights are gained. PAUL QUINCEY The birth of quantum mechanics can be dated to 1925, when physicists such as Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger invented mathematical procedures that accurately replicated many of the observed properties of atoms. The change from earlier types of physics was dramatic, and pre-quantum physics was soon called classical physics in a kind of nostalgia for the...

In recent years, Hamilton College has done little that would have pleased its namesake. It's hard to imagine that any of the founding generation's leaders—perhaps excepting Paine—could find much to their liking in the college's fawning treatment of radical icons or its fervent multiculturalism. It was Hamilton that sought to bring former weather underground member and convicted terrorist, Susan Rosenberg, to campus as an instructor and "artist-in-residence", as it was Hamilton that launched Ward Churchill into world class notoriety by inviting him to speak. But it's good to discover that Hamilton is capable of learning something from its repeated embarrassments....

Accused Terrorist Wrote Public School Guidelines with ACLU [over 23 references linked below] Abdurahman Alamoudi, President of the American Muslim Council, supporter of Hamas, Hezbollah and accused of ties with Osama bin Laden, helped develop "Religious Expression in Public School" with the ACLU which holds the copyright. Launched by Clinton in 1995, these "Presidential Guidelines" greatly impact public schools today. Nadine Strossen, President of the ACLU, refers to these guidelines as the authority to support the ACLU’s lawsuits restricting Christmas celebrations and removing Nativity scenes from public schools. School districts are pressured to utilize Clinton’s guidelines which he sold to...

Weekend Talk Show Preview - Analysis for August 12th and 13th, 2006On the shows this weekend I'm most interested by Vali Nasr, on CNN, and Ken Mehlman, on Meet The Press.  I think we'll learn more about the events in the Middle East from Nasr and more about the coming campaign from Mehlman than all of the other guests, combined.  Nasr is an expert, from Iran, on the issues of conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.  I actually view this as our best hope of winning the coming world war.  Just as Communists and Nazis joined forces to start World...

Peering into spaces that have not seen the light of day for two centuries, architectural archaeologists are dissecting Alexander Hamilton’s country home, the Grange, to figure out how to take it apart and put it back together again. The National Park Service plans to move the Hamilton Grange National Memorial from Convent Avenue and 141st Street, where it is so boxed in by neighboring buildings that two of its porches had to be cut off, to St. Nicholas Park, about 300 feet to the southeast. There, it can be reassembled in a form that Hamilton would have recognized, with porches...

The following story is from the book, Carbine & Lance, The Story of Old Fort Sill, by Colonel W. S. Nye; Copyright © 1937 by the University of Oklahoma Press. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Early in November Custer's Seventh Cavalry was ready to march south against the hostile Indians. The Nineteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, not being fully mobilized, was ordered to join Custer later, at the junction of Wolf Creek and Beaver Creek, in the northern part of Indian Territory. This was where General Sully's recent expedition had turned back from its pursuit of the Cheyennes. General Sheridan...

The so called PROMIS affair would never have happened if the software invented by an American computer specialist, Mr. William A. Hamilton, had been a technical failure. But this case management and data mining software, developed in the early 1980s by a small Washington D.C. company, Inslaw Inc., had proven itself to be a perfect intelligence tool. Originally made for the Department of Justice to help the country’s prosecutor offices in their case management, it drew the attention of corrupt officials and of Israeli Intelligence. Stolen by ruse from its owner, Inslaw Inc., the software was hacked and provided with...

<p>The head of a computer firm wants the independent commission named to investigate September 11 intelligence failures to review accusations that his software-tracking program, which he says the Justice Department stole, was diverted to Osama bin Laden.</p> <p>William H. Hamilton, president of Inslaw Inc., said the commission — headed by former New Jersey Gov. David H. Kean — should focus on the validity of published reports saying bin Laden penetrated classified computer files before the attacks to evade detection and monitor the activities of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies.</p>

If John Kerry becomes President he will find himself on the horns of a dilemma - which close friend to ditch when he chooses a new Secretary of State. According to today's Washington Post, Kerry would pick his national security team within a few weeks after winning the White House and two of his closest friends, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) or Richard Holbrooke reportedly want the job of running the State Department.

We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. The Federal Convention convened in the State House (Independence Hall) in Philadelphia on May 14, 1787, to revise the Articles of Confederation. Because the delegations from only two states were at first present, the members adjourned from day to day until a quorum of seven states was...

Perhaps this duel is the most famous in history. Its results certainly meant the end of both Hamilton and Burr. They carried Hamilton from the field and the next day he died. Burr lived for years, but the shadow of his own doom was ever before him. It is reported that late in life he observed that, had he been wiser, he would have known that there was room enough in the world for both Hamilton and himself. Had Hamilton been equally wise, he would have known that calumnies and lies bring forth but bitter fruit. When the news of...

This past week (January 11) marked the 251st anniversary of the birth of Alexander Hamilton, whom Richard Brookhiser described as the greatest of the Founders except for George Washington. Hamilton's detractors, beginning with Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Adams did not deny his greatness, but feared his motives. They described him as a lover of monarchy whose goal was to corrupt the republican virtue of the American people by means of his economic schemes. Since then, many writers, reflecting the view of his contemporary adversaries, have depicted Hamilton as the "prince of darkness" in a Manichean struggle with Thomas...

HAMILTON --The 90-year-old mother of Samuel A. Alito Jr., whom President Bush recently nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, has become a celebrity in her own right. Rose Alito may not want the attention, but she sure has received it. Since Judge Alito’s Monday nomination to the nation’s highest court, flocks of reporters have descended on his childhood Fenwood Avenue home. "I’m so proud of him,’’ Rose Alito told The Trentonian after the nomination. "Sam always worked so hard. Sam was such a good student. He was always ready to help me.’’ Fish and chips dinners, flowers and presents have...

This old language is a tough read, so I'm gonna add some bolded headings which quickly summarize the paragraphs that follow. Maybe this helps, maybe not. To the People of the State of New York: Hamilton quotes Article 2 THE President is "to nominate, and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States whose appointments are not otherwise provided for in the Constitution. But the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers as...

The 9-11 Commission: gone but not, the commissioners hope, forgotten. Not content to rest on their laurels, after the Commission "disbanded as a government entity" last year, the 10 commissioners believed so strongly in the need for continued public discussion about terrorism that it formed the 9/11 Discourse Project. So the commissioners keep on ticking, like the Energizer Bunny, although without an official charter. This week, the group started a series of eight public hearings this week called "The Unfinished Agenda" which are designed to assess government progress in implementing Commission recommendations. Why? In the words of Vice Chairman Lee...

Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton, former Chair and Vice Chair of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission),in response to media inquiries about the Commission’s investigation of the ABLE DANGER program, today released the following statement: On October 21, 2003, Philip Zelikow, the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, two senior Commission staff members, and a representative of the executive branch, met at Bagram Base, Afghanistan, with three individuals doing intelligence work for the Department of Defense. One of the men, in recounting information about al Qaeda’s activities in Afghanistan before 9/11, referred...

MONTREAL (AFP) - The Supreme Court of Canada acquitted a young man who unwittingly sold instructions on how to make bombs on the Internet, ruling that he had not committed an offence. In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled that the accused did not intend to teach anyone how to build a bomb or commit a crime when he sent computer files to others that contained the hidden instructions. But it also noted that a person could be found guilty in a similar case if the accused is conscious of the potential risks that stem from his or her actions....

Our nation's founders were firmly convinced that an independent judiciary was essential to the free society they were hoping to create. In Federalist 78, for instance, Alexander Hamilton elaborated at length on Montesquieu's dictum, "There is no liberty, if the power of judging be not separated from the legislative and executive powers," explaining (among other things) why the Constitution's provision of life tenure for judges was particularly appropriate. Hamilton maintained that, while in individual cases judges might act oppressively, the overall tendency of an independent judiciary would be to protect rather than subvert our freedoms, "The general liberty of the...

When I was a boy my family had a Time-Life book on the mind which featured a chart of the presumed IQs of famous dead men. Goethe, as I recall, led the pack, at 210. But the Founding Fathers did very well: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington all scored over 150. As the Fourth of July approaches, we'd do well to remember that the Founders were a smart lot, with few gentleman's C's among them. Yet they didn't know everything. They were strongest in law, political philosophy and history--all essential subjects for revolutionaries and statesmen. But another subject,...

The following was written after reading the New York Times and Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton on the same subway ride...PITTSBURGH, AUGUST, 1794 - In a striking display of divisions that have plagued the fledgling United States government, thousands of insurgents in Western Pennsylvania have set fire to homes, kidnapped public officials, and vowed continued defiance of a federal excise tax on whiskey. Facing an insurgency that is proving itself resilient, President Washington mulled sending federal troops to quell the rebellion. Such an action would be sure to draw harsh criticism, creating deeper fissures within the already fragile nascent American republic....

First, let us understand what the Terri Schiavo matter was not about: Despite ideological diatribes from David Corn at The Nation, this was not "an ugly big-government attempt to intervene in a family conflict" designed to appease "religious right crusaders." Despite ranting from Robert Scheer, also at The Nation, this was not "egregious political opportunism and shameless trafficking in human misery," and the citation of dubious polls won't validate Scheer's hope that the majority of Americans want to see a helpless woman starved to death by judicial order. And despite hysteria from the Los Angeles Times, this was not "a...