The country being about to settle down in peace, our civil government became the primary object of attention to reflecting statesmen. The defects of the confederation had grown to be prominent and glaring. The machine had become languid and worthless, and especially after the extraordinary energy and enthusiasm of the warspirit, which had once animated it, had been withdrawn. In the winter of 1781-2, Mr. HAMILTON wrote a number of anonymous essays in the country papers in New York, under the signature of the Continentalist, in which he went largely into an examination of the defects of the confederation, and into an enumeration of the powers with which it ought to be clothed. In the summer of 1782, he was appointed by the legislature of New York, a delegate to congress. The same legislature that appointed him unanimously passed resolutions, introduced into the senate by General Schuyler, declaring that the confederation was defective in not giving to congress power to provide a revenue for itself, or in not investing them with funds from established and productive sources; and that it would be advisable for congress to recommend to the states to call a general convention to revise and amend the confederation.*

Colonel HAMILTON took his seat in congress, in November, 1782, and continued there until the autumn of 1783, and the proceedings of congress immediately assumed a new and more vigorous tone and character. He became at once engaged in measures calculated to relieve the embarrassed state of the public finances, and avert the dangers which beset the union of the states. His efforts to reanimate the power of the confederation, and to infuse some portion of life and vigor into the system, so as to render it somewhat adequate to the exigencies of the nation, were incessant. He was sustained in all his views, by that great statesman, the superintendant of finance, and by some superior minds in congress, and especially by Mr. Madison, whose talents, enlightened education, and services, were of distinguished value in that assembly. On the 6th of December, 1782, he moved and carried a resolution that the superintendant of finance represent to the legislatures of the several states, the indispensable

*This sketch has hitherto been chiefly made from materials contained in the first volume of the "Life of ALEXANDER HAMILTON," by his son, John C. Hamilton. That volume carries the biography down to this period, and it is a production deeply interesting. The filial reverence of the historian awakens our sensibility, and he commands our confidence by his frankness, his pains-taking research, his documentary accuracy, and sound principles, his just reflections, and perspicuous and elegant narration.

necessity of complying with the requisitions of congress, for raising specified sums of money towards sustaining the expenses of government, and paying a year's interest on the domestic debt. On the 11th of the same month, he was chairman of the committee which reported the form of an application to the governor of Rhode Island, urging in persuasive terms, the necessity and reasonableness of the concurrence on the part of that state, in a grant to congress of a general import duty of five per cent., in order to raise a fund to discharge the national debt. It contained the assurance that the increasing discontents of the army, the loud clamors of the public creditors, and the extreme disproportion between the annual supplies and the demands of the public service, were invincible arguments in favor of that source of relief; and that calamities the most menacing might be anticipated if that expedient should fail. So again on the 16th of December, he was chairman of the committee that made a report of a very superior character in vindication of the same measure. On the 20th of March, 1783, Mr. HAMILTON submitted to congress another plan of a duty of five per cent., ad valorem, on imported goods, for the discharge of the army debt. On the 22d of that month, he again, as chairman, reported in favor of a grant of five years' full pay to the officers of the army, as a commutation for the half pay for life which had some time before been promised by congress. On the 24th of April following, he, as one of the committee, agreed to the report which Mr. Madison drew and reported as chairman, containing an address to the states in recommendation of the five per cent. duty; a document equally replete with clear and sound reasoning, and manly and elegant exhortation.

If such a series of efforts to uphold the authority and good faith of the nation failed at the time, yet HAMILTON and the other members of congress who partook of his fervor and patriotism, had the merit, at least, of preserving the honor of congress, while every other attribute of power was lost. There are other instances on record in the journals of that memorable session, in which Colonel HAMILTON was foremost to testify national gratitude for services in the field, and to show a lively sense of the sanctity of national faith. He was chairman of the committee which reported resolutions honorable to the character and services of Baron Steuben; and he introduced a resolution calling upon the states to remove every legal obstruction under their local jurisdictions in the way of the entire and faithful execution of the treaty of peace. His seat in congress expired at the end of the year 1783; but his zeal for the establishment of a national government,

competent to preserve us from insult abroad and degradation and dissension at home, and fitted to restore credit, to protect liberty, and to cherish and display our resources, kept increasing in intensity. His statesman-like views became more and more enlarged and comprehensive, and the action of his mind more rapid, as we approached the crisis of our destiny.

On the recovery of New York in the autumn of 1783, Mr. HAMILTON assumed the practice of the law; but his mind was still deeply occupied with discussions concerning the public welfare. In the winter of 1784, his pamphlet productions under the signature of Phocion, and addressed "to the considerate citizens of New York," excited very great interest. Their object was to check the intemperate spirit which prevailed on the recovery of the city of New York; to vindicate the constitutional and treaty rights of all classes of persons inhabiting the southern district of New York, then recently recovered from the enemy's possession; and to put a stop to every kind of proscriptive policy and legislative disabilities, as being incompatible with the treaty of peace, the spirit of whiggism, the dictates of policy, and the voice of law and justice. His appeal to the good sense and patriotism of the public was not made in vain. The force of plain truth carried his doctrines along against the stream of prejudice, and overcame every obstacle.

Colonel HAMILTON had scarcely began to display his great powers as an advocate at the bar, when he was again called into public life. He was elected a member of assembly for the city of New York, in 1786, and in the ensuing session he made several efforts to surmount the difficulties, and avert the evils, which encompassed the country. The state of Vermont was in fact independent, but she was not in the confederacy. His object was to relieve the nation from such a peril, and he introduced a bill into the house of assembly renouncing jurisdiction over that state, and preparing the way for its admission into the union. His proposition was ably resisted by counsel, heard at the bar of the house, and acting on behalf of claimants of lands in Vermont, under grant from New York. Mr. HAMILTON promptly met and answered the objections to the bill with his usual ability and familiar knowledge of the principles of public law. In the same session he made bold but unavailing efforts to prop up and sustain the tottering fabric of the confederation, and the prostrate dignity and powers of congress. His motion and very distinguished speech in favor of the grant to congress of an import duty of five per cent., was voted down in silence without attempting an answer. But a new era

was commencing. The clouds began to disperse, and the horizon was soon seen to kindle and glow with the approaches of a brighter day. HAMILTON was destined to display the rich fruits of his reflection and experience, and his entire devotedness to his country's cause in a more exalted sphere. In the same session he was appointed one of the three New York delegates to the general convention, recommended by congress to be held at Philadelphia, in May, 1787, to revise and amend the articles of confederation.

His services in that convention were immensely valuable. All contemporary information confirms it. His object was to make the experiment of a great federative republic, moving in the largest sphere, and resting entirely on a popular basis, as complete, satisfactory, and decisive as possible, in favor of civil liberty, public security and national greatness. He considered the best interests of mankind, and the character of free and popular institutions, as being deeply, and perhaps finally, involved in the result. Experimental propositions were made in the convention, and received as suggestions for consideration. The highest toned proposition which he ever made, was that the president and senate should be elected by electors chosen by the people, and that they as well as the judges should hold their offices during good behavior, and that the house of representatives should be elected triennially. His opinions essentially changed during the progress of the discussions, and he became satisfied that it would be dangerous to the public tranquillity, to elect by popular election a chief magistrate with so permanent a tenure; and towards the close of the convention, his subsequent plan gave to the office of president a duration of only three years.

When the constitution adopted by the convention was submitted to the consideration of the American people, Mr. HAMILTON, in association with Mr. Jay and Mr. Madison, commenced a series of essays under the signature of Publius, in explanation and vindication of the principles of the government. Those essays compose the two Volumes of that celebrated and immortal work "The Federalist." Several numbers appeared successively every week in the New York papers, between October, 1787, and the spring of 1788. The whole work consists of eighty-five numbers. Mr. Jay wrote five, Mr. Madison upwards of twenty, and Mr. HAMILTON the residue. The value of the union, the incompetency of the articles of confederation to preserve it, and the necessity of a government organized upon the principles, and clothed with the powers, of the one presented to the public, were topics discussed with a talent, force, information, skill,

and eloquence, to which we had not been accustomed. Mr. HAMILTON was also a member of the New York state convention, which met at Poughkeepsie in June, 1788. That convention was composed of many distinguished individuals of great weight of character. Most of them had been disciplined in the varied services of the revolution. But as Mr. HAMILTON had been a leading member of the national convention, and had signed the instrument before them, he felt and nobly sustained the weight of the responsibility attached to his situation; and as he had been also a leading writer in the Federalist, his mind was familiar with the principles of the constitution, and with every topic of debate. The wisdom of the commentator was displayed and enforced by the eloquence of the orator. He was prompt, ardent, energetic, and overflowing with an exuberance of argument and illustration.

After the constitution had been adopted by the requisite number of states, it went into operation in the course of the year 1789; and when the treasury department was established, Colonel HAMILTON was appointed secretary of the treasury. He remained in that office upwards of five years, and resigned it in January, 1795, after having built up and placed on sound foundations the fiscal concerns of the nation confided to his care, so as to leave to his successors little more to do than to follow his precepts, and endeavor to shine by the imitation of his example. His great duty consisted in devising and recommending a suitable provision for the gradual restoration of public credit and the faithful discharge of the national debt. His reports as secretary, made under the direction of the house of representatives, were so many didactic dissertations, laboriously wrought and highly finished, on some of the most difficult and complicated subjects in the science of political economy. Among those reports, the most interesting were, first, his report of January, 1790, on a provision for the support of public credit, in which he showed the necessity of funding the public debt; the inexpedience of discrimination between original and present holders of it; and the expediency of assuming the state debt. Second, his report of December, 1790, on the establishment of a national bank, in which he demonstrated that it was within the reach of the legitimate powers of the government, and essential to the convenient and prosperous administration of the national finances. His reasoning was so clear and cogent, that it carried the measure triumphantly through congress; notwithstanding the objections of Mr. Jefferson in the executive cabinet, he satisfied the cautious and solid judgment of Washington. Third, his report of December, 1791, on