He was no more
an atheist than Franklin or Jefferson. In no sense an original
thinker, he could impart to outworn shreds of deistic controversy
and to shallow generalizations about democracy a personal fervor
which transformed them and made his pages gay and bold and clear
as a trumpet.
Clear and bold and gay was Alexander Hamilton likewise; and his
literary services to the Revolution are less likely to be
underestimated than Thomas Paine's. They began with that boyish
speech in "the Fields" of New York City in 1774 and with "The
Farmer Refuted," a reply to Samuel Seabury's "Westchester
Farmer." They were continued in extraordinary letters, written
during Hamilton's military career, upon the defects of the
Articles of Confederation and of the finances of the
Confederation. Hamilton contributed but little to the actual
structure of the new Constitution, but as a debater he fought
magnificently and triumphantly for its adoption by the Convention
of the State of New York in 1788. Together with Jay and Madison
he defended the fundamental principles of the Federal Union in
the remarkable series of papers known as the "Federalist.
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