Robert Yates

His manners are tinctured with stiffness, and sometimes with a degree of vanity that is highly disagreeable.

The colleagues were Robert Yates, a judge from Albany.

Major Pierce noted mildly that some of his enemies say he is an anti-federal man.

And John Lansing, the mayor of Albany, who took his seat June 2nd.

But what they could do is smother his influence by appointing two delegates who opposed strengthening the national government.

And those men were Albany Mayor John Lansing Jr. and New York Supreme Court Judge Robert Yates.

And what this means is that Hamilton is being sent to Philadelphia with two men who oppose him.

Whenever Yates and Lansing disagreed with Hamilton, they could outvote him.

Convention rules were set so that each vote was counted on a state-by-state basis, which meant the composition of New York's delegates were a serious limitation on Hamilton's ability to influence the Constitutional Convention.

The delegates would meet in the Pennsylvania State House.

And for the first time, Hamilton finally had the single American Union he had spent years calling for.

It was flawed, certainly, but it existed, so why not give it a shot? Now, each state is going to have to ratify the new constitution and their own separate ratifying convention, and no state is going to prove more troublesome for Hamilton than his own.

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For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Alexander Hamilton by Charles a conant chapter 1 youth and early services part 1 The life of Alexander Hamilton is an essential chapter in the story of the formation of the American Union Hamilton's work was of that constructive sort which is vital for laying the foundations of new states whether the union would have been formed under the constitution and would have been consolidated into a powerful nation instead of a loose confederation of sovereign states without the great services of hamilton is one of those problems about which speculation is futile it is certain that the conditions of the time presented a rare opportunity for such a man as hamilton and that without some directing and organizing genius like his the consolidation of the union must have been delayed and have been accomplished with much travail difference between the career of hamilton in america and that of the two greatest organizing minds of other countries caesar and napoleon marks the difference between anglo-saxon political ideals and capacity for self-government and those of other races where the organization of a strong government degenerated in rome and france into absolutism it tended in america under the directing genius of hamilton to place in the hands of the people a more powerful instrument for executing their own will so powerful a weapon was thus created that hamilton himself became alarmed when it was seized by the hands of jefferson madison and other democratic leaders as the instrument of democratic ideas and those long strides were taken in the states and under the federal government which wiped out the distinctions between classes abolished the relations of church and state Extended the suffrage and made the government only the servant of the popular will The development of two principles marked the early history of the republic one the growth of sentiment for the Union under the inspiration of Hamilton and the Federalist party the other the growth of the power of the masses typified by the leadership of Jefferson and the Democratic Party these two tendencies seemingly hostile in many of their aspects waxed in strength together until they became the united and guiding principles of a new political order a nation of giant strength whose power rests upon the will of all the people it was the steady progress of these two principles in the heart of the american people which in the fulness of time made it possible for the union to be preserved as a union of free men under a free constitution to hamilton the creator of the machinery of the union and to john marshall the great chief justice who interpreted the constitution as hamilton would have had him do in favor of the powers of the union this result was largely due If Caesar, fighting the battles of Rome on the frontier of Germany and kept from party quarrels at home, and Napoleon, born outside of France and free by his campaign in Egypt from the compromising intrigues of Parisian politics, were pre-eminently fitted by these accidents to transmute the spirit of revolution from chaos into order, Hamilton stood in somewhat the same position in America.

born in the little island of nevis in the west indies january eleventh seventeen fifty seven he came to the united states when his mind was already mature in spite of his fifteen years he came without the local prejudices or state pride which influenced so many of the revolutionary leaders and was therefore peculiarly qualified to fasten his eyes steadfastly upon the single end of the creation of a nation rather than the ascendancy of any single state he was so free from local attachments that he even hesitated at first on which side he should cast his lot whether with the imperial government of great britain which appeals strongly to his love of system and organized power or with the struggling revolutionists with their poor and undisciplined army and uncertain future the possibility of winning distinction in the service of great britain must have attracted him but the justice of the colonial cause spoke more strongly to his sense of right and his well-ordered mind great services of hamilton were nearly all performed before he was forty years of age his precocity was partly derived from his birth in the tropics and partly perhaps from the unfortunate conditions of his early life a mystery hangs over his birth and parentage which repeated inquiries have failed to clear away he is believed to have been the son of james hamilton a scottish merchant of nevis and a lady of french huguenot descent the divorced wife of a dane named lavine but the history of his parents and their marriage is shrouded in much obscurity the although reduced to poverty lived nearly if not quite as long as his illustrious son but the mother was reported to have died while hamilton was only a child leaving the memory of her beauty and charm in one of the chambers of his infant mind hamilton sought in his later years to establish regular communications with his father and he had a brother in west indies with whom he corresponded but the fact that all these relatives remained so much in the background gave some color to the slanders of his enemies concerning his birth to offset the disadvantages of birth hamilton had neither the fascinating manners which go straight to the hearts of men nor the imposing personal presence which in the orator often invests trifling platitudes with sonorous dignity he was possessed of a light and well-made frame and was erect and dignified in bearing but was much below the average height his friends were wont to call him the little lion because of the vigor and dignity of his speech he had the advantage of a head finely shaped large and symmetrical his complexion was fair his cheeks were rosy and in spite of a rather large nose his face was considered handsome his dark deep-set eyes were lighted in debate with a fire which controlled great audiences and cowed his enemies but it was chiefly the power of pure intellect which gave him control over the minds of other men there was nothing mean or low in his character but he had not a high opinion of the average of humanity and therefore lacked somewhat in that ready sympathy with the minds of others which is so useful to politicians and party leaders Hamilton was early thrown upon his own resources.

His father became a bankrupt, and he was cared for by his mother's relatives.

His education was aided by the Reverend Hugh Knox, a Presbyterian clergyman with whom Hamilton kept up an affectionate correspondence in later years.

The boy was only thirteen years of age when he was placed in the office of Nicholas Kruger, a West Indian merchant.

here his self-reliance and methodical habits made him master of the business and head of the establishment when his employer had occasion to be away his remarkable capacity and his occasional writings for the daily press led to a determination by his relatives and friends to send him to a wider field here he was accordingly supplied with funds and sent to boston where he arrived in october of seventeen seventy two still less than sixteen years of age he was fortunately provided with some strong letters of recommendation from dr knox and was soon at a grammar school at elizabethtown new jersey where he made rapid progress he desired to enter princeton but his project of going through the courses as rapidly as he could without regard to the regular classes was in conflict with the rules he therefore turned to king's college new york now columbia university where he was able with the aid of a private tutor to pursue his studies in the manner which he wished the decision of hamilton to take the side of the colonies in the conflict with england was made early in seventeen seventy four partly as the result of a visit to boston among the well-to-do classes of new york the dominant feeling was in favor of great britain and the control of the assembly was in the hands of the friends of the crown hamilton found boston the hotbed of resistance to england and listened attentively to the reasoning by which the strong prejudices on the ministerial side which he himself declares he had formed gave way to the superior force of the arguments in favor of the colonial claims

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