Alexander Hamilton before ‘Hamilton’
By Karlyn Bowman
“How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman/by providence, impoverished, in squalor/grow up to be a hero and a scholar?” — Opening lines from “Hamilton”
Next week, Lin-Manuel Miranda will step down from the title role in his fantastically successful hip-hop musical “Hamilton,” of which he is creator, lyricist, librettist, and star. Miranda was inspired to write about this essential architect of our nation by reading Ron Chernow’s 2004 biography of Alexander Hamilton.
We at AEI were fortunate when Chernow came to AEI in the fall of 2004, shortly after the book’s publication, to deliver a lecture titled “Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Imagined America.” Chernow told the audience that it was fitting that he give this lecture at AEI because Hamilton was the “most enterprising of early Americans and, more than anyone else created the public and private institutions to spur American enterprise.” This sentiment is echoed by Miranda’s Hamilton: “Just like my country, I’m young, scrappy, and hungry, and I’m not throwing away my shot.”
Chernow described Hamilton as one of the “universal geniuses of the 18th century whose mind seemed to touch on every American subject.” Indeed, the complete papers of Alexander Hamilton span 27 volumes. The last of the volumes of the Complete Papers was published in 1987 by Columbia University Press. AEI published the Selected Writings and Speeches of Alexander Hamilton, a one-volume edition edited by the political philosopher Morton J. Frisch in 1985, after the 26th volume appeared. In his introduction, Frisch notes that Hamilton is famous for having “presented with great force and clarity the case for having a strong presidency. Moreover as George Washington’s secretary of the Treasury, he did much to establish a presidency that accorded with the activist view of that office, which he so forcefully articulated in the Federalist Papers.”
This Independence Day, we salute Alexander Hamilton and the other gifted founders who played critical roles in our nation’s formation. The final question the musical poses is “Who Tells Your Story?” We salute Chernow and Miranda for telling Hamilton’s story so well and are grateful to Lin-Manuel Miranda for translating the story of Alexander Hamilton into a new medium that resonates and inspires new audiences and reminds us that the legacy of those universal geniuses endures.
