Interviews
An Interview with Willard Sterne Randall
Barnes & Noble.com: Having already written biographies of Washington and Jefferson, what made you decide to tackle Hamilton?
Willard Sterne Randall: Hamilton was the least known of the Founding Fathers. So much of what we know about him is from the words of his contemporaries. He needed a fresh perspective that would bring him to the attention of the public.
B&N.com: Could you describe Hamilton's upbringing in the West Indies? How did his being illegitimate effect his growing up, particularly his education? Was he socially not accepted? And what kind of effect did his being illegitimate have on his later life?
WSR: John Adams branded Hamilton as illegitimate, but today he would not be considered so. His father was actually his mother's second husband. He went to a school where Jews went to, and he studied Hebrew. He was always an outsider.
B&N.com: How did he come to New York? And please explain how, at such a young age, he rose in the Revolution to become a high-ranking officer and aide-de-camp to Washington. Also, talk about his personal relationship with Washington.
WSR: Hamilton was orphaned at 15 and got a job in a counting house. Fortunately for him, his boss had to return to New York. The business was in bad shape, but Hamilton saved it. The family he worked for gave him a scholarship to go to America, and he went to New York, where he studied at King's College, which later became Columbia. The Church of England then ran the college. While a student, Hamilton wrote revolutionary pamphlets.
After the Battle of Lexington, Hamilton organized a paramilitary company. He was the first to democratize the army. He insisted that enlisted men be promoted to officer when it was warranted. Hamilton rose to captain by the time of the victory over the Hessians. He gained Washington's attention, and he invited Hamilton -- who was only 20 years old -- to be his aide-de-camp. Although Hamilton was a "ringer," or outsider, Washington took to young men who could write well, and Hamilton was a superb writer. Hamilton specialized in POW exchanges and in espionage. He got the goods on Horatio Gates.
B&N.com: He played a pivotal role at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. What did he do exactly? Also, tell us about the Federalist Papers.
WSR: At the Constitutional Convention, Hamilton spoke only once -- but it was for six hours straight, without notes, in which he outlined the entire blueprint for the government we have today. Hamilton was the main contributor to the Federalist Papers. He wrote more pieces than Madison and Jay. At that time, he was in the New York Legislature, and he won the state's ratification of the Constitution.
B&N.com: What is his legacy as the first secretary of the Treasury? Along with that question, for generations, historians have made much of the division within the Washington administration between Hamilton and Jefferson, the secretary of state, in general and on foreign policy. How would you characterize that split?
WSR: As the first secretary of the Treasury, he faced the problem of paying off the nation's $76 million of debt. That would be an astronomical amount today. The country had no credit. The individual states were competing with each other for credit. Hamilton proposed a national debt and issued the first United States bonds. The very word of his plan doubled the value of the United States stocks. He set up a national debt, which actually had the effect of turning it [the debt] into a national asset. Then he founded what was essentially the national corporation by lowering the "corporate veil," so to speak. He provided a way for anyone to invest, democratizing the market.
Under Hamilton, the United States Mint came up with the dollar, and Hamilton put an African American, Benjamin Banneker, in charge of it. In addition to establishing the Bank of the United States, the modern corporation, and national debt, he plunged into the Industrial Revolution by setting up the nation's first mill town in Paterson, New Jersey. The fight with Jefferson revolved around the question of where power would reside -- in New York, the financial center, or in the South. There was the famous dinner table bargain in which it was agreed that the capital would be moved to what became Washington. As for foreign policy, Hamilton favored the U.S. as an international financial power, was a proponent of a sizable army, founded the U.S. Navy, and wanted an America that was able to defend itself and its interests.
B&N.com: Hamilton was, I believe, an early abolitionist. What caused him to be antislavery when slavery was not only common in the South, his native West Indies, and even in New York?
WSR: He was very much an abolitionist. In his childhood in the West Indies, the economy depended on slavery. He thought the idea of holding people in bondage was wrong. Then he married a woman with slaves. He also spoke for women's rights reform and spoke out for the divorce rights of women.
B&N.com: Hamilton had a well-known affair with a woman -- the kind of thing that would ruin a politician's career today. Could you tell us briefly about this affair?
WSR: In Philadelphia, he had an affair with a woman. He was secretive but he was found out. He could have paid a bribe or he could have confessed. He chose to confess, and that ruined any chance he had of being president, so even then it was the kind of thing that took its toll on a politician's career.
B&N.com: Numerous biographies have been written about Hamilton. How is yours different? Did you find any new sources?
WSR: I looked hard at his early years. I tried to understand why people at the time thought the way they did. I tried to follow the Founding Fathers and look at their personal lives. Hamilton's early sufferings had a lot to do with making him a humanist. He had insecurities with aristocratic society. I found some papers from St. Croix, the island in the West Indies, where Hamilton had lived as a boy, that had not been used before.
B&N.com: What can you tell us about Hamilton's duel with Aaron Burr?
WSR: The key thing in the duel was the pistols used. They were the same pistols that had been used not long before in a duel in which Hamilton's son was killed. Some have suspected that there was something wrong with Hamilton's pistols in comparison to Burr's. I am not a ballistic expert, but I know something about guns. I came at this question like the investigative reporter I was for over 20 years before I got into academia.
Even though Hamilton shot his gun into the air while Burr shot to kill, the condition of Hamilton's pistol is worth wondering about. Ballistic experts in the 1990s examined the pistol and found nothing wrong with it, but the pistol was provided by John Church, the husband of Hamilton's mistress. There are a lot of questions one could ask about the duel.
B&N.com: What is Hamilton's great overall legacy to the nation?
WSR: Hamilton's legacy is that every American has a chance to make money and not be bound by class. He truly helped make America a land of opportunity by making it solvent. Jefferson's vision was to make the opportunity one of owning land.
B&N.com: Put another way, what relevance does Hamilton, his life story, and your treatment of him and his era have for Americans in these uncertain times of 2003?
WSR: Our credit system still makes it possible for new immigrants and minorities to send their kids to college through student loans. Most of all, Hamilton believed that society should be democratic with a small "d."
B&N.com: Why doesn't Hamilton get his historical due?
WSR: Hamilton saw the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution and saw the great possibilities of it for economic growth in the United States and in the world. Before 1932 and the Great Depression, Hamilton was held in much higher regard. With the Depression and afterward, his reputation slipped. Jefferson's vision was one in which free land would be the center of the new society. John Adams had stigmatized Hamilton as being "the base born brat of a Scotch." Politics just didn't become ugly recently. It started out that way. And Hamilton didn't become president because of the illegitimacy charge and his admission of having an affair.
B&N.com: What will be your next project?
WSR: I will be moving from the Founding Fathers to the sons of the Founding Fathers.