66 pages • 2 hours read
Alexander Hamilton
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Symbols & Motifs
The Constitution
The Second Continental Congress resulted in what would become the Constitution of the United States of America. The Constitution is a symbol of America itself. Despite the government’s ability to revise the document, the Constitution ostensibly contains all of the guiding principles and philosophies of America’s democratic government. The question of whether a legislative action is legal in America is often viewed through the lens of whether it is Constitutional or not.
In Alexander Hamilton, the Constitution symbolizes the efforts of the founding fathers: in beginning the Revolutionary War, waging its campaigns successfully, and then banding together and compromising to the point where they had drafted a strategic plan for the country’s future. The document is a key to America’s values, against which all government decisions can be weighed.
George Washington
As the first president and the commander of the Continental Army, George Washington is as much a symbol in America’s history as he is a man. At the battle of Monmouth, Chernow writes that “America’s idolatry of George Washington” (139). The nature of the idolatry depended on who was looking at him. Washington’s critics saw him as a false idol, a symbol of aristocracy, monarchy, and an aloof coldness lacking in true humanity. For his supporters, he was a symbol of sacrifice, duty, courage, and the father of a fledgling country.
Letters, Pamphlets, and Essays
The principal characters in Alexander Hamilton rely heavily on written correspondence to advance their viewpoints, but none more than Hamilton himself. Hamilton’s writing symbolizes the amplification of reasoning that writing can give to human thought. An argument cannot be taken to its furthest reaches without the benefit of written analysis. Hamilton uses writing as a weapon, burying his opponents with reports and rebuttals of almost comical length when compared to their own efforts. Much is made in the book of Hamilton’s intellect and oratorical skills. However, it is his writing that allows him the most lasting and formidable expression of his knowledge and capacity for critical thought. Although Hamilton sometimes responded to matters in ways that worked against him, such as his lengthy pamphlet criticizing John Adams, he was never more eloquent or forceful in his writing than when someone opposed him.
As Hamilton writes his massive treatises and crafts seminal political works such as The Federalist Papers, he uses words as both tools and weapons. Moreover, if his essay about the hurricane had not been published, it is also possible that he never would have left the Caribbean. The letter is a symbol of the power of words, of rhetoric, and the effect that literary passion can instill in readers. Hamilton’s letter took him out of poverty and sent him to another continent, where he would share responsibility for fighting a war and forming a new country.
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