Krugman & Moyers: How the United States is becoming the Very System Our Founders Revolted Again

[JDPriestly]

29. Let's take Alexander Hamilton.

Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757 – July 12, 1804) was a Founding Father of the United States,[1] chief of staff to General Washington, one of the most influential interpreters and promoters of the Constitution, the founder of the nation's financial system, and the founder of the first American political party.

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Born out of wedlock and raised in the West Indies, Hamilton was effectively orphaned at about the age of 11. Recognized for his abilities and talent, he was sponsored by people from his community to go to the North American mainland for his education. He attended King's College (now Columbia University), in New York City. After the American Revolutionary War, Hamilton was appointed to the Congress of the Confederation from New York. He resigned to practice law and found the Bank of New York.

Hamilton was among those dissatisfied with the Articles of Confederation—the first attempt at a national governing document—because it lacked an executive, courts, and taxing powers. He led the Annapolis Convention, which successfully influenced Congress to issue a call for the Philadelphia Convention in order to create a new constitution. He was an active participant at Philadelphia and helped achieve ratification by writing 51 of the 85 installments of the Federalist Papers, which supported the new constitution and to this day is the single most important source for Constitutional interpretation.[4]

In the new government under President George Washington, Hamilton was appointed the Secretary of the Treasury. An admirer of British political systems, Hamilton was a nationalist who emphasized strong central government and successfully argued that the implied powers of the Constitution could be used to fund the national debt, assume state debts, and create the government-owned Bank of the United States. These programs were funded primarily by a tariff on imports and later also by a highly controversial excise tax on whiskey.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton

Those who believe that our country was founded just for the rich and powerful forget that Alexander Hamilton, the conservative, pro-business, pro-bankers of the bunch was orphaned and sent to school in New York only thanks to the charity of others. Hardly an oligarch.

To me, the work oligarch suggests established wealth, inherited wealth, or a position based on a close relationship and identification with an entrenched interest such as a large corporation.

John Hancock?

According to the Gregorian calendar, John Hancock was born on January 23, 1737; according to the Julian calendar then in use, the date was January 12, 1736.[2] He was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, in a part of town that eventually became the separate city of Quincy.[3] He was the son of the Reverend John Hancock of Braintree and Mary Hawke Thaxter, who was from nearby Hingham. As a child, Hancock became a casual acquaintance of young John Adams, whom the Reverend Hancock had baptized in 1734.[4][5] The Hancocks lived a comfortable life, and owned one slave to help with household work.[4]

After Hancock's father died in 1744, John was sent to live with his uncle and aunt, Thomas Hancock and Lydia (Henchman) Hancock. Thomas Hancock was the proprietor of a firm known as the House of Hancock, which imported manufactured goods from Britain and exported rum, whale oil, and fish.[6] Thomas Hancock's highly successful business made him one of Boston's richest and best-known residents.[7][8] He and Lydia, along with several servants and slaves, lived in Hancock Manor on Beacon Hill. The couple, who did not have any children of their own, became the dominant influence on John's life.[9]

. . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hancock

John Hancock was born into a minister's home. Lots of education most likely but not all that much money especially at that time. His uncle was a businessman and rich by New England standards, but hardly by international standards at the time.

Hancock was a man whose uncle owned a middle class and who became wealthy by New England standards. But I don't think those standards at that time were all that high.

Shipping companies were not the huge conglomerate corporations of today.

The US was measured by the standards of France or England or Spain of that day not a major economic power. We were the equivalent of a third world country of today. We really did not have the kind of wealthy people that I think of as an oligarchy.

Jefferson had a plantation, but if you think about his notebooks, the notes he kept on his farming and his work, his architectural work -- the University of Virginia and Monticello, etc. He was a hard-working man, not a man who lived off his capital. Hardly what I would call an oligarch. Was he a leader and a brilliant intellectual? Yes. But when I use the word oligarch, I mean someone with power due to his vast wealth. Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, even Hamilton were not born into wealth of that magnitude. And they were not oligarchs. Not as I see it. Not even Hancock was born into wealth or position of the kind I think of when I think of oligarchs.