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What if Alexander Hamilton survived his duel with Aaron Burr. According to an article in CNN Hamilton would have run against James Madison. If Hamilton won:
1. He would have persuaded Congress to break Virginia into several smaller states.
2. As a result, slavery would have been easier to abolish.
3. He would have forced the Spaniards out of Texas and Florida. Resist, he would smash them and set up a puppet government in Mexico.
4. He wanted to be president for life. 22 years.
The whole article falls apart immediately as he couldn't have run for president. He was born in the West Indies.
He had great ambitions, but he would have never reached his goals, as they were just too far fetched to be considered, even in his time.
He burned many bridges in his lifetime (Burr a prime example) and his death was practically pre-ordained because of it.
He could have become president as he was born a British subject before the Revolution, like the other Founding Fathers. The founders who were born in England, Scotland, and Ireland could theoretically have also become president.
I doubt Hamilton would have become president. Too controversial and polarizing. He could have become governor of New York, though.
At first I was going to say that Majoun was wrong, and that AggAssault had it right. However, I went and reviewed the text of the Constitution and it says,
"No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."
So it isn't Hamilton being born a British subject that would have allowed him to run for president, but that he was living in the US as a citizen of this country at the adoption of the Constitution which would have allowed him to run for president. Anyone in Hamilton's position of having been born outside the United States who arrived after 1789 would have faced the prohibition as AggAssault stated and that we all know so well (Granholm of Michigan, Schwarzenegger of California). McCain and Cruz were born outside the US but because they were born of two American parents (McCain), or one American parent (Cruz) they were born into American citizenship by right of the parent(s) American citizenship.
I have learned something new because of this thread.
What if Alexander Hamilton survived his duel with Aaron Burr. According to an article in CNN Hamilton would have run against James Madison. If Hamilton won:
1. He would have persuaded Congress to break Virginia into several smaller states.
2. As a result, slavery would have been easier to abolish.
3. He would have forced the Spaniards out of Texas and Florida. Resist, he would smash them and set up a puppet government in Mexico.
4. He wanted to be president for life. 22 years.
(1) Persuading Congress to break Virginia into several smaller states would have also required persuading Virginia to allow itself to be broken into smaller states. The US Constitution does allow a state to separate into two or more states, but only if the original state government agrees to this. New York split into New York and Vermont, Massachusetts split into Massachusetts and Maine, Virginia split into Virginia and West Virginia. In all instances, the state government signed off on the partition into two states, Virginia being a special case.
(2) The result of breaking Virginia into smaller states would have had no effect on abolishing slavery. It finally took a constitutional amendment to outlaw slavery in the US - one more state (more or less) wouldn't have had an appreciable effect on the outcome.
(3) As for taking Florida and Texas, it wasn't until the 1820's that the U.S. could field an army capable of taking Florida, much less Texas. In 1812, the United States was unable to mount a successful invasion of Canada.
(4) The only indication that Hamilton wanted to be a 'president for life' can be tracked back to a speech he gave to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on June 21st, 1787 outlining his own plan for a federal constitution, wherein among other things, he proposed that the chief executive of the United States (the President, although that title hadn't yet been mentioned) be elected to serve for life, specifically that the President continually serve while exhibiting good behavior. This speech was received so poorly that Hamilton left Philadelphia at the end of June and didn't return until the convention had reached the necessary compromises and began working on the final draft of the Constitution. The United States began with an aversion to monarchy, and John Quincy Adams, accused in the 1820's by his political opponents of being a closet monarchist, could attest that America's anti-monarchy sentiment only grew with time.
IMO, Alexander Hamilton would never have been president. He was at best third in line on the Federalist side for the presidency, behind George Washington and John Adams. His first attempt at the presidency appears to have been when he argued for war against France during the last year of Adams first term, wherein Hamilton would have been the general who led the United States to victory against the French. However, by solving the crisis with France via diplomacy instead of war, President Adams was able to block Hamilton's plan to become the next war hero president. The next time that Hamilton would have had a chance at the office, after Thomas Jefferson's presidency, not only were the political fortunes of the Federalists on the decline, but Hamilton's own view that the U.S. government should model itself upon British methods of government and economic policy was completely out of step with the rest of the country.
What if Alexander Hamilton survived his duel with Aaron Burr. According to an article in CNN Hamilton would have run against James Madison. If Hamilton won:
1. He would have persuaded Congress to break Virginia into several smaller states.
2. As a result, slavery would have been easier to abolish.
3. He would have forced the Spaniards out of Texas and Florida. Resist, he would smash them and set up a puppet government in Mexico.
4. He wanted to be president for life. 22 years.
At first I was going to say that Majoun was wrong, and that AggAssault had it right. However, I went and reviewed the text of the Constitution and it says,
"No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."
So it isn't Hamilton being born a British subject that would have allowed him to run for president, but that he was living in the US as a citizen of this country at the adoption of the Constitution which would have allowed him to run for president. Anyone in Hamilton's position of having been born outside the United States who arrived after 1789 would have faced the prohibition as AggAssault stated and that we all know so well (Granholm of Michigan, Schwarzenegger of California). McCain and Cruz were born outside the US but because they were born of two American parents (McCain), or one American parent (Cruz) they were born into American citizenship by right of the parent(s) American citizenship.
I have learned something new because of this thread.
I stand corrected, and apologize for the confusion. I was going off old information that I read years ago and never researched its validity.
The Articles of the Confederacy which proceeded the Constitution left the citizenship question to the states (colonies) at the time.
Hamilton moved to New York in 1774 and the NY Constitution in 1777 would have validated his citizenship in New York colony. Hamilton's status as a prominent New York politician, former state Assemblyman, longtime state resident, and his marriage into the prominent and influential New York Schuyler family sixteen years before his resignation from the office of Secretary of the Treasury would have satisfied the New York requirement:
Quote:
Originally Posted by New York Constitution: Article VII
...every male inhabitant of full age, who shall have personally resided within one of the counties of this State for six months immediately preceding the day of election, shall, at such election, be entitled to vote for representatives of the said county in assembly; if, during the time aforesaid, he shall have been a freeholder, possessing a freehold of the value of twenty pounds, within the said county, or have rented a tenement therein of the yearly value of forty shillings, and been rated and actually paid taxes to this State: Provided always, That every person who now is a freeman of the city of Albany, or who was made a freeman of the city of New York on or before the fourteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, and shall be actually and usually resident in the said cities, respectively, shall be entitled to vote for representatives in assembly within his said place of residence...
So yes Hamilton could have run for president. But I still stand by the rest of my post:
Quote:
He had great ambitions, but he would have never reached his goals, as they were just too far fetched to be considered, even in his time.
He burned many bridges in his lifetime (Burr a prime example) and his death was practically pre-ordained because of it.
Hamilton worked against not only the other party but also members of his own party in both the 1796 and 1790 elections, specifically Adams in and Burr for president, but also members of the the NY assembly and Representative and Senate seats.
He simply had a bad way of dealing with people who didn't believe what he believed and would attack them and tear them down - leading to Burr challenging him to a duel in 1804 for insults and slights.
He never could have been the POTUS due to the circumstances of his birth. They never would have elected a (will this be censored?) bastard.
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