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Abraham Lincoln, detail from broadside proclaiming a day of prayer, July 7, 1864. (GLC 6234)


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Introduction

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The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States

Above is the first page of the working draft of the Constitution, submitted for debate at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in August 1787. Below is the first page of the U.S. Constitution as it was finally published (this is Benjamin Franklin's signed copy). Where the draft's opening reflects the sense of the thirteen states as separate entities, the final version's "We the People of the United States" invokes the Hamiltonian vision of a united nation.

A champion of the Constitution, Alexander Hamilton authored nearly two-thirds of the Federalist Papers of 1787-88, which are universally viewed as the factor that turned public opinion in favor of ratification.


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GLC 03585, page 1. A working draft of the U.S. Constitution


Suggested Reading

Brookhiser, Richard. Alexander Hamilton, American, 2000.

Chernow, Ron, Alexander Hamilton, 2004.

Cooke, Jean G. and Syrett, Harold C. eds., Interview at Weehawken: The Burr-Hamilton Duel as Told in the Original Documents, 1960.

Cunningham, Noble E., Thomas Jefferson VS. Alexander Hamilton: Confrontations That Shaped a Nation, 2000.

Ellis, Joseph J., American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, 1996.

Ellis, Joseph J., Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, 2000.

Ellis, Joseph J., Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams, 1993.

Emery, Noemie, Alexander Hamilton: An Intimate Portrait, 1982.

Fleming, Thomas, Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Future of America, 1999.

Flexner, James Thomas, The Young Hamilton, 1997.

Freeman, Joanne B., "Dueling as Politics: Reinterpreting the Burr-Hamilton Duel." The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series, Vol. 53, No. 2, 1996.

Freeman, Joanne B., Alexander Hamilton, Writings (Library of America), 2001.

Freeman, Joanne, Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic, 2001.

Gordon, John Steele, Hamilton's Blessing: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Our National Debt, 1997.

Hamilton, Alexander et al., The Federalist Papers, 1787-1788.

Kennedy, Roger G., Burr, Jefferson, and Hamilton: A Study in Character, 1999.

Kline, Mary-Jo, Alexander Hamilton: A Biography in his own Words, 1973.

Knott, Stephen F., Alexander Hamilton and the Persistence of Myth, 2002.

Lind, Michael, Ed., Hamilton's Republic: Readings in the American Democratic Nationalist Tradition, 2000.

Macdonald, Forrest, Alexander Hamilton: A Biography, 1979.

McKirtrick et al., The Age of Federalism, 1993.

McNamara, Peter, Political Economy and Statesmanship: Smith, Hamilton, and the Foundation of the Commercial Republic, 1997.

Miller, John C., Alexander Hamilton Portrait in Paradox, 1979.

Randall, Sterne, Alexander Hamilton: A Life, 2003.

Read, James H., Power VS. Liberty: Madison, Hamilton, Wilson and Jefferson, 1999.

Rogow, Arnold A., A Fatal Friendship: Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, 1999.

Syrett, Harold C. ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, 1961.

Walling, Karl-Friedrich, Republican Empire: Alexander Hamilton on War and Free Government, 1999.

Wright, Robert E., Hamilton Unbound: Finance and the Creation of the American Republic, 2002.









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