Bloodless Coup

Alexander Hamilton's Foreign Policy

I just finished reading John Lamberton Harper’s American Machiavelli: Alexander Hamilton and the Origins of U.S. Foreign Policy. I recommend it for those interested in Hamilton, but beyond that it sheds a good deal of light on foreign policy and national security issues concerning the United States during the presidencies of George Washington and John Adams. For those of you who don’t know much about the Jay Treaty, the role of foreign interests and affiliations in early party politics, or the various proposals dealing with the conduct of the undeclared war with France, there is a wealth of knowledge here on those subjects. And certain more obscure but still intriguing issues are flushed out as well, for example, the politics and policies associated with Major General Hamilton’s role in the army in the late 1790’s. In addition, for those of you interested in the public figures of the first years of the republic, Harper paints vivid pictures. James Monroe comes off worse than I’ve seen him in other works, and as to John Adams, the word that comes to mind is “egads”. The Adams of this history is a prim, elitist, ugly, unyielding, nasty nativist of the first order, and as an extra bonus – not much of a politician. The portrait of Hamilton himself is not glowing, but it is generally positive. Whether or not you are inclined to agree with his foreign policy views during this period, this work makes clear that Hamilton was an extremely influential force during the Founding period, and it is a valuable addition to the literature investigating that influence.