ADDRESS AT THE UNVEILING OF THE STATUE OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON IN THE CITY OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY MAY 30, 1907 BY NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER President of Columbia University U\ t Y^\ a, //-f. -p ADDRESS AT THE UNVEILING OF THE STATUE OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON IN THE CITY OF PATERSON, N. J. May 30, 1907 The large cities of the world are to be found where they are for good and sufficient reasons. We learn from historians and geographers what those reasons are. They tell us that in the ancient world and in the modern world alike, men first gath- ered themselves together in communities at points where pro- tection and self-defense were easy, or where commerce and industry were likely to develop with least obstacle or interfer- ence. A high hill or rock surmounted by a castle, about the walls of which the dependents of the feudal lord might gather, explains the existence of many a European town to-day. The mouths of navigable rivers, the proximity of sources of natural W'ealth, or convenient centers for distribution of supplies to more sparsely settled sections of the land, account for still other cities and towns. Occasionally we find that the site of a city has been deliberately chosen in order that a definite public policy may be carried out thereby. Such a city, the manner of the choosing of its site, and the purposes of those who were chiefly concerned in the choosing, become matters of unusual interest to the reader of history. In the United States there are at least two city sites which were deliberately chosen in pursuance of certain public ends. Both were chosen, or their choosing was made possible, by one and the same man. Both were chosen as part of one and the same policy — the building of the American people into a strong nation which should be both politically and industrially inde- pendent. These two city sites are that of Washington, selected to be the political capital of the new nation, and that of Pater- son, selected to be its industrial capital. The man behind the 2 Add?' ess at the U7iveiling of choice in each case was he whose name and fame we are gath- ered to honor — Alexander Hamilton. It is worth while to dwell for a few moments upon the man and the policies which called Paterson into existence. It was a part of Alexander Hamilton's statesmanship that the capital city of the new nation was Washington on the banks of the Potomac. To secure the assumption by the na- tional g'overnment of the war debt of the separate states, and so to hold the infant commonwealths together in a new and stout bond, he allowed the capital city to be fixed at the spot where the local pride of some of his chief opponents desired it to be. It was equally a part of Hamilton's statesmanship that the city of Paterson was called into being on the banks of the Passaic. The same engineer who laid out the political capital drew the original plans for the industrial capital. Those plans, unfortunately, demanded the resources of a principality for their execution, and they came to naught. Had they been carried out, Colt's Hill yonder, now leveled to the ground, would have been, as Capitol Hill is in Washington, the center from which great avenues radiated through the industrial city of L'Enfant's imagination. Six miles square the city was to be, and the new world was to assert itself in industry, as in politics, from a capital seat. The plan was as striking as it M'as novel, and worthy of the political genius who conceived it. Why was Alexander Hamilton interested in building an industrial capital for the new nation, and in selecting its site? The answer is to be found in the encyclopedic character of Hamilton's interests and in the broad sweep of his statesman- ship. In the eighteenth century the outlying parts of the world were looked upon by the older and controlling nations not only as political dependencies, but as industrial annexes. They were to grow and provide the raw materials of commerce and industry, which raw materials, whetlier dug from the ground or grown in the earth, were to be shipped to the motherland for manufacture, and shipped back again to the dependencies for purchase and consumption as finished prod- ucts. Hamilton knew perfectly well that the independence of The Statice of Alexander Hamilton 3 the United States was only partially achieved when the political shackles which bound the colonists to King George were broken. He knew that the people must be industrially inde- pendent as well, if their nation was to endure. He believed that the factory and the farm, the mine and the workshop, should be brought side by side, that through a diversity of employment and an economy of transportation charge, the economic prosperity of the people might be assured and advanced. As soon as Hamilton had secured the adoption of the Con- stitution, and even before he had, under the Constitution, riveted the bonds which held the states together by having the nation assume the separate state debts, he set about the task of building up diversified domestic industries. On January 15, 1790, the House of Representatives called upon Hamilton, then Secretary of the Treasury, for a report upon the subject of manufactures, to deal particularly with the means of promoting those manufactures that would tend to render the United States independent of foreign nations for military and other essential supplies. On December 5, 1791, at the age of thirty-four, Hamilton responded to this request with a report which is both an economic and a political classic. Not only does he consider and pass in review the arguments advanced for and against the policy of building up domestic manufactures, if necessary by government aid, but he tells the House of Representatives precisely what manufactures had already been undertaken in the United States and what meas- ure of success might be expected to attend them. In the course of this remarkable report, Hamilton announced that a society was forming, with a sufficient capital, which was to prosecute, on a large scale, the making and printing of cotton goods. The society to which Hamilton referred was the Society for Estab- lishing Useful Manufactures, which Society had been already constituted a body politic and corporate by the Legislature of the State of New Jersey in an Act passed November 22, 1791, or only a few days earlier than the date of Hamilton's report on manufactures. The Act relating to this Society provided in 4 Address at the Unveiling of its twenty-sixth section that, since it was deemed important to the success of the undertaking, provision should be made for incorporating, with the consent of the inhabitants, such dis- trict, not exceeding six miles square, as might become the principal city of the intended establishment, which district should, when certain conditions were complied with, be the town of Paterson. Therefore, it may with justice be said that the town of Paterson was called into existence by Alexander Hamilton in pursuance of his policy of securing industrial independence for the people of the United States. Though his immediate plans were never carried out, yet cotton, flax, and silk, iron and steel, copper and brass, have since his day given employ- ment here to tens of thousands of intelligent workmen. Hamil- ton's policy succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of his imag- ination. Not one industrial capital, but hundreds, have sprung into existence to demonstrate its wisdom and effectiveness. From the looms of the Merrimac to those of the Piedmont, from the forges and furnaces of Pittsburgh to those of Colo- rado and beyond, scores of busy hives of industry bear tribute to the greatness of the man whose conscious purpose it w-as to make our nation strong enough to rule itself and strong enough to face the world with honest pride in its own strength. When, because of the water power afforded by the great falls of the Passaic, the Society for Establishing Useful Man- ufactures chose this spot as its site, it w^as a part of the town- ship of Acquackanonk, and 1)ut an insignificant handful of people were living here. The records say that the total number of houses was not over ten. Out of these small beginnings the present busy city has grown. Hamilton's interest in it was personal and very strong. The records of the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures show plainly enough that he attended the early meetings of the Directors, and make it highly probable that not only did he draw the act of incorpo- ration itself, but guided the Society in its early policies as well. So we commemorate to-day not only a far-seeing statesman, w^ho has forever associated his name wuth this spot, but a pur- The Statue of Alexander Ha77i{lton 5 pose which has long since become part of the accepted poHcy of the people of the United States. Because of Hamilton's conspicuous public service, it would be becoming for his statue to stand in every city in the land; but if there is one city more than another in which it must stand, that city is Paterson. It is not easy for us to picture accurately the political and social conditions which prevailed when the government of the United States was created. Looking back as we do upon the achievement as one of epoch-marking significance in the world's history, and seeing as we do the outlines of the great figures who participated in the work silhouetted against the background of the past, it is difficult to appreciate against what tremendous obstacles they labored and with what bitter antago- nisms they were forced to fight. If the history of the American Revolution and that of the building of the nation show human nature at its best, they also show it at its worst. Over against a Franklin, a Washington, and a Hamilton we must set the scurrilous pamphleteers, the selfish particularists, and the nar- row-minded politicians whose joint machinations it required almost infinite patience, infinite tact, and infinite wisdom to overcome. The greatness of Washington himself, marvelous as his achievements are now seen to be, rests in no small part upon wdiat he put up with. A nature less great than his, a temper less serene, could not have failed to show resentment and anger at a time when either passion would have been dangerous to the cause in whose service his whole nature was enlisted. We are accustomed to think of the political controversies of our own day as bitter, and of the political methods which accompany them as base and dishonorable. The bitterness, the baseness, and the dishonor of to-day are as nothing in com- parison with the bitterness, the baseness, and the dishonor with which the great fathers of the nation w^ere compelled to deal. Upon the devoted head of Washington himself was heaped every sort and kind of obloquy. Hamilton was called 6 Address at the Unveiling of alternately a monarchist and a thief, a liar and a traitor. Men stopped at nothing to gain their political ends, and the writ- ings of not a few of our country's great men abound in pas- sages and records which bring the blush of shame to the cheek. This nation of ours was not built easily or in a day. The materials used in the structure were themselves refractory, and the arduous task of putting them together was time-consuming. The Constitutional Convention itself was in a sense a subter- fuge of Hamilton's and the outgrowth of a purely commercial conference, at which the representatives of but five states were gathered, so difficult was it to unite the states for any purpose. The maxims of the French Revolution were in the air, and Jefferson was playing with them, now as idols, now as weap- ons. Men were swept off their feet by the power of formulas and phrases, and hard, clear thinking on the fundamental prin- ciples of politics and government was by no means so common as we are in the habit of supposing it was. To understand the history of the United States, we must realize that the nation has had two births : the first, its birth to union under Washington and Hamilton ; the second, its birth to liberty under Lincoln. Our nation was not really made until the second birth was an accomplished fact. It is as absurd to speak of the United States as being the creation of the year 1776 or 1789 as it would be to speak of England as the creation of the year in which Hengist and Horsa first landed on its eastern coast. The birth throes of the United States of America began on the day when "The embatiled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world." They only ended when two brave Americans, whose con- sciences had brouglit them t(j place dilTerent and antagonistic meanings upon the structure of the government, met face to face at Appomattox to "beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks." In the long- and difficult process of nation-building, five great The Statue of Alexander Hamilton 7 builders stand out above all others by reason of the supreme service that they rendered. Their places in the American pantheon are secure. Two were from Virginia, one from New York, one from New England, and one from the West. The five are Washington, Hamilton, Marshall, Webster, and Lin- coln. The placid and almost superhuman genius of Washing- ton, exhibited alike in war and in peace, made the beginnings possible. The constructive statesmanship, the tireless energy, and the persuasive eloquence of Hamilton laid the foundations and pointed the way. The judicial expositions of Marshall erected the legal superstructure. The powerful and illuminat- ing arguments of Webster instructed public opinion and pre- pared it to stand the terrible strain soon to be put upon it in the struggle for the maintenance of the union. The human insight, the skill, and the infinite, sad patience of Lincoln car- ried the work to its end. Others have served the people of the United States, and served them well. Others have been great party leaders, ad- mirable judges, far-sighted statesmen; but to these five — Washington, Hamilton, Marshall, Webster, and Lincoln — must be accorded the first and foremost place. To them, more than to any others, we owe the United States as we know it. Of these five nation-builders, Hamilton was in some respects the most remarkable. Talleyrand, no mean judge, placed him on a par with the greatest European statesmen of his time, in- cluding even Pitt and Fox — a judgment more obviously mod- erate now than when it was made. Hamilton's genius was not only amazingly precocious, but it was really genius. His first report on the public credit and his report on manufactures, two of the greatest state papers in the English language, were the work of a young man of but thirty-three or thirty-four. The political pamphlets of his boyhood, the mihtary papers and reports of his youth, would do credit to experienced age. In his forty-seven years, Hamilton lived the life of generations of ordinary men. From the restless boyhood years on the dis- tant island in the Caribbean Sea through the stirring scenes 8 Address at the Unveiling of of his student days in Columbia College; from the worried camp of Washington where, the merest stripling, he was clothed with heavy military responsibility, to his years of active practice in the courts, instructing the judges and illuminating the law; from the arduous work in the Constitutional Con- vention, a statesman trying to piece a nation together out of fragments, to his ceaseless labors with voice and pen to per- suade a reluctant people to accept the new government as their own; into the Cabinet as its presiding genius and to the busy Treasury where everything had to be created from an audit system and a mint to a nation's income; back into private life in name but in fact to the exercise of new power; all the way on to the fatal field at Weehawken, where, in obedience to a false and futile sense of honor, he gave up his life to the bullet of a political adversary, the story of Hamilton's life is full of dramatic interest and intensity. He represented the highest type of human product, a great intellect driven for high pur- poses by an imperious will. Facts, not phrases, were his counters ; principle, not expediency, was his guide. In all his career, Hamilton seems to have yielded but once to the temptation to use a local or a party interest, and then he made use of the local or party interest of his opponents. That was when he yielded to the sentiment to place the capital on the banks of the Potomac, in order to gain the votes needed to pass his Assumption bill. On no other occasion, whether when exerting his powers of persuasion to the utmost in the face of an adverse majority in the New York Conven- tion called to consider the ratification of the Constitution, or in his extraordinary appeals through the Federalist, or in the letters of Camilhis written in defense of the Jay treaty, did he ever descend from the lofty heights of political principle. That is the reason why Hamilton's reports, his letters, and his speeches belong to the permanent literature of political science. The occasion for which he wrote was of the moment, but the mood in wdiich he wrote and his method belong to the ages. Hamilton's policy had three ends in view. He wished to develop a financial policy that would bind the Union hard and The Statue of Alexander Hamilton 9 fast; an industrial policy that \v