Washington and Hamilton: The Alliance That Forged America

by Tony Williams, Stephen Knott

Overview

The true story of the friendship between founding fathers George Washington and Alexander Hamilton. From the American Revolution to the nation's first tempestuous years, this history book tells the largely untold story of the men who built America from the ground up and changed US history.

In the wake of the American Revolution, the Founding Fathers faced a daunting task: overcome their competing visions to build a new nation, the likes of which the world had never seen. As hostile debates raged over how to protect their new hard-won freedoms, two men formed an improbable partnership that would launch the fledgling United States: George Washington and Alexander Hamilton.

Washington and Hamilton chronicles the unlikely collaboration between these two conflicting characters at the heart of our national narrative: Washington, the indispensable general devoted to classical virtues, and Hamilton, an ambitious officer and lawyer eager for fame of the noblest kind.

Working together, they laid the groundwork for the institutions that govern the United States to this day and protected each other from bitter attacks from Jefferson and Madison, who considered their policies a betrayal of the republican ideals they had fought for.

Yet while Washington and Hamilton's different personalities often led to fruitful collaboration, their conflicting ideals also tested the boundaries of their relationship—and threatened the future of the new republic.

From the rumblings of the American Revolution through the fractious Constitutional Convention and America's turbulent first years, this captivating history reveals the stunning impact of this unlikely duo that set the United States on the path to becoming a superpower.

Ideal for fans of nonfiction best sellers Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow and The First Conspiracy by Brad Meltzer, Washington and Hamilton is a story of American history, political intrigue, and a friendship for the people.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781492631330
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	05/03/2016
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	1,161,925
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Tony Williams taught history and literature for ten years, and has a Master’s in American History from Ohio State University. He is currently a full-time author who lives in Williamsburg, Virginia, with his wife and children. Dr. Stephen F. Knott is an Associate Professor of National Security Affairs at the United States Naval War College, and the author of several books.

Read an Excerpt

INTRODUCTION

Americans have perennially been fascinated with our Founding Fathers. For example, the amicable relationship between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, or the volatile relationship of Jefferson and John Adams, has captured the American imagination for almost two hundred years. Many excellent books about these partnerships have been written in addition to individual biographies of each and practically every Founding Father himself.

But one of the more important founding collaborations has been overlooked by readers: the unlikely partnership of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton. This extraordinary alliance between a wealthy Virginia planter and a brash immigrant from the Caribbean helped to win the Revolutionary War and establish a "new order for the ages." These men fought together for the better part of twenty-five years to win independence and forge a new nation. Indeed, no other founding collaboration was as important to achieving victory and nationhood as Washington and Hamilton's.

Theirs was an unlikely alliance, for George Washington and Alexander Hamilton could not have been more different. Washington was a gentleman farmer from the patrician colony of Virginia and the owner of a great estate enriched by the labor of African slavery. As a rising member of the Virginia gentry, he satisfied the expectations of his station by entering into public service. Hamilton, on the other hand, was an illegitimate child—the "bastard brat of a Scotch peddler," as John Adams brusquely put it once—and an immigrant from the West Indies. A self-made man, he made his way to America on his own and earned his positions in the army and the government. Despite their differences, Washington and Hamilton shared a lot of common ground. They collaboratively pursued their vision of a continental republic throughout the Revolutionary War and through the founding of the nation. They both embraced the revolutionary ideals of the era, though with Hamilton usually playing a subordinate role to Washington, who was seen as essential to the successful creation of America.

If George Washington was the "indispensable man" of the American founding, then Washington and Hamilton's collaboration was the "indispensable alliance" that determined the outcome of the fight for (and founding of) the United States. This is not to diminish the other important relationships that reveal much about the American founding: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson crafted the Declaration of Independence, suffered a partisan rupture, and wrote a famous exchange of letters discussing the nature of the Revolution. Hamilton and Jefferson feuded heatedly for years over how best to preserve republican principles and offered contrasting visions of American institutions. Fellow Virginians James Madison and Jefferson struggled for liberty in Virginia and then bolstered each other as they fought what they perceived to be dark forces that threatened the republican principles of the new nation.

What makes Washington and Hamilton unique from these other founding collaborations was that their bond was forged in the crucible of the Revolutionary War. Unlike their great contemporaries, Washington and Hamilton saw war up close and personal; they were brothers in arms in a sense, and as any combat veteran will attest, battle is a bonding experience like no other. Their mutual experiences helped them form the core cadre of leadership in the struggle for independence from Great Britain and win the war against overwhelming odds. They drove the nationalist forces that would culminate in a more perfect union formed at the Constitutional Convention and ratified in 1788. They breathed life into the institutions of the early republic while setting important precedents as president and secretary of the treasury. Thus, their joint efforts can be seen as the "indispensable alliance" of the founding. Their story has all the elements of a Shakespearean drama—war, the quest for fame, scandal, the birth of a new nation. Additionally, Washington and Hamilton's story bolsters the somewhat unfashionable notion that the actions of great individuals can influence the course of history.

The months in which they first met remain shrouded in mystery, and little of what they wrote, especially in the early years of their relationship, reveals anything beyond a professional collaboration. How then can we describe their relationship? The word "friendship" does not seem to apply. Indeed, one wonders whether Washington can accurately be described as having any friends. He was purposefully distant and aloof as he jealously guarded his reputation, rarely letting his guard down, even with those who were considered intimates. He constantly warned others about the dangers of familiarity and scrupulously kept his relations formal. Hamilton, for his part, had some very close friends, such as John Laurens, and often gushed with emotions characteristic of eighteenth-century romanticism. But he never expressed himself in that way with Washington.

Washington and Hamilton may not have been best friends for the entire time they knew each other, but they shared a strong and lasting admiration, trust, and even affection for each other that had a significant impact upon the country. Some have described the childless Washington as playing the role of a surrogate father to the illegitimate Hamilton. Richard Brookhiser, in his excellent study of George Washington and fatherhood, notes the "group of surrogate children was his staff during the Revolutionary War, which he called ‘his family.'" This view probably comes closest to the mark, since Hamilton and the other staff members deferred to their "father" with respect and admiration for his virtue, though at times engaging in youthful rebellion. Many interpretations related to Washington's surrogate fatherhood for Hamilton border on the Freudian and offer little insight; for instance, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Ron Chernow argued that Hamilton had "suppressed Oedipal rage" toward Washington. Hamilton may have been driven incessantly by the desire for honor and glory, and this may have impeded his relationship with Washington, but Hamilton (unlike John Adams and others) was not competitive with Washington.

Perhaps it would be best to leave the term describing Washington and Hamilton's collaboration inexact. We might revel in the mystery. In the end, the story of their collaboration is what matters: it is not only interesting and dramatic, it is also essential to understanding how America came to be the great nation it is today. Their characters were animated by different qualities, they often reached conflicting conclusions, and they lent different abilities in the service of the republic. Nevertheless, they were both guided by a sense of American nationalism, working closely together to create an enduring republic that guaranteed liberty to its citizens. Thus, as we explore their special collaboration here, we will use the terms "friendship" and "partnership" interchangeably throughout the book, while recognizing the limitations of both terms in providing a precise understanding of their relationship. In the end, it is clear there was a genuine bond between the pair, and together they defeated the superpower of their day and founded a nation that became the superpower of our time.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter One: "I Heard Bullets Whistle": Young George Washington

Chapter Two: "I Wish There Was a War": Young Alexander Hamilton

Chapter Three: "We Must Assert Our Rights": The Growth of Revolutionary Ideology

Chapter Four: Revolutionary Band of Brothers

Chapter Five: A Continental Republic

Chapter Six: Two Roads to Philadelphia

Chapter Seven: Winning Ratification

Chapter Eight: The Indispensable President

Chapter Nine: A Time of "Folly and Madness"

Chapter Ten: "Enough to Melt a Monument of Marble"

Postscript: The Indispensable Alliance

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

About the Authors

Editorial Reviews

"Stephen Knott and Tony Williams offer a splendid joint biography of America’s founding statesmen, the crucial duo that forged a national constitutional republic – from a revolutionary war against a superpower, through a failed trial of a constitution, to the Constitution that endures to this day." — Law and Liberty

"This lesson in truly human, collaborative greatness is brought home to us in the context of our own regime and our own history by Stephen Knott and Tony Williams’s excellent study, Washington and Hamilton: The Alliance that Forged America...as Knott and Williams’s title reminds us, and as their book amply demonstrates, this great achievement was possible only on the basis of the close cooperation of our first president and his chief minister, our first secretary of the treasury." — Carson Holloway, author of Hamilton versus Jefferson in the Washington Administration and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska at Omaha

"The authors themselves collaborate well in Washington and Hamilton. Their clear and consistent prose, coupled with a heavy reliance on primary sources and wide range of carefully chosen secondary ones, dispel any notion that a work of history must trade off scholarship for accessibility...the result is a book well suited to both novices needing sufficient background to gain a full understanding and academics in need of an authoritatively referenced, thoughtfully analytical account." — Journal of the American Revolution

"There is much good sense in the authors' concluding opinion, that Americans would do well to rediscover the role that the team of Washington and Hamilton played in creating "a strong union." — The Weekly Standard

"This readable narrative successfully describes the ways in which the ‘indispensable alliance’ between Washington and Hamilton was a significant factor in America’s founding." — Library Journal

"Williams and Knott’s thesis—that Washington and Hamilton built the institutions that led to the United States emerging as a superpower in the 20th century—adds a new angle to the enduring public fascination with the founding fathers." — Publishers Weekly

"An elegant dual study resurrects Alexander Hamilton as one of George Washington's most valued advisers...Knott and Williams expertly show how Hamilton was often attacked because Washington was untouchable. " — Kirkus Reviews

"The musical’s game-changing, sometimes fraught father-son relationship fires up "Washington & Hamilton: The Alliance That Forged America." Two historians, Canton resident Stephen F. Knott and Tony Williams, cover the pair’s shared depths of ambition and honor, plus their battlefield-deepened bond. " — Boston Globe

"A splendid joint biography of America’s founding statesmen...studies the volatile but ultimately durable alliance of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, showing that constitutional statesmanship is not some mythical creature. " — Paul Carrese - Library of Law and Liberty

"Washington and Hamilton: The Alliance that Forged America" is not yet another life of Hamilton, nor is it a joint biography of Washington and Hamilton. Instead, it is the history of a remarkable collaboration between two very different individuals — part odd couple, part dynamic duo — that resulted in a joint achievement neither the senior partner (Washington) nor the junior partner (Hamilton) could have accomplished alone." — The Washington Times

From the Publisher

09/01/2015
Knott (National Security Affairs, U.S. Naval War Coll.; Alexander Hamilton and the Persistence of Myth) and Williams (Washington, Jefferson & Madison Inst.; Jamestown Experiment) trace the complicated relationship between George Washington and Alexander Hamilton (1755–1804), who served as the first secretary of the treasury under Washington and founded the Federalist Party. Some may consider it an overstatement to claim that the collaboration between Washington and Hamilton has been "overlooked" and an oversimplification to argue that "the epic confrontation of the founding era occurred between…Washington and Hamilton on one side and Jefferson and Madison on the other." However, a book-length study comparing their backgrounds and ideas as well as exploring their friendship is most welcome. Fully documented is the tension toward the end of their lives, as Hamilton never recovered from the loss of his son Phillip, who tragically died in a duel just as his father would a few years later. VERDICT This readable narrative successfully describes the ways in which the "indispensable alliance" between Washington and Hamilton was a significant factor in America's founding.—Mark Spencer, Brock Univ., St. Catharines, Ont.

Library Journal

2015-06-17
An elegant dual study resurrects Alexander Hamilton as one of George Washington's most valued advisers. Though it is difficult to add any new information to the history of the framers' relationships to each other, Knott (National Security Affairs/United States Naval War Coll.; Rush to Judgment: George W. Bush, the War on Terror, and His Critics, 2012, etc.) and Williams (The Jamestown Experiment: The Remarkable Story of the Enterprising Colony and the Unexpected Results that Shaped America, 2011, etc.), the professional development director at the Bill of Rights Institute, attribute the ratification of the Constitution, among other key events, to the professional, enduring friendship between these two key players. Of vastly different backgrounds and ages, Washington and Hamilton were nonetheless ambitious men of the Enlightenment who cared deeply about honor at all cost. Both men's personalities and careers were defined by war; as Washington's aide de camp, Hamilton distinguished himself for his bravery under fire. Although the two were somewhat estranged immediately after the war, they both came to the conclusion during the Continental Congress that "the common good necessitated a stronger national government instead of a government controlled by the narrow, self-interested states." Re-energized by their shared vision, they both threw their weight behind ratification—Washington by his sheer dignity and authority, Hamilton through his Federalist Papers. Indeed, Hamilton's insistence that Washington become the first president, as well as his essays on the office itself, would allow Washington to embody that "indispensable" role. Although not Washington's first cabinet choice for secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton would masterly define the role through his creation of a national bank, among other accomplishments. The authors move chronologically, carefully sifting the evidence of Hamilton's indispensability to the president and his loyalty in the face of increasing partisanship by Thomas Jefferson's Republicans. Washington repeatedly called on Hamilton's advice—e.g., regarding the Jay Treaty—and enlisted him to assist with the crafting of his farewell address. Knott and Williams expertly show how Hamilton was often attacked because Washington was untouchable.

Kirkus Reviews