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Alexander Hamilton on Slavery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Michael D. Chan
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Abstract

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This article seeks to refute the prevailing scholarly view that Hamilton, like the Founders generally, lacked a deep concern about slavery. The first part examines Hamilton's political principles and shows that they were not Hobbesian but consistent with the views of more traditional natural law theorists. Accordingly, Hamilton understood that the natural rights of man imposed a corresponding duty to end slavery. The second part examines Hamilton's endorsement of a compensated emancipation, his opinions of the Constitution, his conduct of American foreign policy, his involvement in the state abolition societies, and his economic policies to demonstrate that ending slavery was in fact one of his abiding concerns.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 66 , Issue 2 , Spring 2004 , pp. 207 - 231
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 2004

References

1. Jefferson's doctrine of nullification and his opposition to the North's attempt to ban slavery from Missouri as a condition of entry into the Union (which he regarded as a Northern Federalist plot aimed at “consolidation”) did not comport with Lincoln's own views.

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26. lbid., p. 122.

27. At the time of Hamilton's writing, “moral” causes or power referred to both ethics as well as the realm of man as distinct from nature (i.e., moral or “man-made” causes had not yet been drained of ethical content).

28. lbid., p. 134 (emphasis added).

29. Notably, Hamilton uses “sacred” and natural interchangeably when referring to man's natural rights, a convention which Hobbes and Locke do not adopt. Compare Pufendorf, Samuel, On the Duty of Man and Citizen According to Natural Law (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991), bk. 1, chap. 3, ¶ 9–12, pp. 35–37Google Scholar.

30. New-York Historical Society, New York Manumission Society Records, 6:3–4, 9Google Scholar. Hereafter cited as NYMS Records, volume and page number. The overtly religious language probably reflects the significant presence of Quakers in the society.

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32. Ibid.

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63. Ibid., 6:61.

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68. Ibid.,6:17,19.

69. Ibid., 6:37,44; “Memorial to Abolish the Slave Trade,” 13 03 1786, PAH, 3:654Google Scholar.

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84. There has been a vigorous academic debate over whether commerce by itself would have put an end to slavery. For an excellent bibliographic essay on the subject, see Hummel, Jeffrey Rogers, Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men: A History of the America Civil War (Chicago: Open Court, 1996), pp. 61–75Google Scholar.

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86. Hamilton, , “The Defence No. XX,” PAH, 19:332Google Scholar.

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88. Ibid., 333.

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90. Ibid.

91. Ibid.

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97. The Federalist Papers, No. 6, pp. 21–28Google Scholar. See also Walling, Karl-Friedrich, Republican Empire: Alexander Hamilton on War and Free Government (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1999), pp. 176–85Google Scholar.

98. Hamilton, , “The Defence No. XX,” PAH, 19:333Google Scholar.

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101. Hamilton, , “The Defence of the Funding System,” PAH, 19:40Google Scholar.

102. Hamilton, , “Report on the Subject of Manufactures,” PAH, 10:256Google Scholar.

103. Ibid., p. 259.

104. Hiram Caton makes a similar point: “The Report [on Manufactures] had two further political implications that Hamilton did not stress. … Hamilton might reasonably hope that the growth of manufactures would in the long run dilute the influence of the rural interests and the dangerous localisms of husbandmen” (The politics of Progress: The Origins and Development of the Commercial Republic, 1600–1835 [Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 1988], p. 477)Google Scholar.

105. Montesquieu, , The Spirit of the Laws, part 3, bk. 13, chap. 8, p. 252Google Scholar.

106. Hamilton, , “1777 Pay Book,” PAH, 1:402Google Scholar (emphasis added).

107. Hamilton, , “Report on Manufacturers,” PAH, 10:270Google Scholar.

108. Hamilton, , “A Full Vindication,” PAH, 1:53Google Scholar. “Sorry I am to say that mine is still backward in the encouragement of manufactorys or artists, but I trust it will soon get better as the Slavery by blacks decreases & by Emigration from these Countrys we get betterd as to a free tenantry.” Digges, Thomas to Hamilton, , 6 04 1792, PAH, 11:242Google Scholar.

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119. Hamilton, , ”Report on Manufactures,” PAH, 10:251–52Google Scholar.

111. Ibid.

112. Ibid.