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In theory, Jefferson could have fathered all of Sally Hemings's children. Fawn M. Brodie has written, "Jefferson was not only not 'distant' from Sally Hemings but in the same house nine months before the births of each of her seven children and she conceived no children when he was not there."54 Jefferson freed only two slaves in his lifetime and another five in his will, and all belonged to the Hemings family, though he excluded Sally. On her deathbed, Sally Hemings told her son Madison that he and his siblings were Jefferson's children. In 1998, DNA tests confirmed that Jefferson (or some male in his family) had likely fathered at least one of Sally Hemings's children, Eston. Reading between the lines of "Phocion," one surmises that Hamilton knew all about Sally Hemings, quite possibly from Angelica Church.
Ron Chernow Quotes: In theory, Jefferson could have
I'm a biographer; I can live with a little hyperbole.
Ron Chernow Quotes: I'm a biographer; I can
After being Washington's aide for four years and becoming the hero of Yorktown, Hamilton was viewed with a great deal of suspicion because of his association with Tories.
Ron Chernow Quotes: After being Washington's aide for
A crash really occurs when you suddenly have a violent downturn in the market that then heralds a long bull market.
Ron Chernow Quotes: A crash really occurs when
Mutual funds give people the sense that they're investing with the big boys and that they're really not at a disadvantage entering the stock market.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Mutual funds give people the
His account books reflect a concern with fashion, as shown by periodic visits to a French tailor, and his sartorial elegance is confirmed in portraits. In one painting, he wears a double-breasted coat with brass buttons and gilt-edged lapels, his neck swathed delicately in a ruffled lace jabot.
Ron Chernow Quotes: His account books reflect a
Cornwallis had grown so desperate that he infected blacks with smallpox and forced them to wander toward enemy lines in an attempt to sicken the opposing forces.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Cornwallis had grown so desperate
Rejecting a simple grid for the capital as "tiresome and insipid", he argued that such a pattern made sense only for flat cities. Not only would diagonal streets provide "contrast and variety," but they would serve as express lanes, shortening the distance between places. Town squares would be situated where diagonal avenues crossed.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Rejecting a simple grid for
The American Revolution was to succeed because it was undertaken by skeptical men who knew that the same passions that toppled tyrannies could be applied to destructive ends.
Ron Chernow Quotes: The American Revolution was to
Partly because his life ended before the age of 50, Hamilton was defined by the other founding fathers, and he managed, with amazing consistency, to alienate most of them.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Partly because his life ended
There were two qualities about the mutual funds of the 1920s that made them extremely speculative. One was that they were heavily leveraged. Two, mutual funds were allowed to invest in other mutual funds.
Ron Chernow Quotes: There were two qualities about
The first great skeptic of American exceptionalism, he refused to believe that the country was exempt from the sober lessons of history.
Ron Chernow Quotes: The first great skeptic of
In the 1970s we saw a massive shift of household savings from the banks to the brokerage firms.
Ron Chernow Quotes: In the 1970s we saw
The suspect nature of these stories can be seen in the anecdote Jefferson told of Hamilton visiting his lodging in 1792 and inquiring about three portraits on the wall. "They are my trinity of the three greatest men the world has ever produced," Jefferson replied: "Sir Francis Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, and John Locke." Hamilton supposedly replied, "The greatest man that ever lived was Julius Casar.
Ron Chernow Quotes: The suspect nature of these
In fact, no immigrant in American history has ever made a larger contribution than Alexander Hamilton
Ron Chernow Quotes: In fact, no immigrant in
One of the special characteristics of New York is that it is different from a London or a Paris because it's the financial capital, and the cultural capital, but not the political capital.
Ron Chernow Quotes: One of the special characteristics
Rockefeller equated silence with strength: Weak men had loose tongues and blabbed to reporters, while prudent businessmen kept their own counsel.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Rockefeller equated silence with strength:
Another female observer found Madison entertaining in private but "mute, cold, and repulsive" in company.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Another female observer found Madison
I think one of the important things that's happened in the course of the century is that life expectancy has doubled.
Ron Chernow Quotes: I think one of the
After the death of John Laurens, Hamilton shut off some compartment of his emotions and never reopened it.
Ron Chernow Quotes: After the death of John
Light reading (by this, I mean books of little importance) may amuse for the moment, but leaves nothing solid behind.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Light reading (by this, I
And shall we at last become the victims of our own abominable lust of gain? Forbid it, Heaven. Washington himself could be a hard driving businessman, yet he found the rapacity of many vendors unconscionable. As he told George Mason, he thought it the intent of the speculators, various tribes of money makers and stock jobbers of all denominations, to continue the war for their own private emolument, without considering that their avarice and thirst for gain must plunge everything in one common ruin.
Ron Chernow Quotes: And shall we at last
It was, Eliza Hamilton Holly noted pointedly, the imperative duty that Eliza had bequeathed to all her children: Justice shall be done to the memory of my Hamilton.
Ron Chernow Quotes: It was, Eliza Hamilton Holly
Any bull market covers a multitude of sins, so there may be all sorts of problems with the current system that we won't see until the bear market comes.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Any bull market covers a
That strategy of buy and hold, which is the sound and sensible one for the individual, can have very dangerous and perverse effects for the market as a whole.
Ron Chernow Quotes: That strategy of buy and
In the 1920s, Wall Street was a world that was really dominated by professional speculators and stock pools. These people had a monopoly over information.
Ron Chernow Quotes: In the 1920s, Wall Street
The law is whatever is successfully argued and plausibly maintained,
Ron Chernow Quotes: The law is whatever is
In a moment of acute anxiety a year earlier, John Adams had wondered what would happen if "the multitude, the vulgar, the herd, the rabble" maintained such open defiance of authority. 13
Ron Chernow Quotes: In a moment of acute
What I find very interesting about the mutual funds managers is that here are people who are the new masters of the universe. They're managing billions, yet they're subject to this quiet daily tyranny of numbers.
Ron Chernow Quotes: What I find very interesting
[Philip's death was] beyond comparison the most afflicting of my life ... He was truly a fine youth. But why should I repine? It was the will of heaven and he is now out of the reach of the seductions and calamities of a world full of folly, full of vice, full of danger, of least value in proportion as it is best known. I firmly trust also that he has safely reached the haven of eternal repose and felicity. (Alexander Hamilton letter to Benjamin Rush about the death of his 19-year old son from mortal wounds inflicted from a duel.)
Ron Chernow Quotes: [Philip's death was] beyond comparison
1755, Knox decided to propagate the gospel and was sent
Ron Chernow Quotes: 1755, Knox decided to propagate
With only three executive departments, each secretary wielded considerable power. Moreover, departmental boundaries were not well defined, allowing each secretary to roam across a wide spectrum of issues. This was encouraged by Washington, who frequently requested opinions from his entire cabinet on an issue. It particularly galled Jefferson that Hamilton, with his keen appetite for power, poached so frequently on his turf. In fact, Hamilton's opinions were so numerous and his influence so pervasive that most historians regard him as having been something akin to a prime minister. If Washington was head of state, then Hamilton was the head of government, the active force in the administration.
Ron Chernow Quotes: With only three executive departments,
explaining that he did so "from a desire of testifying
Ron Chernow Quotes: explaining that he did so
The public has lost faith in the ability of Social Security and Medicare to provide for old age. They've lost faith in the banking system and in conventional medical insurance.
Ron Chernow Quotes: The public has lost faith
Washington must have seen that Hamilton, for all his brains and daring, sometimes lacked judgment and had to be supervised carefully.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Washington must have seen that
Washington departed the planet as admirably as he had inhabited it. He had long hated slavery, even though he had profited from it. Now, in his will, he stipulated that his slaves should be emancipated after Martha's death, and he set aside funds for slaves who would be either too young or too old to care for themselves. Of the nine American presidents who owned slaves - a list that includes his fellow Virginians Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe - only Washington set free all of his slaves. Washington
Ron Chernow Quotes: Washington departed the planet as
Daring in design, cautious in execution - it was a formula he made his own throughout his career.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Daring in design, cautious in
The American Revolution and its aftermath coincided with two great transformations in the late eighteenth century. In the political sphere, there had been a repudiation of royal rule, fired by a new respect for individual freedom, majority rule, and limited government. If Hamilton made distinguished contributions in this sphere, so did Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison. In contrast, when it came to the parallel economic upheavals of the period - the industrial revolution, the expansion of global trade, the growth of banks and stock exchanges - Hamilton was an American prophet without peer. No other founding father straddled both of these revolutions - only Franklin even came close - and therein lay Hamilton's novelty and greatness. He was the clear-eyed apostle of America's economic future, setting forth a vision that many found enthralling, others unsettling, but that would ultimately prevail. He stood squarely on the modern side of a historical divide that seemed to separate him from other founders. Small wonder he aroused such fear and confusion.
Ron Chernow Quotes: The American Revolution and its
As often is the case with addictions, the fanciful notion of a gradual discontinuance only provided a comforting pretext for more sustained indulgence.
Ron Chernow Quotes: As often is the case
Mutual fund managers are trapped in this rather deadly vicious circle: the more successful they are, the more money flows into their mutual fund. Then, it is more difficult for them to beat the market averages or even to match their own past performance.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Mutual fund managers are trapped
Hamilton's critics seriously underrated his superhuman stamina. He enjoyed beating his enemies at their own game, and the resolutions roused his fighting spirit. By February 19, in a staggering display of diligence, he delivered to the House several copious reports, garlanded with tables, lists, and statistics that gave a comprehensive overview of his work as treasury secretary. In the finale of one twenty-thousand-word report, Hamilton intimated that he had risked a physical breakdown to complete this heroic labor: It is certain that I have made every exertion in my power, at the hazard of my health, to comply with the requisitions of the House as early as possible.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Hamilton's critics seriously underrated his
In waiting for the glorious moment of that first book contract, writers must have giant reservoirs of patience. Yet they must persevere because they don't know the destiny that is being worked out for them. They creep humbly along the ground, without the spacious aerial vision of their lives that would show them the destiny in store for them.
Ron Chernow Quotes: In waiting for the glorious
Washington once advised his adopted grandson that where there is no occasion for expressing an opinion, it is best to be silent. For there is nothing more certain than that it is at all times more easy to make enemies than friends.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Washington once advised his adopted
More than anyone else, the omnipresent Hamilton galvanized, inspired, and scandalized the newborn nation, serving as a flash point for pent-up conflicts of class, geography, race, religion, and ideology. His contemporaries often seemed defined by how they reacted to the political gauntlets that he threw down repeatedly with such defiant panache.
Ron Chernow Quotes: More than anyone else, the
A lot of the money in the stock market is really our national retirement plan, for better or worse.
Ron Chernow Quotes: A lot of the money
The mutual fund industry and small investors are very relentless and very unforgiving if people don't perform.
Ron Chernow Quotes: The mutual fund industry and
He generally spoke with much animation and energy, and with considerable gesture. His mind was filled with all the learning and precedence required for the occasion, enabling him to make numerous extemporaneous speeches. He seduced the listeners with hope and provoked them with fear, leading one spectator to comment that "Hamilton's harangues combine the poignancy of vinegar with the smoothness of oil.
Ron Chernow Quotes: He generally spoke with much
I shall conclude [by] saying I wish there was a war. Alex. Hamilton.
Ron Chernow Quotes: I shall conclude [by] saying
The founding fathers were not only brilliant, they were system builders and systematic thinkers. They came up with comprehensive plans and visions.
Ron Chernow Quotes: The founding fathers were not
Americans often wonder how this moment could have spawned such extraordinary men as Hamilton and Madison. Part of the answer is that the Revolution produced an insatiable need for thinkers who could generate ideas and wordsmiths who could lucidly expound them. The immediate utility of ideas was an incalculable tonic for the founding generation. The fate of the democratic experiment depended upon political intellectuals who might have been marginalized at other periods.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Americans often wonder how this
Early on, New York already had a national and even international identity.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Early on, New York already
An essential difference between the American and French revolutions was that the American version allowed a search for many truths, while French zealots tried to impose a single sacred truth that allowed no deviation. " page 714
Ron Chernow Quotes: An essential difference between the
Once Hamilton was initiated into the cause of American liberty, his life acquired an even more headlong pace that never slackened.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Once Hamilton was initiated into
Washington replied, "I always knew Colonel Hamilton to be a man of superior talents, but never supposed that he had any knowledge of finance." "He knows everything, sir," Morris replied. "To a mind like his nothing comes amiss.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Washington replied,
The Great Inflation of the 1970s destroyed faith in paper assets, because if you held a bond, suddenly the bond was worth much less money than it was before.
Ron Chernow Quotes: The Great Inflation of the
Since critics found it hard to defeat him on intellectual grounds, they stooped to personal attacks.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Since critics found it hard
(regarding Charles Lee) This eccentric and notably slovenly man was always trailed by his beloved dogs. "When I can be convinced that men are as worthy objects as dogs", he once explained, "I shall transfer my benevolence to them.
Ron Chernow Quotes: (regarding Charles Lee) This eccentric
While other founding fathers were reared in tidy New England villages or cosseted on baronial Virginia estates, Hamilton grew up in a tropical hellhole of dissipated whites and fractious slaves, all framed by a backdrop of luxuriant natural beauty. On
Ron Chernow Quotes: While other founding fathers were
In constructing the Coast Guard, Hamilton insisted on rigorous professionalism and irreproachable conduct. He knew that if revenue-cutter captains searched vessels in an overbearing fashion, this high-handed behavior might sap public support, so he urged firmness tempered with restraint. He reminded skippers to "always keep in mind that their countrymen are free men and as such are impatient of everything that bears the least mark of a domineering spirit. [You] will therefore refrain . . . from whatever has the semblance of haughtiness, rudeness, or insult." 34 So masterly was Hamilton's directive about boarding foreign vessels that it was still being applied during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Hamilton
Ron Chernow Quotes: In constructing the Coast Guard,
In the next poem, Hamilton has suddenly metamorphosed into a jaded rake, who begins with a shocking, Swiftian opening line: 'Celia's an artful little slut.
Ron Chernow Quotes: In the next poem, Hamilton
The securities laws of the 1930s were so important because it forced companies to file registration statements and issue prospectuses, and it remedied the imbalance of information.
Ron Chernow Quotes: The securities laws of the
It is easy to snicker at such deceit and conclude that Hamilton faked all emotion for his wife, but this would belie the otherwise exemplary nature of their marriage. Eliza Hamilton never expressed anything less than a worshipful attitude toward her husband. His love for her, in turn, was deep and constant if highly imperfect. The problem was that no single woman could seem to satisfy all the needs of this complex man with his checkered childhood. As mirrored in his earliest adolescent poems, Hamilton seemed to need two distinct types of love: love of the faithful, domestic kind and love of the more forbidden, exotic variety. In
Ron Chernow Quotes: It is easy to snicker
We really haven't had very much experience with people funding their retirement out of the stock market, and we don't know, frankly, how it would work under every scenario.
Ron Chernow Quotes: We really haven't had very
After 1929, so many people had been traumatized by the stock market crash that there was a lost generation.
Ron Chernow Quotes: After 1929, so many people
The painting also pinpointed an important quirk of Washington's face: the lazy right eye that slid off into the corner while the left eye stared straight ahead. To prepare for the equestrian
Ron Chernow Quotes: The painting also pinpointed an
Unless you devote an enormous amount of time to anticipating the future, you won't have any future.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Unless you devote an enormous
His subordinates remembered him as tough but fair-minded. Years later, one of them retained Hamilton as a lawyer, even though he had become a vocal political enemy. When Hamilton questioned the wisdom of this, the ex-soldier replied, "I served in your company during the war and I know you will do me justice in spite of my rudeness.
Ron Chernow Quotes: His subordinates remembered him as
Rockefeller was sensitive about adults who behaved in a high-handed fashion toward him. Having assumed so much responsibility at home, he now thought of himself as a mature person.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Rockefeller was sensitive about adults
With a ready tongue and rapier wit, Hamilton could wound people more than he realized, and he was so nimble in debate that even bright people sometimes felt embarrassingly tongue-tied in his presence.
Ron Chernow Quotes: With a ready tongue and
Many mickles make a muckle.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Many mickles make a muckle.
Jay was attacked with peculiar venom. Near his New York home, the walls of a building were defaced with the gigantic words, 'Damn John Jay. Damn everyone that won't damn John Jay. Damn everyone that won't put up lights in the windows and sit up all night damning John Jay.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Jay was attacked with peculiar
There is no country in the world where it's as easy to find venture capital in the stock market as the United States.
Ron Chernow Quotes: There is no country in
I think those who invest in mutual funds want someone else to do the thinking for them. But the fact that they can move the money around the family of mutual funds just through a phone call lets them feel that they can play tycoons.
Ron Chernow Quotes: I think those who invest
He thought America's character would be defined by how it treated its vanquished enemies, and he wanted to graduate from bitter wartime grievances to the forgiving posture of peace.
Ron Chernow Quotes: He thought America's character would
The British were unhinged by the colonists' unorthodox fighting style and shocking failure to abide by gentlemanly rules of engagement. One scandalized British soldier complained that the American riflemen 'conceal themselves behind trees etc. till an opportunity presents itself of taking a shot at our advance sentries, which done, they immediately retreat. What an unfair method of carrying on a war!
Ron Chernow Quotes: The British were unhinged by
Hamilton's besetting fear was that American democracy would be spoiled by demagogues who would mouth populist shibboleths to conceal their despotism.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Hamilton's besetting fear was that
As a bull market continues, almost anything you buy goes up. It makes you feel that investing in stocks is a very easy and safe and that you're a financial genius.
Ron Chernow Quotes: As a bull market continues,
Hamilton, the human word machine,
Ron Chernow Quotes: Hamilton, the human word machine,
This, I confess, hurts my feelings, and if it obtains credit will require a contradiction,
Ron Chernow Quotes: This, I confess, hurts my
Stock market corrections, although painful at the time, are actually a very healthy part of the whole mechanism, because there are always speculative excesses that develop, particularly during the long bull market.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Stock market corrections, although painful
I don't think that a mutual fund that invests exclusively in biotech start-ups or invests exclusively in companies in Thailand offers any great safety or diversification.
Ron Chernow Quotes: I don't think that a
Alexander Hamilton may have been musing upon his mother's marriage to Lavien when he later observed, 'Tis a very good thing when their stars unite two people who are fit for each other, who have souls capable of relishing the sweets of friendship and sensibilities...But it's a dog of [a] life when two dissonant tempers meet.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Alexander Hamilton may have been
Grant deserves an honored place in American history, second only to Lincoln for what he did for the freed slaves. He got the big issues right during his presidency even if he bungled many of the small ones. The historian Richard N. Currant who also saw Grant as the most underrated American president wrote "by backing radical reconstruction as best he could he made a greater effort to secure the constitutional rights of blacks than did any other president between Lincoln and Lyndon B. Johnson". In the words of Frederick Douglass, "that sturdy old roman, Benjamin Butler, made the negro a contraband, Abraham Lincoln made him a free man and General Ulysses S. Grant made him a citizen".
Ron Chernow Quotes: Grant deserves an honored place
In May, when a Senate committee took up the explosive issue of titles, Adams suggested that Washington be addressed as "His Highness, the President of the United States of America and Protector of their Liberties."34 Adams provided fodder for contemporary wags and was promptly dubbed "His Rotundity" or the "Duke of Braintree.
Ron Chernow Quotes: In May, when a Senate
I have developed a very strong partiality for the dead: they don't talk back, they don't sue, and they don't have angry relatives.
Ron Chernow Quotes: I have developed a very
I'm dubious about having Social Security put into the stock market. I think that we have gotten very far away from the idea that there's something sacrosanct about retirement investments.
Ron Chernow Quotes: I'm dubious about having Social
There is a kind of fear, approaching a panic, that's spreading through the Baby Boom Generation, which has suddenly discovered that it will have to provide for its own retirement.
Ron Chernow Quotes: There is a kind of
Because of the love affair between the American public and the stock market, it is possible for entrepreneurs, technological visionaries and inventors of every sort to get financing.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Because of the love affair
In the 1920s you could buy stocks on margin. You could put 10 percent down and borrow the rest against your stocks.
Ron Chernow Quotes: In the 1920s you could
A romantic striving for an impossible ideal.
Ron Chernow Quotes: A romantic striving for an
Rather than make peace with John Adams, he was ready, if necessary, to blow up the Federalist party and let Jefferson become president. The
Ron Chernow Quotes: Rather than make peace with
A prudent silence will frequently be taken for wisdom and a sentence or two cautiously thrown in will sometimes gain the palm of knowledge, while a man well informed but indiscreet and unreserved will not uncommonly talk himself out of all consideration and weight. (Alexander Hamilton's 'thesis on discretion' written to his son James shortly before his fatal duel with Burr.)
Ron Chernow Quotes: A prudent silence will frequently
polite with dignity, affable without formality, distant without haughtiness, grave without austerity,
Ron Chernow Quotes: polite with dignity, affable without
Hamilton had one of those extraordinary 18th-century minds that touched on virtually every major topic of the day.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Hamilton had one of those
Washington had several surrogate sons during the Revolution, most notably the marquis de Lafayette, and he often referred to Hamilton as my boy.
Ron Chernow Quotes: Washington had several surrogate sons
For the remainder of the gubernatorial campaign, Hamilton issued open letters to the electorate, and at Clinton campaign rallies his essays were hurled under the table as marks of contempt. In shaping his final appeal to voters, Hamilton said that Clinton's most effective tactic was to single out the rich for abuse, and he warned that republicans scapegoated the rich to their detriment: "There is no stronger sign of combinations unfriendly to the general good than when the partisans of those in power raise an indiscriminate cry against men of property."26
Ron Chernow Quotes: For the remainder of the
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