Legacy

Further information: American School (economics), The Federalist, Implied powers, and History of

the United States Government
Hamilton's interpretations of the Constitution set forth in the Federalist Papers remain highly
influential, as seen in scholarly studies and court decisions. [247] Although the Constitution was
ambiguous as to the exact balance of power between national and state governments, Hamilton
consistently took the side of greater federal power at the expense of the states. [248] As Secretary of
the Treasury, he established—against the intense opposition of Secretary of State Jefferson—the
country's first de facto central bank. Hamilton justified the creation of this bank, and other federal
powers, under Congress's constitutional authority to issue currency, to regulate interstate commerce,
and to do anything else that would be "necessary and proper" to enact the provisions of the
Constitution.[249]
On the other hand, Jefferson took a stricter view of the Constitution. Parsing the text carefully, he
found no specific authorization for a national bank. This controversy was eventually settled by
the Supreme Court of the United States in McCulloch v. Maryland, which in essence adopted
Hamilton's view, granting the federal government broad freedom to select the best means to execute
its constitutionally enumerated powers, specifically the doctrine of implied powers.[249] Nevertheless,
the American Civil War and the Progressive Era demonstrated the sorts of crises and politics
Hamilton's administrative republic sought to avoid. [250][how?]
Hamilton's policies as Secretary of the Treasury greatly affected the United States government and
still continue to influence it. His constitutional interpretation, specifically of the Necessary and Proper
Clause, set precedents for federal authority that are still used by the courts and are considered an
authority on constitutional interpretation. The prominent French diplomat Charles Maurice de
Talleyrand, who spent 1794 in the United States, wrote, "I consider Napoleon, Fox, and Hamilton the
three greatest men of our epoch, and if I were forced to decide between the three, I would give
without hesitation the first place to Hamilton", adding that Hamilton had intuited the problems of
European conservatives.[251]
Opinions of Hamilton have run the gamut as both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson viewed him as
unprincipled and dangerously aristocratic. Hamilton's reputation was mostly negative in the eras
of Jeffersonian democracy and Jacksonian democracy. The older Jeffersonian view attacked
Hamilton as a centralizer, sometimes to the point of accusations that he advocated monarchy. [252] By
the Progressive era, Herbert Croly, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Theodore Roosevelt praised his
leadership of a strong government. Several nineteenth- and twentieth-century Republicans entered
politics by writing laudatory biographies of Hamilton. [253]
In more recent years, according to Sean Wilentz, favorable views of Hamilton and his reputation
have decidedly gained the initiative among scholars, who portray him as the visionary architect of
the modern liberal capitalist economy and of a dynamic federal government headed by an energetic
executive.[254] Modern scholars favoring Hamilton have portrayed Jefferson and his allies, in contrast,
as naïve, dreamy idealists.[254]