Your Independent Journal from the Heartland
Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, chose to not speculate when asked what damage Donald Trump might be doing to the U.S. Constitution. But, in his widely praised new book, “The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America,” Rosen tracks an intriguing array of historical characters, events, and political battles that have shaped our 236-year history of fights over what the U.S. Constitution’s contents actually mean. And Trump gets a spotlight’s glare.
Thomas Jefferson was a major force behind America’s Declaration of Independence, and Alexander Hamilton played a key role in the creation of the Constitution. Yet both Founders ended up with sharply contrasting visions on how the Constitution should be interpreted and applied. Jefferson believed in states’ rights and individual liberties; Hamilton favored a strong federal government—indeed, so strong that, during the Constitution’s drafting, he unsuccessfully proposed life terms for presidents and senators and federal veto power over state legislation.
The long-running fistfights over Constitutional interpretations have shaped many pivotal moments in American history, Rosen shows, including: Abraham Lincoln’s battles against slavery and southern secession; federal power expansions under Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal; and Ronald Reagan’s and Trump’s conservative push to downsize federal government.
But a central problem endures: “There is no single original understanding of the Constitution and no original public meaning of the constitutional text,” Rosen points out. “Since the first debates between Hamilton and Jefferson, the meaning of the text has been contested. It’s true that both Hamilton and Jefferson thought the text of the Constitution should be interpreted in light of the spirit in which it was adopted, but they fundamentally disagreed about what that spirit was: for Hamilton, federal power should be construed liberally; for Jefferson, strictly.”
Hamilton agreed with John Adams that “the goal of a constitution is to temper politics with principle to prevent America from descending into civil war.” To which Rosen adds: “Throughout our history, liberal and conservative patriots have warned that when Americans abandon their devotion to the principles of the Constitution, political conflict ends in tyranny, violence, or both.”
In his view, “The competing positions of Hamilton and Jefferson are like golden and silver threads woven throughout the tapestry of American history, sometimes side by side, sometimes crossing each other, and at crucial moments, pulling so far apart that they threaten to snap. From the Founding until today, the tug-of-war on both ends of the threads has sustained the productive tension that keeps American politics from descending into violence.” (Overlooking Jan. 6, 2021?)
The ongoing Constitutional debates also have played out in the Supreme Court, Rosen emphasizes, where “the central dispute…has not been between originalism and non-originalism, but between liberal and strict construction of federal power.”
“The Pursuit of Liberty” offers a solidly researched, well-written journey along a complex path now stretching from the hopeful days of George Washington to the transactional days of Trump. Rosen is the author of several other books, including two New York Times bestsellers: “The “Pursuit of Happiness” and “Conversations with RBG.”
“At the beginning of his second term,” Rosen contends, “it is too early to say whether Trump will ultimately be viewed by twenty-first century historians as the heir of Andrew Jackson [who imposed tariffs and expanded presidential power] or Julius Caesar, a populist tribune of liberty or tyranny. But history suggests that both Hamilton and Jefferson were correct about the sources of Caesarism in America. Hamilton feared that democracy would produce a demagogic Caesar who rose from below....[while] Jefferson, by contrast, feared that Hamilton’s financial elite would encourage an aristocratic Caesar who corrupted the virtue of the people from above.”
Right now, we seem to have a Caesar who is protected by a Praetorian Guard armed with price scanners, credit card readers, cash registers, and convenient deposit slots for cryptocurrency.
“The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America,” by Jeffrey Rosen, Simon & Schuster, 432 pages, hardback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
Si Dunn is a freelance writer in Franklin, Mass. He previously worked for newspapers in Texas and Arkansas and currently is a book reviewer for Lone Star Literary Life.
Email sidunn@sagecreekproductions.com.
