No American was to expend more prophetic verbiage in denouncing the French Revolution than Alexander Hamilton. The suspension of the monarchy and the September Massacres, Hamilton later told Lafayette, had "cured me of my goodwill for the French Revolution." 20 Hamilton refused to condone the carnage in Paris or separate means from ends. He did not think a revolution should cast off the past overnight or repudiate law, order, and tradition. "A struggle for liberty is in itself respectable and glorious," he opined. "When conducted with magnanimity, justice, and humanity, it ought to command the admiration of every friend to human nature. But if sullied by crimes and extravagancies, it loses its respectability." 21 The American Revolution had succeeded because it was "a free, regular and deliberate act of the nation" and had been conducted with "a spirit of justice and humanity." 22 It was, in fact, a revolution written in parchment and defined by documents, petitions, and other forms of law. What
( Ron Chernow )
[ Alexander Hamilton ]
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