Other reasons account for Hamilton's failure to snatch the prize. Though blessed with a great executive mind and a consummate policy maker, Hamilton could never master the smooth restraint of a mature politician. His conception of leadership was noble but limiting: the true statesman defied the wishes of the people, if necessary, and shook them from wishful thinking and complacency. Hamilton lived in a world of moral absolutes and was not especially prone to compromise or consensus building. Where Washington and Jefferson had a gift for voicing the hopes of ordinary people, Hamilton had no special interest in echoing popular preferences. Much too avowedly elitist to become president, he lacked what Woodrow Wilson defined as an essential ingredient for political leadership: "profound sympathy with those whom he leads-a sympathy which is insight-an insight which is of the heart rather than of the intellect."36 Alexander Hamilton enjoyed no such mystic bond with the American people. This may have been why Madison was so adamant that "Hamilton never could have got in" as president.
( Ron Chernow )
[ Alexander Hamilton ]
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