Alexander Hamilton and the New Republic’s Creole Complex

Abstract

During the past few decades, scholars of American literature and culture have had much to say about Thomas Jefferson’s iconographic status in the national imaginary, specifically about Jefferson’s mythic vision for the United States as an “empire for liberty” as expressed in Notes on the State of Virginia (1785) and later writings. This chapter will not argue against the significance of a Jefferson-centered understanding of national character and literary and cultural formation in the New Republic. Rather, it intends to complicate such an understanding by providing an alternative locus for situating such discussions, one centered on Jefferson’s arch-rival, Alexander Hamilton.

This chapter is drawn from chapter 2 of Goudie, 2006. The author thanks the University of Pennsylvania Press for the permission to republish this material in this volume.