You Did What__ Mad Plans and Great Historical Disasters - Bill Fawcett [27]
From his understanding of his parental inheritances — from his resentment of his mother, his contempt for her, his belief that his father would have been a great man if not for her — came not only his determination to be paramount in the world, but also that sense of great destiny just missed which gripped Germany between the wars and precipitated Hitler’s monomania.
Exactly when was the decisive moment that ensured disaster would follow? It may have been when the handsome young crown prince went walking on the hills near Balmoral with the bright, witty, entertaining fourteen-year-old princess and proposed to her. For how could their marriage have done anything but bring forth an Anglophobe determined to revenge the wrongs he was sure he’d suffered? Given the nature of the Prussian court, given the nature of the English princess, it is hard to imagine how their marriage — so satisfying to each other despite political disappointments — could have been anything but a train wreck for the whole world in the end.
You Shot Whom?
On July 11, 1804, two men met on the field of honor.
They exchanged shots.
One fell to the ground.
The other fell from grace.
HAMILTON AND BURR
WEEHAWKEN, NEW JERSEY, 1804
Brian M. Thomsen
The One Who Couldn’t Keep His Mouth Shut
Alexander Hamilton was born out of wedlock on the island of Nevis in 1755. Despite this inauspicious beginning, the young man made his way to New York in 1772, where he attended Kings College and became active in the local militia in opposition to the Crown.
In March of 1777 he ascended to the rank of aide-de-camp to George Washington, a position he held until 1781, when he was given his own command of a battalion at Yorktown, where he took part in the final battle of the American Revolution.
From the war he moved back to New York to a career in law and politics. He eventually helped establish the Bank of New York, which then led to his election to the state legislature and on to the Continental Congress, where he helped to author the now-famous Federalist Papers, which laid the groundwork for the Constitution of the United States.
He accepted a post as secretary of the treasury in the Washington administration and immediately worked toward those sorts of reforms that would lead to a republic that did not separate the national interest from the interests of those who were among her most economically successful citizens.
Hamilton always considered himself a favorite of Washington’s and plotted to eventually succeed him. He even rewrote part of Washington’s farewell address to stress those Federalist issues most important to his own platforms and those of his party. A self-promoting war hero, he considered himself an obvious choice.
Others disagreed.
Many found Hamilton priggish and abrasive, and his wrong - side - of - the - sheets birth as well as numerous scandals of his own making more than ensured that he would never ascend to the presidency — which in Hamilton’s mind did not necessarily preclude him from still running things.
Indeed he called things as he saw them and had no hesitation about sharing his thoughts about politics and other matters with as many people as he came in contact with, which led to more than a few problems. Eventually his gossiping evolved into very public personal attacks on his opponents, including John Adams, who was running for reelection for the presidency.
It was only a matter of time before his venomous tongue got him into really big trouble.
The One Who Wouldn’t Leave Well Enough Alone
Aaron Burr was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1756, the grandson of legendary “Great Awakening” minister Jonathan Edwards. He graduated from Princeton at the age of sixteen and began legal studies. His practice of law was interrupted by the coming of the American Revolution, where he served valiantly under both Benedict Arnold and George Washington (who, it is alleged, ceased to trust him after an occasion when Washington