Miranda’s Hamilton, Jefferson’s Hamilton, and the Real Hamilton

• In Event: Actors, Audiences, Aspirations: What Hamilton the Musical Teaches about Politics

Abstract

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway blockbuster Hamilton has transformed this unlikely founding father into something of a celebrity. But while Hamilton is currently seen as a heroic figure, throughout much of the nation’s history he was seen as “un-American” – a closet monarchist who allegedly hated the people, and a man whose dictatorial ambitions were checked by the champion of the common man, Thomas Jefferson. Many historians have echoed the distorted accounts of Jefferson and his lieutenants, all of whom were determined to ruin Hamilton’s reputation. Hamilton became, in essence, the first victim of the politics of personal destruction. Jefferson’s heirs in the Democratic Party, particularly Andrew Jackson and Franklin Roosevelt, also considered Hamilton to be the nation’s founding plutocrat. FDR saw Hamilton as the Herbert Hoover of his day, and for all practical purposes airbrushed Hamilton out of the founding. Both Miranda and Ron Chernow restored Hamilton to his proper standing as a key American founder, although they too occasionally misrepresented the real Hamilton. This paper will seek to present the real Hamilton.

Author

• Stephen F. Knott, Naval War College