The struggles of America’s cultural outsiders to be included in the country—in the face of disparagement, exclusion, or punishment—are as old as the nation. And, as Alexander Hamilton discovered in the 1770s and 1780s, they cut to the core of what it means to be American.
Before Hamilton reached his political apotheosis in George Washington’s cabinet, he immigrated to the mainland North American colonies from Nevis, an island in the British West Indies. Like his contemporaries Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Hamilton was a British subject, but upon arrival in New Jersey in 1772, he lacked their wealth, familial lineage, elite status, and American roots. In short, he was an outsider—a “Bastard Bratt of a Scotch Pedlar,” as John Adams described him.
Eventually, Hamilton would leverage a combination of service in the Revolutionary War, a strategic marriage into an old New York family, and the professional legitimacy of a successful law practice to transform himself into a member of a new generation of elite Americans.
Following the battle of Yorktown in October 1781, Hamilton returned to his pregnant wife Elizabeth in Albany, New York and began preparing for admission to the New York bar. He was an astonishingly quick study; with only a few months of preparation behind him, Hamilton was fully admitted to practice in New York’s Supreme Court by October 1782. By 1783, Hamilton had qualified to practice in the Court of Chancery as well. Just as Hamilton joined the ranks of New York lawyers, the postwar legal tensions between Patriots and Loyalists intensified.
Hamilton threw himself into the political and legal thick of this battle. During and immediately after the Revolutionary War, New Yorkers were engaged in a bitter struggle to distinguish worthy insiders (Patriots) from traitorous outsiders (Loyalists). The stakes were high; wartime destruction of property, bloodshed, and the lengthy British occupation of New York City made reconciliation a hard sell among New Yorkers divided by their wartime loyalties.
Not only did Patriot New Yorkers liken British-sympathizers in their midst to an “impure nest of Vipers,” but the people of New York also backed legislative efforts to punish and exclude Loyalists by preventing them from enjoying the rights and liberties granted through law and citizenship.
Through a trio of particularly vituperative laws—the Citation, Trespass, and Confiscation Acts—the state denied Loyalists their right to collect debts owed to them as well as their procedural due process rights (including the right to appeal to higher courts, and to wage appropriate legal defenses in court). The state also attainted British sympathizers (thereby declaring them treasonous) and confiscated their property.
And so in New York, a revolution fought under the banner of expunging monarchical tyranny resulted in a new form of tyranny: the tyranny of the majority over a powerless, unpopular minority.
By this time—the mid-1780s—Hamilton, having achieved his own insider status, used this newly acquired position and profession to fight against the vindictive wrongs inflicted on Loyalists. The state of New York considered British-sympathizing men and women to be foreign usurpers—no matter that some of them considered themselves to be, in the wake of war, American citizens and no longer British subjects.
Hamilton used the tools of the common law to fight the harshness of New York’s trio of anti-Loyalist statutes. He pursued novel defense strategies in court, appealed to a higher law (the law of nature) over state statute, petitioned the legislature for mercy, exploited legal technicalities, and tried to reason with the people of New York. While publishing essays under the pseudonym Phocion, Hamilton implored New Yorkers to stop punishing Loyalists. He explained that Patriots were setting an insidious precedent through the state’s treatment of Loyalists by dismantling the rights of an unpopular minority.
And if this were allowed today, then what would stop the state from dismantling the rights of Patriots tomorrow?
Eventually, Hamilton’s legal defense of the New York Loyalists was successful. Through state court decisions and changes to New York state statutes (as well as the eventual ratification of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights), the property and procedural rights of all New Yorkers, no matter their wartime sympathies, were better secured. Almost a century later, the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution continued the work of protecting and preserving the rights of American citizens as well as any person (including non-citizens) in the United States.
Today, Hamilton’s experience defending Loyalists in New York should remind us of two different things. First, for centuries American “insiders” have cleverly and cruelly used law as a tool to exclude, punish, and justify their fears of “outsiders.” And, second, that the law can be used, as Hamilton employed it in his post-war practice, to protect even an unpopular few from a powerful majority.
Hamilton did not resolve the persistent tension at the heart of the American experiment in self-government: Should the popular will in our democracy trump the protections of transcendent law grounded in nature, due process, and constitutional principles? But he set an early precedent that defined the country. To be American is to keep up the fight for certain transcendent principles so that they will always prevail over the prejudices of any era.
Mapambano ya watu wa nje wa kitamaduni wa Marekani kuingizwa nchini - kwa kukabiliwa na kudharauliwa, kutengwa, au kuadhibiwa - ni ya zamani kama taifa. Alexander Hamilton, ambaye aliishi katika miaka ya 1770 na 1780, aliandika kitabu cha kwanza cha kitabu cha American Revolution. Kabla ya Hamilton kufikia apotheosis yake ya kisiasa katika baraza la mawaziri la George Washington, alihamia makoloni ya Amerika Kaskazini kutoka Nevis, kisiwa katika West Indies ya Uingereza. Kama Washingtoni na Thomas Jefferson, Hamilton alikuwa raia wa Uingereza, lakini alipowasili New Jersey mwaka wa 1772, hakupata utajiri, ukoo, hadhi ya watu mashuhuri, na mizizi ya Marekani. Kwa ufupi, alikuwa mgeni - "Bastard Bratt wa Scotch Pedlar", kama John Adams alivyomfafanua. Hatimaye, Hamilton angetumia mchanganyiko wa huduma katika Vita vya Uhuru, ndoa ya kimkakati katika familia ya zamani ya New York, na uhalali wa kitaaluma wa mazoezi ya sheria ya mafanikio ili kujifanya mwenyewe kuwa mwanachama wa kizazi kipya cha Wamarekani wa wasomi. Baada ya vita vya Yorktown, Hamilton alirudi Albany, New York, na kuanza kujitayarisha kwa ajili ya uandikishaji katika New York. Hamilton alikuwa na bidii ya kujifunza na baada ya miezi michache tu ya kujitayarisha, alikubaliwa kufanya kazi katika Mahakama Kuu ya New York mnamo Oktoba 1782. Mwaka 1783 Hamilton alipewa haki ya kufanya kazi katika Mahakama ya Chancery. Hamilton alipokuwa akijiunga na mawakili wa New York, migogoro ya kisheria ya baada ya vita kati ya Patriots na Loyalists iliongezeka. Hamilton alijitupa katika vita hivyo vya kisiasa na vya kisheria. Wakati wa Vita vya Uhuru na mara tu baada ya Vita vya Uhuru, watu wa New York walishindana vikali kutofautisha watu wa ndani wenye thamani (Wapatrioti) na watu wa nje wenye uhaini (Wamwaminifu). Uharibifu wa mali wakati wa vita, umwagaji damu, na uvamizi wa muda mrefu wa Uingereza wa New York City ulifanya upatanisho uwe vigumu kuuza kati ya New Yorkers waliogongwa na uaminifu wao wakati wa vita. "Si tu kwamba wapenzi wa Uingereza waliwafananisha watu wa New York na ""kiota cha nyoka,"" lakini pia watu wa New York waliunga mkono juhudi za kisheria za kuwaadhibu na kuwafukuza Waaminifu kwa kuwazuia kufurahia haki na uhuru waliopewa na sheria na uraia." Kupitia sheria tatu za vituperative hasa - Sheria za Utoaji, Uvunjaji, na Utekaji - serikali iliwanyima Waaminifu haki yao ya kukusanya madeni yanayostahili kwao pamoja na haki zao za utaratibu (ikiwa ni pamoja na haki ya kukata rufaa kwa mahakama za juu, na kulipa ulinzi sahihi wa kisheria mahakamani). Serikali pia iliwakamata watu waliopendezwa na Uingereza (kwa hiyo ikawaita waasi) na kutekwa mali zao. "Kwa hiyo, katika New York, mapinduzi yaliyofanywa chini ya bendera ya kuondoa udhalimu wa kifalme yalisababisha aina mpya ya udhalimu: udhalimu wa wengi juu ya wachache wasio na nguvu, wasio na upendeleo.""" Wakati huo, katikati ya miaka ya 1780, Hamilton, baada ya kupata hadhi yake mwenyewe ya ndani, alitumia nafasi hii mpya na taaluma yake kupambana na makosa ya kisasi yaliyowakabili Waaminifu. Jimbo la New York liliwaona wanaume na wanawake waliounga mkono Uingereza kuwa wakoloni wa kigeni - bila kujali kwamba baadhi yao walijiona kuwa, baada ya vita, raia wa Marekani na si raia wa Uingereza tena. Hamilton alitumia zana za sheria ya kawaida kupambana na ukali wa tatu wa New York wa sheria za kupambana na Loyalist. Alifuata mbinu mpya za ulinzi mahakamani, akitoa rufaa kwa sheria ya juu (sheria ya asili) juu ya sheria ya serikali, aliomba msamaha kwa bunge, alitumia mbinu za kisheria, na alijaribu kushawishi watu wa New York. Alipokuwa akichapisha insha chini ya jina bandia Phocion, Hamilton aliwasihi watu wa New York waache kuwaadhibu Waaminifu. Alieleza kuwa Patriots walikuwa kuweka mfano wa ujanja kupitia matibabu ya serikali ya Waaminifu kwa kuharibu haki za wachache wasiojulikana. Na ikiwa hii ingeidhinishwa leo, basi ni nini kingeizuia serikali kuharibu haki za Patriots kesho? Hatimaye, utetezi wa kisheria wa Hamilton wa Waaminifu wa New York ulifanikiwa. Kwa njia ya maamuzi ya mahakama za jimbo na mabadiliko ya sheria za jimbo la New York (kama vile kuridhia hatimaye Katiba ya Marekani na Sheria ya Haki), mali na haki za utaratibu za New Yorkers wote, bila kujali hisia zao za wakati wa vita, zilikuwa salama zaidi. Karibu karne moja baadaye, Marekebisho ya 14 ya Katiba ya Marekani iliendelea na kazi ya kulinda na kuhifadhi haki za raia wa Marekani na pia mtu yeyote (ikiwa ni pamoja na wasio raia) nchini Marekani. Leo, uzoefu wa Hamilton wa kutetea Waaminifu huko New York unapaswa kutukumbusha mambo mawili tofauti. Kwanza, kwa karne nyingi, watu wa ndani wa Marekani wametumia sheria kwa ujanja na ukatili kama chombo cha kuwatenga, kuwaadhibu, na kuhalalisha hofu zao kwa watu wa nje; na pili, kwamba sheria inaweza kutumiwa, kama vile Hamilton alivyotumia katika mazoezi yake ya baada ya vita, kulinda hata watu wachache wasiojulikana kutoka kwa wengi wenye nguvu. "Hamilton hakuweza kutatua tatizo la kuendelea la ""ujaribu wa Marekani wa kujitawala"" - je, mapenzi ya watu katika demokrasia yetu yanapaswa kushinda ulinzi wa sheria ya juu, iliyotegemea asili, utaratibu sahihi, na kanuni za kikatiba?" Lakini aliweka kielelezo cha mapema ambacho kilifafanua nchi. Kuwa Mmarekani ni kuendelea kupigania kanuni fulani za juu ili zishinde ubaguzi wa enzi yoyote.