Hamilton, Adams and the Pursuit of Power

Extract

Jefferson made the pursuit of happiness central to his philosophy of man and society and in so doing he envisaged a dynamic balance between power and morals. This is aptly summed up by Madison, after the death of his best friend, when he was besieged with requests for “inside” information about Jefferson. On one such occasion, he called attention to the fertility of Jefferson's genius, the vast extent and variety of his acquirements, and “the philosophic impress left on every subject which he touched.” But he sensed that he had omitted the essence of that life of spirit and morality which had characterized his dear friend, and so he hastened to add: “Nor was he less distinguished from an early and uniform devotion to the cause of liberty, and systematic preference of a form of Government squared in the strictest degree to the equal rights of man.”