organization could not be found in anything less than the whole American democracy.  The American Union was a novel and a promising political creation, not because it was a democracy, for there had been plenty of previous democracies, and not because it was a nation, for there had been plenty of previous nations, but precisely and entirely because it was a democratic nation,—­a nation committed by its institutions and aspirations to realize the democratic idea.

Much, consequently, as we may value Hamilton’s work and for the most part his ideas, it must be admitted that the popular disfavor with which he came to be regarded had its measure of justice.  This disfavor was indeed partly the result of his resolute adherence to a wise but an unpopular foreign policy; and the way in which this policy was carried through by Washington, Hamilton, and their followers, in spite of the general dislike which it inspired, deserves the warmest praise.  But Hamilton’s unpopularity was fundamentally due to deeper causes.  He and his fellow-Federalists did not understand their fellow-countrymen and sympathize with their purposes, and naturally they were repaid with misunderstanding and suspicion.  He ceased, after Washington’s retirement, to be a national leader, and became the leader of a faction; and before his death his party ceased to be the national party, and came to represent only a section and a class.  In this way it irretrievably lost public support, and not even the miserable failure of Jefferson’s policy of embargo could persuade the American people to restore the Federalists to power.  As a party organization they disappeared entirely after the second English war, and unfortunately much that was good in Hamilton’s political point of view disappeared with the bad.  But by its failure one good result was finally established.  For better or worse the United States had become a democracy as well as a nation, and its national task was not that of escaping the dangers of democracy, but of realizing its responsibilities and opportunities.

It did not take Hamilton’s opponents long to discover that his ideas and plans were in some respects inimical to democracy; and the consequence was that Hamilton was soon confronted by one of the most implacable and unscrupulous oppositions which ever abused a faithful and useful public servant.  This opposition was led by Jefferson, and while it most unfortunately lacked Hamilton’s statesmanship and sound constructive ideas, it possessed the one saving quality which Hamilton himself lacked:  Jefferson was filled with a sincere, indiscriminate, and unlimited faith in the American people.  He was according to his own lights a radical and unqualified democrat, and as a democrat he fought most bitterly what he considered to be the aristocratic or even monarchic tendency of Hamilton’s policy.  Much of the denunciation which he and his followers lavished upon Hamilton was unjust, and much of the fight which they put up against his measures