If you seek Hamilton's monument, look around. You are living in it. We honor Jefferson, but live in Hamilton's country, a mighty industrial nation with a strong central government.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the lasting impact of Alexander Hamilton's contributions to the United States as reflected in its current industrial and governmental structure.
George Will's quote suggests that rather than searching for a physical monument to Alexander Hamilton, one should recognize that the effects of his policies and vision are embodied in the modern United States. Hamilton's establishment of a strong central government and economic foundation are credited with shaping the country into a powerful industrial nation, contrasting with the more celebrated legacy of Thomas Jefferson.
In practice
In a discussion about the founding fathers' influences on modern America, this quote can emphasize Hamilton's vital role.
The problem with intelligent-design theory, is not that it is false but that it is not falsifiable. Not being susceptible to contradicting evidence, it is not a testable hypothesis. Hence it is not a scientific but a creedal tenet - a matter of faith, unsuited to a public school's science curriculum.
The cultivation - even celebration - of victimhood by intellectuals, tort lawyers, politicians and the media is both cause and effect of today's culture of complaint.
Correct thinkers think that 'baseball trivia' is an oxymoron: nothing about baseball is trivial.
Constitutional arguments that seem as dry as dust can have momentous consequences.
The civil forfeiture law - if something so devoid of due process can be dignified as law - is an incentive for perverse behavior: Predatory government agencies get to pocket the proceeds from property they seize from Americans without even charging them with, let alone convicting them of, crimes. Criminals are treated better than this because they lose the fruits of their criminality only after being convicted.
Actually, there is only one first question of government, and it is How should we live? or What kind of people do we want our citizens to be?
Women enjoyed rights in Egypt they would not again enjoy for more than 2,000 years. They owned ships, ran vineyards, filed lawsuits, practiced medicine. Their husbands supported them after divorce. Their power was unprecedented.
In short, Europe’s colonization of Africa had nothing to do with differences between European and African peoples themselves, as white racists assume. Rather, it was due to accidents of geography and biogeography—in particular, to the continents’ different areas, axes, and suites of wild plant and animal species. That is, the different historical trajectories of Africa and Europe stem ultimately from differences in real estate.
An historian should yield himself to his subject, become immersed in the place and period of his choice, standing apart from it now and then for a fresh view.
Today's headlines and history's judgment are rarely the same.
The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations.
If you read about millions of people doing this and millions of people doing that, history seems remote and inaccessible.
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