Authored by Steve H. Hanke of the Johns Hopkins University. Follow him on Twitter @Steve_Hanke.
At about the same time I posted “Hamilton’s Good for the Ten-Spot,” Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced that Alexander Hamilton’s image would be retained on the ten dollar bill. Even though the Secretary spent a good deal of time yesterday denying that the Broadway production Hamilton played much of a role in his decision, he was not too convincing. In fact, Broadway’s soft power saved Hamilton.
Another Zero Hedge post, “Treasury Removes Jackson from the $20 Bill, Will Replace Him with Harriet Tubman,” appeared at the same time as mine. It painted a negative portait of Hamilton. What the post did not say, is that in addition to being the first and most distinguished U.S. Treasury Secretary and a renowned journalist, Hamilton also excelled as a lawyer and defender of property rights.
Hamilton took on many famous cases out of principle. After the Revolutionary War, the state of New York enacted harsh measures against Loyalists and British subjects. These included the Confiscation Act (1779), the Citation Act (1782), and the Trespass Act (1783). All involved the taking of property. In Hamilton’s view, these acts illustrated the inherent difference between democracy and the law. Even though the acts were widely popular, they flouted fundamental principles of property law. Hamilton carried his views into action and successfully defended — in the face of enormous public hostility — those who had property taken under the three New York state statutes.
Hamilton’s influence on creating a respected national judiciary and shaping American jurisprudence was significant and widely recognized during his lifetime. For example, the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court John Marshall was known to have said that he was a mere schoolboy next to Hamilton. Indeed, in three of Marshall’s landmark decisions –Marbury v. Madison (1803), Fletcher v. Peck (1810), and McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) – he turned to Hamilton’s legal writings for guidance.
For lovers of liberty, property rights are front and center. They were for Hamilton.
via http://ift.tt/1Tlmgzg Steve H. Hanke