342 Quotes by Ron Chernow

If Jefferson provided the essential poetry of American political discourse, Hamilton established the prose of American statecraft.

On September 9 the tour touched its nadir in St. Louis when Johnson, in another intemperate outburst, had the gall to blame Congress for the New Orleans riot: “Every drop of blood that was shed is upon their skirts, and they are responsible for it.”67 Turning himself into a martyr, he proclaimed, “I have been traduced. I have been slandered. I have been maligned.

The prolific Hamilton was now writing pseudonymous commentaries on his own pseudonymous essays.

Johnson had unleashed the political equivalent of an act of war against Congress. Retaliating against the president’s violation of the Tenure of Office Act, the House introduced a resolution to impeach Andrew Johnson for high crimes and misdemeanors. Three days later, the resolution passed by an overwhelming 126 to 47.

The president of a democracy, he averred, had to show himself to the people, and some danger was an inescapable hazard of office. “To be absolutely safe,” he told John Nicolay resignedly, “I should lock myself up in a box.

Like most people, Hamilton and Adams were preternaturally sensitive to flaws in the other that they themselves possessed.

One of the very nice things about investing in the stock market is that you learn about all different aspects of the economy. It’s your window into a very large world.

I’m a biographer; I can live with a little hyperbole.

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”49.