2017 by the University Press of Kansas
All rights reserved
Published by the University Press of Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas 66045), which was organized by the Kansas Board of Regents and is operated and funded by Emporia State University, Fort Hays State University, Kansas State University, Pittsburg State University, the University of Kansas, and Wichita State University
Portions of Chapter 6 were originally published as Rethinking People v. Croswell: Alexander Hamilton and the Nature and Scope of Common Law in the Early Republic in the journal Law and History Review 32:3 (August 2014), and are reprinted with the permission of Cambridge University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Brown, Kate Elizabeth (Katherine Elizabeth) Title: Alexander Hamilton and the development of American law / Kate Elizabeth Brown.
Description: Lawrence, Kansas : University Press of Kansas, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017020132
ISBN 9780700624805 (hardback)
ISBN 9780700624812 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Hamilton, Alexander, 17571804. | Constitutional lawUnited StatesHistory. | BISAC: HISTORY / United States / Revolutionary Period (17751800). | LAW / Constitutional. | LAW / Corporate.
Classification: LCC KF363.H3 B76 2017 | DDC 342.7302/9dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017020132.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication is recycled and contains 30 percent postconsumer waste. It is acid free and meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials z39.48-1992.
There are so many whom I would like to gratefully acknowledge and thank for their help and support, including the following people, institutions, and four-legged creatures:
The University of Virginia has an excellent history department and law school, with professors who are tremendous advocates, teachers, and mentors for their graduate students. Thank you to Charles McCurdy, Paul Halliday, Max Edelson, and Risa Goluboff for giving me invaluable feedback on earlier versions of my manuscript. Mr. McCurdy (Chuck), the Chief, you are a truly outstanding mentor and teacher, and I am so honored to have been your (final!) PhD student. Thank you for being patient with me over my five years in graduate school, and for developing me into a scholar. I appreciate all of your guidance and advice as you helped me turn my high-school fascination for Alexander Hamilton into this, my first book, about Hamiltons impact on American law. Thank you also for writing all of those letters of recommendation for me, for sharing your extensive library with me, for continuing to be a friend and mentor to me in your retirement, and for twice letting me bring my Hamilton to your home when we graded all those final exams on the last night of the semester.
A very special thanks to Doug Bradburn, the founding director of the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon. Doug, thank you for being a champion of me and my work, as well as a mentor to me as I transitioned from graduate student to early-career scholar. Also, many thanks to Mary Jongema, Neal Millikan (co-champion, with me, in Boy Band Trivia), Anna Millikan, Lucy Smith, Sarah Myers, Lindsay Chervinsky, Dana Stefanelli, Bruce Ragsdale, Brendan Gillis (my office mate), Holly Mayer, Tim Walker, Michael Blaakman, Stephen McLeod, Michael Kane, the Mount Vernon Ladies Association, and the library staff at the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon. It was such an honor to be a fellow at the library, and to be immersed not only in George Washingtons world but also in the intellectual world of the Revolutionary War and early republic scholarship fostered by Doug and the library.
I would also like to thank the New-York Historical Society, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the David Library of the American Revolution, and the Institute for Humane Studies. I am grateful to Elizabeth Dale and the Law and History Review for publishing parts of previously appeared on the Washingtons Quill blog published by the Papers of George Washington Project.
I owe a very special thank you to the history department at Huntington University as well. Jeff Webb, Tim Smith, and Dwight Brautigamyou are truly excellent colleagues, and I am grateful to know you and to work with you. Thank you for all of your support in my first few semesters at HU.
Also, thank you to Max Edling, Peter Kastor, Maeva Marcus, Patti Minter, John Moore, Cynthia Nicoletti, Peter Onuf, Gautham Rao, Sophie Rosenfeld, Vicky Woeste, and Olivier Zunz, as well as to the editors at the Papers of George Washington Project. I am grateful to Bill Ferraro, Tom Dulan, Ben Huggins, David Hoth, and Ed Lengel for all of the advice and experience I gained while working in the RevWar office. I miss being a part of your team and working on RevWar volumes and .
I am grateful to Erik Seeman, Fred Konefsky, and to the late Richard E. Ellis who advised me at the University of Buffalo. Also, thank you to my former history teacher, David Ulrich, who inspired me to learn more about Alexander Hamilton during his truly awesome AP American history class. I am very grateful to Chuck Myers, Joyce Harrison, Larisa Martin, Mike Kehoe, Karen Hellekson, Stephen Knott, and Michael Federici, and to the staff at the University Press of Kansas for their wisdom and excellent guidance as I turned my manuscript into a monograph. I also thank Jim Westwood, a superb appellate lawyer from Oregon who graciously offered to be my consultant on modern law. This book is better and clearer because of you, and I truly appreciate your help.
To my amazing friends and family, thank you so very much! To my parents, Mike and Sue Brown, thank you for your love, selfless help, and support over the years. Thank you for visiting me all over the East Coast, and for always babysitting Hamilton (and for watching him closely so that he didnt fall into the pool). Mom, I hope this book makes it off of your unfinished bookshelf!
I am also very grateful to Mike Miranda (who, among many other things, took loving and special care of all of the feline members of the Buffalo and Charlottesville chapters of the IBPC), Lee B. Wilson (the other half of the Dynamic Duo), Kristen Lashua (my very excellent friend, confidante, and fellow scholar), Andrew Lashua, Mike and RaeAnne Caires, Ben Brady, Emily Senefeld, Ben Davidson, Jim Ambuske and Jim Hrdlicka (aka The Jimz), Asaf Almog, Erik Erlandson, and David Grant Smith.
