Alexander Hamilton\u27s American empire: The intellectual foundations of federalist foreign policy

Alexander Hamilton\u27s American empire was a flexible and contradictory one that was based on economic stability, military power, social order, and the rule of law. These concepts established the intellectual foundations of federalist foreign policy and were determined by Hamilton\u27s studies, experiences, and comprehension of American power. Economic stability would be ensured with the implementation of his reports on the public credit, the bank, and manufacturing. These innovations would pay off the nation\u27s foreign debt, assume the states\u27 debts, and industrialize the U.S. economy. Hamilton believed that the creation of a professional military establishment was a necessary requirement for national security. He had visions of a professional army capable of defending the western frontier against Indian raids and confronting the British, French, and Spanish in North America. His navy would be limited in its operation to the Western Hemisphere and protecting shipping lanes, commercial vessels, and harbors against encroachment by European powers. At the local level, social order would be maintained through free associations such as the New York Manumission Society and the Society of the Cincinnati. At the national level, a powerful central government would protect property, facilitate trade, and project power. The rule of law would serve as the conduit through which economic regulations, military orders, and domestic ordinances would be administered. Hamilton had seen the implications of diplomatic agreements and the problems that they posed when they conflicted with state laws. His commitment to the rule of law was conditional if the issues involved conflicted with his sense of morality or the nation\u27s interests. This dissertation begins with Hamilton\u27s birth in the West Indies and ends in 1791 after the Nootka Sound crisis in the Pacific Northwest. It identifies how Hamilton\u27s ideas of economic stability, military power, social order, and the rule of law fit within his own concept of an American empire. This dissertation offers a new analysis of the limitations and successes of Hamilton\u27s thinking and how they fit within his own imperial perspective