The Pursuit of Happiness (Part One)

 (Editor’s note: This is the first segment in a three part series.)

The Declaration of Independence is perhaps the one document which best identifies the American spirit among the nation’s of the world and is consequently what makes us unique.  The 1776 writing has been aptly described as “an expression of the American mind,” as painted by its author, Thomas Jefferson.

In pertinent part it states that among the “certain and inalienable rights” which all men possess are “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  Interestingly, however, the word “happiness” is without definition.  Neither are the words “property,” the ownership thereof, or “bank” anywhere mentioned.  Nor is a particular economic system contemplated either here or in the US Constitution that was subsequently enacted in 1789.  What, then, is the pursuit of happiness?

The answer to that question in the annals of American History begins with the figure of Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury serving under then-President George Washington.  Importantly, like Franklin before him, Hamilton was also a superb student of human nature, even going so far as to elevate its status to that of its own “science.”  Hamilton approached and studied history to determine the nature of the laws which controlled human affairs, seeking to extract a moral and thereby useful lesson, to chart the course of human events.  His later efforts earned him his deserving place on the $10 bill.

Hamilton saw the “pursuit of happiness” in the form of the physical greatness of the state as being above the happiness of its citizens.  To the extent that the two were at odds, Hamilton would choose the former, since

there was no hope of combining order with liberty until the people were prevented from giving free reign to their passions.  The people sober might be trusted, but when they became drunk --- and history proved that they went on such binges with distressing frequency --- they behaved like tyrants.  It was the peculiar merit of the Federal (US) Constitution … that under its benign auspices the people, even when they lost possession of their faculties, were constrained from running amuck.

His highly controversial financial plan was set forth on the successful British model of capitalism.  It specified, among other things, the creation of a central banking system under one supreme National Bank.  This bank was to be in corporation form, chartered under the authority of the new federal government of the US (today seen in the form of the Federal Reserve, headed by Benjamin Bernanke).

Good thing Hamilton was armed with a keen understanding regarding certain predictable patterns of human nature which did not change over time.  In this instance, knowledge was power.  Hamilton well knew that the plan alone, sound as it may have been, was insufficient to guarantee its passage in the republic with the new constitution.  Something more was needed, some human incentive.

And so Hamilton used the forces of human nature, in their uninterrupted forms both good and bad as they were observed to exist, to successfully implement and solidify his economic plan.  Noting perhaps the greatest human vice to be greed, he surmised that if this passion could be harnessed in service to the state, “the nation was on its way to power, opulence and greatness.”  So he incentivized the speculative interest, prevalent on the dark side of human nature and especially among the moneyed class, to provide the support vital to its success.

(The second segment in this three part series will further explore Hamilton’s controversial methods for implementing the system, as well as the basis of firm opposition, which began with Jefferson.  What did the author of the Declaration of Independence consider to be the pursuit of happiness?)

-Michael D'Angelo