The sincere and intelligent combination of those two ideas is bound to
issue in the Hamiltonian practice of constructive national legislation.
Of course Theodore Roosevelt is Hamiltonian with a difference.
Hamilton's fatal error consisted in his attempt to make the Federal
organization not merely the effective engine of the national interest,
but also a bulwark against the rising tide of democracy. The new
Federalism or rather new Nationalism is not in any way inimical to
democracy. On the contrary, not only does Mr. Roosevelt believe himself
to be an unimpeachable democrat in theory, but he has given his
fellow-countrymen a useful example of the way in which a college-bred
and a well-to-do man can become by somewhat forcible means a good
practical democrat. The whole tendency of his programme is to give a
democratic meaning and purpose to the Hamiltonian tradition and method.
He proposes to use the power and the resources of the Federal government
for the purpose of making his countrymen a more complete democracy in
organization and practice; but he does not make these proposals, as Mr.
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