#1534 Alexander Hamilton and the U.S. Constitution

Listening to America

Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2023

⏱️ 63 minutes

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Summary

A conversation with retired Lt. Colonel Hal Bidlack, a former political science professor who is one of the nation's top Alexander Hamilton impersonators. Our focus this week is Hamilton's role in the constitutional convention of 1787. Did he really give a six hour speech in which he called for the president to serve for life, senators for life, and governors to be appointed by the national executive? Did Hamilton call the constitution a shilly shally thing, a thing of milk and water? If so, why did he write some of the most brilliant installments of the famous Federalist Papers, which as much as anything else convinced the skeptical American people to ratify the new constitution? And how exactly did Hamilton and Jefferson come to blows over the interpretation of the Constitution?

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Thomas Jefferson is interpreted and portrayed by Clay S. Jenkinson.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome, everyone, to the podcast introduction to the Thomas Jefferson hour.
0:03.3	How midlife is with me? I interviewed him today, not in character as general Alexander Hamilton,
0:09.4	but as a humanities scholar and former political science professor at the US Air Force Academy
0:16.0	and a retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force. And how also ran for Congress
0:21.8	in the state of Colorado. How, how close did you come? Oh, I was within a few hundred thousand notes.
0:27.7	I ran in one of the most Republican districts in the Congress knowing all along.
0:35.1	But I felt it was important, you know, if you're going to shout things to the rooftops,
0:39.1	you ought to try to get something done. So I chose to make my effort leap into the breach.
0:42.7	Well, why not? So I want to talk with you about a couple of things. First of all,
0:48.2	you were in Colorado when the shooting at the the gay nightclub occurred. Give us a little
0:54.2	perspective on that. Well, Colorado Springs is a very interesting community. And part of that,
1:00.1	it's a deep red community, but it's an interesting way in which it is deep red. Because decades ago,
1:08.2	the then city fathers looking for ways to increase population and industry and jobs and grow as a
1:14.9	community actively sought out trying to get some of the, pardon me, trying to get some of the
1:22.0	religious organizations to move their quarters here, like folks on the family famously moved here.
1:26.5	I believe from call, from Call of, call it, folks on the family moved here from California.
1:32.4	And so what ended up happening was this really putting on my public site professor had this
1:37.5	really interesting struggle within the Republican Party, where he had the libertarian Republicans
1:43.0	and the fundamentalist Republicans. And they don't agree on a lot. And the religious Republicans
1:49.3	had taken over a lot of government, but the libertarians are still there like our mayor,
1:54.4	John Sothers, is the Republican I actually voted for. Because he is the best we're going to get in
2:00.3	my view for here. And if you listen to him and the district attorney talking about the club
	...

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