My last two posts were short lists about interesting Founding Fathers and the Adams Family, so here's a continuation of that theme with more early Americans and some Hamiltons:
Pierce Butler (1744-1822) - Irish-born son of an English aristocrat who served in the British army and retired to South Carolina in 1773 before becoming an adjutant general in the Revolution. He was one of the most pro-slavery delegates of the Constitutional Convention, strongly supporting the fugitive slave clause and the three-fifths compromise. Originally a originally a Federalist, he switched to the Democratic-Republicans in 1795, then became an independent in 1804. He was a friend of Aaron Burr and hosted him after his duel with Hamilton, something that contributed to Butler's demise in national politics. His contemporaries called him an enigma for his contradictory political views. Despite being a slaveowner and literal aristocrat, he supported the "common man" and sided with the poor South Carolina upstate against the planter class. He supported most of Hamilton's economic policies, but opposed other parts, like the protective tariff, and was apparently pro-France (he was against the Jay Treaty). The best summary that I've read about him is that he believed that a strong central government was necessary to build the economy and garner respect among foreign nations, but above all else it must respect the rights and interests of the average (white) citizen. In a TL where he manages to stick with a single faction or where early American politics are less partisan, these beliefs could make him an interesting player.
Noah Webster (1758-1843) - Someone I used for my TL; he's most famous for his dictionary, but he was also politically active. A former schoolteacher, Webster first gained fame for his educational materials in the 1780s, which somehow landed him a friendship with Benjamin Franklin and correspondence with other important people like George Washington. He credited a paper he wrote in 1785 on the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation with inspiring the Constitutional Convention and his articles supporting the document as being just as influential as the Federalist Papers in its ratification, but he was also infamously egotistical, so this is likely an exaggeration. He received a loan from Alexander Hamilton to run a pro-Federalist newspaper in the 1790s, and in the early 1800s he moved back to his native Connecticut and served a few terms in the state legislature before retiring to private/scholarly life, where he eventually wrote Webster's Dictionary. But what if he had decided to stay in politics? He seemed to be an early Henry Clay in terms of policies (combining Hamiltonian economic policies with Jeffersonian social equality), but become more conservative and elitist with age (to the point that he opined that the voting age should be increased to forty-five).
John Randolph of Roanoke (1773-1833) - A Virginian aristocrat and descendant of Pocahontas who, as a member of the House of Representatives, denounced, of all people, his cousin
Thomas Jefferson as a big-government shill and abandoned the Democratic-Republicans to label himself as a "Tertium Quid." Thus, he went from being a powerful Republican and chairman of the Ways and Means committee to a practical political pariah, but he still managed to stay in office for decades, even serving briefly in the Senate. He essentially comes off as a paleoconservative - opposed to virtually any action by the federal government, anti-war, and not particularly keen on the whole Jeffersonian/Jacksonian Democracy thing (in his own words, "I am an aristocrat. I love liberty, I hate equality"). He also continued the proud Virginian tradition of being anti-slavery in the loosest possible sense of the term. Despite owning hundreds of slaves, he opposed the slave trade and was against continuing the institution westwards, and he manumission his slaves in his will, with those over the age of forty given ten acres of land in Ohio. Additionally, he was an early member of the American Colonization Society, which founded Liberia, though he was more motivated by the fear of free blacks setting a "bad example" for slaves than actual concern for their well-being. This alone makes him interesting, but his eccentricities go beyond this and make him
fun. Despite having Klinefelter syndrome (which essentially made him look like a prepubescent boy his entire life, with no beard and a high-pitched voice) and being a heavy drinker and opium user, he was a great orator and socializer known for his energy, eloquence, and wit. He often kept his hunting dogs with him, and Henry Clay had to force him to remove them from the house floor. He was very bellicose and fought a duel with Clay and bet another member of the House with his cane over a personal dispute. He was a lifelong bachelor - this was likely because his medical condition made him impotent, but at least one historian believed he had a crush on Andrew Jackson. Finally, while most of these people's paths to the presidency are purely speculative, Randolph was apparently urged to run in 1824. Can you imagine
this guy as an alternate to Andrew Jackson as president?
James Alexander Hamilton (1788-1878) - Alexander Hamilton had lots of children and descendants, many of whom had careers in law, military, and politics, but none of them had any particular claim to fame besides their heritage. Hamilton's son James is little different, but while most of the family were Whigs and Republicans, keeping with the family tradition, he was a Democrat who held minor posts in the Jackson Administration and vigorously opposed his father's national bank. It would make for some fun irony if he either replaced Van Buren as Jackson's successor or remained active enough in Democratic politics to make a run for president later on. I'm not sure where he stood on the Barnburner vs. Hunker debate, so he either could become a champion of the anti-slavery faction of the Democratic Party or a stain on the Hamilton family reputation as a doughface (a term, funnily enough, coined by John Randolph to refer to Northerners who supported the Missouri Compromise) a la Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan.
Pierpont Morgan Hamilton (1898-1982) and
Alexander Morgan Hamilton (1903-1970) - Two brothers, descendants of Alexander Hamilton and grandsons of J.P. Morgan,on their mother's side. With that heritage, they seem destined to become champions of American capitalism. IOTL, they were not particularly significant besides their ancestry, but that could be changed. Pierpont had a distinguished career in the military, serving in both world wars, becoming a major general in the air force, and spent many of his inter- and postwar years in business. Alexander ran for the New York Senate in 1930, but lost. He later served some in some posts in city government, in which he was known for taking a one-dollar salary, before resigning over disagreements with Mayor La Guardia.
