America began as a republic and had made a long step toward a democracy. The United States, had not carried out all the terms of the Treaty of Peace, notably the one which had pledged the national faith to offer every facility in the American courts for the collection of bona-fide pre-war debts owing to English merchants by Americans. American thinkers had nourished their minds on the great Englishmen, Sidney, Locke, Hobbes, and others. In European thought, colonies had always occupied a position inferior to the mother country, and were supposed to be ruled and exploited for her own benefit. If America was to be happiest as a great industrial nation, Alexander Hamilton’s policies were wise and essential. The forces which have made the industrial United States of to-day stem directly from the Hamiltonian principles.