Congress on December 5, 1791. Upon his recommendation Congress established
the mint, the only point which excited controversy being Hamilton's
proposal that the coins should be stamped with the head of the President
in whose administration they were issued. This suggestion was rejected on
the ground that it smacked too much of the practice of monarchies. The
queer totemistic designs of American coinage are a consequence of this
decision.

The formation of national government by voluntary agreement is a unique
event. The explanation of this peculiar result in the case of America is
the unifying influence of Hamilton's measures. They interested in the
support of the government economic forces strong enough to counteract the
separatist tendencies that had always before broken up states unless
they were held together by sheer might of power in their rulers. The
means employed have been cited as evidence in support of the economic
interpretation of history now in fashion. Government, it is true, like
every other form of life, must meet the fundamental needs of subsistence
and defense, but this truism supplies no explanation of the particular
mode of doing so that may be adopted. Those needs account for motion but
not for direction. Human will, discernment, and purpose enter and
complicate the situation in a way that makes theories of determinism
appear absurd. No one has ever contended that Hamilton was prompted by an
economic motive in giving up his law practice to accept public office. He
did so against the remonstrances of his friends, whose predictions that
what he would get out of it for himself would be calumny, persecution, and
loss of fortune, were all fully verified; but he possessed a nature which
found its happiness in bringing high ideals to grand fulfillment, and in
applying his powers to that object he let everything else go. Hamilton's
career is one of the greatest of those facts that baffle attempts to
reduce history to an exhibition of the play of economic forces.