Quotes from Ron Chernow

Yet Junius never saw how much his own unbending style and unrealistically high standards had contributed to Pierpont's slavish dedication to work.

He laughed a great deal and enjoyed the speculation he caused.

the overriding reason for his attachment to Cleveland: It was the hub of so many transportation networks that he had tremendous room to maneuver in freight negotiations.

I always find that I have to guard myself because of a fear that I will sound soft and foolish

Rockefeller's papers reveal that he and Standard Oil entered willingly into a staggering amount of corruption.

wanted England to heed the peace treaty and relinquish its western forts in the Ohio River valley. The one place where Hamilton deviated from official policy was in applauding Britain's refusal to hand over slaves who had defected during the Revolution. "To have given up these men to their masters, after the assurances of protection held out to them, was impossible," Hamilton told Beckwith.

Rockefeller never lost his ingrained sense of thrift.

The low point of his presidency came in June and July 1798. While Adams wrestled with Hamilton over the ranking of Washington's major generals, Congress enacted four infamous laws designed to muzzle dissent and browbeat the Republicans into submission. They were known as the Alien and Sedition Acts. The Naturalization Act, passed on June 18, lengthened from five to fourteen years the period necessary to become a naturalized citizen with full voting rights.

Hamilton then picked up a slim volume on the table and turned it over in his hands. "Ah, this is the constitution," he said. "Now, mark my words. So long as we are a young and virtuous people, this instrument will bind us together in mutual interests, mutual welfare, and mutual happiness. But when we become old and corrupt, it will bind us no longer.

control the flow of gold into and out of the United States.

If she suspected wrongdoing, she kept it to herself to spare the children.

Lamont laughed at the offer. "But

He did not boast. I have never heard him boast.

Throughout his career, Hamilton was outspoken to a fault, while Burr was a man of ingrained secrecy. He gloried in his sphinxlike reputation and once described himself thus in the third person: "He is a grave, silent, strange sort of animal, inasmuch that we know not what to make of him.

She enjoyed direct contact with the immigrant families and took special delight in dressing up dolls for their children.

He will willingly fill the more menial positions, and do the heavy work, at less wages, than the American white man

He didn't enjoy responsibility and never learned to cope with it.

During the summer months, he could send oil by water, greatly enhancing his bargaining power with the railroads.

he'd deny it like hell if he ever heard me say it to anyone.

Those who refuse will be crushed.

Whenever he was about to commit some particularly heinous act, he first found a character flaw in the victim then proceeded with a serene conscience.

The Federalist-controlled Congress was maneuvering for partisan advantage and betraying an unbecoming nativist streak. Federalists wanted to curb an influx of Irish immigrants, who were usually pro-French and thus natural adherents to the Republican cause.

Perhaps never in financial history has anybody else amassed so much power so reluctantly.

you'll find plenty to keep you busy, just do whatever you see before you that needs to be done.