Quotes from Ron Chernow

May 12, 1784, the state legislature passed a law depriving most Loyalists of the vote for the next two years.

I went home in great delight.

One biographer has gone so far as to say of Rockefeller, "He was the best employer of his time, instituting hospitalization and retirement pensions.

John labored tirelessly to win control of Pioneer Oil Works and, instead of snuffing it out, favored its discreet absorption by Standard Oil.

between 1789 and 1791, France basked in some sort of liberal pleasure garden before the erection of the guillotine is a complete fantasy.

It seems to me that as the cities grow larger the country in general becomes weaker.

Clearly, the U.S. government condoned something that, in modern phraseology, could be termed industrial espionage. Building upon this precedent, Hamilton put the full authority of the Treasury behind the piracy of British trade secrets.

Commodore Vanderbilt's death was a pivotal moment in the shift of business from family to public ownership—a transition rich in possibilities for Pierpont Morgan.

He could not immediately regain his balance.

Hamilton said, "A nation without a national government is, in my view, an awful spectacle. The establishment of a constitution in [a] time of profound peace by the voluntary consent of a whole people is a prodigy, to the completion of which I look forward with trembling anxiety.

Laura was sufficiently pleased with work that she felt in no special rush to get married.

But they knew they had dabbled in a dark and controversial practice, for the rebates were predicated on great secrecy

Great wealth is a great burden, a great responsibility.

Gates fixed Rockefeller with a steady, quizzical look.

Sensitive to her delicate psychological state, he sent her gently whimsical letters.

Jefferson recorded the story of Hamilton and Adams singing the praises of the British constitution; of Hamilton supposedly raising a toast to George III at a St. Andrew's Society dinner in New York; and of Hamilton declaring at a dinner party that "there was no stability, no security in any kind of government but a monarchy.

Regarding the uprising as a direct threat to constitutional order, Washington asked Supreme Court Justice James Wilson to declare a state of anarchy around Pittsburgh.

Exploiting this fear, Rockefeller worked out a clever bargain with the Erie Railroad

He was a fine boss if workers abided by his rules, but if they did something foolish, like show interest in a union, they promptly forfeited his sympathy.

For Lloyd, the essence of Standard Oil power resided in its secret alliances with the railroads, which had fostered the growth of many trusts.

In a question of veracity between U.S. Grant and Andrew Johnson, between a soldier whose honor is as untarnished as the sun, and a President who has betrayed every friend, and broken every promise, the country will not hesitate," wrote the New York Tribune.

Rockefeller's passion for golf was linked to his medical problems of the 1890s, which turned him into a fitness buff.

I had planned to write the great American novel, having the Standard Oil Company as a backbone!

In the end, nobody would do more than Alexander Hamilton to infuse life into this parchment and make it the working mandate of the American government.