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56 But we must not linger at the dinner table, however much the movements in polite and every-day life illustrate the character of an age. From Wall Street were emanating ideas that were to affect all coming generations. The heart of the infant Republic was maturing—the pulses of the great future were beginning to beat with regularity. The versatile and irresistible Hamilton was studying the science of practical statesmanship in his Wall Street home, and ripening for his work through patient attention to facts and a grand generalization of their subtle principles. He could endure, it is said, more unremitted and intense labor than any other man in the country. When the crisis came he was able to interpret essential needs by illustration, and with a boldness without precedent, an electricity of eloquence unsurpassed, and powers of argument evincing the most remarkable maturity of thought, he took his place in the foremost rank of artists in government-making. His influence in the Convention that framed the Constitution is familiarly known. When he returned home he found New York all askew—and he was accused of having perpetrated the worst mischiefs. Then came the educating process; he commenced writing the famous series of essays, entitled "The Federalist," which, published in the New York newspapers, were copied far and wide into nearly all the journals of America. Associated with him were Jay and Madison. These papers commanded wide attention, influencing opinion everywhere, and they were all written in Wall Street. Gen. Lamb was one of the most powerful leaders of the opposition, and the two parties kept New York agitated from center to circumference with abuse and acrimonious disputation. One morning Hamilton and Lamb, emerging from their homes in Wall Street at the same moment, held an animated discourse in the street, the one slight of figure, youthful, with fair face flushed with intelligent energy, the other a grave, robust, determined looking man, of nearly twice his years. Hamilton urged the absurdity of Lamb's fears concerning " the abuse of power," as Washington would certainly be the first President, but Lamb declared that not even a name so illustrious could shake his opposition to the dangerous Constitution.