A letter [“Hillary’s Disaster Record”] in the April 30 edition of the Mountain Xpress supporting Mr. Obama referred to his family tree, [naming several] U.S. presidents including “Hamilton—who authored our Constitution.” Such a lack of knowledge of American history surprises me from “a retired, progressive female.”
Alexander Hamilton was never president of the United States. Indeed, many have theorized that Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution, which requires the president to be a “natural born citizen,” was aimed at Mr. Hamilton—as he was born in the British West Indies. As to his reputed authorship of the Constitution, that claim usually is reserved for James Madison of Virginia, who was our fourth president. Hamilton did contribute to the Federalist Papers, which were a series of propaganda tracts urging ratification of the Constitution.
When one writes a polemic bashing one candidate and supporting another, it really helps to get your facts correct. Otherwise, both you and your favored candidate look like fools.
— John Richardson
Waynesville
Editor’s note: In preparing the letter in question for publication, Xpress missed this factual error. We do not knowingly publish erroneous information.
John Richardson is correct. According to an MSNBC blurb on research by the Washington Genealogical Society, Madison, not Hamilton, was named as one of the six presidents related to Obama.
Actually, Obama and most of us are related to ALL the presidents. In my books ‘Genealogy Via the Internet’ and ‘Bush/Kerry and All Their Other Cousins’ I show how George Bush is related to EVERY president, not just his father. Just as soon as it’s sure WHICH Democrat gets the nomination, I’ll release a book showing McCain and probably Obama are cousins.
Genealogy — especially the full genealogy that I advocate in my books — is a ton of fun!
Full FRONTAL Genealogy?
sometimes that is necessary for ancestors to have descendants …
but, no, full genealogy is looking at all the collateral lines you have (your cousins) instead of just the people you are descended directly from … for example, George Washington is my first cousin eight times removed (a collateral relationship but just as valid as any other). It makes the study of genealogy even more fascinating.