Hamilton was hoping to make a name for himself in New York, one of the most conservative colonies…Viewed from that perspective, it was bold of Hamilton to write [A Full Vindication of the Measures of the Congress and A Farmer Refuted]. And considering that he had not yet completed college, Hamilton’s achievement was little short of amazing.
Moreover, while his constitutional arguments offered nothing new, he had served up something novel in the literature of the American insurgency. He may have been the first in print to maintain that Britain could not win a war with the colonists. Hamilton not only predicted that France and Spain would assist America, but he also envisioned that by using Fabian tactics America could prevent a British victory. The colonists could “evade a pitched battle” and instead “harass and exhaust the [British] soldiery” until the enemy’s rate of attrition finally led it to make peace.
From Jefferson and Hamilton by John Ferling
