Arch-enemies Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson will battle for the right to be called "master debater," thanks to a bold trio of students from Hamilton College who have successfully goaded debaters from the University of Virginia to face off in the Hamilton-Jefferson Public Speaking Competition. The debate, initiated by seniors Michael Blasie, Scott Iseman and Joshua Agins, will take place on Saturday, April 14, at the University of Virginia's campus in Charlottesville.
"Hamilton was a founding trustee of Hamilton College and Jefferson founded UVA, hence, the debaters of UVA seem to be the perfect rivals," says Blasie, who, with Iseman and Agins started a "goading campaign" over the winter.
All three Hamilton debaters are members of Hamilton's mock trial team, which placed fourth in the American Mock Trial Association National Tournament in March in Waukegan, Ill.
"We developed a, shall we call it, 'attention grabbing' letter of challenge and sent it to UVA," says Blasie. "They e-mailed us back, accepted the challenge, and seem to have gotten a real kick out of our letter... Our one fear is that, following their namesake's tradition, the societies will cower in fear at the thought of public speaking or will shy away from conflict and flee to France to seek refuge. If such a scenario occurs, rest assured that we are fully prepared to continue with the competition and move its venue to outside their President's office," Blasie warns.
The Hamilton students will leave for Charlottesville, Va., on Thursday, April 12, for what Blasie calls "this unprecedented, zero-sum game clash of epic proportions." The debate will take place on Saturday, April 14, at 5 p.m. in Clark, room 108, at UVA. "Our elite team will, in the spirit of our namesake, wield our rhetorical prowess by each presenting speeches praising Hamilton and condemning Jefferson on whatever grounds we see fit," Blasie explains.
That the Hamilton debaters are self-assured might be an understatement, as they have ceded not only the "home field advantage" but also permitted UVA to select the judges. "So confident are we that beyond this home field advantage and their ability to accumulate over 13,000 undergraduate supporters and an additional 6,000 graduate students, that we will allow them to choose five esteemed and even biased judges to score the competition," the Hamiltonians wrote in the proposal.
The debate will consist of four rounds, divided by historical time period, each of which will consist of both sides giving six-minute prepared speeches and three-minute rebuttal speeches. UVA will have a four person team composed of two members of their Washington Society and two members of the Jefferson Literary and Debate Society
The official topic for the debate is: "Taking into account the accomplishments, failures, morals, beliefs and legacy of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, who was the better founding father?"
The format will consist of four rounds, with each round consisting of a constructive speech followed by a rebuttal from the opposite side, repeated for both sides. In the constructive speech, both sides are free to bolster their respective Founding Father and attack the other's. Each round deals with a different time period and is debated by a different member of each team. The final round will focus on the legacy of each founding father. The first speech of each round alternates between teams. Teams will present five-minute speeches with two-minute rebuttals.
The first round's time period is birth to signing of Declaration of Independence, followed by Revolutionary War to ratification of the Constitution, post-ratification until death, and in round four, Legacy - the effect on the country after their deaths and presence in modern America.
The President's Office at Hamilton is funding the students' travel and the University of Virginia is sponsoring the event.
Update:
