Hamilton College defeated the University of Virginia in a debate about the merits of Alexander Hamilton vs. Thomas Jefferson held at UVA's Charlottesville campus on April 14. Hamilton's team of Joshua Agins '07, Michael Blasie '07 and Scott Iseman '07 won two rounds, lost one and tied one against UVA. Blasie reported a solid turnout with a number of Hamilton alumni in the audience.
The Hamilton College students successfully goaded debaters from the University of Virginia to face off in the Hamilton-Jefferson Public Speaking Competition. "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. The Hamilton debaters 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 official topic for the debate was: "Taking into account the accomplishments, failures, morals, beliefs and legacy of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, who was the better founding father?"
The debate was four rounds, divided by historical time period, each of which consisted of both sides giving six-minute prepared speeches and three-minute rebuttal speeches. UVA had a four person team composed of two members of their Washington Society and two members of the Jefferson Literary and Debate Society
The first round's time period was 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 funded the students' travel and the University of Virginia sponsored the event.
