STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Next, we have the story behind a story in "Hamilton." The musical is 10 years old, and we heard yesterday from its author, Lin-Manuel Miranda. He had a lot of drama to work with in the life of the immigrant, revolutionary soldier and dualist. But how did Miranda make drama out of finance? Hamilton's great achievement was getting the federal government to assume state debts.
LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA: It's about a financial plan, but it's really about when are we a state, and when are we a state as a part of a larger country? When are we united, and when are we our own little tribe?
INSKEEP: Lin-Manuel Miranda told us the story behind "Cabinet Battle #1." That song depicts a meeting of President George Washington's advisers. Washington, played by Christopher Jackson, presides like an announcer at a boxing match.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CABINET BATTLE #1")
CHRISTOPHER JACKSON: (As George Washington) Ladies and gentlemen, you could have been anywhere in the world tonight, but you're here with us in New York City. Are you ready for a Cabinet meeting, huh?
INSKEEP: In one corner, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, played by Daveed Diggs.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CABINET BATTLE #1")
DAVEED DIGGS: (As Thomas Jefferson, rapping) Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We fought for these ideals. We shouldn't settle for less. These are wise words. Enterprising men quote them. Don't act surprised, you guys, 'cause I wrote them.
INSKEEP: In the other corner, Alexander Hamilton, played by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CABINET BATTLE #1")
MIRANDA: (As Alexander Hamilton, rapping) Thomas, that was a real nice declaration. Welcome to the present. We're running a real nation. Would you like to join us or stay mellow doing whatever the hell it is you do in Monticello?
INSKEEP: Here's the story on the surface. Individual states borrowed to pay for the Revolutionary War - money for ammunition - and soldiers pay. Hamilton wants the new federal government to pay that debt.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CABINET BATTLE #1")
MIRANDA: (As Alexander Hamilton, rapping) If we assume the debts, the union gets a new line of credit, a financial diuretic. How do you not get it? If we're regressive and competitive, the union gets a boost. You'd rather give it a sedative?
INSKEEP: It's a little counterintuitive, but he felt that a government that owed money would have political support because the rich men who loaned it would want a government strong enough to pay them back.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CABINET BATTLE #1")
DIGGS: (As Thomas Jefferson, rapping) Now, place your bets as to who that benefits - the very seat of government where Hamilton sits.
MIRANDA: (As Alexander Hamilton) Not true.
DIGGS: (As Thomas Jefferson, rapping) Oh, if the shoe fits, wear it. If New York's in debt, why should Virginia bear it?
INSKEEP: We're talking here about the assumption of state debts. I mean, not an obvious topic for a song.
MIRANDA: Yeah. And imagine me, who got straight Cs in high school math, trying to understand this...
INSKEEP: (Laughter).
MIRANDA: ...Well enough to synthesize it into a cogent argument.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CABINET BATTLE #1")
DIGGS: (As Thomas Jefferson, rapping) This financial plan is an outrageous demand, and it's too many damn pages for any man to understand.
MIRANDA: You're always trying to get to the story beneath the details. Hamilton is arguing for assumption of states' debts, but what is underneath that is the assumption that if we all band together and we all work together as one economy instead of 13 little economies, we will be a United States.
INSKEEP: Which the immigrant from the West Indies had a personal reason to want.
MIRANDA: And I, the only person in this Cabinet meeting who is not from one of these (laughter) colonies, get a homeland.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
MIRANDA: I am from these larger United States to find sort of the meaning behind - the personal meaning behind it and why Hamilton will argue for it so forcefully.
INSKEEP: I don't know how I've gotten this far in my life without ever having the thought that you just expressed that Hamilton wasn't from anywhere in the United States and therefore wanted a unified country that would be his own.
MIRANDA: Whereas Jefferson is like, this is not the country I signed up for, like, where power is held in New York and all of you exchanging slips of paper and the stock market being the engine of this country. That's not what I signed up for when I wrote these words.
INSKEEP: The words of the Declaration of Independence. Lin-Manuel Miranda sees Jefferson's words as just the start of an argument that Hamilton continued, that we continue, and that "Hamilton," the musical, has portrayed for 10 years.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CABINET BATTLE #1")
DIGGS: (As Thomas Jefferson, rapping) Stand with me in the land of the free. Pray to God we never see Hamilton's candidacy. Look, when Britain taxed our tea, we got frisky. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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