What if Alexander Hamilton didnt did, and became president 1808 and won in 1812? What would be do? Would be win the war of 1812? Would there even be a war of 1812? What about slavery? He was an abolitionist, so what woukd he do about it? I got the idea to post this after a friend sent me this:
Is this video accurate? Or is it ASB?
WI: President Hanilton 1809-1817?
It might not be ASB, but it's still pretty far out there. Hamilton wasn't just unpopular nationally, but within his own party as well, having undermined Adams' re-election bid in 1800, among other things. And the Federalist Party was on a precipitous downward trend after that year, so the odds against him beating Madison seem astronomical. And even if he pulled that off, he'd need New England's support to do it, and that region most strongly opposed the War of 1812, so he would be foolish to pursue war with Britain. And again, even if he'd gone to war anyways, the President wasn't a terribly powerful position at the time, so there's not much he could do to improve the military in just a few years. Conquering Canada is right out.
I have absolutely no idea how Felming came to any of those conclusions. As @TRH mentioned, the Federalists in general and Hamilton specifically were very widely disliked, so there's no way he could get elected. He was an Anglophile, so he would have done everything possible to avoid the War of 1812. It's a major leap to assume that because he had more military experience than Madison, then he would definitely be a better wartime administrator. He might have opposed slavery (though even that's disputable), but put a negative amount of effort into stopping it politically. If he did grow a conscious and decided to push an abolition amendment, it would immediately fail in Congress and turn both the North and South against him.