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Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755/7–July 12, 1804) was an American statesman. He is credited with successfully defending the U.S. Constitution to skeptical New Yorkers as the principal author of the Federalist
Papers. He also put the new United States of
America onto a sound economic footing as its first and most influential Secretary of the Treasury,
establishing a central bank, public
credit, and the foundations for a mixed economy and stock and commodity exchanges.
Early years
Hamilton was born on the West Indies island of Nevis, the son of James Hamilton, a
struggling businessman from Scotland, and Rachel Fawcet Lavien, who was then married to another man. His father abandoned the
family and his mother died when Hamilton was in his early teens. As a teenager, a letter he wrote to the local paper caused such
a sensation that community leaders raised money to fund his passage to America. He settled in New York in 1772 for formal education, beginning with grammar school. Later
he attended King's College, which is now Columbia
University.
Hamilton's great genius revealed itself early. While in his teens, he took a firm stand on the side of the patriots, and
became a leader in the movement advocating independence. Before he was 20, Hamilton commanded artillery troops in several
important battles in the American Revolutionary
War, and from 1777 to 1781, served as aide-de-camp to General Washington.
He left Washington to take command of an infantry regiment that took part in the siege of Yorktown. At the age of 25, he served as a member of the Continental Congress from 1782-1783, then retired to open his own law office in New York City. His public career resumed when he attended the Annapolis
Convention as a delegate in 1786.
He also served in the New York State
Legislature and attended the Philadelphia Convention in 1787. Throughout the convention's proceedings
Hamilton, who was a federalist, argued consistently for a strong central
government, including an upper house with members appointed for life rather than subject to re-election. Although the document
finally produced by the convention was less centralist than Hamilton proposed, he was active in the successful campaign for its
ratification as the Constitution of the United
States on March 4, 1789. In this endeavour
Hamilton made the largest single contribution to the authorship of the Federalist Papers.
Hamilton served another term in 1788 in what proved to be the last time the Continental Congress met under the new Articles of Confederation.
Secretary of the Treasury
On the recommendation of Robert Morris,
President George Washington appointed him to be the first
Secretary of the Treasury when the first Congress passed an Act establishing the Treasury Department. He served in that post from September 11, 1789 until January 31, 1795.
As Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton's term was marked by bold innovation, statesmanlike planning, and masterful reports. In
office for barely a month, he proposed the idea of a seagoing branch of the military to secure the revenue against contraband.
The following summer, the Congress authorized a Revenue Marine force of ten cutters, the precursor to the United States Coast Guard. He also played a crucial role
in creating the United States Navy (the Naval Act of 1794).
He published Report on the Public Credit in January 1790, which was a milestone
in American financial history, marking the end of an era of bankruptcy and repudiation. The plan provided for assumption of both
the domestic and the foreign debts. Both James Madison and Thomas Jefferson strongly opposed Hamilton's plan, but it passed
overwhelmingly. He advocated assumption by the Federal Government of the debts of the States. Madison and Jefferson also opposed
this plan, but they settled the contest in a private meeting on July 21, 1790. During this meeting, Hamilton agreed to the future location of the nation's capital on the
Potomac River, in return for Jefferson's support of assumption.
Hamilton's perceptive and creative mind coupled with his driving ambition to set his ideas in motion resulted many proposals
to the Congress. His proposals included a plan including import duties and excise taxes for raising revenue, funding of the
revolutionary debt, and suggestions on naval laws. He also developed plans for a Congressional charter for the First Bank of the United States, and for
placing the revenues on firm ground.
Strong opposition to collection efforts of his excise tax on spirits erupted into the Whiskey Rebellion in Western Pennsylvania and Virginia in 1794. Hamilton felt that compliance with the
laws was very urgent. He accompanied General "Light Horse Harry" Lee and his
troops part of the way in an advisory capacity to help put down the insurrection.
Latter years and the duel
Hamilton's resignation as Secretary of the Treasury in 1795 did not remove him from
public life. With the resumption of his law practice, he remained close to Washington as an advisor and friend and he is believed
to have influenced Washington in the latter's composition of his Farewell Address. Relations between Hamilton and Washington's successor, John Adams, were frequently strained and Hamilton's attempts to frustrate Adams'
adoption as presidential candidate of the Federalist Party split the party and contributed to the victory of the Jeffersonian Republicans
in the election of 1800.
Hamilton's role in ensuring the subsequent selection of Jefferson as President in preference to Aaron Burr was one of a number of factors arousing Burr's anger. In 1804, a newspaper referred to a "despicable opinion" Hamilton had expressed about Burr. Burr demanded an apology;
Hamilton refused. A duel was arranged for July 11, on a rocky ledge in Weehawken, New Jersey, the same place where Hamilton's son
Phillip had lost a duel over three years earlier, defending his father's honor. At dawn, the duel began. Hamilton, who had come
to oppose dueling following his son's death, fired his shot into the air. Burr, who held no such views, shot Hamilton, the bullet
entering below the chest. He died the next day and was interred in the Trinity Churchyard Cemetery in Manhattan.
Burr fled New York under charges of murder and later of treason. He died in 1836, having squandered his fortune, and having
become almost universally reviled by all around him.
Hamilton and modern politics
Hamilton's legacy on the current political landscape remains controversial. He was a strong supporter of the Federal Constitutional system of government. An opposing force during his time was the
Jeffersonians and their view that the states were
independent entities not inferior to the Federal Government.
Hamilton’s portrait began to appear on money during the Civil War, when he appeared on the $2, $5, $10, and $50 notes, which was symbolic of his ideological
opposition to the ideas of the Confederacy.
Hamilton's portrait appears on the U.S. $10 bill. Some
conservatives want to replace Hamilton with Ronald Reagan’s portrait.
Biographies
- Alexander Hamilton: A Biography by Forrest McDonald (1979, ISBN
039330048X)
- Alexander Hamilton, American by Richard Brookhiser (1999, ISBN
0684839199)
- Alexander Hamilton: A Life by Willard Sterne Randall (2003, ISBN
0060195495)
- Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (2004, ISBN 1594200092)
- The Young Hamilton: A Biography by James Thomas Flexner (1997, ISBN
0823217906)
- Alexander Hamilton and the Persistence of Myth by Stephen F. Knott (2002, ISBN
0700611576)
- Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Future of America by Thomas Fleming (2000, ISBN 0465017371)
Writings
- Hamilton: Writings by Alexander Hamilton (2001,
ISBN 1931082049)
External links
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