Hamilton, A 2

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Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757^[a] – July 12, 1804) was a Nevis-born American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first Secretary of Treasury from 1789 to 1795 during George Washington's presidency.

Born out of wedlock in Charlestown, Nevis, Hamilton was orphaned as a child and taken in by a prosperous merchant. He pursued his education in New York City where, despite his young age, he was a prolific and widely read pamphleteer advocating for the American revolutionary cause, though an anonymous one. He then served as an artillery officer in the American Revolutionary War, where he saw military action against the British in the New York and New Jersey campaign, served for years as an aide to General George Washington, and helped secure American victory at the climactic Siege of Yorktown.

After the Revolutionary War, Hamilton served as a delegate from New York state to the Congress of the Confederation in Philadelphia. He resigned to practice law and founded the Bank of New York. In 1786, Hamilton led the Annapolis Convention to replace the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution of the United States, which he helped ratify by writing 51 of the 85 installments of The Federalist Papers.

As a trusted member of President Washington's first cabinet, Hamilton served as the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. He envisioned a central government led by an energetic president, a strong national defense, and an industrial economy. He successfully argued that the implied powers of the Constitution provided the legal authority to fund the national debt, assume the states' debts, and create the First Bank of the United States, which was funded by a tariff on imports and a whiskey tax.

He opposed American entanglement with the succession of unstable French Revolutionary governments and advocated in support of the Jay Treaty under which the U.S. resumed friendly trade relations with the British Empire. He also persuaded Congress to establish the Revenue Cutter Service. Hamilton's views became the basis for the Federalist Party, which was opposed by the Democratic-Republican Party led by Thomas Jefferson. Hamilton and other Federalists supported the Haitian Revolution, and Hamilton helped draft the constitution of Haiti.

After resigning as Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton resumed his legal and business activities. He was a leader in the abolition of the international slave trade. In the Quasi-War, Hamilton called for mobilization against France, and President John Adams appointed him major general. The army, however, did not see combat.

Outraged by Adams' response to the crisis, Hamilton opposed his reelection campaign. Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied for the presidency in the electoral college and, despite philosophical differences, Hamilton endorsed Jefferson over Burr, whom he found unprincipled. When Burr ran for governor of New York in 1804, Hamilton again campaigned against him, arguing that he was unworthy.

Taking offense, Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel. In the July 11, 1804 duel in Weehawken, New Jersey, Burr shot Hamilton in the stomach. Hamilton was immediately transported to the home of William Bayard Jr. in Greenwich Village for medical attention, but succumbed to his wounds the following day.

Scholars generally regard Hamilton as an astute and intellectually brilliant administrator, politician, and financier who was sometimes impetuous. His ideas are credited with laying the foundation for American government and finance.

Early life and education

Hamilton was born and spent part of the early part of his childhood in Charlestown, the capital of the island of Nevis in the British Leeward Islands. Hamilton and his older brother James Jr.^[6] were born out of wedlock to Rachel Faucette,^[b] a married woman of half-British and half-French Huguenot descent,^[c][15] and James A. Hamilton, a Scotsman who was the fourth son of Alexander Hamilton, the laird of Grange, Ayrshire.^[16]

Hamilton's mother was married previously on Saint Croix,^[17] then ruled by Denmark, to Johann Michael Lavien, a merchant of Danish or German descent.^[9][18][19] They had one son, Peter Lavien.^[17] In 1750, Faucette left her husband and first son before travelling to Saint Kitts, where she met James Hamilton.^[17] Hamilton and Faucette moved together to Nevis, her birthplace, where she had inherited a seaside lot in town from her father.^[2]

The Church of England denied membership and education to Alexander and James Jr. because their parents were not legally married. While their mother was living, they received individual tutoring^[2] and classes in a private school led by a Jewish headmistress.^[20] Alexander supplemented his education with a family library of 34 books.^[21]

James Hamilton later abandoned Rachel Faucette and their two sons, allegedly to "spar[e] [her] a charge of bigamy...after finding out that her first husband intend[ed] to divorce her under Danish law on grounds of adultery and desertion."^[16] Rachel then moved with her two children to Saint Croix, where she supported them by managing a small store in Christiansted.

She contracted yellow fever and died on February 19, 1768, leaving Hamilton orphaned.^[22] This may have had a severe emotional impact on Hamilton, even by the standards of an 18th-century childhood.^[23] In probate court, Faucette's "first husband seized her estate"^[16] and obtained the few valuables that she had owned, including some household silver. Many items were auctioned off, but a friend purchased the family's books and returned them to Hamilton.^[24]

The brothers were briefly taken in by their cousin Peter Lytton. However, Lytton took his own life in July 1769, leaving his property to his mistress and their son, and the Hamilton brothers were subsequently separated.^[24] James Jr. apprenticed with a local carpenter, while Alexander was given a home by Thomas Stevens, a merchant from Nevis.^[25]

Hamilton became a clerk at Beekman and Cruger, a local import-export firm that traded with the Province of New York and New England.^[26] Despite being only a teenager, Hamilton proved capable enough as a trader to be left in charge of the firm for five months in 1771 while the owner was at sea.^[27] He remained an avid reader, and later developed an interest in writing and a life outside Saint Kitts, where he lived. He wrote a detailed letter to his father regarding a hurricane that devastated Christiansted on August 30, 1772.^[28]

The Presbyterian Reverend Hugh Knox, a tutor and mentor to Hamilton, submitted the letter for publication in the Royal Danish-American Gazette. Biographer Ron Chernow found the letter astounding because "for all its bombastic excesses, it does seem wondrous [that a] self-educated clerk could write with such verve and gusto" and that a teenage boy produced an apocalyptic "fire-and-brimstone sermon" viewing the hurricane as a "divine rebuke to human vanity and pomposity."^[29] The essay impressed community leaders, who collected a fund to send Hamilton to the North American colonies for his education.^[30]

In October 1772, Hamilton arrived by ship in Boston and proceeded from there to New York City, where he took lodgings with the Irish-born Hercules Mulligan, brother of a trader known to Hamilton's benefactors, who assisted Hamilton in selling cargo that was used to pay for his education and support.^[31][32] Later that year, in preparation for college, Hamilton began to fill gaps in his education at the Elizabethtown Academy, a preparatory school run by Francis Barber in Elizabeth, New Jersey. While there, he came under the influence of William Livingston, a local leading intellectual and revolutionary with whom he lived for a time.^[33][34][35]

Hamilton entered Mulligan's alma mater King's College, now Columbia University, in New York City in the autumn of 1773 as a private student, while again boarding with Mulligan until officially matriculating in May 1774.^[36] His college roommate and lifelong friend Robert Troup spoke glowingly of Hamilton's clarity in concisely explaining the patriots' case against the British in what is credited as Hamilton's first public appearance on July 6, 1773.^[37] Hamilton, Troup, and four other undergraduates formed an unnamed literary society that is regarded as a precursor of the Philolexian Society.^[38][39]

Church of England clergyman Samuel Seabury published a series of pamphlets promoting the Loyalist cause in 1774, to which Hamilton responded anonymously with his first published political writings, A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress and The Farmer Refuted. Seabury essentially tried to provoke fear in the colonies with an objective of preventing the colonies from uniting against the British.^[40]

Hamilton published two additional pieces attacking the Quebec Act,^[41] and may have also authored the 15 anonymous installments of "The Monitor" for Holt's New York Journal.^[42] Hamilton was a supporter of the Revolutionary cause before the war began, although he did not approve of mob reprisals against Loyalists. On May 10, 1775, Hamilton won credit for saving his college's president, Loyalist Myles Cooper, from an angry mob by speaking to the crowd long enough to allow Cooper to escape.^[43] Hamilton was forced to discontinue his studies before graduating when the college closed its doors during the British occupation of the city.^[44]

Revolutionary War (1775–1782)

Early military career

Further information: Hearts of Oak (New York militia) and New York and New Jersey campaign

Alexander Hamilton in the Uniform of the New York Artillery, a portrait by Alonzo Chappel

In 1775, after the first engagement of American patriot troops with the British at Lexington and Concord, Hamilton and other King's College students joined a New York volunteer militia company called the Corsicans, whose name reflected the Corsican Republic that was suppressed six years earlier and young American patriots regarded as a model to be emulated.^[45]

Hamilton drilled with the company before classes in the graveyard of nearby St. Paul's Chapel. He studied military history and tactics on his own and was soon recommended for promotion.^[46] Under fire from HMS *Asia*, he led his newly renamed unit, "Hearts of Oak", with support from Hercules Mulligan and the Sons of Liberty on a successful raid for British cannons in the Battery; the successful capture of the battery resulted in the unit being designated an artillery company.^[47]: 13

Through his connections with influential New York patriots, including Alexander McDougall and John Jay, Hamilton raised the New York Provincial Company of Artillery of 60 men in 1776, and was elected captain.^[48] The company took part in the campaign of 1776 in and around New York City; as rearguard of the Continental Army's retreat up Manhattan, serving at the Battle of Harlem Heights shortly after, and at the Battle of White Plains a month later. At the Battle of Trenton, the company was stationed at the high point of Trenton at the intersection of present-day Warren and Broad streets to keep the Hessians pinned in their Trenton barracks.^[49][50]

Hamilton participated in the Battle of Princeton on January 3, 1777. After an initial setback, Washington rallied the Continental Army troops and led them in a successful charge against the British forces. After making a brief stand, the British fell back, some leaving Princeton, and others taking up refuge in Nassau Hall. Hamilton transported three cannons to the hall, and had them fire upon the building as others rushed the front door and broke it down. The British subsequently put a white flag outside one of the windows;^[50] 194 British soldiers walked out of the building and laid down their arms, ending the battle in an American victory.^[51]

While being stationed in Morristown, New Jersey from December 1779 to March 1780, Hamilton met Elizabeth Schuyler, a daughter of General Philip Schuyler and Catherine Van Rensselaer. They married on December 14, 1780, at the Schuyler Mansion in Albany, New York.^[52] They had eight children, Philip,^[53] Angelica, Alexander, James,^[54] John, William, Eliza, and another Philip.^[55]

George Washington's staff

Further information: Washington's aides-de-camp

Hamilton was invited to become an aide to Continental Army general William Alexander, Lord Stirling, and another general, perhaps Nathanael Greene or Alexander McDougall.^[56] He declined these invitations, believing his best chance for improving his station in life was glory on the Revolutionary War's battlefields.

Hamilton eventually received an invitation he felt he could not refuse: to serve as Washington's aide with the rank of lieutenant colonel.^[57] Washington believed that "Aides de camp are persons in whom entire confidence must be placed and it requires men of abilities to execute the duties with propriety and dispatch."^[58]

Hamilton served four years as Washington's chief staff aide. He handled letters to the Continental Congress, state governors, and the most powerful generals of the Continental Army. He drafted many of Washington's orders and letters under Washington's direction, and he eventually issued orders on Washington behalf over his own signature.^[59] Hamilton was involved in a wide variety of high-level duties, including intelligence, diplomacy, and negotiation with senior army officers as Washington's emissary.^[60][61]

During the Revolutionary War, Hamilton became the close friend of several fellow officers. His letters to the Marquis de Lafayette^[62] and to John Laurens, employing the sentimental literary conventions of the late 18th century and alluding to Greek history and mythology,^[63] have been read by Jonathan Ned Katz as revelatory of a homosocial or even homosexual relationship.^[64] Biographer Gregory D. Massey amongst others, by contrast, dismisses all such speculation as unsubstantiated, describing their friendship as purely platonic camaraderie instead and placing their correspondence in the context of the flowery diction of the time.^[65]

Field command

Further information: Yorktown campaign

While on Washington's staff, Hamilton long sought command and a return to active combat. As the war drew nearer to an end, he knew that opportunities for military glory were diminishing. On February 15, 1781, Hamilton was reprimanded by Washington after a minor misunderstanding. Although Washington quickly tried to mend their relationship, Hamilton insisted on leaving his staff.^[66] He officially left in March, and settled with his new wife Elizabeth Schuyler close to Washington's headquarters. He continued to repeatedly ask Washington and others for a field command. Washington continued to demur, citing the need to appoint men of higher rank. This continued until early July 1781, when Hamilton submitted a letter to Washington with his commission enclosed, "thus tacitly threatening to resign if he didn't get his desired command."^[67]

On July 31, Washington relented and assigned Hamilton as commander of a battalion of light infantry companies of the 1st and 2nd New York Regiments and two provisional companies from Connecticut.^[68] In the planning for the assault on Yorktown, Hamilton was given command of three battalions, which were to fight in conjunction with the allied French troops in taking Redoubts No. 9 and No. 10 of the British fortifications at Yorktown. Hamilton and his battalions took Redoubt No. 10 with bayonets in a nighttime action, as planned. The French also suffered heavy casualties and took Redoubt No. 9. These actions forced the British surrender of an entire army at Yorktown, marking the de facto end of the war, although small battles continued for two more years until the signing of the Treaty of Paris and the departure of the last British troops.^[69][70]

Return to civilian life (1782–1789)

Congress of the Confederation

Main article: Congress of the Confederation

After Yorktown, Hamilton returned to New York City and resigned his commission in March 1782. He passed the bar in July after six months of self-directed education and, in October, was licensed to argue cases before the Supreme Court of New York.^[71] He also accepted an offer from Robert Morris to become receiver of continental taxes for the New York state.^[72] Hamilton was appointed in July 1782 to the Congress of the Confederation as a New York representative for the term beginning in November 1782.^[73] Before his appointment to Congress in 1782, Hamilton was already sharing his criticisms of Congress. He expressed these criticisms in his letter to James Duane dated September 3, 1780: "The fundamental defect is a want of power in Congress... the confederation itself is defective and requires to be altered; it is neither fit for war, nor peace."^[74]

While on Washington's staff, Hamilton had become frustrated with the decentralized nature of the wartime Continental Congress, particularly its dependence upon the states for voluntary financial support that was not often forthcoming. Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress had no power to collect taxes or to demand money from the states. This lack of a stable source of funding had made it difficult for the Continental Army both to obtain its necessary provisions and to pay its soldiers. During the war, and for some time after, Congress obtained what funds it could from subsidies from the King of France, European loans, and aid requested from the several states, which were often unable or unwilling to contribute.^[75]

An amendment to the Articles had been proposed by Thomas Burke, in February 1781, to give Congress the power to collect a five percent impost, or duty on all imports, but this required ratification by all states; securing its passage as law proved impossible after it was rejected by Rhode Island in November 1782. James Madison joined Hamilton in influencing Congress to send a delegation to persuade Rhode Island to change its mind. Their report recommending the delegation argued the national government needed not just some level of financial autonomy, but also the ability to make laws that superseded those of the individual states. Hamilton transmitted a letter arguing that Congress already had the power to tax, since it had the power to fix the sums due from the several states; but Virginia's rescission of its own ratification of this amendment ended the Rhode Island negotiations.^[76][77]

Congress and the army

Further information: Newburgh Conspiracy

While Hamilton was in Congress, discontented soldiers began to pose a danger to the young United States. Most of the army was then posted at Newburgh, New York. Those in the army were funding much of their own supplies, and they had not been paid in eight months. Furthermore, after Valley Forge, the Continental officers had been promised in May 1778 a pension of half their pay when they were discharged.^[78] By the early 1780s, due to the structure of the government under the Articles of Confederation, it had no power to tax to either raise revenue or pay its soldiers.^[79] In 1782, after several months without pay, a group of officers organized to send a delegation to lobby Congress, led by Captain Alexander McDougall. The officers had three demands: the army's pay, their own pensions, and commutation of those pensions into a lump-sum payment if Congress were unable to afford the half-salary pensions for life. Congress rejected the proposal.^[79]

Several congressmen, including Hamilton, Robert Morris, and Gouverneur Morris, attempted to use the so-called Newburgh Conspiracy as leverage to secure support from the states and in Congress for funding of the national government. They encouraged MacDougall to continue his aggressive approach, implying unknown consequences if their demands were not met, and defeated proposals designed to end the crisis without establishing general taxation: that the states assume the debt to the army, or that an impost be established dedicated to the sole purpose of paying that debt.^[80]

Hamilton suggested using the Army's claims to prevail upon the states for the proposed national funding system.^[81] The Morrises and Hamilton contacted General Henry Knox to suggest he and the officers defy civil authority, at least by not disbanding if the army were not satisfied. Hamilton wrote Washington to suggest that Hamilton covertly "take direction" of the officers' efforts to secure redress, to secure continental funding but keep the army within the limits of moderation.^[82][83] Washington wrote Hamilton back, declining to introduce the army.^[84] After the crisis had ended, Washington warned of the dangers of using the army as leverage to gain support for the national funding plan.^[82][85]

On March 15, Washington defused the Newburgh situation by addressing the officers personally.^[80] Congress ordered the Army officially disbanded in April 1783. In the same month, Congress passed a new measure for a 25-year impost—which Hamilton voted against^[86]—that again required the consent of all the states; it also approved a commutation of the officers' pensions to five years of full pay. Rhode Island again opposed these provisions, and Hamilton's robust assertions of national prerogatives in his previous letter were widely held to be excessive.^[87]

In June 1783, a different group of disgruntled soldiers from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, sent Congress a petition demanding their back pay. When they began to march toward Philadelphia, Congress charged Hamilton and two others with intercepting the mob.^[82] Hamilton requested militia from Pennsylvania's Supreme Executive Council, but was turned down. Hamilton instructed Assistant Secretary of War William Jackson to intercept the men. Jackson was unsuccessful. The mob arrived in Philadelphia, and the soldiers proceeded to harangue Congress for their pay. Hamilton argued that Congress ought to adjourn to Princeton, New Jersey. Congress agreed, and relocated there.^[88] Frustrated with the weakness of the central government, Hamilton while in Princeton, drafted a call to revise the Articles of Confederation. This resolution contained many features of the future Constitution of the United States, including a strong federal government with the ability to collect taxes and raise an army. It also included the separation of powers into the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.^[88]

Return to New York

Further information: Annapolis Convention (1786)

Hamilton resigned from Congress in 1783.^[89] When the British left New York in 1783, he practiced there in partnership with Richard Harison. He specialized in defending Tories and British subjects, as in Rutgers v. Waddington, in which he defeated a claim for damages done to a brewery by the Englishmen who held it during the military occupation of New York. He pleaded for the mayor's court to interpret state law consistent with the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which had ended the Revolutionary War.^{[90][47]: 64–69}

In 1784, Hamilton founded the Bank of New York.^[91]

Long dissatisfied with the Articles of Confederation as too weak to be effective, Hamilton played a major leadership role at the 1786 Annapolis Convention. He drafted its resolution for a constitutional convention, and in doing so brought one step closer to reality his longtime desire to have a more effectual, more financially self-sufficient federal government.^[92]

As a member of the legislature of New York, Hamilton argued forcefully and at length in favor of a bill to recognize the sovereignty of the State of Vermont, against numerous objections to its constitutionality and policy. Consideration of the bill was deferred to a later date. From 1787 to 1789, Hamilton exchanged letters with Nathaniel Chipman, a lawyer representing Vermont. After the Constitution of the United States went into effect, Hamilton said, "One of the first subjects of deliberation with the new Congress will be the independence of Kentucky, for which the southern states will be anxious. The northern will be glad to send a counterpoise in Vermont."^[93] Vermont was admitted to the Union in 1791.^[94]

In 1788, he was awarded a Master of Arts degree from his alma mater, the former King's College, now reconstituted as Columbia College.^[95] It was during this post-war period that Hamilton served on the college's board of trustees, playing a part in the reopening the college and placing it on firm financial footing.^[96]

Constitution and The Federalist Papers

Main articles: United States Constitution and The Federalist Papers

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Portrait of Hamilton authoring the first draft of the U.S. Constitution in 1787

In 1787, Hamilton served as assemblyman from New York County in the New York State Legislature and was chosen as a delegate at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia by his father-in-law Philip Schuyler.^{[97]: 191 [98]} Even though Hamilton had been a leader in calling for a new Constitutional Convention, his direct influence at the Convention itself was quite limited.

Governor George Clinton's faction in the New York legislature had chosen New York's other two delegates, John Lansing Jr. and Robert Yates, and both of them opposed Hamilton's goal of a strong national government.^[99][100] Thus, whenever the other two members of the New York delegation were present, they decided New York's vote, to ensure that there were no major alterations to the Articles of Confederation.^[97]: 195

Early in the Convention, Hamilton made a speech proposing a President-for-Life; it had no effect upon the deliberations of the convention. He proposed to have an elected president and elected senators who would serve for life, contingent upon "good behavior" and subject to removal for corruption or abuse; this idea contributed later to the hostile view of Hamilton as a monarchist sympathizer, held by James Madison.^[101] According to Madison's notes, Hamilton said in regards to the executive, "The English model was the only good one on this subject. The hereditary interest of the king was so interwoven with that of the nation, and his personal emoluments so great, that he was placed above the danger of being corrupted from abroad... Let one executive be appointed for life who dares execute his powers."^[102]

Hamilton argued, "And let me observe that an executive is less dangerous to the liberties of the people when in office during life than for seven years. It may be said this constitutes as an elective monarchy... But by making the executive subject to impeachment, the term 'monarchy' cannot apply..."^[102] In his notes of the convention, Madison interpreted Hamilton's proposal as claiming power for the "rich and well born". Madison's perspective all but isolated Hamilton from his fellow delegates and others who felt they did not reflect the ideas of revolution and liberty.^[103]

During the convention, Hamilton constructed a draft for the Constitution based on the convention debates, but he never presented it. This draft had most of the features of the actual Constitution. In this draft, the Senate was to be elected in proportion to the population, being two-fifths the size of the House, and the President and Senators were to be elected through complex multistage elections, in which chosen electors would elect smaller bodies of electors; they would hold office for life, but were removable for misconduct. The President would have an absolute veto. The Supreme Court was to have immediate jurisdiction over all lawsuits involving the United States, and state governors were to be appointed by the federal government.^[104]

At the end of the convention, Hamilton was still not content with the final Constitution, but signed it anyway as a vast improvement over the Articles of Confederation, and urged his fellow delegates to do so also.^[105] Since the other two members of the New York delegation, Lansing and Yates, had already withdrawn, Hamilton was the only New York signer to the United States Constitution.^[97]: 206 He then took a highly active part in the successful campaign for the document's ratification in New York in 1788, which was a crucial step in its national ratification. He first used the popularity of the Constitution by the masses to compel George Clinton to sign, but was unsuccessful. The state convention in Poughkeepsie in June 1788 pitted Hamilton, Jay, James Duane, Robert Livingston, and Richard Morris against the Clintonian faction led by Melancton Smith, Lansing, Yates, and Gilbert Livingston.^[106]

Clinton's faction wanted to amend the Constitution, while maintaining the state's right to secede if their attempts failed, and members of Hamilton's faction were against any conditional ratification, under the impression that New York would not be accepted into the Union. During the state convention, New Hampshire and Virginia becoming the ninth and tenth states to ratify the Constitution, respectively, had ensured any adjournment would not happen and a compromise would have to be reached.^[106][107] Hamilton's arguments used for the ratifications were largely iterations of work from The Federalist Papers, and Smith eventually went for ratification, though it was more out of necessity than Hamilton's rhetoric.^[107] The vote in the state convention was ratified 30 to 27, on July 26, 1788.^[108]

The Federalist Papers

Hamilton recruited John Jay and James Madison to write The Federalist Papers, a series of essays, to defend the proposed Constitution. He made the largest contribution to that effort, writing 51 of the 85 essays published. Hamilton supervised the entire project, enlisted the participants, wrote the majority of the essays, and oversaw the publication. During the project, each person was responsible for their areas of expertise. Jay covered foreign relations. Madison covered the history of republics and confederacies, along with the anatomy of the new government. Hamilton covered the branches of government most pertinent to him: the executive and judicial branches, with some aspects of the Senate, as well as covering military matters and taxation.^[109] The papers first appeared in The Independent Journal on October 27, 1787.^[109]

Hamilton wrote the first paper signed as Publius, and all of the subsequent papers were signed under the name.^[97]: 210 Jay wrote the next four papers to elaborate on the confederation's weakness and the need for unity against foreign aggression and against splitting into rival confederacies, and, except for No. 64, was not further involved.^{[110][97]: 211} Hamilton's highlights included discussion that although republics have been culpable for disorders in the past, advances in the "science of politics" had fostered principles that ensured that those abuses could be prevented, such as the division of powers, legislative checks and balances, an independent judiciary, and legislators that were represented by electors (No. 7–9).^[110] Hamilton also wrote an extensive defense of the constitution (No. 23–36), and discussed the Senate and executive and judicial branches (No. 65–85). Hamilton and Madison worked to describe the anarchic state of the confederation (No. 15–22), and the two have been described as not being significantly different in thought during this time period—in contrast to their stark opposition later in life.^[110] Subtle differences appeared with the two when discussing the necessity of standing armies.^[110]

Treasury secretaryship (1789–1795)

A statue of Hamilton on the south patio of the Treasury Building in Washington, D.C.

Report on Public Credit

Main article: First Report on the Public Credit

Before the adjournment of the House in September 1789, they requested Hamilton to make a report on suggestions to improve the public credit by January 1790.^[111] Hamilton had written to Robert Morris as early as 1781, that fixing the public credit will win their objective of independence.^[111] The sources that Hamilton used ranged from Frenchmen such as Jacques Necker and Montesquieu to British writers such as Hume, Hobbes, and Malachy Postlethwayt.^[112] While writing the report he also sought out suggestions from contemporaries such as John Witherspoon and Madison. Although they agreed on additional taxes such as distilleries and duties on imported liquors and land taxes, Madison feared that the securities from the government debt would fall into foreign hands.^{[113][97]: 244–45}

In the report, Hamilton felt that the securities should be paid at full value to their legitimate owners, including those who took the financial risk of buying government bonds that most experts thought would never be redeemed. He argued that liberty and property security were inseparable and that the government should honor the contracts, as they formed the basis of public and private morality. To Hamilton, the proper handling of the government debt would also allow America to borrow at affordable interest rates and would also be a stimulant to the economy.^[112]

Hamilton divided the debt into national and state, and further divided the national debt into foreign and domestic debt. While there was agreement on how to handle the foreign debt, especially with France, there was not with regards to the national debt held by domestic creditors. During the Revolutionary War, affluent citizens had invested in bonds, and war veterans had been paid with promissory notes and IOUs that plummeted in price during the Confederation. In response, the war veterans sold the securities to speculators for as little as fifteen to twenty cents on the dollar.^[112][114]

...

During this period, Hamilton bypassed the rising issue of slavery in Congress, after Quakers petitioned for its abolition, returning to the issue the following year.^[116]

Another issue in which Hamilton played a role was the temporary location of the capital from New York City. Tench Coxe was sent to speak to Maclay to bargain about the capital being temporarily located to Philadelphia, as a single vote in the Senate was needed and five in the House for the bill to pass.^[97]: 263 Thomas Jefferson wrote years afterward that Hamilton had a discussion with him, around this time period, about the capital of the United States being relocated to Virginia by means of a "pill" that "would be peculiarly bitter to the Southern States, and that some concomitant measure should be adopted to sweeten it a little to them".^[97]: 263 The bill passed in the Senate on July 21 and in the House 34 votes to 28 on July 26, 1790.^[97]: 263

Report on a National Bank

Further information: History of central banking in the United States

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The First Bank of the United States in Philadelphia, commissioned by Hamilton when the nation adopted a single currency

Hamilton's Report on a National Bank was a projection from the first Report on the Public Credit. Although Hamilton had been forming ideas of a national bank as early as 1779,^[97]: 268 he had gathered ideas in various ways over the past eleven years. These included theories from Adam Smith,^[117] extensive studies on the Bank of England, the blunders of the Bank of North America and his experience in establishing the Bank of New York.^[118] He also used American records from James Wilson, Pelatiah Webster, Gouverneur Morris, and from his assistant treasury secretary Tench Coxe.^[118] He thought that this plan for a National Bank could help in any sort of financial crisis.^[119]

...

Revenue Cutter Service

Main article: United States Revenue Cutter Service

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A 19th century portrait of a Revenue Marine cutter, which may be of either the USRC *Massachusetts* or its replacement, the Massachusetts II

Smuggling off American coasts was an issue before the Revolutionary War, and after the Revolution it was more problematic. Along with smuggling, lack of shipping control, pirating, and a revenue unbalance were also major problems.^[130] In response, Hamilton proposed to Congress to enact a naval police force called revenue cutters in order to patrol the waters and assist the custom collectors with confiscating contraband.^[131] This idea was also proposed to assist in tariff controlling, boosting the American economy, and promote the merchant marine.^[130] It is thought that his experience obtained during his apprenticeship with Nicholas Kruger was influential in his decision-making.^[132]

Concerning some of the details of the System of Cutters,^[133] Hamilton wanted the first ten cutters in different areas in the United States, from New England to Georgia.^[131][134] Each of those cutters was to be armed with ten muskets and bayonets, twenty pistols, two chisels, one broad-ax and two lanterns. The fabric of the sails was to be domestically manufactured;^[131] and provisions were made for the employees' food supply and etiquette when boarding ships.^[131] Congress established the Revenue Cutter Service on August 4, 1790, which is viewed as the birth of the United States Coast Guard.^[130]

Whiskey as tax revenue

Manufacturing and industry

Further information: Report on Manufactures

The Great Falls of the Passaic River in Paterson, New Jersey, which Hamilton envisioned using to power new factories

Hamilton's next report was his Report on Manufactures. Although he was requested by Congress on January 15, 1790, for a report for manufacturing that would expand the United States' independence, the report was not submitted until December 5, 1791.^{[97]: 274, 277} In the report, Hamilton quoted from Wealth of Nations and used the French physiocrats as an example for rejecting agrarianism and the physiocratic theory, respectively.^[47]: 233

Hamilton also refuted Smith's ideas of government noninterference, as it would have been detrimental for trade with other countries.^[47]: 244 Hamilton also thought that the United States, being a primarily agrarian country, would be at a disadvantage in dealing with Europe.^[141] In response to the agrarian detractors, Hamilton stated that the agriculturists' interest would be advanced by manufactures,^[97]: 276 and that agriculture was just as productive as manufacturing.^{[47]: 233 [97]: 276}

Hamilton argued that developing an industrial economy is impossible without protective tariffs.^[142] Among the ways that the government should assist manufacturing, Hamilton argued for government assistance to "infant industries" so they can achieve economies of scale, by levying protective duties on imported foreign goods that were also manufactured in the United States,^[143] for withdrawing duties levied on raw materials needed for domestic manufacturing,^{[97]: 277 [143]} and pecuniary boundaries.^[97]: 277 He also called for encouraging immigration for people to better themselves in similar employment opportunities.^[143][144] Congress shelved the report without much debate, except for Madison's objection to Hamilton's formulation of the general welfare clause, which Hamilton construed liberally as a legal basis for his extensive programs.^[145]

In 1791, Hamilton, along with Coxe and several entrepreneurs from New York City and Philadelphia formed the Society for the Establishment of Useful Manufactures, a private industrial corporation. In May 1792, the directors decided to examine the Great Falls of the Passaic River in New Jersey as a possible location for a manufacturing center. On July 4, 1792, the society directors met Philip Schuyler at Abraham Godwin's hotel on the Passaic River, where they led a tour prospecting the area for the national manufactory. It was originally suggested that they dig mile-long trenches and build the factories away from the falls, but Hamilton argued that it would be too costly and laborious.^[146]

The location at Great Falls of the Passaic River in New Jersey was selected due to access to raw materials, it being densely inhabited, and having access to water power from the falls of the Passaic.^[47]: 231 The factory town was named Paterson after New Jersey's Governor William Paterson, who signed the charter.^{[47]: 232 [147]}

The profits were to derive from specific corporates rather than the benefits to be conferred to the nation and the citizens, which was unlike the report.^[148] Hamilton also suggested the first stock to be offered at $500,000 and to eventually increase to $1 million, and welcomed state and federal government subscriptions alike.^{[97]: 280 [148]} The company was never successful: numerous shareholders reneged on stock payments, some members soon went bankrupt, and William Duer, the governor of the program, was sent to debtors' prison where he died.^[149] In spite of Hamilton's efforts to mend the disaster, the company folded.^[147]

Jay Treaty

Main article: Jay Treaty

When France and Britain went to war in early 1793, all four members of the Cabinet were consulted on what to do. They and Washington unanimously agreed to remain neutral, and to have the French ambassador who was raising privateers and mercenaries on American soil, Edmond-Charles Genêt, recalled.^{[150]: 336–41} However, in 1794, policy toward Britain became a major point of contention between the two parties. Hamilton and the Federalists wished for more trade with Britain, the largest trading partner of the newly formed United States. The Republicans saw monarchist Britain as the main threat to republicanism and proposed instead to start a trade war.^{[97]: 327–28}

...

1800 presidential election

Main article: 1800 United States presidential election

Prior to running for governor of New York, Hamilton's foe Aaron Burr was shut out of President Jefferson's administration and the Democratic-Republican Party.

In November 1799, the Alien and Sedition Acts had left one Democratic-Republican newspaper functioning in New York City. When the last newspaper, the New Daily Advertiser, reprinted an article saying that Hamilton had attempted to purchase the Philadelphia Aurora to close it down, and said the purchase could have been funded by "British secret service money". Hamilton urged the New York Attorney General to prosecute the publisher for seditious libel, and the prosecution compelled the owner to close the paper.^[192]

In the 1800 election, Hamilton worked to defeat not only the Democratic-Republicans, but also his party's own nominee, John Adams.^{[97]: 392–99} Aaron Burr had won New York for Jefferson in May via the New York City legislative elections, as the legislature was to choose New York's electors; now Hamilton proposed a direct election, with carefully drawn districts where each district's voters would choose an elector—such that the Federalists would split the electoral vote of New York. Jay, who had resigned from the Supreme Court to be governor of New York, wrote on the back of a letter, "Proposing a measure for party purposes which it would not become me to adopt," and declined to reply.^[193]

Adams was running this time with Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the elder brother of former vice presidential candidate Thomas. Hamilton toured New England, again urging northern electors to hold firm for Pinckney in the renewed hope of making Pinckney president; and he again intrigued in South Carolina.^{[47]: 350–51} Hamilton's ideas involved coaxing middle-state Federalists to assert their non-support for Adams if there was no support for Pinckney and writing to more of the modest supports of Adams concerning his supposed misconduct while president.^{[47]: 350–51} Hamilton expected to see southern states such as the Carolinas cast their votes for Pinckney and Jefferson, and would result in the former being ahead of both Adams and Jefferson.^{[97]: 394–95}

In accordance with the second of the aforementioned plans, and a recent personal rift with Adams,^[47]: 351 Hamilton wrote a pamphlet called Letter from Alexander Hamilton, Concerning the Public Conduct and Character of John Adams, Esq. President of the United States that was highly critical of him, though it closed with a tepid endorsement.^[97]: 396 He mailed this to two hundred leading Federalists; when a copy fell into the Democratic-Republicans' hands, they printed it. This hurt Adams's re-election campaign and split the Federalist Party, virtually assuring the victory of the Democratic-Republican Party, led by Jefferson, in the election of 1800; it diminished Hamilton's position among many Federalists.^[citation ^needed]

Jefferson had beaten Adams, but both he and Aaron Burr had received 73 votes in the Electoral College. With Jefferson and Burr tied, the House of Representatives had to choose between the two men.^{[47]: 352 [97]: 399} Several Federalists who opposed Jefferson supported Burr, and for the first 35 ballots, Jefferson was denied a majority. Before the 36th ballot, Hamilton threw his weight behind Jefferson, supporting the arrangement reached by James A. Bayard of Delaware, in which five Federalist representatives from Maryland and Vermont abstained from voting, allowing those states' delegations to go for Jefferson, ending the impasse and electing Jefferson president rather than Burr.^{[47]: 350–51}

Even though Hamilton did not like Jefferson and disagreed with him on many issues, he viewed Jefferson as the lesser of two evils. Hamilton spoke of Jefferson as being "by far not so a dangerous man" and of Burr as a "mischievous enemy" to the principal measure of the past administration.^[194] It was for that reason, along with the fact that Burr was a northerner and not a Virginian, that many Federalist representatives voted for him.^{[195][contradictory]}

Hamilton wrote many letters to friends in Congress to convince the members to see otherwise.^{[47]: 352 [97]: 401} The Federalists rejected Hamilton's diatribe as reasons to not vote for Burr,^{[47]: 353 [97]: 401} although historian Cokie Roberts claimed that Hamilton's campaign against Burr was a major reason Burr failed to win in the end.^[196] Nevertheless, Burr would become vice president after losing to Jefferson. When it became clear that Jefferson had developed his own concerns about Burr and would not support his return to the vice presidency,^[197] Burr sought the New York governorship in 1804 with Federalist support, against the Jeffersonian Morgan Lewis, but was defeated by forces including Hamilton.^[198]

Duel with Burr and death

Main article: Burr–Hamilton duel

A 1901 illustration of Burr wounding Hamilton in their 1804 duel in Weehawken, New Jersey

Hamilton's tomb in Trinity Church Cemetery in Lower Manhattan

Soon after Lewis' gubernatorial victory, the Albany Register published Charles D. Cooper's letters, citing Hamilton's opposition to Burr and alleging that Hamilton had expressed "a still more despicable opinion" of the vice president at an upstate New York dinner party.^[199][200] Cooper claimed that the letter was intercepted after relaying the information, but stated he was "unusually cautious" in recollecting the information from the dinner.^[201]

Burr, sensing an attack on his honor, and recovering from his defeat, demanded an apology in the form of a letter. Hamilton wrote a letter in response and ultimately refused because he could not recall the instance of insulting Burr. Hamilton would also have been accused of recanting Cooper's letter out of cowardice.^{[97]: 423–24} After a series of attempts to reconcile were to no avail, a duel was arranged through liaisons on June 27, 1804.^[97]: 426

The concept of honor was fundamental to Hamilton's vision of himself and of the nation.^[202] Historians have noted, as evidence of the importance that honor held in Hamilton's value system, that Hamilton had previously been a party to seven "affairs of honor" as a principal, and to three as an advisor or second.^[203] Such affairs of honor were often concluded prior to reaching the final stage of a duel.^[203]

Before the duel, Hamilton wrote an explanation of his decision to participate while at the same time intending to "throw away" his shot.^[204] His desire to be available for future political matters also played a factor.^[199] A week before the duel, at an annual Independence Day dinner of the Society of the Cincinnati, both Hamilton and Burr were in attendance.

Separate accounts confirm that Hamilton was uncharacteristically effusive while Burr was, by contrast, uncharacteristically withdrawn. Accounts also agree that Burr became roused when Hamilton, again uncharacteristically, sang a favorite song, which recent scholarship indicates that it was "How Stands the Glass Around", an anthem sung by military troops about fighting and dying in war.^[205]

The duel began at dawn on July 11, 1804, along the west bank of the Hudson River on a rocky ledge in Weehawken, New Jersey.^[206] Both opponents were rowed over from Manhattan separately from different locations, as the spot was not accessible from the west due to the steepness of the adjoining cliffs.

Coincidentally, the duel took place relatively close to the location of the duel that had ended the life of Hamilton's eldest son, Philip, three years earlier.^[207] Lots were cast for the choice of position and which second should start the duel. Both were won by Hamilton's second, who chose the upper edge of the ledge for Hamilton facing the city to the east, toward the rising sun.^[208]

After the seconds had measured the paces Hamilton, according to both William P. Van Ness and Burr, raised his pistol "as if to try the light" and had to wear his glasses to prevent his vision from being obscured.^[209] Hamilton also refused the more sensitive hairspring setting for the dueling pistols offered by Nathaniel Pendleton, and Burr was unaware of the option.^[210]

Vice President Burr shot Hamilton, delivering what proved to be a fatal wound. Hamilton's shot broke a tree branch directly above Burr's head.^[170] Neither of the seconds, Pendleton nor Van Ness, could determine who fired first,^[211] as each claimed that the other man had fired first.^[210]

Soon after, they measured and triangulated the shooting, but could not determine from which angle Hamilton had fired. Burr's shot hit Hamilton in the lower abdomen above his right hip. The bullet ricocheted off Hamilton's second or third false rib, fracturing it and causing considerable damage to his internal organs, particularly his liver and diaphragm, before becoming lodged in his first or second lumbar vertebra.^{[97]: 429 [212]}

The biographer Ron Chernow considers the circumstances to indicate that, after taking deliberate aim, Burr fired second,^[213] while the biographer James Earnest Cooke suggests that Burr took careful aim and shot first, and Hamilton fired while falling, after being struck by Burr's bullet.^[214]

The paralyzed Hamilton was immediately attended by the same surgeon who tended Phillip Hamilton, and ferried to the Greenwich Village boarding house of his friend William Bayard Jr., who had been waiting on the dock.^[215] On his deathbed, Hamilton asked the Episcopal Bishop of New York, Benjamin Moore, to give him holy communion.^[216]

Moore initially declined to do so on the grounds that participating in a duel was a mortal sin and that Hamilton, although undoubtedly sincere in his faith, was not a member of the Episcopalian denomination.^[217] After leaving, Moore was persuaded to return that afternoon by the urgent pleas of Hamilton's friends. Upon receiving Hamilton's solemn assurance that he repented for his part in the duel, Moore gave him communion.^[217]

After final visits from his family, friends, and considerable suffering for at least 31 hours, Hamilton died at two o'clock the following afternoon, July 12, 1804,^[215][218] at Bayard's home just below the present Gansevoort Street.^[219] The city fathers halted all business at noon two days later for Hamilton's funeral.

The procession route of about two miles organized by the Society of the Cincinnati had so many participants of every class of citizen that it took hours to complete and was widely reported nationwide by newspapers.^[220] Moore conducted the funeral service at Trinity Church.^[216] Gouverneur Morris gave the eulogy and secretly established a fund to support his widow and children.^[221] Hamilton was buried in the church's cemetery.^[222]

Religion

Hamilton's religious faith

As a youth in the West Indies, Hamilton was an orthodox and conventional Presbyterian of the New Lights; he was mentored there by a former student of John Witherspoon, a moderate of the New School.^[223] He wrote two or three hymns, which were published in the local newspaper.^[224] Robert Troup, his college roommate, noted that Hamilton was "in the habit of praying on his knees night and morning".^[225]: 10

According to Gordon Wood, Hamilton dropped his youthful religiosity during the Revolution and became "a conventional liberal with theistic inclinations who was an irregular churchgoer at best"; however, he returned to religion in his last years.^[226] Chernow wrote that Hamilton was nominally an Episcopalian, but:

[H]e was not clearly affiliated with the denomination and did not seem to attend church regularly or take communion. Like Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson, Hamilton had probably fallen under the sway of deism, which sought to substitute reason for revelation and dropped the notion of an active God who intervened in human affairs. At the same time, he never doubted God's existence, embracing Christianity as a system of morality and cosmic justice.^[227]

...

Legacy

Constitution

Hamilton's interpretations of the Constitution set forth in The Federalist Papers remain highly influential, as seen in scholarly studies and court decisions.^[238] Although the Constitution was ambiguous as to the exact balance of power between national and state governments, Hamilton consistently took the side of greater federal power at the expense of the states.^[239] As Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton found himself in opposition to then Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, who opposed establishing a de facto central bank. Hamilton justified the creation of this bank, and other federal powers, under Congress's constitutional authority to issue currency, regulate interstate commerce, and do anything else that would be "necessary and proper" to enact the provisions of the Constitution.^[240]

Jefferson, however, took a stricter view of the Constitution. Parsing the text carefully, he found no specific authorization for the establishment of a national bank. This controversy was eventually settled in McCulloch v. Maryland, which essentially adopted Hamilton's view, granting the federal government broad freedom to select the best means to execute its constitutionally enumerated powers, essentially confirming the doctrine of implied powers.^[240] Nevertheless, the American Civil War and the Progressive Era demonstrated the sorts of crises and politics Hamilton's administrative republic sought to avoid.^[241][how?]

Hamilton's policies have had great influence on the development of the U.S. government. His constitutional interpretation, particularly of the Necessary and Proper Clause, set precedents for federal authority that are still used by the courts and are considered an authority on constitutional interpretation. French diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, who spent 1794 in the United States, wrote, "I consider Napoleon, Fox, and Hamilton the three greatest men of our epoch, and if I were forced to decide between the three, I would give without hesitation the first place to Hamilton," adding that Hamilton had intuited the problems of European conservatives.^[242]

Opinions of Hamilton run the gamut. Both Adams and Jefferson viewed him as unprincipled and dangerously aristocratic. Hamilton's reputation was mostly negative in the eras of Jeffersonian democracy and Jacksonian democracy. The older Jeffersonian view attacked Hamilton as a centralizer, sometimes to the point of accusations that he advocated monarchy.^[243] By the Progressive Era, Herbert Croly, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Theodore Roosevelt praised his leadership of a strong government. Several Republicans in 19th and 20th centuries entered politics by writing laudatory biographies of Hamilton.^[244]

According to Princeton University historian Sean Wilentz, more recent views of Hamilton and his reputation have been favorable among scholars, who portray Hamilton as the visionary architect of the modern liberal capitalist economy and of a dynamic federal government headed by an energetic executive.^[245] Conversely, modern scholars favoring Hamilton have portrayed Jefferson and his allies as naïve, dreamy idealists.^[245]

Slavery

Hamilton is not known to have ever owned slaves, although members of his family were slave owners. At the time of her death, Hamilton's mother owned two slaves and wrote a will leaving them to her sons. However, due to their illegitimacy, Hamilton and his brother were held ineligible to inherit her property and never took ownership of the slaves.^[246]: 17 Later, as a youth in Saint Croix, Hamilton worked for a company trading in commodities that included slaves.^[246]: 17 In later life he occasionally handled slave transactions as the legal representative of his own family members, and one of his grandsons interpreted some of these journal entries as being purchases for himself.^[247][248] In 1840, his son John maintained that his father "never owned a slave; but on the contrary, having learned that a domestic whom he had hired was about to be sold by her master, he immediately purchased her freedom."^[249]

By the time of Hamilton's early participation in the American Revolution, his abolitionist sensibilities had become evident. He was active during the Revolutionary War in trying to raise black troops for the army with the promise of freedom. In the 1780s and 1790s, Hamilton generally opposed pro-slavery southern interests, which he saw as hypocritical to the values of the revolution. In 1785, he joined his close associate John Jay in founding the New York Manumission Society, which successfully promoted the abolition of the international slave trade in New York City and passed a state law to end slavery in New York through a decades-long process of emancipation with a final end to slavery in the state on July 4, 1827.^[246]

At a time when most white leaders doubted the capacity of blacks, Hamilton believed slavery was morally wrong and wrote that "their natural faculties are as good as ours."^[250] Unlike contemporaries such as Jefferson, who considered the removal of freed slaves to a western territory, West Indies, or Africa to be essential to any plan for emancipation, Hamilton pressed for emancipation without such provisions.^[246]: 22 Hamilton and other Federalists supported the Haitian Revolution, which had originated as a slave revolt.^[246]: 23 His suggestions helped shape the Haitian constitution. In 1804, when Haiti became an independent state with a majority Black population, Hamilton urged closer economic and diplomatic ties.^[246]: 23

Economics

Hamilton has appeared on the United States ten-dollar bill since 1928

Hamilton has been portrayed as the patron saint^[251] of the American School economic philosophy that, according to one historian, later dominated American economic policy after 1861.^[251] His ideas and work influenced the 19th century German economist Friedrich List^[252] and Abraham Lincoln's chief economic advisor, Henry Charles Carey.^[253]

As early as the fall of 1781, Hamilton firmly supported government intervention in favor of business after the manner of Jean-Baptiste Colbert.^{[254][255][256]} In contrast to the British policy of international mercantilism, which he believed skewed benefits to colonial and imperial powers, Hamilton was a pioneering advocate of protectionism.^[257] He is credited with the idea that industrialization would only be possible with tariffs to protect the "infant industries" of an emerging nation.^[142]

Public administration

Main article: Public administration

Political theorists credit Hamilton with the creation of the modern administrative state, citing his arguments in favor of a strong executive, linked to the support of the people, as the linchpin of an administrative republic.^[258][259] The dominance of executive leadership in the formulation and carrying out of policy was, in his view, essential to resist the deterioration of a republican government.^[260] Some scholars have raised similarities between Hamiltonian recommendations and the development of Meiji Japan as evidence of the global influence of Hamilton's theory.^[261]

References....

Alexander Hamilton - Wikipedia

Knowledge Web Content (see main node)

Name: Alexander Hamilton

Achievements: First Secretary of the Treasury of the United States.

Born: January 11, 1757; Nevis, British West Indies.

Died: July 12, 1804; New York City (Aged 49)

Field & Discipline: Government & Politics; Economics; Law; Lawyer; Statesman

Language: English; French

Father: James Hamilton

Mother: Rachel Faucette Levein

Siblings: James

Spouse: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

Children: Alexander; James Alexander; John Church; Philip; William Stephen; Angelica; Eliza

Education: King’s College, New York

Major Work:

“The Federalist” (1787-88)

Life & Times:

Hamilton’s father emigrated to the British West Indies hoping to make his fortune as a merchant. Unsuccessful in business and estranged from his relatives in Scotland, he abandoned his family in 1766, leaving them destitute.

When Hamilton’s mother died two years later her relatives sent him to work as a clerk for Nicolas Cruger, an importer from New York. Hamilton showed remarkable talent and ambition, attracting the attention of Presbyterian minister Hugh Knox. Knox invited Hamilton to use his library to study and encouraged him to write.

When one of Hamilton’s essays was published in the local paper and received rave reviews, Knox and Cruger raised money to send him to school in the United States, where he studied at a preparatory school in Elizabethtown, New Jersey.

He lived at the home of William Livingston, a member of one of New York’s most powerful families and a friend of Knox. At the Livingston estate, Hamilton met members of the social and political elite of New York, including [knew] Gouverneur Morris* and [knew]Jay*.

Hamilton enrolled at King’s College (now Columbia University) in the fall of 1773. The American independence movement filled him with passion for his newly adopted country and he wrote several pamphlets in support of the cause. Published anonymously, the pamphlets were so impressive that they were attributed to John Jay. In March 1776 Hamilton joined an artillery company as captain.

A year later he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and became an aide-de-camp to [a pal of] Washington*. Hamilton gained Washington’s trust and respect and the two formed a close friendship that would last until Washington’s death in 1799.

While serving at headquarters. Hamilton was often frustrated by the difficulties the army faced in procuring funding from the states. He wrote letters to [corresponded with] Robert Morris*, the superintendent of finance, in which he analyzed the financial weaknesses of the government. In July of 1781 he led a battalion against [fought] Cornwallis* at the siege of Yorktown.

After the war Hamilton settled in New York City with his new wife Elizabeth and practiced law. He was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1786 and joined the state delegation to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787.

Hamilton took a strong nationalist stance at the convention. As a foreigner. he did not have the regional loyalties that led other delegates to resist the formation of a strong central government.

On his return to New York Hamilton embarked on a writing campaign in defense of the proposed Constitution. Together with Jay and James Madison he wrote The Federalist. a series of essays that appeared in newspapers under the pen name Publius. The Federalist is still widely read today for its interpretation of Constitutional powers.

At the ratifying convention in New York. Hamilton was the head of a pro-Constitution minority that also included Jay and [worked with] Robert R Livingston*. His formidable debating powers swayed the opposition, making New York’s ratification of the Constitution a personal victory for Hamilton.

When President Washington chose his first cabinet members in 1789 Madison and Morris recommended Hamilton as secretary of the Treasury. Congress asked Hamilton to come up with a plan to settle the new nation’s debts. He responded with three reports, delivered to Congress in 1790-91.

In Reports on the Public Credit he recommended funding the debt through the issuance of stock certificates and a system of taxation. Report on a National Bank proposed a national bank that would combine public and private funds, creating a shared interest between government and business. Hamilton believed that the United States needed a manufacturing base in order to become a strong nation.

His vision of transforming the economy from agriculture to manufacturing was outlined in his Report on Manufactures, which recommended government support for industry. Hamilton had read The Wealth of Nations by [disagreed with ideas of] Adam Smith* but he did not agree with its [disagreed with theory of] laissez-faire* doctrine. The Report on Manufactures was the only part of his program that was not approved by Congress.

In 1790 Hamilton established the Revenue Cutter Service. which eventually became the [founded] US Coast Guard*.

Hamilton was surprised when his ideas met with resistance from within the cabinet, notably from Secretary of State [opposed by] Jefferson*. A country gentleman who distrusted commerce, Jefferson found little to agree with in Hamilton’s economic program.

Further tensions arose over foreign policy when war broke out between France and England. Hamilton argued that the Revolutionary War alliance with France was no longer valid, while Jefferson claimed it was.

The rift between Hamilton and Jefferson resulted in the formation of political parties. Jefferson and Madison, Hamilton’s former ally, created the Republican Party in opposition to Hamilton’s Federalists. Hamilton was dismayed by this development, which he felt would weaken the government. He left the cabinet in 1795 but continued to wield considerable influence with Washington and other cabinet members. He drafted Washington’s Farewell Address of 1796.

Jefferson ran for President in the election of 1800 with [shot by] Burr* as his running mate. At that time, votes were cast separately for candidates on the same ticket. When Burr received the same number of votes as Jefferson the House of Representatives had to decide the election. The Federalists wanted to throw the election to Burr, but Hamilton convinced them not to.

Hamilton disliked Jefferson but believed him to be a man of principle, a view he did not hold of Burr. Jefferson won the election but Hamilton lost credibility within his party for supporting his political enemy. Burr courted the Federalist vote again in 1804 when he ran for governor of New York. but Hamilton gave his support to Burr’s Republican opponent.

Twice thwarted by Hamilton, and quoting remarks Hamilton allegedly made against his character, Burr demanded satisfaction in the form of a duel. Hamilton was opposed to dueling but felt compelled to accept the challenge. The two men met on July 11 in Weekawken, New Jersey. Hamilton, the former artillery captain. threw away his shot and fell to Burr’s.

He was taken to a friend’s home in New York where he died the next day.

Extra Connections: Hamilton was lawyer to [lawyer to] Eleuthère Irénée du Pont* and helped him secure the rights to the land in Delaware that would become the site of [helped set up] E.I. du Pont* Company.

He was influenced by the ideas of [influenced by] Hume*

He knew [knew] Catherine Greene*. He was a colleague of Declaration of Independence signer [ was a colleague of Declaration of Independence signer ]George Clymer*, [ was a colleague of Declaration of Independence signer ]John Adams*,

[ was a colleague of Declaration of Independence signer ]George Read*, [ was a colleague of Declaration of Independence signer ]Samuel Chase*, [ was a colleague of Declaration of Independence signer ]Charles Carroll* of Carrollton, [ was a colleague of Declaration of Independence signer ]Richard Henry Lee*, [ was a colleague of Declaration of Independence signer ]Lewis Morris*, [ was a colleague of Declaration of Independence signer ]Thomas McKean*, [ was a colleague of Declaration of Independence signer ] Benjamin Franklin*

Assessment: Hamilton is remembered as one of America’s first nationalists. His vision for the nation was one of economic strength and political unity, and went far beyond the loose confederation of states that existed in his day.

Oneliner: Alexander Hamilton. first US Treasury Secretary

Bibliography:

Brookheiser. Richard. Alexander Hamilton – American. The Free Press. New York. 1999.
Emery. Noemie. Alexander Hamilton: An Intimate Portrait. G.P. Putnam’s Sons. New York. 1982.