Alexander Hamilton
| Famous as | Economist, Political Philosopher, Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury |
| Born on | 11 January 1755 |
| Born in | Nevis, British West Indies |
| Died on | 12 July 1804 |
| Nationality | United States |
| Works & Achievements | First U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Co-author of The Federalist Papers, First New York delegate chosen to the Constitutional Convention |
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Childhood & Personal Life
There are disputes regarding Alexander Hamilton's birth date. In
the probate court papers from St. Croix, a relative, Peter Lytton,
stated that when his mother died, Hamilton was only 13 years old. This
indicates 1755 as the year of his birth. However, throughout his life,
Hamilton identified 1757 as his birth year. Till date, the matter has
not been resolved, as no birth or christening records have been found to
confirm or deny either of the two birth years. Hamilton was born in
Charlestown, the capital of Nevis in the British West Indies, to Rachel
Faucett Lavien and James Hamilton.
Hamilton's had previously escaped an unhappy marriage, when she
separated from Johann Michael Lavien (and her first-born son as well).
Later on, Rachel met James, in the year 1750. As she had inherited
property from her father in Nevis, they moved together to Rachel's
birthplace, where Hamilton was born. He also had a brother - James Jr.
In 1765, Hamilton's family moved to Christiansted, St. Croix, because of
his father's business assignment. Sometime after reaching there, James
dumped Rachel as well as his two sons. Following this, Rachel started
working in a small store in Christiansted, to support her family.
Rachel died of a severe fever on February 19, 1768. After becoming
an orphan, Hamilton started working as a clerk at Beekman and Cruger, a
local import-export firm that traded with New England. In 1771, while
the owner of his firm was at sea, Hamilton was left in charge for five
months. Some time later, Hamilton was adopted by a Nevis merchant,
Thomas Stevens. However, he
continued working as a clerk. While he continued to be an avid reader,
it was around this time only that he developed an interest in writing as
well.
Education
Initially, Alexander Hamilton was denied education in the church
school, because his parents were not legally married. So, he had
self-educated himself, with the help of a family library of thirty-four books,
including Greek and Roman classics. He also developed a command on
French language, after learning the language from his mother. However,
in 1772, Hamilton received education from a grammar school in
Elizabethtown, New Jersey. He studied with Francis Barber at
Elizabethtown in 1773. He then decided to attend King's College (now
Columbia University), in New York City, getting a Bachelor’s of Arts
degree in just one year.
Military Career
In 1775, Alexander Hamilton joined a New York volunteer militia
company, called the 'Hearts of Oak', which included other students from
King's College. He studied military history and tactics and achieved the
rank of lieutenant in the company. He led a successful raid for British
cannon in the Battery, capturing it. In 1776, Hamilton raised the New
York Provincial Company of Artillery, which consisted of sixty men,
through his connections with influential patriots of New York, like Alexander McDougall and John Jay.
Hamilton was later elected as the captain of New York Provincial
Company of Artillery. He was offered to serve on the staff of Lord
Stirling, but declined and decided to carry on his career with the
artillery effectively. In the hopes of obtaining a place on Washington's
staff, Hamilton declined to become an aide to Nathanael Greene and
other generals. In late 1776, he joined Washington's aide as a
Lieutenant Colonel. Later, he became Washington's Chief of Staff and
served in the capacity for four years.
Hamilton soon become one of Washington's most trusted advisers and
his responsibilities included drafting letters to Congress, state
governors, and the most powerful generals in the Continental Army. He
had power to issue orders from Washington under his own signature.
Working with Washington Staff, Hamilton performed a variety of
high-level duties, such as intelligence, diplomacy, and negotiation. In
February 1781, Hamilton resigned from his post. In the same year,
Washington gave him the command of a battalion of light infantry in the
Marquis de Lafayette's corps.
Congress and the Army
While still serving On Washington's staff, Alexander Hamilton
became frustrated with the wartime Continental Congress and the fact
that was dependent upon the states for financial support and ended up
resigning his commission. In November 1782, Hamilton was elected to the
Congress of the Confederation, as a New York representative. While he
was there, several Congressmen from that area, including Hamilton,
Gouverneur Morris, James Wilson, and James Madison, were trying to
provide the Congress with an independent source of revenue, which it
lacked under the Articles of Confederation.
While Hamilton was still in Congress, most of the army was posted at Newburgh,
New York, paying for its own supplies. The dissatisfied soldiers, who
had not been paid in eight months, began to pose a danger to the young
United States. After Valley Forge, in May 1778, the Continental officers
had been promised, a pension of half their pay, after they were
discharged. A group of officers at Newburgh organized
under the leadership of General Henry Knox and sent a delegation to
lobby Congress. Their three demands were: the Army's pay, their own
pensions and the commutation of pensions into a lump-sum payment.
Hamilton and other congressmen decided to use the event, to gain
support for funding for the federal government in Congress and from the
states. He also proposed national funding system. However, the plan was
not successful. In April 1783, Congress ordered the officially
disbanding of the Army. In the same month, a new measure for a
twenty-five-year impost was passed by the Congress and Hamilton voted
against it. Perturbed and annoyed at the weakness of the central
government, Hamilton drafted a call to revise the Articles of
Confederation while in Princeton.
Resigning From Congress & Law Practice
Alexander Hamilton resigned from the Congress in July 1783.
Following this, he began a law practice in New York City. In 1784, he
founded the Bank of New York (the oldest ongoing banking organization in
the United States till date). Hamilton was one of the men who restored
King's College, which had been severely damaged in 1776 - during the
Battle of Long Island, as Columbia College. While attending the
Annapolis Convention in 1786, as a delegate, he drafted its resolution
for a Constitutional convention, in which he desired to have a more
powerful, more financially independent federal government.
Constitution and Federalist Papers
In 1787, Hamilton was the first New York delegate chosen to the
Constitutional Convention. He also served as assemblyman in the New York
State Legislature, but his influence was quite limited. The other two
delegates of the New York legislature, along with Hamilton, were John
Lansing and Robert Yates and both of them opposed his goal of a strong
national government. His most important speech in the Convention called
for a new government in United States, which seemed to other delegates
as 'monarchial' and was unacceptable to most of them. Hamilton
constructed a draft for the Constitution during the convention, on the
basis of the convention debates, but these drafts were never presented.
According to Hamilton's draft, the Senate was to be elected in
proportion to population and it had to be two-fifth to the size of the
House. He also proposed that the President and Senators be elected
through multistage elections, in which chosen electors would elect
smaller bodies of electors. They would hold office for life, but could
be removed for misconduct. The Supreme Court was to have immediate
authority over all law suits involving the United States. Last, but not
the least, Hamilton's draft required that State governors be appointed
by the federal government. Though he was not too impressed with the
final form of constitution, he signed it and urged other delegates to do
the same.
In 1787, Hamilton decided to write a series of essays on behalf of
the proposed Constitution. He wrote 51 of them and got 29 written by
Madison and 5 by Jay. These essays were first published in New York City
newspapers, under the pseudonym "Publius", and later collectively
called 'The Federalist Papers'. These essays were designed to convince
the people of New York to ratify the Constitution. In 1788, these essays
were published in the book form. Later, 'The Federalist Papers' were
republished in many editions and languages. Today, they constitute one
of America's most original and important contributions to political
philosophy
Secretary of the Treasury
On September 11, 1789, Hamilton was appointed the first U.S.
Secretary of the Treasury, by George Washington and held the post till
January 1795. In 1790-91, he submitted five reports. The first Report
was on the Public Credit, which was communicated to the House of
Representatives on January 14, 1790. In this report, Hamilton made a
proposal that the federal government should assume state debts which
were sustained during the Revolution. The proposal faced several
controversies and criticism.
Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Representative James
Madison criticized 'Public Credit' by arguing that the plan has passed
beyond the scope of the new Constitutional government. In the end,
Hamilton's proposals for funding the debt overcame legislative
opposition and were passed on July 26, 1790. Hamilton's second report
was 'Operations of the Act Laying Duties on Imports', which was
communicated to the House of Representatives on April 23, 1790. On
December 14, 1790 Hamilton submitted 'Second Report on Public Credit', a
Report on a National Bank.
The fourth report submitted by Hamilton was on the 'Establishment
of a Mint', communicated on January 28, 1791 (He later helped in
founding the United States Mint, such as the first national bank, a
System of Cutters - forming the Revenue Cutter Service that is now known
as the United States Coast Guard, and an elaborate system of duties,
tariffs, and excises. This whole program was aim at replacing the messy
financial system of the confederation, with a modern system that gave
financial stability to the new government and sufficient confidence to
investors to invest in government bonds (the aim was successful).
The fifth, and the last report of Hamilton, was on 'Manufactures',
which he communicated to the House of Representatives on December 5,
1791. Without much debate, Congress rejected this report. Hamilton also
submitted other significant reports while serving as the U.S. Secretary
of State, many of which Congress accepted. One of the reports included a
plan for an excise tax on whiskey, which became the main reason for
Whiskey Rebellion in 1794.
Retirement From Federal Service
During his term as the U.S. Secretary of State, Hamilton was
repeatedly investigated for some of the most serious charges, such as
the Reynolds affair. In 1790, he was involved in an incident, in which
the money that Congress had appropriated to pay the European creditors
of the United States was used by Hamilton, towards his domestic
expenditure.Hamilton was not able to provide any evidence against this
charge, proving his innocence. He tried to give excuse by saying that he
had been authorized to act so, by Washington.
When consulted Washington was confronted in this context, he could
not remember the transaction and simply preferred to remain away from
the case.Hamilton was very angry with Washington that he was trusted
unconditionally and resigned as Secretary of the Treasury, on December
1, 1794. Hamilton's resignation as Secretary of the Treasury became
effective in 1795.Even after that, he remained close to Washington and
his family, mainly as an adviser and a friend.
Last Years & Death
In his last years, Alexander Hamilton worked as a Prominent Lawyer
and Army General. Hamilton also established a daily newspaper, New-York
Evening Post, in the year 1801 (the oldest continually-published daily
newspaper in the U.S., now known as the New York Post). It was with the
help of Hamilton that Morgan Lewis defeated Burr, in the election in New
York, in 1804. This proved to be the reason of a conflict between
Hamilton and Burr. On July 11, 1804, the two exchanged shots, on the New
Jersey side of the Hudson River, leaving Hamilton mortally wounded.
Being fatally injured, Hamilton died the next afternoon.
Personal Life
On December 14, 1780 Hamilton married Elizabeth Schuyler at
Schuyler Mansion in Albany, New York. She was daughter of General Philip
Schuyler. After marrying Elizabeth, Hamilton became member of one of
the richest and most political families in the state of New York. They
had eight children - Phillip, Angelica, Alexander, James Alexander, John
Church, William Stephen, Eliza and Phillip. In 1791, he became involved
in an affair with Maria Reynolds, the wife of James Reynolds. The
affair badly damaged his reputation for the rest of his life. Hamilton's
wife Elizabeth survived him for fifty years, until 1854.
Legacy
By formulating federal programs, Hamilton set an example as a
Cabinet member. Another legacy of Hamilton was his pro-federal
interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. As a Secretary of the Treasury,
he established the country's first national bank, against the intense
opposition of Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson.During the Cuban
Missile Crisis, in 1962, the Navy of the United States used the
intership communication protocols that Hamilton had written for the
original U.S. Coast Guard. His constitutional interpretation of the
'Necessary and Proper Clause' is still used by the courts and is
considered as an authority on constitutional interpretation.
Honors
Hamilton's portrait began to appear on U.S. currency, by the time
of the American Civil War. It could be seen on the notes of US $2, $5,
$10, and $50. Even after the Civil War, his face continues to appear on
the US $10 bill, in the form of John Trumbull's portrait. It was picked
up from the portrait collection of New York City Hall. Hamilton can also
be seen on the $500 Series EE Savings Bond. A statue of Hamilton can be
seen on the south side of the Treasury Building in Washington, D.C.
Hamilton's upper Manhattan home has been preserved as Hamilton
Grange National Memorial, with his statue adorning its entrance. There
are many towns throughout the United States, which have been named after
him. Alexander Hamilton was one of the first trustees of the
Hamilton-Oneida Academy. The school was formally renamed as Hamilton
College in 1812. In front of the school's chapel, one can find a big
statue of Alexander Hamilton, which is commonly referred to as the
"Al-Ham" statue.
An extensive collection of Hamilton's personal documents can be
found in the Burke Library. In Columbia College,the main classroom
building for humanities is referred to as the 'Hamilton Hall' and has a
prominent statue of Hamilton stands in the front. Hamilton's complete
works have been published in a multivolume letterpress edition, by the
university press. Last, but not the least, the main administration
building of the Coast Guard Academy has been named Hamilton Hall, in the
memory of great man.
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Timeline: |
1755 - Alexander Hamilton was born.
1775 - Joined a New York volunteer militia company - 'Hearts of Oak'
1776 - Joined George Washington’s staff
1776 - Raised the New York Provincial Company of Artillery
1780 - Married Elizabeth Schuyler
1782 - Elected to the Congress of Confederation, as a New York representative
1788 - The Federalist essays first published in book form
1789 - Appointed as the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
1791 - Got involved in an affair with Maria Reynolds
1801 - Established a daily newspaper 'New-York Evening Post'
1804 - Alexander Hamilton died
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