The man known to history as Alexander Hamilton
was born in Charlestown, the capital of the island of Nevis in the British Leeward Islands,
which now forms part of the island nation of St Kitts and Nevis. Although his birthday was the 11th of January,
the year of his birth remains the subject of some historical debate, and while as an
adult Hamilton claimed to have been born in 1757, several documents from his childhood
suggest that he was actually born in 1755. His father James Hamilton was born around
1718, the fourth son of a Scottish landowner, the Laird of Grange in Ayrshire, and in 1741
he travelled across the Atlantic to St Kitts hoping to make his fortune in the sugar business. In the 18th century, the Caribbean islands
including Nevis were the home of sugar plantations generating vast amounts of wealth for the
European colonial powers. The venture proved unsuccessful for James,
and he had to be bailed out by his brothers and family friends back home in Scotland. As his parents were unmarried at the time
of his birth, Hamilton had a difficult childhood and was always reluctant to discuss his upbringing
in later life. Hamilton’s mother was Rachel Facuette, the
daughter of a French Huguenot physician and an Englishwoman. Born in Nevis around 1729, she’d moved to
the Danish island of St Croix with her mother where she married a Danish man named Johann
Michael Lavien at the age of sixteen. Although they had a son together named Peter,
the marriage was an unhappy one, and by 1750 Rachel had left her husband, who responded
by having her imprisoned for adultery. After her release, she fled St Croix leaving
her husband and son behind without obtaining a divorce. In the early 1750s, Rachel Lavien, would meet
James Hamilton in St Kitts, she was a young woman around ten years his junior who, at
the time remained married to her estranged husband. Despite this legal impediment the couple would
live together as James and Rachel Hamilton for around fifteen years during which time
Rachel gave birth to two children, James junior and Alexander. Alexander Hamilton was therefore born into
the layer of West Indian society below that of the plantation owners and slaveholders,
but above the slaves. However, as an illegitimate child, he was
denied the formal schooling provided by the Church of England and would have received
lessons privately, while his mother may have taught him to speak French fluently. On Nevis he witnessed the cruel nature of
a slaveholding society with public whippings and slave-auctions commonplace. The ordeal of a slave working on sugar plantations
was particularly hard, and three out of every five slaves died within five years of their
arrival from Africa. In February 1759, Johann Lavien finally decided
to request a divorce from Rachel but the terms of the separation were such that he was free
to remarry but she could not. In 1765, Rachel returned to St Croix while
James was carrying out some business on behalf of his brother in Glasgow, but after this
was accomplished in January 1766, he abandoned his family forever. The reasons behind this are unclear, but Alexander
later suggested that his father had run out of money to support them. Though some say he wanted to spare Rachel
the indignity of being charged with bigamy. Rachel made a living as a shopkeeper in Christiansted
while hiring out the five slaves she inherited from her mother. Living above the shop, Alexander had access
to a library of 34 books, and although no record of them survives, the poetry of Alexander
Pope, Plutarch’s Lives and Machiavelli’s The Prince were among the earliest literary
inspirations for the young Hamilton. At this time, he received tuition from a private
school run by a Jewish headmistress. Further tragedy would follow the family on
the 19th of February 1768 when Rachel died from a fever that Alexander also contracted
and almost succumbed to. Rachel’s meagre inheritance passed to Peter
Lavien, her sole legitimate son, leaving Alexander and his brother James penniless. They were transferred to the care of their
32-year-old cousin Peter Lytton, only for him to commit suicide in July 1769 without
mentioning them in his will. Following Peter’s death, the two Hamilton
brothers were separated for good. James was apprenticed to an old carpenter,
while Alexander worked as a clerk for the trading firm Kortright and Cruger and moved
in with the family of the merchant Thomas Stevens. He became particularly close to Edward Stevens,
one of the five children in the family, and the two teenagers did not only share similar
interests but an extraordinary physical resemblance. This has prompted rumours that Alexander was
the illegitimate son not of James Hamilton, but of Thomas Stevens. This might explain why James Hamilton Senior
abandoned the family so abruptly in 1766, and also might account for the distance Alexander
chose to keep with his father and brother later in life. As a merchant’s clerk, Hamilton learned
how to manage money, convert currencies, keep track of the ships making their perilous journey
across the sea carrying all sorts of commodities for the plantation economy. The young clerk’s talent for organisation
and management was clear, and when Nicholas Cruger returned home to New York for health
reasons in late 1771, the sixteen-year-old Hamilton was left in charge of the operation
for five months. Once a year, Kortright and Cruger would also
become involved in the transport of slaves for sale at auction, and over time this became
an increasingly significant part of the business. The slave population on St Croix doubled in
a decade, which increased the risk of runaway slaves and slave insurrections. Every man over the age of sixteen was to serve
in the island’s militia, which was established to keep an eye on the slave population and
prevent slave revolts. The teenage Hamilton was also a talented writer
and wrote poetry for the Royal Danish American Gazette. In 1772 Hamilton met Hugh Knox, a liberal
Presbyterian minister who allowed the young man to use his library and encouraged him
in his literary exploits. After a devastating hurricane struck St Croix
on the 30th of August 1772, Knox persuaded Hamilton to publish a letter, which he had
sent to his father, describing the impact of the storm. A group of businessmen on the island were
so impressed by the evocative letter that they pooled funds to send its author to North
America for a formal education. After arriving in New York during the winter
of 1772, Hamilton began his studies at Elizabethtown Academy in New Jersey, a preparatory school
on the grounds of a Presbyterian church, where he took courses in Latin, Greek, and mathematics. Being ambitious and always looking to get
ahead in life, Hamilton left Elizabethtown within six months hoping to get into Princeton
College, but his request to embark on a fast-track course of studies was refused, and he instead
went to King’s College in New York, present day Columbia University. When he began his studies in early 1774, Hamilton
received private tutorials without belonging to any class. Although he hoped to be a doctor, Hamilton
read widely and became as familiar with the writings of classical antiquity as he did
with the Enlightenment philosophy of thinkers such as John Locke, David Hume, and Montesquieu. Hamilton arrived in North America during a
period when political tensions were gradually increasing between the thirteen British colonies
in North America and the authorities in London. In 1763, Britain defeated France in the French
and Indian War and conquered Canada, and in order to pay for the defence of their North
American territories, the British Government sought to raise taxes on the colonies. This inspired opposition from the colonists
who demanded political representation in the British Parliament as subjects of the British
Empire, dividing American society between the patriots who resisted Parliament’s demands
and the loyalists who wished to remain on good terms with London. The most notorious piece of taxation was the
Stamp Act of 1765, but despite being repealed the following year, Parliament continued to
assert the right to tax the colonies. In 1767 the Townshend Acts, named after the
British Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, levied duties on paint, lead, glass,
paper, and tea. In response to the threat of a boycott of
British trade in retaliation, Parliament repealed all the taxes except the one on tea in 1769. Although tensions temporarily calmed, on the
16th of December 1773 the patriot organisation Sons of Liberty staged what has become known
as the Boston Tea Party, boarding a ship belonging to the British East India Company and throwing
its precious cargo of tea overboard. By May 1774, the British responded by closing
down the port of Boston and increasing its military garrison in the city. The British response to the Boston Tea Party
prompted the colonies to convene a Continental Congress in Philadelphia to organise a boycott
of British trade. Although New York had a large population that
remained loyal to the British Empire and benefitted from a close economic relationship from London,
there was no shortage of patriots. At a meeting of the New York Sons of Liberty
branch in July 1774, the nineteen-year-old Hamilton astonished the crowd with an electrifying
speech defending the Boston Tea Party, promoting colonial unity and endorsing a boycott, which
he argued “will prove the salvation of North America and her liberties.” Hamilton’s radicalism placed him at odds
with Dr Myles Cooper, the President of King’s College who was one of the most ardent loyalists
in New York, but this did not prevent him from championing the patriot cause in a couple
of anonymous pamphlets that argued that the colonists enjoyed political rights given to
them by God, which Parliament could not take away. Like many patriots, Hamilton’s dispute was
with Parliament rather than King George III, but he welcomed the prospect of a limited
monarchy. Although Britain was a powerful imperial power,
Hamilton suggested that the economic potential of the American colonies was far greater than
that of the mother country. He was not afraid of war with the British
and argued that it would be almost impossible for the British to subdue the Americans if
they adopted irregular tactics and refused to meet the enemy in pitched battle. On the 18th of April 1775, the first shots
of the American Revolutionary War rang out at Concord and Lexington in Massachusetts,
where patriotic militiamen forced the British redcoats to flee back to Boston. When the news reached New York, volunteer
companies sprang up and armed themselves with weapons seized from the City Hall arsenal,
and Hamilton himself joined a militia company and dedicated himself to learning about military
tactics. On the 10th of May, hundreds of protestors
stormed King’s College intent on lynching the hated Myles Cooper. Alerted to their imminent approach, Hamilton
managed to hold the mob at bay for several minutes to allow Cooper to escape out of his
window and onto a ship which carried him to England. The episode reflected Hamilton’s anxiety
that revolutionary fervour might get out of control and lead to anarchy. As a politician and statesman Hamilton would
spend his life trying to find the right balance between liberty from oppression and the maintenance
of political order. On the same day that Cooper made his narrow
escape, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, serving as a forum to strengthen
cooperation between the colonies to more effectively wage war against the British. George Washington of Virginia was appointed
commander-in-chief of the Continental Army on the 15th of June, and a couple of days
later the patriots in Boston demonstrated they were capable of providing strong resistance
to the British at the misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill, with the majority of combat taking place
on Breed’s Hill nearby. By 1776 Hamilton was intensively studying
law, but in April patriot forces commandeered the college and used it as a hospital. In March Hamilton dedicated himself to the
war effort by being appointed captain of an artillery company in the militia, where he
eventually had 68 men under his command. He proved an effective officer and leader
and lobbied hard for his men to receive the same provisions as their counterparts in the
Continental Army. His talents were soon recognised by senior
officers in the Continental Army, including Nathanael Greene, whom Washington considered
his most talented subordinate. After the Continentals captured Boston in
March 1776, Washington rushed to New York anticipating a British assault. In June, a force of 32,000 men and seventy
warships gathered under the command of the brothers General William Howe and Admiral
Richard Howe. As the Howe brothers planned their attack
on the 2nd of July, delegates at the Continental Congress adopted a resolution written by Thomas
Jefferson of Virginia calling for the independence of the thirteen United States of America,
which was passed in its final form on the 4th of July. Hamilton, due to his age, lack of experience
and lack of social status was not qualified to be a member of the congress and so missed
out on signing the crucial document. The words of the Declaration of Independence
had a galvanising effect on the defenders of the city. On the 12th of July, Hamilton’s company
was stationed at the Battery in direct line of fire of two British warships. As the company fired its guns one of the cannons
exploded and killed up to six men, though its captain was not blamed for the incident
and emerged with his military reputation enhanced. On the 26th of August, a force of 6,000 Continentals,
left isolated on Brooklyn Heights, was soundly defeated by the British, but the damage was
limited by a daring night retreat carried out by Washington on the 29th. As the Continentals marched up the Hudson
River out of the city in September, Hamilton’s company was part of the rear-guard which resisted
Howe’s men and sheltered Washington’s main force as it retreated to the Harlem Heights. It was here that Washington met Hamilton for
the first time and received his first impression of the artillery captain’s talent. In late November, Washington was forced to
withdraw to New Jersey, and once again Hamilton distinguished himself by covering the retreat
across the Raritan River. Although seriously ill, he roused himself
to take part in Washington’s daring crossing of the Delaware on the night after Christmas
to surprise the garrison of Hessian mercenaries at Trenton, where the fire from Hamilton’s
guns helped to force the surrender of almost a thousand Hessians. At the Battle of Princeton on the 3rd of June,
Hamilton is said to have deployed his cannon in the grounds of the college, sending a cannonball
through the portrait of King George II in the chapel. These Continental victories gave Washington’s
depleted army the opportunity to recover at winter quarters in Morristown, New Jersey. Hamilton joined Washington at the camp on
the 1st of March and was appointed to his staff as aide-de-camp with the rank of lieutenant
colonel. Although Hamilton expressed some disappointment
at being given a desk job, this was the start of a fruitful partnership which would lead
the two men from the battlefield to the halls of government. Although he was a prosperous landowner and
an experienced politician, Washington was not as articulate as many of the most prominent
American political leaders of the day. As commander-in-chief, he had to deal with
a large volume of correspondence with Congress and the individual states, and Hamilton soon
applied his organisational skills to managing this workload on Washington’s behalf. As de facto chief of staff, he channelled
the commander’s thoughts into orders and letters and was soon allowed to issue orders
with Washington’s authority in his own name. The fact that an illegitimate immigrant could
achieve such heights at the age of 22 was a reflection of the American meritocracy that
Hamilton would forever remain grateful for. As Washington was the closest thing the patriot
cause had to a political leader, Hamilton was also exposed to political debates in Congress. While Washington pleaded for increased supplies
for his army, the representatives of the thirteen states continued to squabble amongst each
other and promote the interests of their own states at the expense of unity. In 1777, Hamilton was joined on Washington’s
staff by two men who would become his closest companions during the war. John Laurens was a few months older than Hamilton
and was the son of Henry Laurens, a wealthy South Carolina politician who became President
of the Continental Congress in November 1777. As a teenager Laurens went to school in Geneva
and studied law in England, and after he returned to North America to take part in the revolutionary
struggle, he proved Hamilton’s equal in intellect and ambition. In July they were joined by the Marquis de
Lafayette, a 19-year-old French nobleman who joined the American cause motivated by both
a genuine commitment to the cause of liberty and a youthful desire for military glory. In late July, Howe’s army left New York
and headed towards Philadelphia, the Continental capital. Although Hamilton was eager to do battle with
the British, Washington was soundly defeated at Brandywine Creek on the 11th of September. While carrying a mission to destroy flour
mills on the Schuylkill River, Hamilton’s boat came under attack, and he was forced
to swim to safety. Anticipating an imminent British attack, he
informed Congress, whose members fled the city and reconvened in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. While Howe delayed his attack on the American
capital, Hamilton was given the delicate task of requisitioning supplies from the city to
bolster Washington’s dwindling supplies while preventing them from falling into the
hands of the British. By setting his sights on Pennsylvania, Howe
had missed the opportunity to cut off the American colonies in two by coordinating operations
with General John Burgoyne in the north. In July Burgoyne had captured Fort Ticonderoga
in upstate New York and was marching southwards to link up with Howe. However, Burgoyne was left isolated by Howe’s
operations against Philadelphia, and on the 7th of October he and his 5,700 men surrendered
to General Horatio Gates at Saratoga. The battle proved a turning point in the war
and prompted France to recognise American independence and join a military alliance
in February 1778. With the north more secure, Washington dispatched
Hamilton to request reinforcements from Gates. After covering 300 miles in five days, Hamilton
used his diplomatic skills to persuade the hero of the hour to give Washington two of
the three brigades asked of him. Using his own initiative, he also managed
to convince General Israel Putnam to send two of his brigades to Washington. The mission took a heavy toll on Hamilton’s
health, and it was only in January 1778 that he re-joined Washington at winter quarters
in Valley Forge. At Valley Forge, Hamilton witnessed an army
that was poorly armed, poorly fed, and poorly clothed. In early 1778, a Prussian officer named Baron
Friedrich von Steuben arrived at Washington’s headquarters. The Prussian army was considered the most
effective and disciplined in Europe, attributes that Washington’s men sorely lacked. Owing to his poor command of English, the
Baron usually spoke French and relied on Hamilton and Laurens as interpreters. Within weeks Steuben drilled the men to march
in formation, load muskets, and fix bayonets and soon revised the army’s drill manual,
with Hamilton acting as translator and editor. Upon receiving news that a French fleet was
sailing across the Atlantic to join up with the Continental Army, the new British commander
Sir Henry Clinton decided to withdraw his 8,000 men from Philadelphia to New York, and
Washington chose to pounce on the retreating enemy. After General Charles Lee mishandled the attack
at Monmouth Court House on the 28th of June, Hamilton watched with admiration as Washington
calmly restored order. Hamilton himself halted a retreating infantry
brigade and organised a bayonet charge and was badly injured when his horse was shot
from underneath him. Hamilton arrested Lee for insubordination
and gave damning evidence at his court-martial, which found the general guilty on all counts
and suspended him from the army for a year. When a French fleet under Admiral Jean Baptiste
d’Estaing arrived in July 1778, Hamilton once again served as interpreter on behalf
of the monolingual Washington. The Frenchmen were impressed by Hamilton’s
talent and military knowledge, but while Hamilton never understated the French contribution
to the patriotic cause, he considered the French army to be full of mediocrities who
owed their positions to nobility rather than ability. In addition to the French alliance, Hamilton
hoped to bolster the ranks of the Continental Army with soldiers from the black population. In late 1778, the British landed an army in
the south, where the population was generally more sympathetic to the loyalist cause. John Laurens resigned from Washington’s
staff in order to defend his native South Carolina, and Hamilton wrote a letter to Congress
supporting Laurens’ plans to raise up to 3,000 black soldiers, arguing that they were
just as brave and willing to fight as white men, especially if they were offered their
freedom. Congress was unable to override the objections
of the South Carolina planters and instead it was General Clinton who promised to free
runaway slaves who joined the British in June 1779. At the end of 1779, Washington took up winter
quarters in Morristown, where the army had stayed three years earlier. Despite poor weather and low supplies, Hamilton
found comfort in an active social life, courting several pretty ladies as he went. On the 2nd of February 1780, Elizabeth Schuyler,
the daughter of General Philip Schuyler, arrived in Morristown to join some relatives. Although it was not the first time the two
met, Hamilton was infatuated and by the end of March the pair had agreed to marry. Not only was Eliza a strong-willed and compassionate
woman who provided stability to her husband’s turbulent life, but her family was one of
the wealthiest in the state of New York. Hamilton delighted in the company of Eliza’s
four sisters, in particular Angelica, whose vivacious nature appealed to Hamilton’s
gallantry. Far from feeling threatened, Eliza was delighted
that her sister was equally fond of her husband. While he was courting Eliza, Hamilton was
also turning his mind to the economic crisis facing the United States. He argued that while a shortage of goods had
contributed to inflation and the corresponding decline in the value of the Continental dollar,
it was exacerbated several times by a lack of confidence in paper money. He suggested creating a central bank which
could issue money and make loans and argued that in order to address the lack of credit,
Congress should seek a foreign loan of two million pounds. Later that year Hamilton was under consideration
to join Benjamin Franklin in Paris to negotiate such a loan from France, but eventually the
appointment fell to his friend Laurens. On the military front, the Continentals were
faring no better in South Carolina as a British army under General Cornwallis captured the
American garrison at Charleston and soundly defeated General Gates at the Battle of Camden
in August. In response to these setbacks, Hamilton wrote
about the need for a greater centralisation of power. Although Congress had adopted the Articles
of Confederation which would eventually come into effect in March 1781, Hamilton believed
that these measures did not give the central government enough authority to carry out the
war effectively. Important matters were generally decided by
unwieldy committees rather than dedicated ministers for war, foreign affairs, finance,
and the navy. During the summer of 1780, Hamilton was extensively
involved in planning joint operations with the Comte de Rochambeau, whose army of some
5,000 Frenchmen had landed in Newport, Rhode Island in July. In September, while returning from a meeting
with Rochambeau in the company of Washington and Lafayette, Hamilton was a witness to the
treachery of Benedict Arnold, a talented general of the Continental Army who felt that his
exploits were not duly rewarded by Washington, and promised to surrender the fort of West
Point to the British. In November he was granted leave to visit
the Schuylers in Albany, and on the 14th of December 1780 Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth
Schuyler were married at the Schuyler mansion. After almost four years serving on Washington’s
staff, Hamilton longed for a field command but was repeatedly refused. For the commander-in-chief, Hamilton was too
valuable an asset to lose, but now that he was connected to the Schuylers, he was no
longer solely dependent on Washington’s patronage. After informing Washington of his intention
to leave his staff in February, Hamilton carried out his final duties as a staff officer in
March 1781. This did not prevent him from pestering Washington
for his desired field command, which was finally granted in July after Hamilton threatened
to resign from the army. While Hamilton took command of a New York
light infantry battalion, the Schuyler house in Albany was raided by the British on the
7th of August, seeking to kidnap prominent Americans, but the pregnant Eliza and the
rest of her family managed to escape unharmed. Although Washington had planned on laying
siege to New York City, news that a French fleet under Admiral de Grasse was headed for
Chesapeake Bay prompted the American commander to lead his men to meet with de Grasse and
jointly lay siege to General Charles Cornwallis, who was trapped in Yorktown in Virginia and
surrounded by water on three sides, with a Continental army under Lafayette sealing off
the fourth on land. After being reunited with Lafayette and Laurens
in late September, Hamilton prepared to play his part at the Siege of Yorktown. Cornwallis had built ten redoubts around the
town to bolster his defences, and Hamilton saw that the two outlying redoubts closest
to the besieging forces would have to be taken. The allied siege lines could not be completed
without taking these two positions, and on the 14th of October Washington decided to
storm the redoubts with bayonet charges. In a gesture to the Franco-American alliance,
he decided that the French and the Continentals should each take one of the redoubts. After some argument, Hamilton was given command
of the column of Continentals, who charged ferociously and took the position within ten
minutes. After losing both redoubts, Cornwallis realised
that further resistance was futile and surrendered on the 17th of October 1781. Hamilton hurried to Albany to join Eliza,
who in January 1782 gave birth to a son named Philip, the first of eight children the couple
would have. Hamilton resigned from the army in March as
the war was all but over apart from minor skirmishes in the south, one of which would
claim the life of John Laurens in August, leaving Hamilton devastated. Upon his return to New York, Hamilton resumed
his legal studies and passed the bar exam within six months. In November 1782, he went to Philadelphia
to take up his seat as a member of the Confederation Congress representing New York. He continued to believe in a powerful central
government with a standing army and navy for the United States, as well as giving Congress
greater powers over taxation. He found a willing ally in the form of James
Madison, a 31-year-old congressman from Virginia, and supported Madison’s proposal for a five
percent federal duty on imports, thus giving Congress the power of taxation. The poor government finances were of a particular
concern for Hamilton, knowing that many veterans of the revolution were still waiting for their
pay. On the 20th of June 1783, a mob of mutinous
soldiers surrounded the Pennsylvania State House where Congress was meeting. Despite Hamilton’s best efforts on behalf
of Congress to force the state government to call up the militia, Congress withdrew
to Princeton, and eventually found a more permanent home in New York in 1785. The incident further reinforced Hamilton’s
belief that the central government was not powerful enough, and he called for a convention
to revise the Articles of Confederation. Many political leaders held the opposite view,
and after the United States and Great Britain ratified the Treaty of Paris on the 3rd of
September 1783 to end the war, Thomas Jefferson suggested that Congress should be disbanded. In late 1783, Hamilton and his wife moved
into a house on Wall Street where he would spend the next few years practising law, and
soon developed a reputation as one of the leading lawyers in the country. Hamilton’s reputation in New York was rivalled
by another young lawyer named Aaron Burr. While Hamilton’s oratory was unsurpassed,
Burr made concise and convincing arguments to the court. During the war, New York passed a wave of
legislation targeting British sympathisers and their property but after the peace treaty
signed with Britain, Hamilton defended the rights of the loyalists in court and in the
press. Although this led to accusations of treachery
and claims that Hamilton had accepted British money, his defence of the loyalists was motivated
by both the belief that an independent United States had to behave respectably on the international
stage, and also the fear that the vindictive campaign would drive out wealthy merchants
and businessmen and damage New York’s prosperity. In the case of Rutgers v. Waddington from
1784, Hamilton successfully argued that the obligations to protect British property that
were part of an international treaty ratified by Congress superseded New York state legislation
that allowed for its confiscation. In June 1784, Hamilton played an instrumental
role in founding the Bank of New York, which was intended to revive commerce in the city
after the war and to issue its own money in an economy that still used British pounds
and was trading in other foreign currencies with inconsistent exchange rates. During this time Hamilton was heavily involved
in the New York Manumission Society, an organisation campaigning to abolish slavery and to promote
the education of free blacks. He was also a member of the Society of Cincinnati,
an organisation dedicated to the welfare of veteran soldiers which critics argued was
the breeding ground for a hereditary military aristocracy. Hamilton denied these claims but hoped that
the Society would serve as a further means of strengthening the Union. In April 1786, Hamilton was elected to the
New York State Assembly during an economic crisis. In September, he was one of two New York representatives
who attended a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, organised by James Madison. Although the conference was set up to resolve
problems concerning interstate trade, it served as an opportunity for supporters of greater
centralisation to discuss their ideas. The delegates decided to send an appeal to
the states to send delegates to a convention in Philadelphia the following May to amend
the Articles of Confederation. The state of New York, dominated by its governor
George Clinton, was a staunch defender of states rights and when choosing its delegation
to the Philadelphia convention, the New York Assembly appointed two opponents of centralisation
to accompany Hamilton to the meeting. The Philadelphia convention opened on the
25th of May 1787, and George Washington was unanimously elected its president. Although it was convened to revise the Articles
of Confederation, the delegates soon presented plans to discard the Articles and create a
new constitution. The convention was soon split between a proposal
from Virginia to allocate congressional representation proportionally, benefiting larger states,
and one from New Jersey to give each state one vote, benefiting smaller states. After three weeks of silence as the delegates
discussed the rival proposals, Hamilton presented his own plan, which envisaged a president
and Senate elected for life, albeit subject to removal for misbehaviour, and a House of
Representatives elected every three years. The proposal was however proved unacceptable,
and Hamilton’s critics later used it as evidence for his belief in monarchy and aristocracy
and labelled him as a traitor to the Revolution. Instead, the convention agreed a compromise
between the larger and smaller states by having the seats of the House of Representatives
allocated proportionally, while each state would be represented by two senators in the
Senate. Senators would serve six year terms while
Representatives would be subject to re-election every two years. A president could theoretically serve for
life but would have to face election every four years, while the justices of the Supreme
Court were appointed for life. The other major dispute splitting the convention
was how to count the population of black slaves in determining representation in the House. By counting slaves, even though they had no
political rights, the slaveholding states mostly in the south would receive greater
representation in Congress. In the end, the notorious three-fifths compromise
was agreed, whereupon each slave was considered three-fifths of a free white man. Although Hamilton was dissatisfied with parts
of the new Constitution, he was a member of the committee that revised the text and transformed
it into its final form. The Constitution was signed on the 17th of
September 1787 by 39 delegates from twelve states, including Hamilton, and the convention
decided that the new document would come into effect after being ratified by nine states. Within days, the United States was split between
the federalists who supported the new Constitution, and the antifederalists who opposed the centralisation
of power. Hamilton conceived an ambitious project to
promote the new Constitution and ensure that as many federalists as possible were elected
to New York’s ratifying convention. He invited four men to collaborate on the
project, but only Madison and fellow New Yorker John Jay accepted. Writing under the pseudonym Publius, over
seven months the three men wrote 600 pages worth of essays for the New York press, collectively
known as The Federalist Papers. Of the 85 essays, 51 are attributed to Hamilton,
29 to Madison, and only five to Jay, whose contribution was limited by illness. While Madison’s strengths were in the presenting
the theory of government and using examples from history, Hamilton employed his practical
experience in areas such as politics, war, and taxation. He argued that a loose confederation risked
the antifederalists’ worst fears of falling under tyrannical rule or foreign invasion,
and thus the United States required a strong military, which was in turn dependent on an
equally strong economy and a strong government. By the end of May 1788, eight states had ratified
the Constitution, leaving the document on the verge of adoption. Despite his efforts to influence the elections
to the New York convention, Hamilton and his fellow federalists were significantly outnumbered
when it met in June, chaired by Governor Clinton. By the end of the month, however, both New
Hampshire and Virginia had ratified the Constitution, and New York now faced being left behind by
the new federal entity alongside Rhode Island and North Carolina. This alone was not enough to swing opinion
to the federalist camp, but by late July around a dozen anti-federalists were sufficiently
persuaded by Hamilton’s arguments to vote in favour of ratification. On the 26th of July, New York voted to ratify
the Constitution by a margin of 30 to 27, and Hamilton was feted as the hero of the
hour in New York City. The often-vicious nature of the political
debate between the federalists and the antifederalists convinced Hamilton of the need for a president
who could unite the country. With some persuasion from Hamilton, George
Washington agreed to be a candidate and was elected unanimously, and on the 30th of April
1789 he was inaugurated President of the United States in New York, with John Adams of Massachusetts
as Vice President. Although the Constitution provided for a powerful
executive, its terms were vague and made no provision for cabinet government. Washington could not be expected to carry
out all the executive functions alone, and in September Hamilton was appointed to head
the new Treasury Department. By accepting the post he was giving up his
lucrative legal practice and taking on a job of particular political sensitivity, especially
as the Revolution had been sparked by disputes over taxation. Nevertheless, Hamilton was intent on using
his office to implement his vision of America’s economic and political system. Hamilton served in Washington’s cabinet
alongside Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of War Henry Knox, and Attorney
General Edmund Randolph. As Washington shared Hamilton’s desire to
strengthen the bonds between the thirteen states into a single American nation but also
wanted to appear as a unifying figure above the political fray, Hamilton became an unofficial
prime minister under the first president. Upon taking on the role of Secretary of the
Treasury, Hamilton had to carry out mundane but urgent tasks such as setting up accounting
systems and creating a customs service to collect the import duties that generated most
of government revenue. His most important task, however, was to come
up with a solution to America’s public debt of $79 million. In his Report on Public Credit presented to
Congress in January 1790, Hamilton argued that the United States must demonstrate its
trustworthiness in debt markets by repaying the debt owed to domestic and foreign creditors. During the war Congress had issued bonds to
veterans in lieu of pay, and many sold their holdings at steep discounts to speculators
due to the lack of faith in Congress’ ability to repay them. With Hamilton’s promise to pay the debt,
the speculators would be handsomely rewarded while the veterans would lose out. Hamilton nevertheless decided that the government
securities belonged to the buyers rather than the original owners on the principle that
the government should not interfere in private property. He also proposed having the federal government
assume state debt, which would transfer bondholders’ loyalty to the federal rather than state governments. Since this system of economic management was
clearly inspired by the British and envisaged the further expansion of federal power, it
had many opponents. James Madison, who was at the time representing
Virginia in the House, rejected the debt plan on the grounds that the original holders of
the debt deserved to be paid and had been forced to sell by desperation. Hamilton viewed Madison’s opposition as
a betrayal of all they had worked for, and their disagreement would lay the foundations
for the two-party system. For the next five years, Hamilton’s economic
programme served as the dividing line for American politics. By the spring of 1790, Thomas Jefferson emerged
as the leading opponent to Hamilton’s grand visions. After serving for five years as minister to
France, Jefferson returned to the United States in November 1789 and did not accept his appointment
as Washington’s Secretary of State until February 1790. During his time in Paris, Jefferson was radicalised
in his opposition to monarchy and aristocracy and witnessed the initial stages of the French
Revolution. When he arrived in New York to join Washington’s
administration, he was shocked at the implications of Hamilton’s economic programme and joined
Madison in opposing it, claiming that it would aggrandize capitalist speculators at the expense
of honest patriots. Thus, Jefferson and Madison presented themselves
as defenders of the common man in opposition to the so-called northern aristocracy, despite
the fact that they depended on the support of slaveholding states in the south. While Hamilton’s proposal for the public
debt was comfortably passed by Congress, Jefferson and Madison joined forces against Hamilton’s
plans to assume state debts, which was defeated in the House by a margin of two votes. In order to salvage his economic plan, Hamilton
sought a compromise in the other major issue dividing north and south, namely the location
of the capital city. While Hamilton hoped that the capital would
remain in New York, at least on a temporary basis, there were also proposals to relocate
to Philadelphia, while Washington, Jefferson, and Madison favoured a location on the Potomac
River near their native Virginia. During a dinner at Jefferson’s house on
the 20th of June, Hamilton agreed to support a capital on the Potomac in return for an
undertaking from Madison to allow the passage of the assumption bill in the House. Hamilton’s part in brokering the deal angered
many of his fellow New Yorkers, but the assumption bill was passed in July and kept Hamilton’s
economic programme on track. As part of the compromise, in late 1790 the
government moved to Philadelphia for ten years while the new capital was being built. In December 1790, Hamilton proposed to establish
a central bank which could issue a uniform currency, expand the money supply when required,
issue loans to public and private entities, collect revenues and hold government funds. Hamilton argued that a central bank would
stimulate commerce by issuing loans, but the Jeffersonians were sceptical and viewed them
as institutions which benefited northern merchants at the expense of southern farmers. In the House, Madison argued that the proposal
was unconstitutional because the Constitution did not have a provision for setting up a
central bank, reversing his liberal interpretation in The Federalist Papers. After the House passed the bill, Madison asked
Washington to veto the bank, prompting the president to consult his cabinet. After Jefferson and Randolph raised their
objections, Hamilton presented to Washington a steadfast defence of his interpretation
of the Constitution, arguing that the bank was constitutional as Congress had the power
to pass legislation deemed “necessary and proper” to carry out its duties, and any
other interpretation would paralyse the operations of the federal government. Washington was persuaded by Hamilton’s arguments
and signed the bank bill on the 25th of February 1791. In December 1791 Hamilton presented his Report
on Manufactures to Congress. Drawing on his experiences during the Revolutionary
War, Hamilton believed that the United States had to establish its own industrial capacity
and reduce its dependence on British trade. Inspired by Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations,
he argued that manufacturing would increase economic productivity through the division
of labour into small, specialised tasks. While he endorsed the principle of free markets
and free trade, Hamilton concluded that government intervention was necessary to encourage industrial
development in a young nation. To achieve these goals, he proposed awarding
subsidies and extending patent protection to stimulate innovation. He also advocated public infrastructure programmes
of roads and canals to connect regional markets into a national economy. Although Hamilton’s ideas were not implemented
by Congress, they further contributed to his image as a creature of the New York financiers
and the enemy of the common man. Hamilton’s critics felt vindicated when
a speculative bubble in bank shares and government securities burst in the spring of 1792, but
the Treasury Secretary calmly responded by buying up public debt at the distressed prices
and in so doing stabilised the market. Although the founding fathers of the United
States considered political parties destructive and polarising, by 1792 American political
opinion was effectively divided into two parties with rival agendas. Hamilton and his supporters, mostly from the
commercial northeast, came to be known as Federalists, implying that their opponents
did not support the Constitution. Jefferson and Madison’s followers, who were
mostly farmers in the south, called themselves Republicans, implying that their opponents
were not true republicans. The party split also influenced foreign policy,
with the Federalists favouring closer political and economic relations with Britain, while
the Republicans preferred to side with revolutionary France. Since the United States had fought Britain
for independence allied to France, the Republicans believed that seeking closer relations with
the British was treachery. On the other hand, the Federalists warned
that the Republicans supported the anarchy and bloodshed of the French Revolution. Since the federal government’s revenues
were dependent on customs duties raised from international trade, Hamilton maintained an
interest in foreign relations which Jefferson resented as head of the State Department. The bitter feud between Hamilton and Jefferson
was all over the press, with Jeffersonians labelling the Treasury Secretary a monarchist
and the Hamiltonians attacking the Secretary of State as a populist rabble-rouser. Despite being the most controversial man in
American politics, Hamilton was careless enough to conduct a year-long affair with Maria Reynolds,
a young woman who arrived at his house in the summer of 1791 seeking refuge from an
abusive husband. In December Maria’s husband James informed
the Treasury Secretary that he knew about the affair and blackmailed Hamilton into paying
hush money. Although he attempted to end the affair on
several occasions, Hamilton was unable to resist responding to anguished letters from
Maria, suggesting that she was part of the blackmail scheme. When James Reynolds claimed to his friend
Jacob Clingman that Hamilton had given him money to speculate in government securities,
Clingman informed Republican congressman Frederick Muhlenberg, who in turn called on Senator
James Monroe and Representative Abraham Venable to investigate. When the three men met Hamilton in December
1792, the Treasury Secretary denied any corruption but confessed frankly to his adultery. Although he extracted a promise that the affair
would remain secret, Hamilton knew that his political opponents could leak information
that could destroy his reputation. Washington’s second term as president, which
began in March 1793, was dominated by foreign policy questions. In September 1792, the revolutionary government
arrested King Louis XVI and proclaimed a republic. After the King was executed by guillotine
in January 1793, Great Britain declared war on the 1st of February. While both Hamilton and Jefferson agreed that
the United States should declare neutrality between Britain and France, Jefferson did
not wish to break the alliance signed with France in 1778. Arguing that France had signed the alliance
motivated by a desire to defeat Britain, Hamilton endorsed a foreign policy motivated by self-interest
rather than sentiment. When the French ambassador Edmond-Charles
Genêt arrived in the United States in the spring of 1793, the Federalists were alarmed
by his popular reception. Genêt had been trying to recruit Americans
to join the French privateers attacking British shipping, and when asked to stop he threatened
to appeal over Washington’s head to the American people. When Hamilton leaked details of Genêt’s
conduct to the press, Jefferson was forced to request his recall. However, as the radical Jacobins had taken
power in Paris that June, Hamilton asked Washington to grant the moderate Genêt asylum in the
United States, sparing him from the executioner’s blade. Following the Genêt affair, Jefferson resigned
as Secretary of State on the 31st of December 1793 and was succeeded by Edmund Randolph. While the Genêt affair shifted opinion against
France, the British practice of searching neutral ships and forcing American sailors
into the Royal Navy caused greater outrage. Senior Federalists hoped to send an envoy
to Britain to resolve outstanding differences. Hamilton recommended John Jay for the mission,
drawing up instructions to settle the present differences with London and to seek a trading
relationship on a most favoured nation basis. Jay set sail in May 1794, and by the time
he returned twelve months later, Hamilton had already resigned from the Treasury in
January. While the Jay Treaty secured minor concessions
from the British, Republicans were outraged by the fact that nothing was done about the
seizure of American ships, and while Jay had agreed to grant most favoured nation status
to British imports, the British refused to do so in return. When a hesitant Washington asked Hamilton
for advice, Hamilton criticised some of the articles but endorsed it as the means to avoid
a destructive war with Great Britain, and the president duly signed off on the Treaty
in August. Although Hamilton spent most of his time working
as a lawyer for high-profile clients in New York, he continued to influence national politics
when asked for advice by Washington and members of his cabinet. In 1796, Washington decided he would not stand
for a third term and asked Hamilton to draft a farewell address, which would establish
a convention for presidents to relinquish the office after two terms. Published on the 19th of September, the text
served simultaneously as a timeless assertion of American unity and independence as well
as an attack on the Republican position on the key issues of the day. Despite his key role in Washington’s government,
Hamilton decided not to stand as a candidate in the subsequent election, perhaps acknowledging
he was too divisive, or that perhaps the Reynolds affair might become public. While Vice President John Adams was the leading
Federalist candidate for the presidency, Hamilton was worried that the opinionated Adams was
too unpopular in the south and tacitly supported the candidacy of Thomas Pinckney of South
Carolina instead. Adams subsequently won the election from Jefferson
by 71 to 68 electoral votes and blamed Hamilton for the narrowness of his victory. Thus, after being the right-hand man for the
first president, Hamilton had become completely alienated from the second. The animosity between Hamilton and Adams split
the Federalists and strengthened the Republicans, whose leader Thomas Jefferson was now vice
president. Meanwhile, Hamilton’s personal standing
was further affected when information about the Reynolds affair finally became public
in June 1797. Once again Hamilton faced claims that his
payments to James Reynolds were to facilitate speculation rather than the result of blackmail. In response, he wrote a lengthy pamphlet which
admitted the affair with Maria Reynolds in painstaking detail in order to refute the
claims of corruption. The pamphlet embarrassed the Federalists and
delighted the Republicans, making the former Treasury Secretary the subject of considerable
ridicule, but Hamilton’s political stature remained largely intact. While the Jay Treaty averted a war with Britain,
in 1798 war with France seemed imminent. President Adams sent a three-man delegation
to negotiate with France, but foreign minister Charles-Maurice Talleyrand sent three minor
officials who implied that Talleyrand would not meet them unless given a bribe. When the details reached the United States,
the country prepared for war, prompting disagreements between Hamilton and Adams about the need
for a standing army. Hamilton was also hoping that he would take
command of the army in the imminent war, and when Adams asked Washington to serve as commander-in-chief,
the old general agreed on the condition that Hamilton was his second-in-command with the
rank of major general. Although Adams was prepared to concede the
rank, he favoured Henry Knox, the former Secretary of War and chief of artillery during the Revolutionary
War, as second-in-command on the basis of seniority, but was eventually forced to back
down. Since the 67-year-old Washington was not inclined
to take up his duties as commander until war broke out, Hamilton took charge of organising,
equipping, and training the army, and as part of these efforts introduced a bill establishing
a military academy at West Point in New York. Hamilton’s dreams of military glory were
undermined as the fervour for war had diminished and Washington warned Hamilton that it would
be increasingly difficult to find new recruits for the army. In February 1799, Adams decided to send another
delegation to come to an agreement with France, a decision which isolated him from Hamilton
and the Federalists. A lengthy meeting between Hamilton and Adams
in October to discuss the issue ended the relationship between the two men, while the
death of Washington on the 14th of December 1799 removed the one man who kept the Federalists
united. In November 1799, General Napoleon Bonaparte
took power in Paris and declared an end to the French Revolution, weakening Hamilton’s
warnings about the Jacobin threat. In May 1800 Adams authorised the disbanding
of the army, and in July Hamilton disbanded his headquarters in New York and resigned
his military command. Bonaparte was keen to come to an amicable
agreement with the United States, and in October 1800 a treaty was signed, avoiding outright
war and vindicating Adams’ peace initiative. The presidential election of 1800 was set
to be a rematch between Adams and Jefferson. Since Adams had defeated Jefferson by three
votes in the previous election, every vote counted, and attention was drawn to the elections
to the New York City legislature in late April, which in turn could determine the fate of
New York’s electoral votes. New York City was a Federalist stronghold
and Hamilton hoped to keep it that way, while his rival Aaron Burr campaigned to swing the
city to the Republicans, hoping that his efforts could make him Jefferson’s vice-presidential
candidate for the national election. Over the years Hamilton and Burr had many
reasons to dislike each other. In the 1790 Senate elections Burr had defeated
Hamilton’s father-in-law Philip Schuyler, only for Schuyler to win back his seat in
1796. In 1799, Burr enlisted Hamilton’s help in
establishing the Manhattan Company which promised to provide safe drinking water to the city
but added a loophole to enable the company to function as a bank to compete with Hamilton’s
Bank of New York. By naming political giants and war heroes
such as George Clinton and Horatio Gates to his ticket, Burr ensured a clean sweep for
the Republicans which ensured that New York’s twelve electoral votes would move from Adams
to Jefferson, and the grateful Republicans duly nominated Burr as their vice-presidential
candidate. Alarmed by the news from New York, in May
1800 Adams dismissed his Secretary of War James McHenry and his Secretary of State Timothy
Pickering, both of whom he inherited from Washington’s last cabinet and who were close
Hamilton supporters. In response, Hamilton sought to persuade northern
Federalists to ditch Adams in favour of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the Federalist vice-presidential
candidate and brother of Thomas Pinckney. In a pamphlet published in October, Hamilton
attacked Adams’s policies and his character, presenting him as a vengeful man prone to
bad temper and mental instability, only to conclude unconvincingly by endorsing both
Adams and Pinckney. Like the Reynolds pamphlet, Hamilton’s attack
on Adams on the eve of a presidential election reflected his poor political judgement when
matters of personal honour were at stake. Despite the Federalist infighting, the election
produced a close result, with Jefferson and Burr tied on 73 votes and Adams and Pinckney
picking up 65 and 64 respectively. Hamilton’s pamphlet failed to convince northern
Federalists to withhold their support for Adams, nor did it prevent Republicans from
sweeping Pinckney’s home state of South Carolina. Hamilton had inflicted a mortal blow to his
own political aspirations and crippled the Federalist Party for no gain. While the Republicans considered Jefferson
the presidential candidate and Burr the vice-presidential candidate, under the constitutional arrangements
of the day there was no distinction, and it was up to the House of Representatives to
break the tie. As the Federalists still had a majority in
the old House, they considered supporting Burr as the candidate who could be more malleable
and be persuaded to adopt Federalist policies. Hamilton, who had first-hand experience of
Burr’s double-dealing and lack of principles, declared in favour of Jefferson. On the 11th of February 1801, the House met
to break the tie in the unfinished Capitol building in the new capital of Washington,
DC. Each of the sixteen states had a single vote
that represented the majority opinion of each state delegation. For 35 ballots in a row, Burr won six states
and Jefferson eight, one short of the required majority. In letters to Federalist congressmen, Hamilton
argued that Jefferson would be acceptable as president if he maintained the public debt,
the navy, and the Jay Treaty. Although he later denied it, Jefferson appears
to have agreed to an informal deal, and when the 36th ballot was cast on the 17th of February,
he prevailed with the support of ten states after several Federalist congressmen withdrew
their support from Burr. Thomas Jefferson was sworn in as the third
president of the United States on the 4th of March 1801. As Hamilton predicted, although Jefferson
had criticised the extent of federal power while in opposition, he was less critical
once he was president and had such power at his disposal. When Jefferson asked his Treasury Secretary
Albert Gallatin to uncover evidence of corruption in Hamilton’s Treasury operations, Gallatin
reported back stating that Hamilton’s system operated perfectly and did not need to be
changed. While he dedicated more time to his family
and presided over the construction of a country house north of Manhattan which he called The
Grange, Hamilton sought to restore the Federalist position in New York by supporting the candidacy
of his brother-in-law Stephen van Rensselaer against the veteran George Clinton for governor
in 1801 but failed to prevent Clinton from winning a seventh term. In order to regain their influence in the
national debate, Hamilton and his Federalist allies founded a new paper, the New-York Evening
Post, which would serve as the vehicle for his attacks against Jefferson’s government. Within days of the paper’s launch, it carried
news of a fatal duel on the 23rd of November 1802 which claimed the life of Philip Hamilton,
Alexander’s eldest son. The death of his son and the political success
of the Jeffersonians plunged Hamilton into deep depression, reawakening an interest in
religion which had subsided since the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. He spent most of his time at The Grange but
continued to run his legal practice, where he defended Federalist journalists from Jefferson’s
attempts to shut their papers down. Jefferson reached the height of his popularity
in April 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the United States
overnight. Hamilton noted the irony of the Republican
president adopting a liberal interpretation of the Constitution by claiming that congressional
approval was sufficient to make the land purchase. Although Hamilton had envisaged America’s
continental future and supported the Louisiana Purchase, many Federalists now argued that
Jefferson was acting unconstitutionally, motivated by the fear that the new territory was more
reminiscent of the slaveholding agrarian south, and that the northern commercial interests
would be reduced to a permanent minority. After his attempt to snatch the presidency
from Jefferson in 1801, Aaron Burr was excluded from the president’s circle and knew that
he would not remain on the Republican ticket for the 1804 election. After George Clinton stepped down as Governor
of New York and later became Jefferson’s running mate, Burr decided to run for governor
by appealing to Federalists and disaffected Republicans. The Federalist organisation in New York was
by now so weak that the party could not find a candidate. Although Hamilton decided to support New York
Chief Justice Morgan Lewis, the official Republican candidate, most of the Federalists backed
Burr. In a bitter election campaign, the Republican
press echoed Hamilton’s view of Burr as a man with no principles, while anonymous
letters appeared offering details of Burr’s sexual liaisons. When Burr was soundly defeated in the April
1804 election, he blamed Hamilton, who had already denied him the presidency three years
before. On the 18th of June, Burr challenged Hamilton
to a duel over insulting remarks he had allegedly made about Burr at a dinner three months earlier. Although he was opposed to duelling, Hamilton
was not a man to shy away when his honour was at stake and despite attempts by the seconds
to avert the showdown and enable both men to back down with honour, on the 27th it was
agreed that the two men would fight a pistol duel two weeks later. At 7 o’clock on the morning of the 11th
of July 1804, Alexander Hamilton and Vice President Aaron Burr faced each other on the
duelling ground. In order to reconcile the desire to defend
his honour and his desire not to kill, in the days before the duel Hamilton had decided
that he would throw away his shot by deliberately firing wide, knowing that if Burr shot to
kill, it would be considered murder and destroy any remaining hopes of resurrecting his political
career. While there are conflicting accounts on who
fired first, Hamilton’s shot flew wide of the mark while Burr dealt Hamilton a mortal
blow above the right hip. Hamilton was carried into the mansion of William
Bayard, a Bank of New York director, and summoned his family to his bedside. At 2 o’clock on the 12th of July 1804, Alexander
Hamilton died from the wound inflicted upon him 31 hours earlier. When Alexander Hamilton was born in Nevis
to unmarried parents, it would have been inconceivable for a man of such humble birth to become a
statesman and founding father of a new nation. Yet from a young age he proved himself to
be talented and ambitious, enabling him to receive a formal education in North America. Demonstrating his abilities as a persuasive
speaker and writer, he embraced the American revolutionary cause which would bring him
to the side of George Washington in 1777. After serving for four years as Washington’s
indispensable chief of staff, Hamilton claimed military glory at Yorktown alongside his close
friends Lafayette and Laurens. After establishing himself as one of New York’s
leading lawyers, he played a key role in framing the Constitution of the United States and
was its greatest champion during the ratification process. After returning to Washington’s side as
Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton conceived and implemented a political and economic system
of public credit and stock markets which continues to define American capitalism. In the process he became the most controversial
man in the United States, ruthlessly attacked by the Jeffersonians as a monarchist, a traitor
to the Revolution in the pay of the British, and a creature of speculators and fraudsters. Hamilton’s uncompromising views and sense
of honour created a number of rivals in the form of George Clinton and Aaron Burr at the
state level and John Adams and Thomas Jefferson at the federal level. His fateful intervention in delivering the
presidency to his arch-nemesis Jefferson in 1801, sowed the seeds for the fatal confrontation
with Burr in 1804. Despite his often crucial role in the early
years of the United States, in comparison to the other Founding Fathers Hamilton has
received relatively little attention. The subject of a stage play in 1917, and a
film in 1931, it was the multi-award winning 2015 musical which has brought him once again
into the spotlight. Ironically, a plan to put Alexander Hamilton
on a US banknote, the very currency he helped to create, was shelved due to the popularity
of the musical. What do you think of Alexander Hamilton? Was he a great statesman whose political and
economic system laid the foundations of American greatness in the later 19th and 20th centuries,
creating the economic and military power which has kept the nation safe from foreign enemies
over the centuries? Or did he betray the ideals of the American
Revolution by levying taxes and championing closer trade relations with the British Empire? Please let us know in the comment section
and in the meantime, thank you very much for watching.
