Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757 – July 12, 1804) was an American politician, statesman, journalist, lawyer, and soldier. One of the United States' most prominent and brilliant early constitutional lawyers, he was an influential delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention and the principal author of the Federalist Papers, which successfully defended the U.S. Constitution to skeptical New Yorkers. He also put the new United States of America onto a sound economic footing as its first and most influential Secretary of the Treasury, establishing the First Bank of the United States, public credit and the foundations for American capitalism and stock and commodity exchanges.

Early years

Alexander Hamilton was born on the West Indies island of Nevis to James Hamilton, a struggling businessman from Scotland, and Rachel Fawcett Lavien of French Huguenot descent, who was then married to another man. (The couple lived apart from one another under an order of legal separation. Remarriage was forbidden by law at the time.) There is some uncertainty as to the year of Hamilton's birth. Throughout his life, Hamilton stated that it was 1757, and that year went unquestioned for centuries. More recent examinations of probate court records at St. Croix indicate the year was 1755 (though the year is not explicitly noted) and for several decades it has been the more commonly cited year. The date, January 11, can be neither substantiated nor refuted, and is still commonly accepted. Hamilton was always sensitive to the fact that, under the laws of the time, he was born illegitimately and was thus considered a bastard.

Related Topics:
West Indies - Nevis - Scotland - French - Huguenot - St. Croix - January 11 - Bastard

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Hamilton's father abandoned him, and his mother died when he was in his early teens. Business misfortunes having caused his father's bankruptcy, and his mother dying in 1768, young Hamilton was thrown upon the care of maternal relatives at St Croix, where he entered the countinghouse of Nicholas Cruger. Shortly afterward Mr Cruger, going abroad, left the boy in charge of the business. An accomplishment later of great service to Hamilton was a familiar command of French; common enough in the Antilles, but very rare in the English continental colonies.

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As a teenager, Hamilton wrote an article in a local paper about a hurricane that had severely battered the West Indies. The article was so dramatically written that it caused a sensation and the town soon raised money to fund his passage to America. He settled in New York City in 1772, and began grammar school. Later, he attended King's College (now Columbia University), originally studying anatomy with the intent of becoming a doctor.

Related Topics:
America - New York City - Grammar school - Columbia University

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A visit to Boston seems to have thoroughly confirmed the conclusion, to which reason had already led him, that he should cast in his fortunes with the colonists. Into their cause he threw himself with ardour. In 1774-1775 he wrote two influential anonymous pamphlets, which were attributed to John Jay; they show remarkable maturity and controversial ability, and rank high among the political arguments of the time. He organized an artillery company, was awarded its captaincy on examination, won the interest of Nathanael Greene and Washington by the proficiency and bravery he displayed in the campaign of 1776 around New York City, joined Washington's staff in March 1777 with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and during four years served as his private secretary and confidential aide. The important duties with which he was entrusted attest Washington's entire confidence in his abilities and character; then and afterwards, indeed, reciprocal confidence and respect took the place, in their relations, of personal attachment. But Hamilton was ambitious for military glory, it was an ambition he never lost; he became impatient of detention in what he regarded as a position of unpleasant dependence, and (Feb. 1781) he seized a slight reprimand administered by Washington as an excuse for abandoning his staff position. Later he secured a field command, through Washington, and won laurels at Yorktown, where he led the American column in the final assault on the British works. In 1780 he married Elizabeth, daughter of General Philip Schuyler, and thus became allied with one of the most distinguished families in New York.

Related Topics:
Boston - John Jay - Nathanael Greene - Philip Schuyler

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Hamilton was very intelligent, talented and a quick study. At the start of his teenage years he was an impoverished orphan with no family connections, working as a clerk on the island of St. Croix in the Caribbean. By the close of his teenage years he was in America, General George Washington's most trusted aide-de-camp, an accomplished artillery captain, and a published pamphleteer renowned in New York. It was while on the battlefield, however, that Hamilton began formulating the ideas on government and economics that would make him an historic figure.

Related Topics:
St. Croix - Caribbean - George Washington - Aide-de-camp - Artillery

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He saw how the war was prolonged and the army was deprived of needed supplies by Congress's relative powerlessness vis-a-vis the states, and was one of the earliest and most active nationalists. Hamilton, like Washington, believed that the Continental Congress needed to be strengthened or reformed in favor of a new, stronger Federal government that could legislate without being hamstrung by the states. Hamilton became the spokesman for an active government, stressing the principle of government "responsibility," against the Jeffersonian/Madisonian principle of public vigilance and suspicion of government power. Recent scholars have argued that these two philosophies form the thesis-antithesis of the post-Revolutionary era—Alexander Hamilton being the figurehead of responsible government.

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Leaving Washington's staff, Hamilton took command of an infantry regiment that participated in the siege of Yorktown, and led the assault that captured Redoubt #10. After the war he served as a member of the Continental Congress (from 1782 to 1783), and then retired to open his own law office in New York City. He married Elizabeth Schuyler (known as Eliza), heiress of a wealthy and influential New York family, on December 14, 1780. His public career resumed when he attended the Annapolis Convention as a delegate in 1786.

Related Topics:
Siege of Yorktown - Continental Congress - 1782 - 1783 - New York City - December 14 - 1780 - Annapolis Convention - 1786

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He also served in the New York State Legislature and attended the Philadelphia Convention in 1787. Throughout the convention's proceedings Hamilton, a Federalist, argued consistently for a strong central government, including a king-like president (minus the familial inheritance of power), and an upper legislative body based on the English House of Lords. For this, he was long derided by political foes as a monarchist. Hamilton opposed equal representation in the Senate, saying the concept "shocks too much the ideas of justice and every human feeling." He also wanted senators to serve for life, subject to good behavior. Finally, Hamilton strongly advocated the abolition of slavery.

Related Topics:
New York State Legislature - Philadelphia Convention - 1787 - Federalist - House of Lords - Monarchist - Senate - Slavery

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Although the U.S. Constitution which the convention eventually produced was less robust than Hamilton had proposed, and the tenures of those exercising power were shorter than he desired, he was active in the successful campaign for its ratification in New York. He made the largest single contribution to the authorship of the Federalist Papers, which were extremely influential in that state and others during the debates over ratification, and are still often cited.

Related Topics:
U.S. Constitution - Federalist Papers

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In 1788, Hamilton served another term in what proved to be the last time the Continental Congress met under the Articles of Confederation.

Related Topics:
Continental Congress - Articles of Confederation

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