ALEXANDER HAMILTON, statesman, was born 11 January 1757 on the Island of Nevis,
West Indies, a son of James Hamilton, a St. Catherine or Kitts
merchant; and grandson of Alexander Hamilton of The Grange, Scotland. His
mother was probably a French lady, daughter of Doctor Fawcett, a
practising physician of Nevis, and the divorced wife of a Dane named Levine;
but may have been a Miss Lytton. She died in his childhood and he was
educated chiefly under the instruction of the Reverend Hugh Knox, a Presbyterian
clergyman, residing in Nevis and with whom Hamilton kept up a correspondence
during his manhood. In 1770 the boy became a clerk in the office of Nicholas
Cruger, a West Indian merchant, and he was soon entrusted with the entire
charge of the counting house. His description of a severe hurricane that
visited the island, published in a local paper, attracted attention to the
literary ability of the young accountant and friends decided to send him to
New York and give him school advantages. He reached Boston in October 1772,
and having letters from Doctor Knox to persons in New York, New York, he travelled
there and was placed in a preparatory school at Elizabethtown, New Jersey. He
matriculated at King's College in 1774 and aided by a tutor he made rapid
advancement in his college course which was interrupted, 6 April 1776, by the
college buildings being taken for military purposes. In 1774 he visited
Boston and there interviewed the leaders of the Revolutionary movement and
became a convert to the cause of the colonists. On his return to New York he
attended a meeting held in an open field in the interest of the Revolutionary
cause and finding that the speaker failed to grasp the question, or fire the
assembled patriots, he mounted the platform uninvited and althougth but a boy
of seventeen made an eloquent speech in behalf of colonial rights that reached
the hearts of his listeners and accomplished the purpose of the meeting, to
force a Tory assembly to declare its position on the great question of the
day. He soon after wrote anonymously two pamphlets: "A Full Vindication" and
"The Farmer Refuted," and so convincing were his arguments, that their
authorship was credited to John Jay and to other well-known patriot writers.
The disclosure of the author's name placed him as a patriot leader in New
York. Early in 1776, although scarcely nineteen years old, he was given
command of an artillery company by the New York convention, and his thorough
discipline made it the model organization of the army of General Greene. He
was commissioned captain and at the battles of Long Island and White Plains
demonstrated such military ability as an officer that General Greene
recommended him as a staff officer to the Commander-in-Chief and he was
appointed and commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel in the Continental Army. His
position on Washington's staff gave full scope not only to his military genius
but to his ready pen, and he soon proved himself indispensable to his chief.
He diplomatically secured from General Gates, after the Burgoyne campaign,
troops to re-enforce Washington's army, and in the capture and trial of André
was a prominent figure, holding interviews with both André and Mrs. Arnold.
His close friendship with Washington was disturbed, 16 February 1781, when he
took hasty offence at a reproof from his chief and resigned from his staff.
He then entered the field in command of the New York artillery with the rank
of Lieutenant-Colonel of state troops. At Yorktown he pleaded a storming
party that captured a British redoubt, and he was brevetted Colonel. During
the progress of the Revolution he was a correspondent of Robert Morris and
James Duane on the subjects of finance and government. He suggested plans in
these letters for establishing a national bank and for amending the
confederation of the colonies. While studying law in New York after the close
of the war, he was named by Robert Morris as Continental Receiver of Taxes for
New York and he accepted the position. He greatly prospered as a lawyer and
as Tory sympathizers were excluded from practice before the courts his
clientage rapidly increased. His efforts as a tax collector disclosed the
defects in the Articles of Confederation governing the colonies. He was
elected a delegate to the Continental Congress that met at Philadelphia in
November 1782, and was continued at Princeton, New Jersey, 30 June 1783. In
Congress he was with the minority, and finding his efforts there futile he
resigned and resumed the practice of law. It was not till bankruptcy followed
the financial policy of Congress and secession threatened the compact of
states, that the people were awakened to the danger foretold by Hamilton in
1782-1783. A convention was proposed by Virginia to be held at Annapolis
in September 1786, and Hamilton, seconded by Egbert Benson, secured friendly
delegates from New York, and attended the convention. Hamilton drew up an
address which, modified by Edmund Randolph, was agreed upon by the
convention. It recited the evil condition of public affairs and called for a
new convention at Philadelphia, 2 May 1787. On returning to New York he was
elected in November, 1786, to the State Assembly, and there opposed the
Clinton party in an unequal contest for a stronger central government. He was
a delegate to the last Continental Congress that assembled in New York,
1787-1788 and he succeeded in being named by the New York convention, the
minority delegate to the Philadelphia convention, which gave him a seat, but
no control of his state. In a speech of five hours before the Constitutional
Convention he presented his theory of government. It called for a president
and senators for life and for the appointment of governors of the respective
states by the president. After delivering his speech he withdrew from the
convention, only returning to affix his name to the constitution as framed,
17 September 1787. He then went before the people to obtain for the instrument
a speedy ratification. He was the principal author of the series of essays
called the Federalist, advocating a strong centralized government. In the New
York ratifying convention which stood two to one against the adoption of the
constitution as framed, by skillful debate, adroit management and wise counsel
he secured its triumphant ratification. The question then came before the
people, and at the polls the ratification was not only confirmed, but the
Federalists elected four of the six representatives in Congress and the power
of the Clintons in New York was for the time broken by the young leader of the
Federalists. He named for United States Senators Rufus King and Philip Schuyler,
ignoring the Livingstons, and this was deemed a political blunder on the part
of the youthful politician, as it cost the Federal party the state in 1790 and
secured the election of Aaron Burr as United States Senator. Washington was
inaugurated President of the United States, 30 April 1789, and on the
organization of the Treasury Department in September of that year he named
Alexander Hamilton as the first Secretary of the United States treasury. His work as
Secretary of the Treasury was to establish public credit, to restore business
confidence and to open an era of commercial prosperity. He provided a system
of internal revenue, a protective tariff, regulated the currency, established
a United States mint, provided navigation laws, laws as to coasting trade and as to
post-offices, and provided for the purchase of West Point for a military
academy, and laws for the management of the public lands. He courted the
investigation of the affairs of the United States Treasury by his political opponents,
and quieted their charges of mismanagement by promptly showing his books. He
maintained the policy of a strict neutrality during the French revolution and
defended President Washington in maintaining it. He opposed his fellow
cabinet officer, Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State, and contributed to the
Gazette of the United States: a series of letters condemning Jefferson's
financial views. This brought out the interference of the President who
patched up peace between the two statesmen. The trouble, however, broke out
again, and in 1794 Jefferson resigned from the cabinet and two great political
parties took form. Hamilton remained and subdued the threatened whisky
insurrection in Pennsylvania, accompanying the armed force to the scene of
the riot, and on 31 January 1795, he resigned, as his salary as secretary did
not provide sufficient support to a growing family. He returned to New York
where he resumed the practise of law and soon regained his position as a
leader of the New York bar. He continued to be an advisor of the President,
suggested many of the thoughts of his speeches and messages and helped to
write his farewell address. His close relation to Washington suggested the
same position in the administration of John Adams who had received his earnest
support in the election. Hamilton named the commissioners to France and they
were appointed, but when he wanted to be placed at the head of the provisional
army the President objected, and the friendship between the two was broken.
Washington suggested a compromise which the President adopted and in 1798
Hamilton was made Inspector-General with the rank of Major-General, and was
promoted Commander-in-Chief in 1799. This however did not end the quarrel
between the President and Hamilton and the Federalist party could not
concentrate their forces in the election of 1800. In New York Burr carried
the state and Hamilton proposed the revolutionary expedient of calling
together the old legislature and referring the choice of election to the
people in districts. He also openly attacked Adams as unfit for the high
trust of President and still illogically counselled the party to support him.
When the electors met, Jefferson had seventy-three votes, Burr
seventy-three, Adams sixty-five, Pinckney sixty-four and John Jay one.
This threw the election in the house of representatives and before that body
the Federalists, anxious to defeat Jefferson, favored Burr, and Hamilton,
recovering his political wisdom in time, used his influence in favor of
Jefferson, his former enemy. But with Burr as vice-president, dissension
ruled the administration and Hamilton guarded his party as best he could
against the political intrigue of Burr. When Burr was defeated by Morgan
Lewis in the election of 1803 for governor of New York he charged his defeat
to Hamilton and their long continued quarrel culminated in a duel at
Weehawken, New Jersey, 11 July 1804, where Hamilton fell mortally wounded at the
first fire. He was married 14 December 1780, to Elizabeth, daughter of General
Philip Schuyler of Albany, New York, having first met Miss Schuyler while visiting
General Gates on official business relative to transferring a portion of his
troops. They lived on an estate known as "The Grange" overlooking the Hudson
river in the neighborhood of Fort George, New York, New York. Here, after building
a handsome residence, he planted on the lawn thirteen gum trees in a single
clump and named them for the thirteen states. The trees were still standing
in 1900 but the house, removed to make room for the march of improvement,
occupied but a single lot in the midst of modern residences.
Alexander
Hamilton's untimely death was accepted as a public calamity and the popular
feeling against Burr as the instrument of his death, drove him into exile.
Hamilton was buried in Trinity churchyard, New York, New York, where a monument
marks the grave. A statue was erected in Brooklyn, N.Y., by the Hamilton
club. He received the degree of A.M. from Columbia college in 1788 and from
Harvard in 1792 and that of LL.D. from Dartmouth in 1790, from the College of
New Jersey in 1791 and from Harvard, Brown and Rutgers in 1792. He was a
regent of the University of the state of New York, 1784-87 and trustee of
Columbia college, 1784-1804. He was a member of the Massachusetts Historical
Society and of the American Philosophical Society and fellow of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences. His works, including the Federalist, his
official reports and public writings were published in 1810 in three volumes.
Francis L. Hawks edited his Official and Other Papers (1842): his son John
Church published in seven volumes his political and official writings in 1851;
and Henry Cabot Lodge edited a still larger collection of his Complete Works
(9 vols., 1885).
The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume V. 49-51.
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