Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Father of the United States was born on January 11, 1755, in Nevis, British West Indies. He was an immigrant to America, an outsider, an orphan, scholarship boy and a genius. Hamilton was also a bastard, an illegitimate and was prohibited from attending a Christian school and had no rights of inheritance. At the age of ten Hamilton and his family moved to St. Croix, where hundreds of plantations worked by slaves, produced sugar and coffee for export. James Hamilton abandoned the family and Alexander never got to see his father again. When he was 13 his mother died of yellow fever. One thing that Hamilton received from his mother’s estate were books. He would study the books and read. At the age of 14, he was employed as a clerk to Beekman and Cruger, an important American trading company with New England. He felt that his talents were being squandered so he wrote to his friend Edward Stevens saying he wished there was a war. In 1772, Hamilton was also writing articles for the islands newspaper, publishing poetry and sermons. Influential people on the island were struck by his brilliance and ability, so they established a fund and Hamilton now could go to the American colonies to be educated. 1773, 18-year-old Hamilton arrived in America. In New York, Hamilton enrolled in King’s College. The British were attempting to gain authority over American colonies, parliament was imposing new taxes on Americans without their consent. Hamilton urged American’s to rise up against the British oppression who were preparing an assault on New York. He joined the revolution at a very young age and formed an artillery unit. In the summer of 1776, the British invaded Brooklyn, and General George Washington suffered a humiliating defeat and was forced to abandon New York City. Hamilton, with his artillery company, retreated with Washington’s army. At 21, Hamilton began to write for Washington (Schmalbach 103).
Alexander Hamilton then fell in love with Elizabeth Schuyler. “Elizabeth Schuyler was introduced to Alexander Hamilton at George Washington’s headquarters in February 1780”( “History of American Women” 2010). Hamilton had no money, it was remarkable that he was able to impress Elizabeth’s father General Philips Schuyler who was one of the richest men in the country. Elizabeth Schuyler and Alexander Hamilton got married
The Revolutionary War continued, Washington gave Hamilton command of a battalion and a chance to lead his men in a major campaign in York Town Virginia. On September 28, 1781, the Battle of Yorktown begun. It was a culminating victory by the American Continental Army that was led by Alexander Hamilton and the French Army against the British troops who were led by Cornwallis. As a result, major negotiations began between the U.S. and Great Britain. The Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783 in Paris and ended the American Revolutionary War. The U.S. was recognized as an independent nation. The Trinity (John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and John Jay) asked “to forget the past Misunderstandings and Differences that have unhappily interrupted the good Correspondence and Friendship which they mutually wish to restore” (“Treaty of Paris” 1).
In 1872, Hamilton and his wife Elizabeth Schuyler, and first born son Philip moved to a new home in New York City. He determined to become a lawyer in order to support his family and became one of the most successful of the City’s thirty-five lawyers. Hamilton saw the country’s need for a strong government and he organized small meetings of states to talk about trade negotiations. In May 1787, Hamilton joined the other fifty-four delegates in Philadelphia and after four months of debate, the result is a document – The United States Constitution that proposed a radical shift in power, from the individual states to a central government and a president with real authority. “A key element in the Federalist campaign for the Constitution was a series of highly persuasive essays written for a New York newspaper by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay” (Newman 100). Over the next year, states one by one ratified the Constitution. New York, one of the largest states, opposed it, but New York City supported it and elected Hamilton to lead its delegation to the ratifying convention. Hamilton won during the convention and the Constitution became the law of the land. On April 30, 1789, George Washington became the first president under the new Constitution in New York and on September 11, 1789, appointed Hamilton to be the first the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. Washington cherished Hamilton’s ability and talent that is why he “chose as Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton” (Beard 98). Hamilton faced an enormous challenge, the U.S. at that time was bankrupt, not having a penny to pay for the debt from the Revolutionary War. In the summer of 1791, Hamilton moved to Philadelphia where congress was temporarily meeting. One afternoon, a woman named Maria Reynolds knocked on his door, saying she was from New York and needed a way to get back to her family, her husband had abandoned her and she did not have any money and asked if he could help her in any way. That is when he became involved in an affair with Maria Reynolds. It was all a trap, Maria’s husband set all of this up just to blackmail Hamilton. Congress soon got letters that Hamilton wrote to Maria referring to large sums of money so three congressmen visited Hamilton to make serious accusations. To prove his innocence, Hamilton pulled out his love letters from Maria and insisted that his visitors read them. He explained that it was all about adultery not about public funds and the three men understood.
In 1791, President George Washington embarked on a three-month tour to assess the effect of the government’s policies. He saw how the U.S. was prospering thanks to Hamilton, who in a very short time put a series of monumental proposals before congress, founding a national currency, the dollar, establishing a national bank which was the forerunner of the national reserve. Hamilton’s vision pushed through the growth of the stock market. Many people, as well as Jefferson himself, did not approve Hamilton’s actions and thought he was recreating the corruption of England. Hamilton knew about Jefferson’s position towards him and stated that Jefferson was the real enemy of republicanism. Jefferson and his allies focus on opposing Hamilton’s plans and gathered together naming themselves Republicans, Washington and his administration were called Federalists. “The federalists in the main represented the interests of trade and manufacturing, which they saw as forces of progress in the world” (Whitney 78). This split led to the first American two party system. Hamilton had always feared mobs and anarchy, Republicans knew that people should have a voice and understood the importance of public opinion and used that for their benefit. In the coming years, Jefferson became the man of the people. Hamilton focused on changing the U.S. and in 1796 returned to New York City. Both him and Jefferson left Washington’s cabinet. Alexander was deeply in debt. He never used his position in the Treasury to make one cent while others were making millions. He would organize charities in New York, wrote for Washington, he co-founded the first anti-slavery society in New York.
Being out of the cabinet for two years, big changes happened in the federal government, John Adams, a federalist, has been elected as the second president of the U.S. and Washington went to retirement at Mount Vernon. Jefferson and the republicans wanted to crush Hamilton’s plans, so they held a series of incriminating letters from Maria Reynolds detailing his past affair and leaked these papers to a journalist, using the letters to claim that Hamilton was speculating with money from the Treasury. Hamilton went on to make a reckless decision and published a pamphlet explaining that he was blackmailed and as proof, published all the letters from Maria in order to refute the charges that he stole money from the Treasury. Everyone was shocked by what he has done but Washington was with Hamilton through it all. “I pray you to present my best wishes, in which Mrs. Washington joins me, to Mrs. Hamilton and the family; and that you would be persuaded, that every sentiment of the highest regards, I remain your sincere friend, and affectionate Servant” (Washington 1). Hamilton still saw a need for a strong economy and powerful military fearing that the French might invade due to their other attacks on Egypt and Syria in 1789. Washington gets appointed the commander in chief and insisted of Hamilton to be made a general and put in charge of raising a large army but John Adams, president at the time, was not found with Hamilton and wanted to get rid of the army. George Washington died at Mount Vernon and now Alexander became an outcast under John Adams who signed a treaty with France and forced Hamilton to demobilize the army. In 1800, John Adams was up for a reelection. Hamilton was determined to stop him and promoted another federalist candidate and published a fifty-page pamphlet that was directed against the leader of his own Party saying how awful of a person Adams was. All of Hamilton’s political allies were shocked by how he has lost control over himself, and now the Federalist Party, split in two and will never hold national power again. There now were two candidates for the presidency in the election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. Hamilton and Burr knew each other very well but had different political views, Burr was focused on profit. The election ended up to be a tie. In letters, Hamilton knew that Jefferson was at least focused on making the U.S. a better place for people to live, he urged one congressman to switch his votes. “Jefferson is in my view less dangerous than Burr” (Hamilton 1). Jefferson became the president. Hamilton saw that the only thing he could do is withdraw from the scene. He was a great statesman but an awful politician. People could provoke him by attacking his honor. He refused to give up the fight and co-founded an opposition newspaper called the New York Evening Post and defended federalists in court that were attacked by the republican administration.
Hamilton had great hopes for his son Philip but it was not to be. In 1801, Philip got into a public argument with an arrogant Republican politician and lawyer George Eacker over his father’s views on President Jefferson. At the age of 20, Philip got murdered. Two years after, Hamilton found out that Burr was running for the office of governor of New York and launched a campaign against him, and wrote many awful things about him. July 11, 1804, at dawn, a duel between Hamilton and Burr took place along the bank of Hudson River in Weehawken, New Jersey. Hamilton was seriously wounded by Burr and after fighting for his life, in pain, he died the next day on July 12, 1804, at the age of 49. Because of Hamilton, America had the highest credit rating in the world, which is why in 1803, the Louisiana Territory was able to be purchased. Thanks to Hamilton and his national bank, America greatly prospered the following years. Hamilton ratifies the Constitution in 1788 and influenced the election of 1801 that made Thomas Jefferson the president, thus saving the country from bad leadership. Alexander Hamilton is also featured on the ten dollar bill because he was the first Secretary of the Treasury and one of the two non-presidents on the bills. The ten dollar bill was first issued in 1914.
Works cited
Whitney, Francis. Outline of U.S. History. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of International Information Programs. U. S. Department of State, 2011. Print.
Newman, John J., and John M. Schmalbach. United States History. New York: AMSCO School Publications, 2009. Print.
Beard, Charles A., and Mary Ritter Beard. History of the United States. New York: Macmillan, 1921. Print.
Hamilton, Alexander. “The Election of 1800”. Letter. 1800. MS.
Washington, George. “To Alexander Hamilton from George Washington, 21 August 1797.” Letter to Alexander Hamilton. 21 Aug. 1797. MS. Mount Vernon.
Treaty of Paris 1783. France, 1783. Print.
MacLean, Maggie. “History of American Women.” Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton. 17 Aug. 2010. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
