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Biographical Sketches

	ALEXANDER HAMILTON New York	Alexander Hamilton
Hamilton, a brilliant and pragmatic politician-lawyer who soared to fame and power from modest origins, was one of the giants of the early period of U.S. history. An ardent nationalist, he was instrumental in the convening of the Constitutional Convention and spearheaded ratification in New York—though he did not play a key role at the Convention. Later, he served as the first Secretary of the Treasury, laid the foundations for national economic growth, and helped found the Federalist Party. His life ended tragically in a duel with Aaron Burr.

Hamilton was born about 1755, apparently on the island of Nevis, in the Leeward group, British West Indies. He was the illegitimate son of a common-law marriage between a poor itinerant Scotch merchant of aristocratic descent and an English-French Huguenot mother who was a planter's daughter. In 1765, after the father had moved his family elsewhere in the Leewards to St. Croix in the Danish (now United States) Virgin Islands, he deserted his wife and two sons.

The mother, who opened a small store to make ends meet, and a Presbyterian clergyman provided Alexander with a basic education, and somehow he learned to speak fluent French. When he was 12 to 14 years old, about the time of his mother's death, he became an apprentice clerk at Christiansted in a mercantile establishment, whose proprietor became one of his benefactors. Recognizing his ambition and superior intelligence, they raised a fund for his education.

In 1772, bearing letters of introduction, Hamilton traveled to New York City. Patrons he met there arranged for him to attend Barber's Academy at Elizabethtown (present Elizabeth), N.J. During this time, he met and stayed for a while at the home of William Livingston, who would one day be a fellow signer of the Constitution. Late the next year, 1773, Hamilton entered King's College (later Columbia College and University) in New York City, but the Revolution interrupted his studies.

Although not yet 20 years of age, in 1774-75 Hamilton wrote several widely read pro-Whig pamphlets. Right after the war broke out, he accepted an artillery captaincy and fought in the principal campaigns of 1776-77. In the latter year, winning the rank of lieutenant colonel, he joined the staff of General Washington as secretary and aide-de-camp and soon became his close confidant as well.

In 1780 Hamilton wed New Yorker Elizabeth Schuyler, whose family was rich and politically powerful; they were to have eight children. In 1781, after some disagreements with Washington, he took a command position under Lafayette in the Yorktown, Va., campaign (1781). He resigned his commission that November.

Hamilton then read law at Albany and quickly entered practice, but public service soon attracted him. He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1782-83. In the latter year, he established a law office in New York City. Because of his interest in strengthening the central Government, he represented his State at the Annapolis Convention in 1786, where he urged the calling of the Constitutional Convention.

In 1787 Hamilton served in the legislature, which appointed him as a delegate to the Convention. He played a surprisingly small part in the debates, apparently because he was frequently absent on legal business, his extreme nationalism put him at odds with most of the delegates, and he was frustrated by the conservative views of his two fellow-New York delegates. He did, however, sit on the committee of style, and was the only one of the three delegates from his State who signed the finished document. Hamilton's part in New York's ratification the next year was substantial, though he felt the Constitution was deficient in many respects. Against determined opposition, he waged a strenuous and successful campaign, including collaboration with John Jay and James Madison in writing The Federalist Papers. In 1787-88 Hamilton was again elected to the Continental Congress.

When the new Government got underway in 1789, Hamilton won the position of Secretary of the Treasury. He began at once to place the Nation's disorganized finances on a sound footing. In a series of reports (1790-91), he presented a program not only to stabilize national finances, but also to shape the future of the country as a powerful, industrial Nation. He proposed establishment of a national bank, funding of the national debt, assumption of State war debts, and the encouragement of manufacturing.

Hamilton's policies soon brought him into conflict with Jefferson and Madison. Their disputes with him over his pro-business economic program, sympathies for Great Britain, disdain for the common man, and opposition to the principles and excesses of the French Revolution contributed to the formation of the first U.S. party system. It pitted Hamilton and the Federalists against Jefferson and Madison and the Democratic-Republicans.

During most of the Washington administration, Hamilton's views usually prevailed with the President, especially after 1793 when Jefferson left the Government. In 1795 Hamilton's low salary as a Cabinet officer forced him to resign from the Treasury Department and resume his law practice in New York City. Except for a stint as inspector-general of the Army (1798-1800) during the undeclared war with France, he never again held public office.

While gaining stature in the law, Hamilton continued to exert a powerful impact on New York and national politics. Always an opponent of fellow-Federalist John Adams, he sought to prevent his election to the Presidency in 1796. When that failed, he continued to use his influence secretly within Adams' Cabinet. The bitterness between the two men became public knowledge in 1800 when Hamilton denounced Adams in a letter that was published through the efforts of the Democratic-Republicans.

In 1802 Hamilton and his family moved into The Grange, a palatial country home he had built in a rural part of Manhattan not far north of New York City. But the expenses involved and heavy losses in land speculation seriously strained his finances.

Meanwhile, when Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied in Presidential electoral votes in 1800, Hamilton threw valuable support to Jefferson. In 1804, when Burr sought the governorship of New York, Hamilton again managed to defeat him. That same year, Burr, taking offense at remarks he believed to have originated with Hamilton, challenged him to a duel, which took place at present Weehawken, N.J., on July 11. Mortally wounded, Hamilton died the next day. He was in his late forties at death. He was buried at Trinity Churchyard in New York City.

Drawing: Oil (1792) by John Trumbull. National Gallery of Art.