| Name | Alexander Hamilton |
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| Order | 1st |
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| Title | United States Secretary of the Treasury |
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| Term start | September 11, 1789 |
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| Term end | January 31, 1795 |
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| President | George Washington |
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| Successor | Oliver Wolcott, Jr. |
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| Order2 | Delegate from New York to the Congress of the Confederation |
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| Term start2 | 1788 |
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| Term end2 | 1789 |
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| Order3 | Delegate from New York to the Constitutional Convention |
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| Term start3 | 1787 |
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| Term end3 | 1787 |
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| Order4 | Delegate from New York County to the New York State Legislature |
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| Term start4 | 1787 |
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| Term end4 | 1788 |
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| Order5 | Delegate from New York to the Annapolis Convention |
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| Term start5 | 1786 |
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| Term end5 | 1786 |
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| Order6 | Delegate from New York to the Congress of the Confederation |
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| Term start6 | 1782 |
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| Term end6 | 1783 |
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| Birth date | January 11, 1755 or 1757 |
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| Birth place | Nevis, Caribbean (now part of Saint Kitts and Nevis) |
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| Death date | July 12, 1804 (aged 47 or 49) |
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| Death place | New York City, New York |
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| Party | Federalist |
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| Religion | Episcopal at his death |
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| Signature | Alexander Hamilton Signaturert.svg |
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| Children | PhilipAngelicaAlexanderJames AlexanderJohn ChurchWilliam StephenEliza Hamilton HollyPhilip ("Little Phil") |
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| Spouse | Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton |
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| Profession | Military officer, lawyer, financier, political theorist |
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| Allegiance | Province of New York (began 1775)State of New York (began 1776)United States of America (began 1777) |
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| Branch | New York Provincial Company of ArtilleryContinental ArmyUnited States Army |
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| Serviceyears | 1775–1776 (Militia)1776–17811798–1800 |
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| Rank | Beginning:05px Lieutenant (Artillery)Highest: 20px Major General (Senior Officer of the United States Army) |
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| Battles | American Revolutionary WarBattle of Harlem HeightsBattle of White PlainsBattle of TrentonBattle of PrincetonBattle of MonmouthBattle of YorktownQuasi-War}} |
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Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757 – July 12, 1804) was a Founding Father, soldier, economist, political philosopher, one of America's first constitutional lawyers and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury. He has been described as one who "more than any other designed the Government of the United States": As Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton was the primary author of the economic policies of the George Washington Administration, especially the funding of the state debts by the Federal government, the establishment of a national bank, a system of tariffs, and friendly trade relations with Britain. He became the leader of the Federalist Party, created largely in support of his views, and was opposed by the Democratic-Republican Party, led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
A believer in a militarily strong national government, Hamilton served in the American Revolutionary War. At the start of the war, he organized an artillery company and was chosen as its captain. He later became the senior aide-de-camp and confidant to General George Washington, the American commander-in-chief. He served again under Washington in the army raised to defeat the Whiskey Rebellion, a tax revolt of western farmers in 1794. In 1798, Hamilton called for mobilization against France after the XYZ Affair, and secured an appointment as commander of a new army, which he trained to prepare for a war. Although hard-fought at sea, however, the Quasi-War was never officially declared. In the end, Adams found a diplomatic solution that avoided war.
Born and raised in the West Indies, Hamilton came to North America for his education, sponsored by people from his community. He attended King's College (now Columbia University). After the American Revolutionary War, Hamilton was elected to the Continental Congress from New York. He resigned to practice law and founded the Bank of New York. He was among those dissatisfied with the first national governance document, the Articles of Confederation. While serving in the New York Legislature, Hamilton was sent as a delegate to the Annapolis Convention in 1786 to revise the Articles, but it resulted in a call for a new constitution instead. He was one of New York's delegates at the Philadelphia Convention that drafted the new constitution in 1787, and was the only New Yorker who signed it. In support of the new Constitution, Hamilton wrote much of the ''Federalist Papers'', still an important source for Constitutional interpretation. In the new government under President George Washington, he was appointed the Secretary of the Treasury. An admirer of British political systems, Hamilton was a nationalist who emphasized strong central government and successfully argued that the implied powers of the Constitution could be used to fund the national debt, assume state debts, and create the government-owned Bank of the United States. These programs were funded primarily by a tariff on imports and a highly controversial excise tax on whiskey.
Embarrassed when an extra-marital affair with Maria Reynolds became public, Hamilton resigned from office in 1795 and returned to the practice of law in New York. He kept his hand in politics and was a powerful influence on the cabinet of President Adams (1797–1801). Hamilton's opposition to John Adams helped cause Adams' defeat in the 1800 elections. When Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied in the electoral college, Hamilton helped defeat his bitter personal enemy Burr and elect Jefferson as president. After opposing Adams, the candidate of his own party, Hamilton was left with few political friends. In 1804, as the next presidential election approached, Hamilton again opposed the candidacy of Burr. Taking offense at some of Hamilton's comments, Burr challenged him to a duel and mortally wounded Hamilton, who died within days.
Childhood in the Caribbean
Alexander Hamilton was born in
Charlestown, the capital of the island of
Nevis, in the
Leeward Islands; Nevis was then one of the
British West Indies. His mother moved with the infant Hamilton to
St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, then ruled by Denmark.
Hamilton was born out of wedlock to Rachel Faucett Lavien, of partial French Huguenot descent, and James A. Hamilton, the fourth son of Scottish laird Alexander Hamilton of Grange, Ayrshire. It is not certain whether the year of Hamilton's birth was 1757 or 1755; most historical evidence after Hamilton's arrival in New England supports the idea that he was born in 1757, and as such, many historians had accepted this birth date. Hamilton's early life in the Caribbean was recorded in documents first published in Danish in 1930; this evidence has caused recent historians to opt for a birth year of 1755. Hamilton listed his birth year as 1757 when he first arrived in the Thirteen Colonies. He celebrated his birthday on January 11. In later life, he tended to give his age only in round figures.
Probate papers from St. Croix in 1768, after the death of Hamilton's mother, list him as then 13 years old, a date that would support a birth year of 1755. There are several explanations for the different birth years: If 1755 is correct, Hamilton may have been trying to appear younger than his college classmates, or perhaps wished to avoid standing out as older; on the other hand, if 1757 is correct, the probate document indicating a birth year of 1755 may have been in error, or Hamilton may have been attempting to pass as 13, in order to be more employable after his mother's death.
Hamilton's mother had been married previously to Johann Michael Lavien of St. Croix, a much older German Jewish merchant planter. To escape this unhappy marriage, Rachel left her husband and first son, traveling to St. Kitts in 1750, where she met James Hamilton. Hamilton and Rachel moved together to Rachel's birthplace, Nevis, where she had inherited property from her father. Their two sons were James, Jr., and Alexander. Because Alexander Hamilton's parents were not legally married, the Church of England denied him membership and education in the church school. Instead, Hamilton received "individual tutoring" and classes in a private Jewish school. Hamilton supplemented his education with a family library of thirty-four books, including Greek and Roman classics.
Hamilton's father James abandoned Rachel and their two sons, allegedly to "spar[e] [Rachel] a charge of bigamy . . . [after finding out that her first husband] intend[ed] to divorce her under Danish law on grounds of adultery and desertion." Rachel supported her family in St. Croix by keeping a small store in Christiansted. She contracted a severe fever and died on February 19, 1768, 1:02 am, leaving Hamilton effectively orphaned. This may have had severe emotional consequences for him, even by the standards of an eighteenth-century childhood. In probate court, Rachel's "first husband seized her estate" and obtained the few valuables Rachel had owned, including some household silver. Many items were auctioned off, but a friend purchased the family books and returned them to the young Hamilton.
Hamilton became a clerk at a local import-export firm, Beekman and Cruger, which traded with New England; he was left in charge of the firm for five months in 1771, while the owner was at sea. He and his older brother James were adopted briefly by a cousin, Peter Lytton, but when Lytton committed suicide, the brothers were separated. James apprenticed with a local carpenter, while Alexander was adopted by Nevis merchant Thomas Stevens. Some evidence suggests that Stevens may have been Alexander Hamilton's biological father: his son, Edward Stevens, became a close friend of Hamilton. The two boys were described as looking much alike, were both fluent in French, and shared similar interests.
Hamilton continued clerking, remained an avid reader and later developed an interest in writing, and began to desire a life outside the small island where he lived. He wrote an essay published in the ''Royal Danish-American Gazette'', with a detailed account of a hurricane that had devastated Christiansted on August 30, 1772. The essay impressed community leaders, who collected a fund to send the young Hamilton to the North American colonies for his education.
Education
In the autumn of 1772, Hamilton arrived by way of Boston, Massachusetts at Elizabethtown Academy, a grammar school in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. In 1773 he studied with Francis Barber at Elizabethtown in preparation for college work. He came under the influence of a leading intellectual and revolutionary, William Livingston with whom he lived for a time at his new house, Liberty Hall. Hamilton applied to the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) asking to be allowed to study at a quicker pace and complete his studies in a shorter time. The college's Board of Trustees refused his request. Hamilton made a similar request to King's College in New York City (now Columbia University), was accepted, and entered the college in late 1773 or early 1774.
When the Church of England clergyman Samuel Seabury published a series of pamphlets promoting the Loyalist cause the following year, Hamilton responded with his first political writings, "A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress" and "The Farmer Refuted". He published two additional pieces attacking the Quebec Act as well as fourteen anonymous installments of "The Monitor" for Holt's ''New York Journal''. Although Hamilton was a supporter of the Revolutionary cause at this prewar stage, he did not approve of mob reprisals against Loyalists. On May 10, 1775, Hamilton saved his college president Myles Cooper, a Loyalist, from an angry mob, by speaking to the crowd long enough for Cooper to escape the danger.
During the Revolutionary War
Early military career
In 1775, after the first engagement of American troops with the British in
Boston, Hamilton joined a New York volunteer militia company called the
Hearts of Oak, which included other King's College students. He drilled with the company before classes, in the graveyard of nearby
St. Paul's Chapel. Hamilton studied military history and tactics on his own and achieved the rank of
lieutenant. Under fire from
HMS ''Asia'', he led a successful raid for British cannon in
the Battery, the capture of which resulted in the Hearts of Oak becoming an artillery company thereafter. Through his connections with influential
New York patriots like
Alexander McDougall and
John Jay, he raised the
New York Provincial Company of Artillery of sixty men in 1776, and was elected
captain. It took part in the
campaign of 1776 around New York City, particularly at the
Battle of White Plains; at the
Battle of Trenton, it was stationed at the high point of town, the meeting of the present Warren and Broad Streets, to keep the
Hessians pinned in the Trenton Barracks.
Washington's staff
Hamilton was invited to become an aide to Nathanael Greene and to Henry Knox; however, he declined these invitations in the hopes of obtaining a place on Washington's staff. Hamilton did receive such an invitation and joined as Washington's aide on March 1, 1777, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Hamilton served for four years as Washington's chief of staff. He handled letters to Congress, state governors, and the most powerful generals in the Continental Army; he drafted many of Washington's orders and letters at the latter's direction; he eventually issued orders from Washington over Hamilton's own signature. Hamilton was involved in a wide variety of high-level duties, including intelligence, diplomacy, and negotiation with senior army officers as Washington's emissary. The important duties with which he was entrusted attest to Washington's deep confidence in his abilities and character, then and afterward. At the points in their relationship where there was little personal attachment, there was still always a reciprocal confidence and respect.
During the war, Hamilton became close friends with several fellow officers. His letters to the Marquis de Lafayette and to John Laurens, employing the sentimental literary conventions of the late eighteenth century and alluding to Greek history and mythology, have been read as revealing a homosocial or perhaps homosexual relationship, but few historians agree.
Hamilton married Elizabeth Schuyler on December 14, 1780. She was the daughter of Philip Schuyler, a General and wealthy businessman from one of the most prominent families in the state of New York. The marriage took place at Schuyler Mansion in Albany, New York.
Hamilton was also extremely close to Eliza's older sister, Angelica Schuyler Church, who eloped with John Barker Church, an Englishman who made a fortune in the American colonies during the Revolution, and returned with him to London after the war.
While on Washington's staff, Hamilton long sought command in active combat. As the war drew ever nearer to a close, he knew that opportunities for military glory were fading. In February 1781, Hamilton was mildly reprimanded by Washington, and used this as an excuse for resigning his staff position. He immediately began to ask Washington and others incessantly for a field command. This continued until early July 1781, when Hamilton submitted a letter to Washington with his commission enclosed, "thus tacitly threatening to resign if he didn't get his desired command".
On July 31, 1781, Washington relented, and Hamilton was given command of a New York light infantry battalion. In the planning for the assault on Yorktown, Hamilton was given command of three battalions, which were to fight in conjunction with French troops in taking Redoubts #9 and #10 of the British fortifications at Yorktown. Hamilton and his battalions fought bravely and took Redoubt #10 with bayonets, as planned. The French also fought bravely, took heavy casualties, and successfully took Redoubt #9. This action forced the British surrender at Yorktown of an entire army, effectively ending major British military operations in North America.
Hamilton enters Congress
After the Battle of Yorktown, Hamilton resigned his commission. He was elected in July 1782 to the
Congress of the Confederation as a New York representative for the term beginning in November 1782. Hamilton supported Congressmen such as superintendent of finance
Robert Morris, his assistant
Gouverneur Morris (no relation), along with
James Wilson, and
James Madison to provide the Congress with the independent source of revenue it lacked under the
Articles of Confederation.
While on Washington's staff, Hamilton had become frustrated with the decentralized nature of the wartime Continental Congress, particularly its dependence upon the states for financial support. Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress had no power to collect taxes or to demand money from the states. This lack of a stable source of funding had made it difficult for the Continental Army both to obtain its necessary provisions, and to pay its soldiers. During the war, and for some time after, Congress obtained what funds it could from subsidies from the King of France, from aid requested from the several states (which were often unable or unwilling to contribute), and from European loans.
An amendment to the Articles had been proposed by Thomas Burke, in February 1781, to give Congress the power to collect a 5% impost or duty on all imports, but this required ratification by all states; securing its passage as law proved impossible after it was rejected by Rhode Island in November 1782. Madison joined Hamilton in persuading Congress to send a delegation to persuade Rhode Island to change its mind. Their report recommending the delegation argued the federal government needed not just some level of financial autonomy, but also the ability to make laws that supersede those of the individual states. Hamilton transmitted a letter arguing that Congress already had the power to tax, since it had the power to fix the sums due from the several states; but Virginia's rescission of its own ratification ended the Rhode Island negotiations.
Congress and the Army
While Hamilton was in Congress, discontented soldiers began to pose a danger to the young United States. Most of the army was then posted at
Newburgh, New York. The army was paying for much of their own supplies, and they had not been paid in eight months. Furthermore, the Continental officers had been promised, in May 1778, after
Valley Forge, a pension of half their pay when they were discharged. It was at this time that a group of officers organized under the leadership of General
Henry Knox sent a delegation to lobby Congress, led by Capt. Alexander MacDougall (see
above). The officers had three demands: the Army's pay, their own pensions, and commutation of those pensions into a lump-sum payment.
Several Congressmen, including Hamilton and the Morrises, attempted to use this Newburgh conspiracy as leverage to secure independent support for funding for the federal government in Congress and from the states. They encouraged MacDougall to continue his aggressive approach, threatening unknown consequences if their demands were not met, and defeated proposals that would have resolved the crisis without establishing general federal taxation: that the states assume the debt to the army, or that an impost be established dedicated to the sole purpose of paying that debt. Hamilton suggested using the Army's claims to prevail upon the states for the proposed national funding system. The Morrises and Hamilton contacted Knox to suggest he and the officers defy civil authority, at least by not disbanding if the army were not satisfied; Hamilton wrote Washington to suggest that he covertly "take direction" of the officers' efforts to secure redress, to secure continental funding but keep the army within the limits of moderation. Washington wrote Hamilton back, declining to introduce the army; after the crisis had ended, he warned of the dangers of using the army as leverage to gain support for the national funding plan.
On March 15, Washington defused the Newburgh situation by giving a speech to the officers. Congress ordered the Army officially disbanded in April 1783. In the same month, Congress passed a new measure for a twenty-five-year impost, which Hamilton voted against, and that again required the consent of all the states; it also approved a commutation of the officers' pensions to five years of full pay. Rhode Island again opposed these provisions, and Hamilton's robust assertions of national prerogatives in his previous letter were widely held to be excessive. The Continental Congress was never able to secure full ratification for back pay, pensions, or their own independent sources of funding.
In June 1783, a different group of disgruntled soldiers from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, sent Congress a petition demanding their back pay. When they began to march toward Philadelphia, Congress charged Hamilton and two others to intercept the mob. Hamilton requested militia from Pennsylvania's Supreme Executive Council, but was turned down. Hamilton instructed Assistant Secretary of War William Jackson to intercept the men. Jackson was unsuccessful. The mob arrived in Philadelphia, and proceeded to harangue Congress for their pay. The President of Congress, John Dickinson, feared the Pennsylvania state militia was unreliable, and refused their help. Hamilton argued that Congress ought to adjourn to Princeton, New Jersey. Congress agreed, and relocated there.
Frustrated with the weakness of the central government, Hamilton drafted a call to revise the Articles of Confederation while in Princeton. This resolution contained many features of the future U.S. Constitution, including a strong federal government with the ability to collect taxes and raise an army. It also included the separation of powers into the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches.
Return to New York
Hamilton resigned from Congress, and in July 1783 was admitted to the New York Bar after several months of self-directed education. He practiced law in New York City in partnership with
Richard Harison. He specialized in defending Tories and British subjects, as in ''
Rutgers v. Waddington'', in which he defeated a claim for damages done to a brewery by the Englishmen who held it during the military occupation of New York. He pleaded that the Mayor's Court interpret state law to be consistent with the
1783 Treaty of Paris, which had ended the Revolutionary War.
In 1784, he founded the Bank of New York, now the oldest ongoing banking organization in the United States. Hamilton was one of the men who restored King's College, which had been suspended since the Battle of Long Island in 1776 and severely damaged during the War, as Columbia College. His public career resumed when he attended the Annapolis Convention as a delegate in 1786. While there, he drafted its resolution for a Constitutional convention, and in doing so brought his longtime desire to have a more powerful, more financially independent federal government one step closer to reality.
Constitution and Federalist Papers
thumb|upright|Hamilton shortly after the American Revolution
In 1787, Hamilton served as assemblyman from New York County in the New York State Legislature and was the first delegate chosen to the Constitutional Convention. Even though Hamilton had been a leader in calling for a new Constitutional Convention, his direct influence at the Convention itself was quite limited. Governor George Clinton's faction in the New York legislature had chosen New York's other two delegates, John Lansing and Robert Yates, and both of them opposed Hamilton's goal of a strong national government. Thus, while the other two members of the New York delegation were present, they decided New York's vote; and when they left the convention in protest, Hamilton remained with no vote (two representatives were required for any state to cast a vote).
Early in the Convention he made a speech proposing a President-for-Life; it had no effect upon the deliberations of the convention. He proposed to have an elected President and elected Senators who would serve for life contingent upon "good behavior", and subject to removal for corruption or abuse; this idea contributed later to the hostile view of Hamilton as a monarchist sympathizer, held by James Madison. During the convention, Hamilton constructed a draft for the Constitution based on the convention debates, but he never presented it. This draft had most of the features of the actual Constitution, including such details as the three-fifths clause. In this draft, the Senate was to be elected in proportion to the population, being two-fifths the size of the House, and the President and Senators were to be elected through complex multistage elections, in which chosen electors would elect smaller bodies of electors; they would hold office for life, but were removable for misconduct. The President would have an absolute veto. The Supreme Court was to have immediate jurisdiction over all law suits involving the United States, and State governors were to be appointed by the federal government.
At the end of the Convention, Hamilton was still not content with the final form of the Constitution, but signed it anyway as a vast improvement over the Articles of Confederation, and urged his fellow delegates to do so also. Since the other two members of the New York delegation, Lansing and Yates, had already withdrawn, Hamilton was the only New York signer to the United States Constitution. He then took a highly active part in the successful campaign for the document's ratification in New York in 1788, which was a crucial step in its national ratification. Hamilton recruited John Jay and James Madison to write a defense of the proposed Constitution, now known as the ''Federalist Papers'', and made the largest contribution to that effort, writing 51 of 85 essays published (Madison wrote 29, Jay only five). Hamilton's essays and arguments were influential in New York state, and elsewhere, during the debates over ratification. The ''Federalist Papers'' are more often cited than any other primary source by jurists, lawyers, historians, and political scientists as the major contemporary interpretation of the Constitution.
In 1788, Hamilton served yet another term in what proved to be the last time the Continental Congress met under the Articles of Confederation. When Phillip Schuyler's term ended in 1791, they began by electing, in his place, the attorney-general of New York, one Aaron Burr. Hamilton blamed Burr for this result, and ill characterizations of Burr appear in his correspondence thereafter, although they did work together from time to time on various projects, including Hamilton's army of 1798 and the Manhattan Water Company.
Secretary of the Treasury
President George Washington appointed Hamilton as the first
United States Secretary of the Treasury on September 11, 1789. He left office on the last day of January 1795. Much of the structure of the government of the United States was worked out in those five years, beginning with the structure and function of the Cabinet itself.
Forrest McDonald argues that Hamilton saw his office, like the British
First Lord of the Treasury, as that of a Prime Minister; Hamilton would oversee his colleagues under the elective reign of George Washington. Washington did request Hamilton's advice and assistance on matters outside the purview of the
Treasury Department.
In the next two years, Hamilton submitted five reports:
First Report on the Public Credit: Communicated to the House of Representatives, January 14, 1790.
Operations of the Act Laying Duties on Imports: Communicated to the House of Representatives, April 23, 1790.
Second Report on Public Credit: Report on a National Bank. Communicated to the House of Representatives, December 14, 1790.
Report on the Establishment of a Mint: Communicated to the House of Representatives, January 28, 1791.
Report on Manufactures: Communicated to the House of Representatives, December 5, 1791.
Report on Public Credit
In the Report on Public Credit, the Secretary made a controversial proposal that would have the federal government assume state debts incurred during the Revolution. This would give the federal government much more power by placing the country's most serious financial obligation in the hands of the federal government, rather than the state governments.
The primary criticism of the plan was from Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson
Hamilton eventually secured passage of his assumption plan by striking a deal with Jefferson and Madison. Hamilton would use his influence to place the permanent national capital on the Potomac River, and Jefferson and Madison would encourage their friends to back Hamilton's assumption plan. In the end, Hamilton's assumption, together with his proposals for funding the debt, overcame legislative opposition and narrowly passed the House on July 26, 1790.
Founding the U.S. Mint
Hamilton helped found the
United States Mint; the
first national bank; and an elaborate system of duties, tariffs, and excises. In five years, the complete Hamiltonian program replaced the chaotic financial system of the confederation era with a modern apparatus that gave the new government financial stability, and gave investors sufficient confidence to invest in government bonds.
Revenue Cutter Service
Hamilton developed a "System of Cutters", forming the
Revenue Cutter Service, (later combined with other government entities to form the
United States Coast Guard). Coast Guard vessels are still referred to as "
Cutters" today.
Sources of revenue
One of the principal sources of revenue Hamilton prevailed upon Congress to approve was an
excise tax on
whiskey. Strong opposition to the whiskey tax by
cottage producers in remote, rural regions erupted into the
Whiskey Rebellion in 1794; in
Western Pennsylvania and western
Virginia, whiskey was the basic export product and was basic to the local economy. In response to the rebellion, believing compliance with the laws was vital to the establishment of federal authority, he accompanied to the rebellion's site President Washington, General
Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, and more federal troops than were ever assembled in one place during the Revolution. This overwhelming display of force intimidated the leaders of the insurrection, ending the rebellion virtually without bloodshed.
Manufacturing and industry
Hamilton's next report was his "Report on Manufactures". Congress shelved the report without much debate, except for Madison's objection to Hamilton's formulation of the General Welfare clause, which Hamilton construed liberally as a legal basis for his extensive programs. It has been often quoted by protectionists since.
In 1791, while still Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton worked in a private capacity to help found the Society for the Establishment of Useful Manufactures, a private corporation that would use the power of the Great Falls of the Passaic River to operate mills. Although the company did not succeed in its original purpose, it leased the land around the falls to other mill ventures and continued to operate for over a century and a half.
Emergence of parties
During Hamilton's tenure as Treasury Secretary, political factions began to emerge. A Congressional caucus, led by
James Madison and
William Branch Giles, began as an opposition group to Hamilton's financial programs, and
Thomas Jefferson joined this group when he returned from France. Hamilton and his allies began to call themselves ''
Federalists''. The opposition group, now referred to as the
Democratic-Republican Party, was then known by several names, including ''Republicans'', ''republicans'', ''Jeffersonians'', and ''Democrats''.
The Federalists assembled a nationwide coalition to garner support for the Administration, including the expansive financial programs Hamilton had made Administration policy; the Democratic-Republicans built their own national coalition to oppose these Federalist programs. Both sides gained the support of local political factions; each side developed its own partisan newspapers. Noah Webster, John Fenno, and eventually William Cobbett were prominent editors for the Federalists. Benjamin Franklin Bache and Philip Freneau edited major publications for the Democratic-Republicans. Newspapers of both parties were characterized by frequent personal attacks and information of questionable veracity.
In 1801, Hamilton established a daily newspaper the ''New York Evening Post'' under editor William Coleman. It is now known as the ''New York Post''.
French Revolutionary wars
When
France and Britain went to war in early 1793, all four members of the Cabinet were consulted on what to do. They unanimously agreed to remain neutral, and both Hamilton and Jefferson were major architects in working out the specific provisions that maintained and enforced that neutrality.
During Hamilton's last year in office, policy toward Britain became a major point of contention between the two parties. Hamilton and the Federalists wished for more trade with Britain, which would provide more revenue from tariffs; the Democratic-Republicans preferred an embargo to compel Britain to respect the rights of the United States and give up the forts they still held on American soil, contrary to the Treaty of Paris.
To avoid war, Washington sent Chief Justice John Jay, late in 1794, to negotiate with the British; Hamilton helped to draw up his instructions. The result was Jay's Treaty, which, as the State Department says, "addressed few U.S. interests, and ultimately granted Britain additional rights". The treaty was extremely unpopular, and the Democratic-Republicans opposed it for its failure to redress previous grievances, and for its failure to address British violations of American neutrality during the war.
Several European nations had formed a League of Armed Neutrality against incursions on their neutral rights; the Cabinet was also consulted on whether the United States should join it, and decided not to, but kept that decision secret. Hamilton revealed this decision in private to George Hammond, the British Minister to the United States, without telling Jay—or anyone else; it was unknown until Hammond's dispatches were read in the 1920s. This "amazing revelation" may have had limited effect on the negotiations; Jay did threaten to join the League at one point, but the British had other reasons not to view the League as a serious threat.
Affair
In 1791, Hamilton became involved in an affair with
Maria Reynolds that badly damaged his reputation. Reynolds's complicit husband, James,
blackmailed Hamilton for money, threatening to inform Hamilton's wife. When James Reynolds was arrested for counterfeiting, he contacted several prominent members of the Democratic-Republican Party, most notably
James Monroe and
Aaron Burr, touting that he could expose a top level official for corruption. Presuming that James Reynolds could implicate Hamilton in an abuse of his position in Washington's Cabinet, they interviewed Hamilton with their suspicions. Hamilton insisted he was innocent of any misconduct in public office, but admitted to an affair with Maria Reynolds. Since this was not germane to Hamilton's conduct in office, Hamilton's interviewers did not publish about Reynolds. When rumors began spreading after his retirement, Hamilton published a confession of his affair, shocking his family and supporters by not merely confessing but also by inexplicably narrating the affair at an unexpected level of detail. The public revelation thus damaged Hamilton's reputation for the rest of his life.
1796 presidential election
Hamilton's resignation as Secretary of the Treasury in 1795 did not remove him from public life. With the resumption of his law practice, he remained close to Washington as an advisor and friend. Hamilton influenced Washington in the composition of his
Farewell Address; Washington and members of his Cabinet often consulted with him.
In the election of 1796, under the Constitution as it stood then, each of the presidential Electors had two votes, which they were to cast for different men. The one with most votes would be President, the second, Vice President. This system was not designed for parties, which had been thought disreputable and factious. The Federalists planned to deal with this by having all their Electors vote for John Adams, the Vice President, and all but a few for Thomas Pinckney of South Carolina (who was on his way home from being Minister to Spain, where he had negotiated a popular treaty); Jefferson chose Aaron Burr as his vice presidential running mate.
Hamilton, however, disliked Adams and saw an opportunity. He urged all the Northern Electors to vote for Adams and Pinckney, lest Jefferson get in. He cooperated with Edward Rutledge to have South Carolina's Electors vote for Jefferson and Pinckney. If all this worked, Pinckney would have more votes than Adams; Pinckney would be President, and Adams would remain Vice President. It did not work. The Federalists found out about it (even the French minister to the United States knew), and Northern Federalists voted for Adams but ''not'' for Pinckney, in sufficient numbers that Pinckney came in third and Jefferson became Vice President. Adams resented the intrigue, since he felt his service to the nation was much more extensive than Pinckney's. Adams also resented Hamilton's influence with Washington and considered him overambitious and scandalous in his private life; Hamilton compared Adams unfavorably with Washington and thought him too emotionally unstable to be President.
Quasi-War
During the
Quasi-War of 1798–1800, and with Washington's strong endorsement, Adams reluctantly appointed Hamilton a
major general of the army (essentially placing him in command since Washington could not leave Mt. Vernon). If full scale war broke out with France, Hamilton argued that the army should conquer the
North American colonies of France's ally, Spain, bordering the United States.
To fund this army, Hamilton had been writing incessantly to Oliver Wolcott, Jr., his successor at the Treasury; William Loughton Smith, of the House Ways and Means Committee; and Senator Theodore Sedgwick of Massachusetts. He directed them to pass a direct tax to fund the war. Smith resigned in July 1797, as Hamilton scolded him for slowness, and told Wolcott to tax houses instead of land.
The eventual program included a Stamp Act like that of the British before the Revolution and other taxes on land, houses, and slaves, calculated at different rates in different states, and requiring difficult and intricate assessment of houses. This provoked resistance in southeastern Pennsylvania, led primarily by men who had marched with Washington against the Whiskey Rebellion, such as John Fries.
Hamilton aided in all areas of the Army's development, and officially served as the Senior Officer of the United States Army as a Major General from December 14, 1799, to June 15, 1800. The army was to guard against invasion from France. Hamilton also suggested that its strategy involve marching into the possessions of Spain, then allied with France, and potentially even taking Louisiana and Mexico. His correspondence further suggests that when he returned in military glory, he dreamed of setting up a properly energetic government, without any Jeffersonians. Adams, however, derailed all plans for war by opening negotiations with France. Adams had also held it right to retain Washington's cabinet, except for cause; he found, in 1800 (after Washington's death), that they were obeying Hamilton rather than himself, and fired several of them.
1800 presidential election
In the 1800 election, Hamilton worked to defeat not only the rival Democratic-Republican candidates, but also his party's own nominee, John Adams.
In November 1799, the Alien and Sedition Acts had left one Democratic-Republican newspaper functioning in New York City; when the last one, the ''New Daily Adertiser'', reprinted an article saying that Hamilton had attempted to purchase the Philadelphia ''Aurora'' and close it down, Hamilton had the publisher prosecuted for seditious libel, and the prosecution compelled Mre Greenleaf to close it.
Aaron Burr had won New York for Jefferson in May, Hamilton proposed a rerun of the election under different rules, with carefully drawn districts, each choosing an elector, so that the Federalists would split the electoral vote of New York. John Jay, a Federalist, who had given up the Supreme Court to be Governor of New York, wrote on the back of the letter the words, "Proposing a measure for party purposes which it would not become me to adopt," and declined to reply.
John Adams was running this time with Pinckney's elder brother Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. On the other hand, Hamilton toured New England, again urging Northern Electors to hold firm for this Pinckney, in the renewed hope to make Pinckney President; and he again intrigued in South Carolina. This time, the important reaction was from the Jeffersonian Electors, all of whom voted both for Jefferson and Burr to ensure that no such deal would result in electing a Federalist. (Burr had received only one vote from Virginia in 1796.)
In September, Hamilton wrote a pamphlet called ''Letter from Alexander Hamilton, Concerning the Public Conduct and Character of John Adams, Esq. President of the United States'' that was highly critical of Adams, though it closed with a tepid endorsement. He mailed this to two hundred leading Federalists; when a copy fell into Democratic-Republican hands, they printed it. This hurt Adams's 1800 reelection campaign and split the Federalist Party, virtually assuring the victory of the Democratic-Republican Party, led by Jefferson, in the election of 1800; it destroyed Hamilton's position among the Federalists.
On the Federalist side, Governor Arthur Fenner of Rhode Island denounced these "jockeying tricks" to make Pinckney President, and one Rhode Island Elector voted for Adams and Jay. Jefferson and Burr tied for first and second; and Pinckney came in fourth.
Jefferson had beaten Adams, but both he and his running mate, Aaron Burr, received 73 votes in the Electoral College. With Jefferson and Burr tied, the United States House of Representatives had to choose between the two men. (As a result of this election, the Twelfth Amendment was proposed and ratified, adopting the method under which presidential elections are held today.) Several Federalists who opposed Jefferson supported Burr, and for the first 35 ballots, Jefferson was denied a majority. Before the 36th ballot, Hamilton threw his weight behind Jefferson, supporting the arrangement reached by James A. Bayard of Delaware, in which five Federalist Representatives from Maryland and Vermont abstained from voting, allowing those states' delegations to go for Jefferson, ending the impasse and electing Jefferson President rather than Burr. Even though Hamilton did not like Jefferson and disagreed with him on many issues, he was quoted as saying, "At least Jefferson was honest." Hamilton felt that Burr was dangerous. Burr then became Vice President of the United States. When it became clear that he would not be asked to run again with Jefferson, Burr sought the New York governorship in 1804 with Federalist support, against the Jeffersonian Morgan Lewis, but was defeated by forces including Hamilton.
In 1801, Hamilton announced his intention to withdraw from the Federalist party if Burr became their presidential candidate in 1804. In 1802, he began to organize "The Christian Constitutional Society", the first principle of which, even before supporting the Constitution, was "the support of the Christian religion".
Burr–Hamilton duel
Soon after the 1804 gubernatorial election in New York—in which Morgan Lewis, greatly assisted by Hamilton, defeated Aaron Burr—the ''Albany Register'' published Charles D. Cooper's letters, citing Hamilton's opposition to Burr and alleging that Hamilton expressed "a still more despicable opinion" of the Vice President at an upstate New York dinner party. Burr, sensing an attack on his honor, and surely still stung by the political defeat, demanded an apology. Hamilton refused because he could not recall the instance.
Following an exchange of three testy letters, and despite attempts of friends to avert a confrontation, a duel was scheduled for July 11, 1804, along the west bank of the Hudson River on a rocky ledge in Weehawken, New Jersey. This was the same dueling site where Hamilton's eldest son, Philip, was killed three years earlier.
At dawn, the duel began, and Vice President Aaron Burr shot Hamilton. Hamilton's shot broke a tree branch directly above Burr's head. A letter that he wrote the night before the duel states, "I have resolved, if our interview [duel] is conducted in the usual manner, and it pleases God to give me the opportunity, to reserve and throw away my first fire, and I have thoughts even of reserving my second fire", thus asserting an intention to miss Burr. The circumstances of the duel, and Hamilton's actual intentions, are still disputed. Neither of the seconds, Pendleton or Van Ness, could determine who fired first. Soon after, they measured and triangulated the shooting, but could not determine from which angle Hamilton fired. Burr's shot, however, hit Hamilton in the lower abdomen above the right hip. The bullet ricocheted off Hamilton's second or third false rib, fracturing it and caused considerable damage to his internal organs, particularly his liver and diaphragm before becoming lodged in his first or second lumbar vertebra. Chernow considers the circumstances to have indicated Burr to have fired second, and taken deliberate aim.
If a duelist decided not to aim at his opponent there was a well-known procedure, available to everyone involved, for doing so. According to Freeman, Hamilton apparently did not follow this procedure; if he had, Burr might have followed suit, and Hamilton's death may have been avoided. It was a matter of honor among gentlemen to follow these rules. Because of the high incidence of septicemia and death resulting from torso wounds, a high percentage of duels employed this procedure of throwing away fire. Years later, when told that Hamilton may have misled him at the duel, the ever-laconic Burr replied, "Contemptible, if true."
The paralyzed Hamilton, who knew himself to have been mortally wounded, was ferried back to New York. After final visits from his family and friends and considerable suffering, Hamilton died on the following afternoon, July 12, 1804. Gouverneur Morris, a political ally of Hamilton's, gave the eulogy at his funeral and secretly established a fund to support his widow and children. Hamilton was buried in the Trinity Churchyard Cemetery in Manhattan.
Legacy
From the start, Hamilton set a precedent as a Cabinet member by formulating federal programs, writing them as reports, pushing for their approval by appearing in person to argue them on the floor of the United States Congress, and then implementing them. Hamilton and the other Cabinet members were vital to Washington, as there was no president before him (under the Constitution) to set precedents for him to follow in national situations such as seditions and foreign affairs.
Another of Hamilton's legacies was his pro-federal interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Though the Constitution was drafted in a way that was somewhat ambiguous as to the balance of power between national and state governments, Hamilton consistently took the side of greater federal power at the expense of states. As Secretary of the Treasury, he established—against the intense opposition of Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson—the country's first national bank. Hamilton justified the creation of this bank, and other increased federal powers, with Congress's constitutional powers to issue currency, to regulate interstate commerce, and anything else that would be "necessary and proper". Jefferson, on the other hand, took a stricter view of the Constitution: parsing the text carefully, he found no specific authorization for a national bank. This controversy was eventually settled by the Supreme Court of the United States in ''McCulloch v. Maryland'', which in essence adopted Hamilton's view, granting the federal government broad freedom to select the best means to execute its constitutionally enumerated powers, specifically the doctrine of implied powers.
Hamilton's policies as Secretary of the Treasury greatly affected the United States Government and still continue to influence it. In 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States Navy was still using intership communication protocols written by Hamilton for the Revenue Cutter Service. His constitutional interpretation, specifically of the Necessary and Proper Clause, set precedents for federal authority that are still used by the courts and are considered an authority on constitutional interpretation. The prominent French diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, who spent 1794 in the United States, wrote "I consider Napoleon, Fox, and Hamilton the three greatest men of our epoch, and if I were forced to decide between the three, I would give without hesitation the first place to Hamilton", adding that Hamilton had intuited the problems of European conservatives. Talleyrand, who helped demolish the First French Republic, would have preferred to have a coalition of European monarchies curtail the solitary republicanism of the United States, which would permit the peaceful recreation of the French colonial empire of Louis XIV; he believed himself and Hamilton in general agreement.
Opinions of Hamilton have run the gamut: both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson viewed him as unprincipled and dangerously aristocratic. Herbert Croly, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Theodore Roosevelt directed attention to him at the end of the 19th century in the interest of an active federal government, whether or not supported by tariffs. Several nineteenth and twentieth century Republicans entered politics by writing laudatory biographies of Hamilton.
By the time of the American Civil War, Hamilton's portrait began to appear on U.S. currency, including the $2, $5, $10, and $50 notes. His likeness also began to appear on U.S. Postage in 1870. His portrait has continued to appear on U.S. postage and currency, and most notably appears on the modern $10 bill. Hamilton also appears on the $500 Series EE Savings Bond. The source of the face on the $10 bill is John Trumbull's 1805 portrait of Hamilton, in the portrait collection of New York City Hall. On the south side of the Treasury Building in Washington, D.C. is a statue of Hamilton.
On March 19, 1956, the United States Postal Service issued the $5 Liberty Issue postage stamp honoring Hamilton.
Hamilton's upper Manhattan home is preserved as Hamilton Grange National Memorial, with a statue of Hamilton at the entrance. The historic structure, already removed from its original location many years ago, was moved in 2008 to a spot in a park on land that was once part of the Hamilton estate. It is expected to reopen to the public in 2011.
Many towns throughout the United States have been named after Hamilton.
Family
Hamilton's widow, Elizabeth (known as Eliza or Betsy), survived him for fifty years, until 1854; Hamilton had referred to her as "best of wives and best of women". An extremely religious woman, Eliza spent much of her life working to help widows and orphans. After Hamilton's death, Eliza sold the country house, the Grange, that she and Hamilton had built together from 1800 to 1802. She co-founded New York's first private orphanage, the New York Orphan Asylum Society. Despite the Reynolds affair, Alexander and Eliza were very close, and as a widow she always strove to guard his reputation and enhance his standing in American history.
Hamilton and Elizabeth had eight children, including two named Phillip. The elder Philip, Hamilton's first child (born January 22, 1782), was killed in 1801 in a duel with George I. Eacker, whom he had publicly insulted in a Manhattan theater. The second Philip, Hamilton's last child, was born on June 2, 1802, right after the first Philip was killed. Their other children were Angelica, born September 25, 1784; Alexander, born May 16, 1796; James Alexander (April 14, 1788 – September 1878); John Church, born August 22, 1792; William Stephen, born August 4, 1797; and Eliza, born November 26, 1799.
On slavery
Rob Weston has described modern scholarly views on Hamilton's attitude to slavery as viewing Hamilton as anything from a "steadfast abolitionist" to a "hypocrite"; Weston's view is that he was deeply ambivalent.
Hamilton's first polemic against King George's ministers contains a paragraph that speaks of the evils that "slavery" to the British would bring upon the Americans. McDonald sees this as an attack on actual slavery; such rhetoric was quite common in 1776, and varied from the stand that slavery was wrong for free-born Americans of British descent to a recognition of the evils of black slavery.
During the Revolutionary War, there was a series of proposals to arm slaves, free them, and compensate their masters. In 1779, Hamilton's friend John Laurens suggested such a unit be formed under his command, to relieve besieged Charleston, South Carolina; Hamilton proposed to the Continental Congress to create up to four battalions of slaves for combat duty, and free them. Congress recommended that South Carolina (and Georgia) acquire up to three thousand slaves, if they saw fit; they did not, even though the South Carolina governor and Congressional delegation had supported the plan in Philadelphia.
Hamilton argued that blacks' natural faculties were as good as those of free whites, and he answered objections by citing Frederick the Great and others as praising stupidity in soldiers; he argued that if the Americans did not do this, the British would (as they had elsewhere). One of his biographers has cited this incident as evidence that Hamilton and Laurens saw the Revolution and the struggle against slavery as inseparable.
Hamilton later attacked his political opponents as demanding freedom for themselves and refusing to allow it to blacks.
In January 1785, he attended the second meeting of the New York Manumission Society (NYMS). John Jay was president and Hamilton was secretary; he later became president. He was a member of the committee of the society, which put a bill through the New York Legislature banning the ''export'' of slaves from New York; three months later, Hamilton returned a fugitive slave to Henry Laurens of South Carolina.
Hamilton never supported forced emigration for freed slaves; it has been argued from this that he would be comfortable with a multiracial society, and this distinguished him from his contemporaries. In international affairs, he supported Toussaint L'Ouverture's black government in Haiti after the revolt that overthrew French control, as he had supported aid to the slaveowners in 1791—both measures hurt France.
He may have owned household slaves himself (the evidence for this is indirect; McDonald interprets it as referring to paid employees). He supported a gag rule to keep divisive discussions of slavery out of Congress, and he supported the compromise by which the United States could not abolish the slave trade for 20 years. When the Quakers of New York petitioned the First Congress (under the Constitution) for the abolition of the slave trade, and Benjamin Franklin and the Pennsylvania Abolition Society petitioned for the abolition of slavery, the NYMS did not act.
On economics
Alexander Hamilton is sometimes considered the "
patron saint" of the
American School of economic philosophy that, according to one historian, dominated economic policy after 1861. He firmly supported government intervention in favor of business, after the manner of
Jean-Baptiste Colbert, as early as the fall of 1781.
Hamilton opposed the British ideas of free trade, which he believed skewed benefits to colonial and imperial powers, in favor of U.S. protectionism, which he believed would help develop the fledgling nation's emerging economy.
Henry C. Carey was inspired by his writings. Some say he influenced the ideas and work of German Friedrich List.
From the 1860s onwards Japan's Meiji leadership embraced Hamilton's words and work as being valid to their own modernization requirement after touring America's post-Civil War political and industrial landscape. Within the Grant Administration they found Hamiltonian advocates who opened up American financial and manufacturing operations for Japanese inspection. The Meiji leadership sent their sons to study American finance and industry in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and other centres of commerce. These Japanese leaders found Hamilton's words and work also being used by Bismarck's administration in Germany, having been brought to Germany by Friedrich List in the 1840s after List had spent time in exile in Philadelphia. Later Hamilton's reports to Congress could be found in libraries not only in Japan, but Taiwan and Korea, as they came under the colonial rule of Meiji Japan. Post-1945 leaders in both countries (South Korea is a divided nation) used Hamilton's Report on Credit to establish their own modern financial systems [Austin. 2009].
Hamilton's religion
Hamilton, as a youth in the West Indies, was an orthodox and conventional Presbyterian of the "New School" evangelical type (as opposed to the "Old School" Calvinists); he was being taught by a student of
John Witherspoon, a moderate of the New School. He wrote two or three
hymns, which were published in the local newspaper. Robert Troup, his college roommate, noted that Hamilton was "in the habit of praying on his knees night and morning."
From 1777 to 1792, Hamilton appears to have been completely indifferent, and made jokes about God at the Constitutional Convention. During the French Revolution, he had an "opportunistic religiosity", using Christianity for political ends and insisting that Christianity and Jefferson's democracy were incompatible. After his misfortunes of 1801, Hamilton began to assert the truth of Christianity; he also proposed a Christian Constitutional Society in 1802, to take hold of "some strong feeling of the mind" to elect "''fit'' men" to office, and he wrote of "Christian welfare societies" for the poor. He was not a member of any denomination. After being shot Hamilton spoke of his belief in God's mercy, and of his desire to renounce dueling; Bishop Moore administered communion to Hamilton.
Hamilton on U.S. postage
Few people other than U.S. presidents are ever honored more than once on
U.S. Postage, and Alexander Hamilton is one of them. The first postage stamp to honor Hamilton was issued by the U.S. Post Office in 1870. The portrayals on the 1870 and 1888 issues are from the same engraved die which was modeled after a bust of Hamilton by Italian sculptor
Giuseppe Ceracchi The Hamilton 1870 issue was the first U.S. Postage stamp to honor a
Secretary of the Treasury. The 3-cent red commemorative issue was released on the 200th anniversary of Hamilton's birth in 1957. Upon close examination of this issue one can discern the accurate engraved rendition of the
Federal Hall building, located in New York City.
Memorial at colleges
Alexander Hamilton served as one of the first trustees of the
Hamilton-Oneida Academy. When the academy received a college charter in 1812 the school was formally renamed
Hamilton College. There is a prominent statue of Alexander Hamilton in front of the school's chapel (commonly referred to as the "Al-Ham" statue) and the
Burke Library has an extensive collection of Hamilton's personal documents.
Columbia University, Hamilton's alma mater, has official memorials to Hamilton. The college's main classroom building for the humanities is Hamilton Hall, and a large statue of Hamilton stands in front of it. The university press has published his complete works in a multivolume letterpress edition. Columbia University's student group for ROTC cadets and Marines officer candidates is named the Alexander Hamilton Society.
The main administration building of the Coast Guard Academy is named Hamilton Hall to commemorate Hamilton's creation of the United States Revenue Cutter Service, one of the entities that was combined to form the United States Coast Guard.
Notes
References
:''"The long tradition of Hamilton biography has, almost without exception, been laudatory in the extreme. Facts have been exaggerated, moved around, omitted, misunderstood and imaginatively created. The effect has been to produce a spotless champion...Those little satisfied with this reading of American history have struck back by depicting Hamilton as a devil devoted to undermining all that was most characteristic and noble in American life."''
James Thomas Flexner, ''The Young Hamilton'', pp. 3–4.
Secondary sources
Henry Adams, ''History of the United States of America under the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson'', Library of America 1986, ISBN 978-0-521-32483-0
Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick: ''Age of Federalism'' (New York, Oxford University Press, 1993). online edition
Biographies
Ambrose, Douglas and Robert W. T. Martin, eds. ''The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton: The Life & Legacy of America's Most Elusive Founding Father '' (2006).
Brookhiser, Richard. ''Alexander Hamilton, American''. Free Press, (1999) (ISBN 978-0-684-83919-6).
Chernow, Ron. ''Alexander Hamilton''. Penguin Books, (2004) (ISBN 978-1-59420-009-0). full-length, detailed biography
Ellis, Joseph J. ''Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation'' (2002), won Pulitzer Prize.
Ellis, Joseph J. ''His Excellency: George Washington''. (2004).
Flexner, James Thomas. ''The Young Hamilton: A Biography''. Fordham University Press, (1997) (ISBN 978-0-8232-1790-8).
Fleming, Thomas. ''Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Future of America''. (2000) (ISBN 978-0-465-01737-9).
McDonald, Forrest. ''Alexander Hamilton: A Biography'' (1982) (ISBN 978-0-393-30048-2), biography focused on intellectual history esp on AH's republicanism.
Miller, John C. ''Alexander Hamilton: Portrait in Paradox'' (1959), full-length, detailed biography; online edition
Mitchell, Broadus. ''Alexander Hamilton'' (2 vols., 1957–62), full-length, detailed biography; also published in abridged edition
Randall, Willard Sterne. ''Alexander Hamilton: A Life''. HarperCollins, (2003) (ISBN 978-0-06-019549-6). Popular.
Don Winslow ''Alexander Hamilton: In Worlds Unknown'' (Script and Film New-York Historical Society).
Specialized studies
A one-volume recasting of Brant's six-volume life.
Full-length, detailed biography.
. Four volumes, with various subtitles, cited as "Flexner, ''Washington''". Vol. IV. ISBN 9780316286022.
A review of the evidence on Newburgh; despite the title, Kohn is doubtful that a ''coup d'état'' was ever seriously attempted.
First volume of two, but this contains Hamilton's lifetime.
Survey of politics in 1790s.
An undergraduate paper, which concludes that Hamilton was ambivalent about slavery.
Coverage of how the Treasury and other departments were created and operated.
The most recent synthesis of the era.
Primary sources
Hamilton, Alexander. (Joanne B. Freeman, ed.) ''Alexander Hamilton: Writings'' (2001), The Library of America edition, 1108 pages. ISBN 978-1-931082-04-4; all of Hamilton's major writings and many of his letters
Syrett, Harold C.; Cooke, Jacob E.; and Chernow, Barbara, eds. ''The Papers of Alexander Hamilton'' (27 vol, Columbia University Press, 1961–87); includes all letters and writing by Hamilton, and all important letters written to him; this is the definitive edition of Hamilton's works, intensively annotated.
Goebel, Julius, Jr., and Smith, Joseph H., eds., ''The Law Practice of Alexander Hamilton'' (5 vols., Columbia University Press, 1964–80); the legal counterpart to the ''Papers of Alexander Hamilton.''
Morris, Richard. ed. ''Alexander Hamilton and the Founding of the Nation'' (1957), excerpts from AH's writings
''Selected Writings and Speeches of Alexander Hamilton.'' Morton J. Frisch ed. (1985).
''The Works of Alexander Hamilton'' edited by Henry Cabot Lodge (1904) full text online at Google Books online in HTML edition. This is the only online collection of Hamilton's writings and letters. Published in 10 volumes, containing about 1.3 million words.
Federalist Papers under the shared pseudonym "Publius" by Alexander Hamilton (c. 52 articles), James Madison (28 articles) and John Jay (five articles)
Report on Manufactures, his economic program for the United States.
Report on Public Credit, his financial program for the United States.
Cooke, Jacob E. ed., ''Alexander Hamilton: A Profile'' (1967), short excerpts from AH and his critics.
Cunningham, Noble E. ''Jefferson vs. Hamilton: Confrontations that Shaped a Nation'' (2000), short collection of primary sources with commentary.
Taylor, George Rogers, ed., ''Hamilton and the National Debt'', 1950, excerpts from all sides in 1790s.
External links
Alexander Hamilton on PBS' American Experience
Alexander Hamilton: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
New-York Historical Society's Alexander Hamilton Exhibit
Hamilton's Report on Manufactures (Columbia University Press)
Hamilton's Congressional biography
Alexander Hamilton: Debate over a National Bank (February 23, 1791)
Alexander Hamilton by Henry Cabot Lodge
Alexander Hamilton's Plan of Government
Hamilton Grange National Memorial
Reenactment of the Burr–Hamilton duel on July 12, 2004
Alexander Hamilton and the National Triumph of New York City A WNET video lecture; overview of Hamilton's career
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