Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 —July 12, 1804) was an Army officer, lawyer, Founding Father, American politician, leading statesman, financier and political theorist. One of America's first constitutional lawyers, he was a leader in calling the U.S. Constitutional Convention in 1787; he was one of the two chief authors of the Federalist Papers, the most cited contemporary interpretation of intent for the United States Constitution.
During the Revolutionary War, Hamilton served as an artillery captain, was an aide-de-camp to General George Washington, and led three battalions at the Battle of Yorktown. Under President Washington, Hamilton became the first Secretary of the Treasury. As Secretary of the Treasury and confidant of Washington, Hamilton had wide-reaching influence over the direction of policy during the formative years of the government. Hamilton believed in the importance of a strong central government, and convinced Congress to use an elastic interpretation of the Constitution to pass far-reaching laws. They included: the funding of the national debt; federal assumption of the state debts; creation of a national bank; and a system of taxes through a tariff on imports and a tax on whiskey that would help pay for it. He admired the success of the British system—particularly its strong financial and trade networks—and opposed what he saw as the excesses of the French Revolution.
Hamilton was one of the creators of the Federalist party, the first American political party, which he built up using Treasury department patronage, networks of elite leaders, and aggressive newspaper editors he subsidized both through Treasury patronage and by loans from his own pocket.[2] His great political adversary was Thomas Jefferson who, with James Madison, created the opposition party (of several names, now known as the Democratic-Republican Party). They opposed Hamilton's urban, financial, industrial goals for the United States, and his promotion of extensive trade and friendly relations with Britain. Hamilton retired from the Treasury in 1795 to practice law in New York City, but during the Quasi-War with France he served as organizer and de facto commander of a national army beginning in December, 1798; if full scale war broke out with France, the army was intended to conquer the North American colonies of France's ally, Spain. He worked to defeat both John Adams and Jefferson in the election of 1800; but when the House of Representatives deadlocked, he helped secure the election of Jefferson over Hamilton's long-time political enemy, Aaron Burr.
Alexander Hamilton was born in Charlestown, Nevis, the capital of the island of Nevis, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Leeward Islands, West Indies,[4] out of wedlock, to James A. Hamilton, the fourth son of a Scottish laird, and Rachel Faucett Lavien, of part French Huguenot descent. There is, however, some evidence suggesting that Hamilton's biological father may have been a Nevis merchant named Thomas Stevens.
The Church of England did not accept the Hamilton family's living situation, and denied Hamilton membership or education in the church school. Instead, the young Hamilton received some "individual tutoring" and classes in a private, Jewish school.Hamilton supplemented this education with a family library of thirty-four books which included Greek and Roman classics. In 1765, a business assignment led James Hamilton to move the family to Christiansted, St. Croix. James then abandoned Rachel and their two sons. After James left, Rachel supported the family by keeping a small store in Christiansted. She contracted a "severe fever" and died on February 19, 1768, leaving Hamilton effectively orphaned. This abandonment, death, and anxiety over his illegitimate birth, all presumably had severe emotional consequences for Alexander, even by the standards of an eighteenth-century childhood. After Rachel's death, her son from her first marriage appeared and (legally, via probate court) claimed the few valuables Hamilton's mother had owned, including several silver spoons. Many of these items, including the books, were auctioned off. A family friend purchased the library and returned it to the bookish young Hamilton. Hamilton never saw his half-brother again, but years later received his death notice and a small amount of money.
Following his mother's death, Hamilton was adopted by a cousin, Peter Lytton, and became a clerk at a local import-export firm, Beekman and Cruger, which had significant ties to the New York area. Lytton soon committed suicide, and Hamilton was split from his older brother, James. Hamilton's brother was made apprentice to a local carpenter, while Hamilton was adopted by a local merchant named Thomas Stevens.
While living with Stevens, Hamilton continued to work as a clerk. He continued to be an avid reader, developed an interest in writing, but began to long for a life off his small island. On August 30th, 1772, a hurricane devastated Christiansted. Hamilton wrote a letter first published in the Royal Danish-American Gazette with a description of the terrible hurricane. Impressed by Hamilton, the community began a collection for a "subscription fund" to educate the young Hamilton in New England. Hamilton left the island, and arrived at a grammar school in Elizabethtown, New Jersey in the autumn of 1772.
In 1773, Hamilton attended a college-preparatory program with Francis Barber at Elizabethtown, New Jersey. There he came under the influence of a leading intellectual and revolutionary, William Livingston. Hamilton may have applied to the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) but been refused the opportunity for accelerated study. In the end, Hamilton decided to attend King's College (now Columbia University) in New York City. While studying at King's College, Hamilton and several classmates formed a small literary and debating group that was a forerunner of Columbia's Philolexian Society.
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 in 1775 . He drilled with the company (which included other King's students) 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 the 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 an artillery company of sixty men in 1776, and was elected captain. He earned the interest of Nathanael Greene and George Washington by the proficiency and bravery he displayed in the campaign of 1776 around New York City, particularly at the Battle of Harlem Heights.
After turning down invitations to serve under several different high-ranking officers, Hamilton joined Washington's staff in March 1777 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Hamilton served for four years, in effect, as Washington's Chief of Staff. He handled the "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, and was eventually allowed to "issue orders from Washington over his own signature." Hamilton was involved in a wide variety of high-level duties, including: intelligence, diplomacy, and negotiation with general 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. Indeed, reciprocal confidence and respect initially took the place of personal attachment in their relations. In a particularly dire situation, Washington sent Hamilton to General Horatio Gates to negotiate the transfer of men from Gates to Washington. This caused Hamilton's involvement in the "Conway Cabal" a notorious event in which Conway, Gates, and other critics of Washington tried to replace him as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. Through no fault of Hamilton's, letters from Gates were made public that called into question Washington's abilities to lead the army. Washington, furious, demanded an explanation. To evade this, Gates claimed that Hamilton had stolen the papers from him while collecting the soldiers. As it turned out Hamilton had nothing to do with these affairs, an accusation that sparked personal dislike between Hamilton and Gates. Hamilton remained a steadfast supporter of Washington throughout the cabal.
Hamilton repeatedly sought independent command, especially of small units. He became impatient of detention in what he regarded as a subordinate position. Hamilton wanted a combat command position, and an opportunity for military glory before the war was over. In February 1781, he used a slight reprimand from Washington as an excuse for resigning his staff position. After hounding Washington and others for a field command, he submitted a letter to Washington in early July of 1781 with his commission enclosed, "thus tacitly threatening to resign if he didn't get his desired command." On July 31, 1781, 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, effectively ending the British effort to reclaim the Thirteen Colonies.
After Yorktown, Hamilton resigned his commission. He was elected a member of the Continental Congress from New York in July 1782. While he was there, several Congressmen from that area, including Hamilton, Robert and Gouverneur Morris wanted to acquire stable revenues for the Confederation. They attempted to persuade the states of this by encouraging the Newburgh conspiracy of discontented Continental officers, who wanted to be sure Congress paid their pensions, by the threat of mutiny. This would be most likely to succeed if Washington were at the head of the movement, and Hamilton wrote to persuade him. Washington did indeed go to Newburgh, but called the officers together and rebuked them for their arrogance, when he himself had grown gray in their service. He also wrote Hamilton, criticizing the Congressmen severely for playing with so "dangerous an instrument" as an army and making the veterans "mere Puppets to establish Continental funds".
In 1783, Hamilton resigned to open his own law office in New York City. 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 should 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 as Columbia College, which had been suspended since the Battle of Long Island in 1776 and severely crippled by the Revolutionary War. His public career resumed when he attended the Annapolis Convention as a delegate in 1786 and drafted its resolution for a Constitutional convention.
In 1787, he served as assemblyman from New York County in the New York State Legislature and was the first delegate chosen to the Constitutional Convention. Hamilton's direct influence at the Convention was limited, since New York had chosen two Clintonians (under George Clinton), who opposed a strong national government, as the other two delegates. While they 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 what was considered a very monarchical government for the United States; though regarded as one of his most eloquent speeches, it had little effect, and deliberations continued largely ignoring his suggestions. Based on his interpretation of history, he concluded the ideal form of government had represented all the interest groups, but maintained a hereditary monarch to decide policy. In Hamilton's opinion, this was impractical in the United States; nevertheless, the country should mimic this form of government as closely as possible. He proposed, therefore, to have a President and elected Senators for life. He was also for the abolition of the state governments. Much later, he stated that his "final opinion" in the Convention was that the President should have a three year term. The notes of the Convention are rather brief; there has been some speculation that he might have also proposed a longer, and more republican, plan.
During the convention, he constructed a draft on the basis of the debates which he did not actually present. This has most of the features of the actual Constitution, down to such details as the three-fifths clause, but not all of them. In his draft, the Senate was to be elected in proportion to population, being two-fifths the size of the House, and the President and Senators were to be elected through complex multi-stage 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 suits involving the United States, and State governors were to be appointed by the Federal Government.
Despite his reservations about the finished Constitution, he became a stalwart promoter and took the lead in the successful campaign for its ratification in New York (1788), a crucial victory for 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.
President George Washington appointed Hamilton as the first Secretary of the Treasury. Hamilton served in the Treasury Department from September 11, 1789, until January 31, 1795.
Within one year, Hamilton submitted five reports that amounted to a financial revolution in the American Economy: 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, and Report on Manufactures: Communicated to the House of Representatives, December 5, 1791.
In the Report on Public Credit, the Secretary made the controversial proposal that would have had the Federal Government assume state debts incurred during the Revolution. It was a bold move to empower the federal government over State governments, and it drew sharp criticism from Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Representative James Madison. The disagreements between Jefferson and Hamilton extended to other proposals Hamilton made to Congress, and they grew especially bitter, with Hamilton's followers known as federalists and Jefferson's as republicans. As Madison put it: "I deserted Colonel Hamilton, or rather Colonel H. deserted me; in a word, the divergence between us took place from his wishing to administration, or rather to administer the Government into what he thought it ought to be..." These became the first political parties in the U.S. as the Federalist Era emerged.
Jefferson and Madison eventually brokered a deal with Hamilton that required him to use his influence to place the permanent capital on the Potomac River, while 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 became law.
Hamilton's next milestone 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. Nevertheless, The Report on Manufactures is a classic document heralding the industrial future America would soon inhabit. In it Hamilton counters Jefferson's vision of an Agrarian American nation of farmers and gives a clear vision for a dynamic industrial economy, subservient to manufacturing interests.
Hamilton helped found the United States Mint, the First National Bank, a "System of Cutters", forming the Revenue Cutter Service, now known as the United States Coast Guard, and an elaborate system of duties, tariffs, and excises. The complete Hamiltonian program replaced the chaotic financial system of the confederation era, in five years, with a modern apparatus to give financial stability to the new government and give investors the confidence necessary for them to invest in government bonds.
As principal sources of revenue, Hamilton's system imposed an excise tax on whiskey. Strong opposition to the whiskey tax erupted into the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794; in Western Pennsylvania and western Virginia, whiskey was commonly made and used (often in place of currency) by most of the community. In response to the rebellion—on the grounds compliance with the laws was vital to the establishment of federal authority—he accompanied President Washington, General "Light Horse Harry" Lee and more Federal troops than the Continental Line to the site of the rebellion. This overwhelming display of force intimidated the leaders of the insurrection, ending the rebellion virtually without bloodshed.
Hamilton created the Federalist Party and dominated it until 1800. It was the first political party in the nation; some have called it the first mass-based party in any republic; others have seen its chief weakness in having too little connection to the masses.[36] As early as 1790, Hamilton started putting together a nationwide coalition, using the contacts he had made in the Army and the Treasury, building vocal political support in each state by signing up prominent men who were like-minded nationalists. The friends of the government especially included merchants, bankers, and financiers in a dozen major cities. By 1792 or 1793 newspapers started calling Hamilton supporters "Federalists" and the opponents "democrats" or "republicans". Religious and educational leaders, hostile to the French Revolution, joined his coalition, especially in New England. Hamilton systematically set up a Federalist newspaper network, recruiting and subsidizing editors including Noah Webster and John Fenno; he wrote numerous anonymous editorials and essays for his papers.
In 1801, Hamilton founded his own newspaper, the New-York Evening Post, edited by William Coleman.
The Federalist and Republican newspapers of the 1790s traded "rancorous and venomous abuse." John Fenno had founded the Gazette of the United States in 1789, on Hamilton's side; Philip Freneau, known as the "Poet of the Revolution," became a Democratic-Republican editor in 1791. The Republicans attacked Hamilton as a monarchist who betrayed America's true values; after the Reynolds affair transpired they used salacious humor relentlessly.
By 1792, Jefferson and Madison started an opposition caucus in Congress, which was to grow into the Democratic Republican Party. By 1795, Federalists and Republicans had organized in every state and city, firmly establishing themselves, with all the arts of politics. Hamilton had over 2,000 Treasury jobs to dispense, while Jefferson had only one. Jay's Treaty of 1794 injected foreign policy into the party debates, with Hamilton and his party favoring Britain and denouncing the French Revolution, while the Jeffersonians strongly opposed the treaty as a sellout to the archenemy.[39]
Hamilton drafted Jay's instructions in negotiating the Treaty; he also made Jay's doing so more difficult. As part of the European war, several nations had formed a League of Armed Neutrality; the Cabinet had decided not to join it, but had kept the decision secret. Hamilton had 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.
In 1791, Hamilton became sexually involved in an affair with Maria Reynolds that badly damaged his reputation. Reynolds' husband, James, blackmailed Hamilton for money, threatening to inform Hamilton's wife Elizabeth. 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. When they visited Hamilton with their suspicions (believing the accusation was that Hamilton had abused his position in Washington's Cabinet), Hamilton insisted he was innocent of any misconduct in public office and admitted to the affair with Maria Reynolds. When rumors began spreading, Hamilton published a confession of his affair, shocking his family and supporters by not merely confessing but narrating the affair in detail, thus injuring Hamilton's reputation for the rest of his life.
At first Hamilton accused Monroe of making his affair public, and challenged him to a duel. Aaron Burr stepped in and persuaded Hamilton that Monroe was innocent of the accusation. His well-known vitriolic temper led Hamilton to challenge several others to duels in his career.
Hamilton resigned as Secretary of the Treasury while this affair was still being investigated; he submitted his resignation on December 1, 1794, effective on January 31, 1795.
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 adviser 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, each of the presidential Electors had two votes, which they were to cast for different men; the one with most votes to be President, the second Vice President. This system was not designed for parties, which had been thought disreputable and fractious. 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, then on his way home from a successful embassage to Spain. 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. The Federalists found out about it (even the French minister to the United States found out about it), 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 this; from the non-partisan point of view, his services and seniority were much greater than Pinckney's.[43] 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. 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).
Hamilton proceeded to set up an army, which was to guard against invasion and march into the possessions of Spain, then allied with France, and take 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.[44] 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.
In the 1800 election, Hamilton acted against both sides. He proposed that New York, which Burr had won for Jefferson, should have its election rerun with carefully chosen districts - a definitely non-legal maneuver. John Jay, 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 (Letter from Alexander Hamilton, Concerning the Public Conduct and Character of John Adams, Esq. President of the United States) which was highly critical of Adams, although 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 also 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, and 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. The result was that Jefferson and Burr tied for first and second; and Pinckney came in fourth.
So 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, but Hamilton reluctantly threw his weight behind Jefferson, causing one Federalist congressman to abstain from voting after 36 tied ballots. This ensured that Jefferson was elected 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." 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 but was badly defeated by forces led by Hamilton.
Soon after the gubernatorial election in New York—in which Morgan Lewis, greatly assisted by Hamilton, defeated Aaron Burr—a newspaper published a letter recounting a dinner party in upstate New York during which Hamilton said he could reveal "an even more despicable opinion" of Colonel Burr.[52] Burr, sensing an attack on his honor, and surely still stung by the political defeat, demanded an apology. Hamilton refused on the grounds that he could not recall the instance.
Following an exchange of three testy letters, and despite the attempts of friends to avert a confrontation, a duel was nevertheless scheduled for July 11, 1804, along the west bank of the Hudson River on a rocky ledge in Weehawken, New Jersey, a common dueling site at which, three years earlier, Hamilton's eldest son, Philip, had been killed.
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." 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 (both men were the same height), 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.
If a duelist decided not to aim at his opponent there was a well-known procedure, available to everyone involved, for doing so. Hamilton did not follow this procedure. (If so, Burr might have followed suit, and 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." [53]
Hamilton 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 alongside other famous American's such as Robert Fulton.
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