Alexander Hamilton Click to enlarge

• Born: 11 January 1757
• Birthplace: Nevis, British West Indies
• Died: 12 July 1804 (shot to death)
• Best Known As: Co-author of The Federalist Papers

While not as famous as Founding Fathers like Ben Franklin or George Washington, Alexander Hamilton played a key role in the early formation of the American government. A man of great intelligence and ambition, he served on Washington's Revolutionary War staff from 1777-1781. After the war Hamilton co-wrote (with John Jay and James Madison) the famous 'Federalist' essays. (Hamilton signed his essays as 'Publius.') Hamilton believed in a strong central government and a strong national bank, convictions which put him famously at odds with Thomas Jefferson. In 1789 President Washington appointed Hamilton as the country's first Secretary of the Treasury, a post he held until 1795.

Hamilton's political feud with Jefferson's vice president, Aaron Burr, led to a duel with pistols on July 11, 1804. Hamilton was mortally wounded and died the next day... Some sources list Hamilton's birth year as 1755, based on probate court papers from St. Croix in which a relative, Peter Lytton, stated that Hamilton was aged 13 upon his mother's death in 1768. Hamilton himself gave 1757 as his birth year throughout his life, and no birth or christening records exist to confirm or deny either date... Historians believe there is no truth to the old salacious rumor that George Washington was Hamilton's illegitimate father.

(1755–1804), Revolutionary soldier and statesman

Born in Nevis, Hamilton migrated to New York in 1772, where he studied at King's College until lured into the Revolutionary War. Hamilton caught Gen. George Washington's eye, and in 1777 became his aide‐de‐camp. In 1781, Hamilton led an infantry regiment to victory against a British redoubt at the Battle of Yorktown.

Hamilton's wartime experiences convinced him that only a strong central government led by a natural aristocracy could preserve American liberty. In 1782, he entered the Confederation Congress, a body he worked to invigorate; Hamilton's Annapolis Convention report (1786) summoned the 1787 Constitutional Convention. At the Philadelphia meeting, he pushed a powerful national government; thereafter he wrote fifty‐one of the celebrated Federalist Papers.

As the first Treasury secretary (1789–95), Hamilton issued three brilliant, controversial reports to Congress, aimed at strengthening the national government. The first, favoring funding of the federal deficit at par and assuming state debts, helped establish national credit; the second proposed a national bank; the third (never enacted) advocated bounties and subsidies to boost manufacturing. Taken as a whole, Hamilton designed his program to win the public creditors to the government's support and to help the nation develop economically. His financial and diplomatic policies inspired the formation of the Republican opposition.

Hamilton's vision for national grandeur included a military establishment. Through a series of crises—including the Whiskey Rebellion, which Hamilton personally helped quell—the Federalists built a professional force despite the public's fear of standing armies. Appointed Inspector General in 1798 under Washington, Hamilton broke with John Adams when the president negotiated America's differences with France instead of waging war. In 1804, fearing a secessionist conspiracy, Hamilton opposed Aaron Burr's bid to become New York's governor. After his defeat, Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel, wounding him mortally at Weehawken, New Jersey.

[See also Jefferson, Thomas; Madison, James; Revolutionary War: Military and Diplomatic Course.]

Bibliography

• Forrest McDonald, Alexander Hamilton, a Biography, 1979.
• Jacob Cooke, Alexander Hamilton, a Biography, 1982

(b. Nevis, British West Indies, 11 Jan. 1757; d. New York, N.Y. 12 July 1804), lawyer and statesman. Though best known for his achievements as the first secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton contributed significantly to the establishment and interpretation of the Constitution. He, along with James Madison and John Dickinson, parlayed the 1786 Annapolis commercial convention into the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He attended the latter as a delegate from New York and signed the finished document. He wrote well over half of the celebrated Federalist Papers, including those essays analyzing the federal judiciary, and in no. 78 he formulated the definitive justification of judicial review. In 1788 he also led the successful campaign for the Constitution's ratification in New York.

Early in 1791 President George Washington asked Hamilton for an opinion on the proposed Bank of the United States, and Hamilton responded with the classical statement of loose construction: “If the end be clearly comprehended within any of the specified powers, & if the measure have an obvious relation to that end, and is not forbidden by any particular provision of the constitution—it may safely be deemed to come within the compass of the national authority” (McDonald, 1979, p. 207). That doctrine prevailed throughout the Supreme Court tenure of Chief Justice John Marshall; indeed, Marshall's opinion in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) reflected Hamilton's logic and echoed his words.

After he retired from the Treasury to resume private law practice in 1795, Hamilton became involved in a major Supreme Court case. Virginians challenged the federal carriage tax of 1794 as a direct tax not proportioned among the states according to population as required by Article I, section 2. Hamilton, on request of Attorney General William Bradford, argued the case for the government and persuaded the Court that the carriage tax was an excise tax needing only to be uniform throughout the states. This case, Hylton v. United States (1796), was the first in which the Supreme Court ruled upon the constitutionality of an act of Congress.

In that same year Hamilton wrote an advisory legal opinion that influenced another major decision. After the Georgia legislature canceled its Yazoo land grants, investors requested Hamilton's legal opinion. He argued that the Contract Clause applied to contracts between a state and individuals as well as between individuals. Grants being contracts, Georgia's rescinding act was unconstitutional. When litigation reached the Supreme Court in Fletcher v. Peck (1810), the Court followed Hamilton's reasoning.

One of Hamilton's last cases, argued before the Supreme Court of New York, was pivotal to freedom of speech. Under the common law, truth was not a defense in cases of seditious libel. In Croswell v. People (1804), Hamilton argued that truth should be a defense. He lost the case but swayed those members of the state legislature who heard him. They soon enacted his position into law, thus establishing a legal foundation for the ideal of a free and responsible press (see Speech and the Press).

See also Constitutional Interpretation.

Bibliography

• Forrest McDonald, Alexander Hamilton (1979)

— Forrest McDonald

Hamilton, Alexander (1755-1804) Revolutionary army officer, statesman, and first secretary of the Treasury, born in Nevis, British West Indies. Hamilton exerted a profound influence on the nascent nation. During the Revolutionary War, Hamilton acted as George Washington's aide-de-camp (1777-81); he then obtained a field command and led a victorious regiment at Yorktown (1781). One of the authors of The Federalist Papers and an ardent nationalist, he believed in a strong federal government, and believed too that this required independent sources of revenue for Congress. As the first secretary of the treasury (1789-95), Hamilton moved to establish national credit and a national bank. He also advocated a military establishment, and it was largely through his influence and active involvement that the Whiskey Rebellion (1794) was quelled by an aggregate of state militias that came to constitute a Federalist force. Hamilton continued to play a vital role even after leaving federal government (1795), as an adviser and speechwriter (composing most of Washington's Farewell Address). Hamilton was mortally wounded in a duel with Aaron Burr (1804), who attributed his losing bid for the governorship of New York to remarks Hamilton had made.

Hamilton's son Philip was killed in a duel three years before his father, on the same dueling ground in Weehauken, New Jersey.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

The first U.S. secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804) was instrumental in developing the nation's first political party, the Federalists.

Alexander Hamilton's birth date is disputed, but he probably was born on Jan. 11, 1755, on the island of Nevis in the British West Indies. He was the illegitimate son of James Hamilton, a Scotsman, and Rachel Fawcett Lavien, daughter of a French Huguenot physician.

Hamilton's education was brief. He began working sometime between the ages of 11 and 13 as a clerk in a trading firm in St. Croix. In 1772 he left - perhaps encouraged and financed by his employers - to attend school in the American colonies. After a few months at an academy in New Jersey, he enrolled in King's College, New York City. Precocious enough to master most subjects without formal instruction and eager to win success and fame early in life, he left college in 1776 without graduating.

American Revolution

The outbreak of the American Revolution offered Hamilton the opportunity he craved. In March 1776 he became captain of a company of artillery and, a year later, a lieutenant colonel in the Continental Army and aide-de-camp to commanding general George Washington. Hamilton's ability was apparent, and he became one of Washington's most trusted advisers. Although he played no role in major military decisions, Hamilton's position was one of great responsibility. He drafted many of Washington's letters to high-ranking Army officers, the Continental Congress, and the states. He also was sent on important military missions and drafted major reports on the reorganization and reform of the Army. Despite the demands of his position, he found time for reading and reflection and expressed his ideas on economic policy and governmental debility in newspaper articles and in letters to influential public figures.

In February 1781, in a display of pique at a minor reprimand by Gen. Washington, Hamilton resigned his position. Earlier, on Dec. 14, 1780, he had married the daughter of Philip Schuyler, a member of one of New York's most distinguished families. In July 1781 Hamilton's persistent search for active military service was rewarded when Washington gave him command of a battalion of light infantry in the Marquis de Lafayette's corps. After the Battle of Yorktown, Hamilton returned to New York. In 1782, following a hasty apprenticeship, he was admitted to the bar.

During the Revolution, Hamilton's ideas on government, society, and economic matured. These were conditioned by his foreign birth, which obviated a strong attachment to a particular state or locality, and by his presence at Washington's headquarters, where he could see the war as a whole. Like the general himself, Hamilton was deeply disturbed that the conduct of the war was impeded by the weakness of Congress and by state and local jealousies. It was this experience rather than any theoretical commitment to a particular form of government that structured Hamilton's later advocacy of a strong central government.

Confederation Era

From the end of the Revolution to the inauguration of the first government under the Constitution, Hamilton tirelessly opposed what he described as the "dangerous prejudices in the particular states opposed to those measures which alone can give stability and prosperity to the Union." Though his extensive law practice won him recognition as one of New York's most distinguished attorneys, public affairs were his major concern.

Attending the Continental Congress as a New York delegate from November 1782 through July 1783, he unsuccessfully labored, along with James Madison and other nationalists, to invest the Confederation with powers equal to the needs of postrevolutionary America. Convinced that the pervasive commitment to states' rights obviated reform of the Articles of Confederation, Hamilton began to advocate a stronger and more efficient central government. As one of the 12 delegates to the Annapolis Convention of 1786, he drafted its resolution calling for a Constitutional Convention "to devise such further provisions as shall appear … necessary to render the Constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union. … " Similarly, as a member of the New York Legislature in 1787, he was the eloquent spokesman for continental interests as opposed to state and local ones.

Ratification of the Constitution

Hamilton was one of the New York delegates to the Constitutional Convention, which sat in Philadelphia from May to September 1787. Although he served on several important committees, his performance was disappointing, particularly when measured against his previous (and subsequent) accomplishments. His most important speech called for a government close to the English model, one so high-toned that it was unacceptable to most of the delegates.

Hamilton's contribution to the ratification of the Constitution was far more important. In October 1787 he determined to write a series of essays on behalf of the proposed Constitution. First published in New York City newspapers under the pseudonym "Publius" and collectively designated The Federalist, these essays were designed to persuade the people of New York to ratify the Constitution. Though The Federalist was written in collaboration with John Jay and James Madison, Hamilton wrote 51 of the 85 essays. First published in book form in 1788, the Federalist essays have been republished in many editions and languages. They constitute one of America's most original and important contributions to political philosophy and remain today the authoritative contemporary exposition of the meaning of the cryptic clauses of the U.S. Constitution. At the New York ratifying convention in 1788, Hamilton led in defending the proposed Constitution, which, owing measurably to Hamilton's labors, New York ratified.

Secretary of the Treasury

On Sept. 11, 1789, some 6 months after the new government was inaugurated, Hamilton was commissioned the nation's first secretary of the Treasury. This was the most important of the executive departments because the new government's most pressing problem was to devise ways of paying the national debt - domestic and foreign - incurred during the Revolution.

Hamilton's program, his single most brilliant achievement, also created the most bitter controversy of the first decade of American national history. It was spelled out between January 1790 and December 1791 in three major reports on the American economy: "Report on the Public Credit"; "Report on a National Bank"; and "Report on Manufactures."

In the first report Hamilton recommended payment of both the principal and interest of the public debt at par and the assumption of state debts incurred during the American Revolution. The assumption bill was defeated initially, but Hamilton rescued it by an alleged bargain with Thomas Jefferson and Madison for the locale of the national capital. Both the funding and assumption measures became law in 1791 substantially as Hamilton had proposed them.

Hamilton's "Report on a National Bank" was designed to facilitate the establishment of public credit and to enhance the powers of the new national government. Although some members of Congress doubted this body's power to charter such a great quasi-public institution, the majority accepted Hamilton's argument and passed legislation establishing the First Bank of the United States. Before signing the measure, President Washington requested his principal Cabinet officers, Jefferson and Hamilton, to submit opinions on its constitutionality. Arguing that Congress had exceeded its powers, Jefferson submitted a classic defense of a strict construction of the Constitution; affirming the Bank's constitutionality, Hamilton submitted the best argument in American political literature for a broad interpretation of the Constitution.

The "Report on Manufactures, " his only major report which Congress rejected, was perhaps Hamilton's most important state paper. The culmination of his economic program, it is the clearest statement of his economic philosophy. The protection and encouragement of infant industries, he argued, would produce a better balance between agriculture and manufacturing, promote national self-sufficiency, and enhance the nation's wealth and power.

Hamilton also submitted other significant reports which Congress accepted, including a plan for an excise on spirits and a report on the establishment of a Mint. Hamilton's economic program was not original (it drew heavily, for example, upon British practice), but it was an innovative and creative application of European precedent and American experience to the practical needs of the new country.

First Political Party

Hamilton's importance during this period was not confined to his work as finance minister. As the virtual "prime minister" of Washington's administration, he was consulted on a wide range of problems, foreign and domestic. He deserves to be ranked, moreover, as the leader of the country's first political party, the Federalist party. Hamilton himself, like most of his contemporaries, railed against parties and "factions, " but when the debate over his fiscal policies revealed a deep political division among the members of Congress, Hamilton boldly assumed leadership of the proadministration group, the Federalists, just as Jefferson provided leadership for the Democratic Republicans.

Prominent Lawyer and Army General

Because of the pressing financial demands of his growing family, Hamilton retired from office in January 1795. Resuming his law practice, he soon became the most distinguished member of the New York City bar. His major preoccupation remained public affairs, however, and he continued as President Washington's adviser. The latter's famous "Farewell Address" (1796), for example, was largely based on Hamilton's draft. Nor could Hamilton remain aloof from politics. In the election of 1796 he attempted to persuade the Federalist electors to cast a unanimous vote for John Adam's running mate, Thomas Pinckney.

The high regard in which most of the country's leading Federalists held Hamilton was matched by the dislike and distrust with which many others - notably the Republicans - viewed him. He was ambitious, arrogant, and opinionated. He was also indiscreet. For example, to refute a baseless charge by James Reynolds and others that as secretary of the Treasury he was guilty of corruption, he needlessly published a defense which included a confession of adultery with Mrs. Reynolds. Such an admission undoubtedly diminished the possibility of political preferment.

During the presidency of John Adams, however, Hamilton continued to wield considerable national influence, for members of Adams's Cabinet often sought and followed his advice. In 1798 they cooperated with George Washington to secure Hamilton's appointment - over Adams's strong opposition - as inspector general and second in command of the newly augmented U.S. Army, which was preparing for a possible war against France. Since Washington declined active command, organizing and recruiting the "Provisional Army" fell to Hamilton. His military career abruptly came to an end in 1800 after John Adams, in the face of the opposition of his Cabinet and other Federalist leaders (Hamilton among them), sent a peace mission to France that negotiated a settlement of the major issues.

Retirement and the Fatal Duel

Hamilton's role in the presidential campaign of 1800 not only was a disservice to his otherwise distinguished career but also seriously wounded the Federalist party. Convinced of John Adam's ineptitude, Hamilton rashly published a long Philippic which characterized the President as a man possessed by "vanity without bounds, and a jealousy capable of discoloring every object, " with a "disgusting egotism" and an "ungovernable discretion of … temper." Instead of discrediting Adams, the pamphlet promoted election of the Republican candidates, Jefferson and Aaron Burr. When the Jefferson-Burr tie went for decision to the House of Representatives, however, Hamilton regained his balance. Convinced that Jefferson would not undermine executive authority, Hamilton also believed that Burr was "the most unfit and dangerous man of the community." He accordingly used his considerable influence to persuade congressional leaders to select Jefferson.

Although his interest in national policies and politics was unabated, Hamilton's role in national affairs after 1801 diminished. He remained a prominent figure in the Federalist party, however, and published his opinions on public affairs in the New York Evening Post. He was still an ardent nationalist and in 1804 severely condemned the rumored plot of New England and New York Federalists to dismember the Union by forming a Northern confederacy. Believing Aaron Burr to be a party to this scheme, Hamilton actively opposed the Vice President's bid for the New York governorship. He was successful, and Burr, now out of favor with the Jefferson administration and discredited in his own state, charged that Hamilton's remarks had impugned his honor. Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel. Although Hamilton was reluctant, he believed that his "ability to be in future useful" demanded his acceptance. After putting his personal affairs in order, he met Burr at dawn on July 11, 1804, on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. The two exchanged shots, and Hamilton fell, mortally wounded. Tradition has it that he deliberately misdirected his fire, leaving himself an open target for Burr's bullet. Hamilton was carried back to New York City, where he died the next afternoon.

Further Reading

Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., The Works of Alexander Hamilton (2d ed., 12 vols., 1903), will be replaced by Harold C. Syrett and Jacob E. Cooke, eds., Papers, 15 volumes of which have been published (1961-1969). Hamilton's definitive biography is Broadus Mitchell's meticulous Alexander Hamilton (2 vols., 1957-1962). John C. Miller, Alexander Hamilton (1959), is an excellent one-volume life. Useful biographies are David Loth, Alexander Hamilton: Portrait of a Prodigy (1939), and Nathan Schachner, Alexander Hamilton (1946). Also recommended are Claude G. Bowers, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Struggle for Democracy in America (1925), and Richard B. Morris, Alexander Hamilton and the Founding of the Nation (1957).

(1757-1804) American politician and political theorist. Hamilton was active in the American War of Independence and politics from a precociously young age. 1787 he, James Madison, and John Jay cooperated on writing the Federalist Papers. Hamilton was responsible, among others, for the number which recommended the Electoral College for the indirect election of the President as a device to prevent the election being directly in the hands of the untrustworthy people, and for the numbers dealing with the Supreme Court, which Hamilton described as the ‘least dangerous’ branch of the government. In the 1790s Hamilton parted company with Madison and Jefferson. The latter remained agrarians, suspicious of centralized government and warmer towards democracy (at least among free men) than Hamilton, who favoured strong central government pursuing pro-industrial policies. Hamilton was Secretary to the Treasury under Washington (1789-95) but tried to act rather as prime minister. He was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr, Jefferson's Vice-President.

Hamilton was the first proponent of what is now called the ‘largest remainder’ system of proportional representation; he proposed it as a means to assign a whole number of seats to each state in the apportionment of representatives to states required by the Constitution after each census. He was overruled by a group of Virginians, including Jefferson, who proposed the d'Hondt system, which awarded Virginia more seats than did the largest remainder system.

For more information on Alexander Hamilton, visit Britannica.com.

(1755-1804), revolutionary, politician, and statesman. Hamilton, who fought in the American Revolution as an aide-de-camp to George Washington, was a driving figure in the Federalist movement and the first secretary of the treasury. In his public and private life he combined nationalist commitment, elitist politics, and a vision of dynamic capitalist development.

Born in the West Indies, Hamilton moved to the mainland in 1772 and entered King's College (now Columbia University) the following year. By 1774 he was speaking at public meetings and writing revolutionary essays, and in 1776 he became a captain of artillery. After taking part in the Battle of Long Island and the retreat from New York City, he joined Washington's staff in 1777, where he remained until February 1781. He commanded a battery of artillery at the Battle of Yorktown.

In 1780 he married Elizabeth Schuyler, daughter of the major general and Hudson Valley landlord Philip Schuyler. He was already close to the Livingston family, and the marriage cemented his social position and his political, elitist point of view. He argued throughout the 1780s for strengthening the national government in The Continentalist essays, the two Letters from Phocion, and The Federalist, written with James Madison and John Jay. He served in Congress and the New York state legislature and was a delegate to the Federal Convention of 1787. Although he had been central to the movement that led to the convention, his role was relatively minor and he was privately critical of the Constitution it produced. He nonetheless devoted his full energy to ratification in 1787 and 1788.

As secretary of the treasury Hamilton's great achievement was funding the federal debt at face value, which rectified and nationalized the financial chaos inherited from the Revolution. But he accomplished still more. He was responsible for creating the First Bank of the United States on the model of the Bank of England, and his Report on Manufactures fostered commercial and industrial development in the new nation. He also played a significant role in generating the Washington administration's policy of unfriendly neutrality toward the French Revolution and in establishing a rapprochement with Britain.

Hamilton's policies and actions provoked intense opposition, led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Just as Hamilton and Madison had collaborated in the Federalist movement during the 1780s, so Jefferson and Madison now collaborated against Hamilton's Federalist party in the 1790s. The result was division, both within the Washington administration and in the country as a whole. After Hamilton left the Treasury in 1795 to practice law, he continued to be active in Federalist politics, but he was deeply critical of the presidency of John Adams. Nonetheless, at Washington's insistence, he was made inspector general of the army during the Quasi War with France in 1798.

Despite his personal and political dislike of Jefferson, Hamilton was instrumental in securing his victory over Aaron Burr in the presidential election of 1800. That and his subsequent opposition to Burr's bid to become governor of New York led to his death at Burr's hands in a duel in 1804.

Bibliography:

Broadus Mitchell, Alexander Hamilton, 2 vols. (1957, 1972); Clinton Rossiter, Alexander Hamilton and the Constitution (1964).

Author:

Edward Countryman

See also Bank of the United States; Burr, Aaron; Dueling; Federalist Papers; Federalist Party; National Debt; Report on Manufactures ; Revolution.

1755–1804, American statesman, b. Nevis, in the West Indies.

Early Career

He was the illegitimate son of James Hamilton (of a prominent Scottish family) and Rachel Faucett Lavien (daughter of a doctor-planter on Nevis and the estranged wife of a merchant). Orphaned and impoverished at around the age of 12, the brilliant, ambitious youth arrived in the North American colonies late in 1772 and studied (1773–74) at King's College (now Columbia). In the troubled times leading to the American Revolution, he wrote articles and pamphlets espousing the colonial cause so well that the works were popularly attributed to John Jay.

In the war he became a captain of artillery, attracted George Washington's notice, and, as Washington's secretary and aide-de-camp, performed invaluable services. Desiring more active duty, he left Washington's staff in 1781 and performed brilliantly in the field at Yorktown. His marriage to Elizabeth Schuyler, daughter of Gen. Philip J. Schuyler, connected him with an old and powerful New York family. He practiced law in New York City and was a member of the Continental Congress.

Federalist Leader

By 1780 Hamilton had outlined a plan of government with a strong central authority to replace the weak system of the Articles of Confederation, and as delegate (1782–83) to the Continental Congress he pressed continually for strengthening of the national government. It was Hamilton who proposed at the unsuccessful Annapolis Convention (1786) that a constitutional convention be called at Philadelphia in May, 1787, and he was one of New York's three delegates when it was convened.

Although he believed the Constitution to be deficient in the powers that it gave the national government, he did much to get it ratified, particularly by means of his contributions to The Federalist. In New York, Hamilton was a powerful constitutional supporter, fighting vigorously against the opposition of George Clinton and becoming perhaps the strongest advocate of the new instrument of government aside from James Madison.

In the first decade of the republic, Hamilton played a decisive role in shaping domestic and foreign policy. As Secretary of the Treasury under George Washington, he presented (1790) a far-reaching financial program to the first Congress. He proposed that the debt accumulated by the Continental Congress be paid in full, that the federal government assume all state debts, and that a Bank of the United States be chartered. For revenue, Hamilton advocated a tariff on imported manufactures and a series of excise taxes. He hoped by these measures to strengthen the national government at the expense of the states and to tie government to men of wealth and prosperity.

Hamilton was a well-to-do lawyer and banker (he helped to found the Bank of New York), and his own high connections aroused suspicion among the less conservative; his policies alienated agrarian interests and drew opposition from those who feared concentration of power in the federal government. Widespread antipathy to party divisions muted the opposition, however, and Congress adopted the Hamiltonian program.

Foreign affairs soon brought this unity to an end. Hamilton's program depended for success on continued trade with Great Britain. He supported Jay's Treaty (1794), and, opposed to the French Revolution, encouraged strong measures against France in the near-war of 1798—measures bitterly opposed by the pro-French Thomas Jefferson.

Two opposing parties formed: the Federalists, led by Hamilton and John Adams (then President), and the Democratic Republicans (see Democratic party), led by Jefferson and James Madison. Hamilton was perhaps the most powerful of the Federalists, but he was not in complete command of the party (he had even resigned his cabinet post in 1795, largely for financial reasons). There was little personal liking between Hamilton and Adams, and friction between them grew in the course of the Adams administration. Both were swept under in the election of 1800.

Because the Constitution did not provide for the election of the President and Vice President on separate ballots, a tie between Jefferson and his running mate, Aaron Burr, left the choice of chief executive to the House of Representatives in 1800. Hamilton's influence made Jefferson President and Burr Vice President—an outcome in accord with the popular will, but Burr was disgruntled.

When in 1804 Hamilton again thwarted Burr, keeping him from the governorship of New York, Burr accused Hamilton of having called him a “dangerous” man and, when Hamilton replied to the charge, challenged him to a duel. The two men met at Weehawken Heights, N.J., and Hamilton was mortally wounded.

Bibliography

See the definitive edition of Hamilton's papers (ed. by H. C. Syrett, 27 vol., 1961–87) and law papers (ed. by J. Goebel, Jr., and J. H. Smith, 5 vol., 1964–81) as well as Alexander Hamilton: Writings (ed. by J. B. Freeman, 2001). See also biographies by H. C. Lodge (1898), N. Schachner (1946, repr. 1961), B. Mitchell (2 vol., 1957–62), J. C. Miller (1959, repr. 1964), F. McDonald (1979), R. Brookhiser (1999), W. S. Randall (2002), R. Chernow (2004), and one in his own words, ed. by M.-J. Kline (2 vol., 1973); R. Morris, ed., Alexander Hamilton and the Founding of the Nation (1957); C. Rossiter, Alexander Hamilton and the Constitution (1964); J. E. Cooke, ed., Alexander Hamilton: A Profile (1967); G. Stourzh, Alexander Hamilton and the Idea of Republican Government (1970); B. Mitchell, Alexander Hamilton: The Revolutionary Years (1970); S. Elkins and E. McKitrick, The Age of Federalism (1993); A. A. Rogow, A Fatal Friendship (1998); T. Fleming, Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and the Future of America (1999); R. G. Kennedy, Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character (1999).

(1755-1804)

1745	The Tuesday Club of Annapolis. Founded by Dr. Alexander Hamilton and Jacob Green, editor of the Maryland Gazette, this literary and intellectual group typifies the colonial coffeehouse gatherings of the times.
1774	A Full Vindication of the Measures of the Congress. A reply to Samuel Seabury's Free Thoughts on the Proceedings of the Continental Congress, which displays the author's exemplary logic and expository power in supporting the colonists' boycott of British goods. Yet even Hamilton avoids using the word independence, as most colonial leaders do for some time.
1775	The Farmer Refuted. Hamilton rebuts the Reverend Samuel Seabury's denunciation of the boycott of British goods. He daringly argues that since the colonists are not represented in Parliament, the British cannot claim the right to regulate colonial trade.
1784	Letters from "Phocion." Hamilton publishes two pamphlets protesting state legislative acts punishing Loyalists.
1787	The Federalist Papers. Along with James Madison and John Jay, Hamilton, Hamilton attempts to persuade the voters at the New York state convention to ratify the Constitution. Under the pseudonym "Publius," they write eighty-five essays. Hamilton writes fifty-one and collaborates with Madison on another three. Hamilton argues that the creation of federal courts with power over the legislature--a system known as judicial review--will protect against potential excesses of government. In Number 78, he writes, "The courts were designed to be an intermediate body between the people and the legislature." The Federalist Papers remains the most elaborate explanation of the Constitution and the most well known writings on American government.
1790	Report on Public Credit. Hamilton argues for the federal government's redemption of Confederation government securities, assumption of states' Revolutionary War debts, and a tax to pay for the assumed debts. Although this work is criticized by anti-Federalists, Congress would eventually accept the report from the secretary of the U.S. Treasury.
1791	Report on Manufactures. Hamilton urges the federal government to encourage manufactures and proposes protective laws for fledgling industries to ensure the preservation of the home market. Although this important political document in American history provides the most complete description of Hamilton's economic vision and his opposition to southern agrarian economic philosophy, anti-Federalist rivals in Congress do not act on the Treasury secretary's proposals.
1794	"Americanus" Essays. Hamilton's two essays criticizing France and its American supporters appear in Dunlap and Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser.
1800	"Letter... Concerning the Public Conduct and Character of John Adams." In a note privately circulated to Federalist leaders, Hamilton justifies his opposition to Adams's reelection. Although calling him an unquestioned patriot, Hamilton criticizes Adams as "a man of an imagination sublimated and eccentric; propitious neither to the regular display of sound judgment, nor to steady perseverance in a systematic plan of conduct."
1801	An Address to the Electors of the State of New York. Writing in support of the Federalist candidate for governor, Hamilton summarizes Federalist and Republican positions and programs and calls the election "a contest between the tyranny of jacobinism... and the mild reign of rational liberty."
1802	The Examination of the President's Message, at the Opening of Congress, December 7, 1801. Hamilton's last major publication, a series of articles first published in his New York Evening Post under the pseudonym "Lucius Crassus," criticizes Jefferson's proposals on war, revenue, immigration, and the judiciary.

A soldier and political leader of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Hamilton advised George Washington in the Revolutionary War, wrote most of the essays in The Federalist Papers, and was a leader in the drafting of the Constitution. He later served under Washington as the first secretary of the treasury in the new government. A Federalist, he was opposed politically by Thomas Jefferson and both politically and personally by Aaron Burr (see Jeffersonianism versus Hamiltonianism). Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel, in which Burr killed him (see Burr-Hamilton duel).

Alexander Hamilton, as a lawyer, politician, and statesman, left an enduring impression on U.S. government. His birth was humble, his death tragic. His professional life was spent forming basic political and economic institutions for a stronger nation. As a New York delegate at the Constitutional Convention, Hamilton advocated certain powers for the central government. His principles led to his rise as chief spokesperson for the Federalist party. The party had a short life span, but Hamilton's beliefs carried on through his famous Federalist Papers. In these documents he advocated broad constitutional powers for the federal government, including national defense and finance. According to Hamilton, a lesser degree of individual human liberties and civil rights would follow federal powers. His deemphasis of freedom put him at odds with other Founders, especially Thomas Jefferson's Democrats. However, he backed his beliefs with a strong record of public service from the Revolution onward. Through his contributions in the U.S. Army, in the Department of the Treasury, and as a lawyer, many still recognize him as a commanding architect of the United States government.

Hamilton was born January 11, 1755, on Nevis Island, in the West Indies. His parents never married. His father, the son of a minor Scottish noble, drifted to the West Indies early in his life and worked odd jobs throughout the Caribbean. His mother died in the Indies when he was eleven. Hamilton spent his early years in poverty, traveling to different islands with his father. At the age of fourteen, while visiting the island of St. Croix, he met a New York trader who recognized his natural intelligence and feisty spirit. The trader made it possible for Hamilton to go to New York in pursuit of an education.

Hamilton attended a preparatory school in New Jersey and developed contacts with men who had created a movement seeking colonial independence. When he later entered King's College (now Columbia University), he became active in the local patriot movement. The American Revolution had been brewing in the background, and Hamilton took a keen interest in the battles that flared between the colonists and the British around Boston in 1775. Instead of graduating from college, he opted to join a volunteer militia company.

He reported for orders to General George Washington's chief of artillery, Colonel Henry Knox. In his duties, Hamilton assisted in the famous crossing of the ice-jammed Delaware River on Christmas Night, 1776. Knox called Hamilton to Washington's attention. In March 1777, Hamilton was appointed aide to the commander in chief. With Washington, Hamilton learned his first lessons on the need for central administration in dealing with crises.

He also took advantage of his contacts with General Philip Schuyler, a wealthy and influential man within the military. In March 1780, Schuyler's young daughter, Elizabeth Schuyler, agreed to marry Hamilton. The relationship provided Hamilton with both additional contacts inside U.S. politics and generous financial gifts from his father-in-law.

Hamilton came to resent the limits of his position as aide to Washington and aspired to greater challenges. A minor reprimand afforded him the opportunity to resign from his services in April 1781. Hamilton had already received an education beyond anything that King's or any other college could have offered. However, he went to New York with his wife and took up the study of law in early 1782. In July of that year, he was admitted to the bar.

As a lawyer and as an intellectual who commanded growing respect, Hamilton represented New York in the Continental Congress of 1782, in Philadelphia. Here, he spoke with an ally, a young Virginian, James Madison. The two expounded on the merits of strong central administration. Most of the other delegates represented the common fears of citizens in the United States—apprehensions about the abusive tendencies of strong central powers and, more important, the possibility of oppression in the future. Hamilton and Madison failed to sway a majority of the delegates to vote for their ideas. In the end, the Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, a body of principles intended to knit the new states into a union that was only loosely defined.

Hamilton left Philadelphia frustrated. He returned to New York, built a thriving law practice, and gained fame as a legal theorist. In 1787, he spent a term in the New York Legislature and joined the movement designed to create a new Constitution. During this time, Madison and John Jay (a future chief justice of the Supreme Court) helped Hamilton draft a series of essays called The Federalist Papers. The essays still stand as fundamental statements of U.S. political philosophy.

The Articles of Confederation had already begun to show inadequacies, as the federal government had no real power to collect the money necessary for its own defense. The authors of The Federalist Papers argued that a strong federal government would constitute not a tyranny but an improvement over the current system of relatively weak rule. Their arguments helped allay the commonly held fears about central power.

At the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Hamilton again served as a delegate from New York. This time, his ideas were received with more favor. In the drafting of the new Constitution, and the creation of a more effective government, many of Hamilton's Federalist beliefs came into play. In the area of defense, for example, Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution read, "The Congress shall have Power … To raise and support Armies … To provide and maintain a Navy … To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia." The role of the government in raising finances to do these things would put Hamilton's ideas to the test.

Hamilton took on the test personally. In 1789, when President Washington began to assemble the new federal government, he asked Hamilton to become the nation's first secretary of the treasury. For the following six years, Hamilton developed a fiscal and economic system based on a national coinage, a national banking system, a revenue program to provide for the repayment of the national debt, and measures to encourage industrial and commercial development. He sought a vigorous, diversified economy that would also provide the nation with the means to defend itself. He stirred a considerable amount of controversy with certain proposals, such as the need for tariffs on imports, several kinds of excise taxes, the development of natural resources, a friendship with England, and opposition to France during the French Revolution. However, without such a concrete agenda, many historians have argued, the United States could not have survived its years of initial development.

Because of Hamilton's decisive stance on some issues, a split occurred between, and even within, political parties. Hamilton and John Adams spoke the ideas of the Federalists. Madison joined Jefferson in the Democratic-Republican party. Even though Hamilton had previously worked alongside Secretary of State Jefferson, the two were now, as Washington noted, "daily pitted in the cabinet like two cocks." Hamilton stressed the need for a strong central government, while Jefferson emphasized individuals' rights. Their rivalry, among the most famous political clashes in U.S. history, led to a significant and ongoing level of frustration for both sides. Because of the deadlock, Hamilton retired from his secretarial position in 1795.

He went back to practicing law. Through his service in government and his connections with the Schuyler family, Hamilton became a prominent and prosperous lawyer. His practice extended to wealthy clients in New York and in other states, both individuals and partnerships. It resembled the practices of modern corporate lawyers, since he also represented banks and companies.

The bulk of his civil practice took place in maritime litigation, which boomed with European interests in the U.S. market. His most important admiralty case involved the sale and export to Europe of large quantities of cotton and indigo. Defendants Gouveneur and Kemble had incurred damages to the head merchant in their trade, Le Guen. Hamilton took on the case as attorney for Le Guen. He was assisted by Aaron Burr, with whom he had formerly worked in New York.

In Le Guen v. Gouveneur, Hamilton helped the merchant successfully sue his agents for $120,000—at the time, one of the largest awards in a personal damage suit. James Kent, chancellor of the New York bar, remembered Hamilton's performance in the trial as displaying "his reasoning powers … his piercing criticism, his masterly analysis, and … his appeals to the judgment and conscience of the tribunal." A grateful Le Guen wanted to pay Hamilton a fee commensurate with the size of the judgment. Hamilton refused anything more than $1,500. Burr took a much larger fee at his own discretion. This was the beginning of strained developments between Hamilton and Burr that would result in a future, climactic confrontation.

As a private citizen, Hamilton had amassed considerable power. In letters to politicians and newspapers, he continued to make a number of government-related proposals. At least four of them figured into future developments in the U.S. political structure. First, he suggested dividing each state into judicial districts as subdivisions of the federal government's judicial branch. Second, he proposed consolidating the federal government's revenues, ships, troops, officers, and supplies as assets under its control. Third, he pushed for the enlargement of the legal powers of the government by making certain already existing laws permanent, particularly the law authorizing the government to summon militias to counteract subversive activities and insurrections. Finally, he proposed the addition of laws that would give the courts power to punish sedition. Through letters to leaders and citizens, as through his Federalist Papers, Hamilton's ideas were received, although not always easily, into the political mainstream.

In 1798 the United States prepared for war with France. Hamilton decided to rejoin the Army as a major general. He was assigned the additional duties of inspector general until 1800. In 1800, Jefferson campaigned for president with Hamilton's former partner in the Le Guen settlement, Burr, as his running mate. The two received identical numbers of electoral votes for the 1800 presidential election. At that time all candidates ran for the presidency. The winner became president and the individual in second place became vice president. Hamilton, an elector for New York, refused to go along with the Federalists' plans to deny Jefferson the presidency. Hamilton voted for Jefferson instead of Burr, partly because he could stand Burr even less than his ideological rival. Jefferson won the election.

In 1804, Burr ran for governor of New York and became embittered by more of Hamilton's insults during the campaign. When Burr lost again, he challenged Hamilton to a duel. On July 11, 1804, the two men met at Weehawken Heights, New Jersey. Hamilton received a mortal wound from Burr's pistol shot, and died in New York City the next day.

As the United States evolved in political, legal, and economic dimensions, Hamilton's contributions remained part of its basic structure. His legacy went on to affect the way the rest of the world interpreted the proper role of government. Numerous political experiments took place in the following centuries, but still, Hamilton's notions of a strong central government made other systems appear weak in comparison. In a letter to the Washington Post on January 28, 1991, biographer Robert A. Hendrickson asserted that Hamilton's doctrine lives up to its model status as "a beacon of freedom and financial success in the modern world. It has peacefully discredited agrarianism, communism, and totalitarianism."

Quotes:

"Real firmness is good for anything; strut is good for nothing."

"Men give me credit for some genius. All the genius I have is this. When I have a subject in mind. I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. My mind becomes pervaded with it... the effort which I have made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought."

"Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government."

"Power over a man's subsistence amounts to power over his will."

"Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal."

"Such a wife as I want... must be young, handsome I lay most stress upon a good shape, sensible a little learning will do, well-bread, chaste, and tender. As to religion, a moderate stock will satisfy me. She must believe in God and hate a saint."

See more famous quotes by Alexander Hamilton