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Alexander Hamilton: Triumphs and Tragedies By Matt Flood To die a tragic death by the hand of another man- to carve ones way through destiny and shape one's future from the humblest of beginnings- to forge a legacy by a medium only those heralded as our countries 'Forefathers' have per chanced to meddle with- these are the makings and the foundations for which great men and the dreams of our country rely upon. Everyone has heard the name Alexander Hamilton, but few are familiar with his views and actions regarding the survival of the young American republic. He could be recognized for anything from serving our fledgling country by fighting in the New York militia; to serving his community as a lawyer and as a national tax agent; to beginning his political career as a representative for New York at the National Congress. Though most would agree his most important contribution to our struggling republic was to spearhead the project which formed the doctrine helping to establish the foundation in which modern democracy is based, the Articles of Confederation. Alexander's family history along with his life story is almost as rich as the country's who he helped to build. '[Alexander's] maternal grandfather, one John Faucette, ... emigrated from France to the West Indies sometime before 1700, ...
moved to Nevis, became a planter and took a wife- Mary, [with whom he had children]. Confusion reigns as to whether there were one or two Mary Faucette's or two Faucette couples' (Emery 52). There was a 'deed of gift' (Emery 54) between John Faucette and Mary Faucette in 1714 and another record of marriage between John Faucette and Mary Uppington of Nevis on August 21, 1718, leading to the possible conclusions either John had multiple lovers of the same first name at or around the same time, or it is uncertain beyond this point in history as to what is truly known about Alexander Hamilton's past. Either way, Mary Faucette (Alexander's grandmother) has been thought to have been plagued with poor luck, so much so that it is even referred to as an 'extraordinarily stormy passage' (Emery 54) of a life. Though she appeared to have weathered well- 'John Church Hamilton, Alexander's fourth son and first biographer, leaves this record of Rachel's impact on her son: 'He spoke of her as vividly impressed upon his memory' as a woman of intelligence, culture and elegance of form... ' (Emery 55) which must have exuded itself when having experienced much financial difficulty, along with domestic abuse from her husband, John. She was forced to file for separation in February of 1740.
John and Mary had at least one daughter, Rachel Faucette. The exact date of Alexander's mother's birth is not on record; however it has been speculated to be the year 1729. Her parents having separated when she was eleven years old, Rachel's life was not going to get any better. John fought the separation, he had made Rachel his sole beneficiary and the inheritor of his will. This is the extent to which Rachel knew domestic stability for her life from this point on "is a story of erratic stress" (Emery 55). Forced into marriage at the age of sixteen, she moved with her wealthy husband, Johan Michael Levein, to St.
Croix. Johan knew she didn't want him, however, "'attracted by her beauty... received her hand against her will'" (Emery 62). Having children only made a poor situation worse, and fighting among the two increased in severity and frequency, though, there's no way to tell what the subject of these confrontations were about. Most speculate that Rachel's stubborn nature ran against Johan's desire to dominate and control his wife. What is known is that in 1749 Levein had jailed his wife in the fort at Christiansted; "perhaps his idea of discipline, surely his idea of right.
Whatever his intentions, the results were disastrous. " (Emery 69) Rachel, leaving her son who she had birthed for Levein, ran away from this poor situation and fled to the island of St. Kitts, where her mother still lived. Levein didn't divorce his wife for nine years after she left him. The terms of the divorce read that "she had been shameless, rude and ungodly... forgotten her duty...
let her husband and child alone... [and] given herself up to whoring with everyone" (Emery 71). Though while still married she had only had two children with one other man. The comments on the divorce papers were most likely nothing more than the last words of scorn from a bitter, burned man. Apparently her childhood would have an affect on her because all three of her children all grew up with only one parent. Alexander happened to lose his father around the same age his mother lost hers. Alexander Hamilton, born to James Hamilton and Rachel Faucette, was assumed to be born in 1755 or 1757, it is still unknown the exact year of his birth, though most lean toward ' 55.
Other than adding to the mystery and intrigue of Alexander Hamilton's story, this really has no bearing on his life. Emery, in his account, describes the young Hamilton as "an early and voracious reader", and that he was a "passionate devotee of books. " (Emery 132) Though apparently his family's lack of financial depth and illegitimate status prevented him from attending public schools regularly. Emery notes that he does fondly recall an experience at a Jewish school in which he was frequently called upon to "rattle off the Decalogue in Hebrew, standing on a table because he was so small. " This shows us that even at a young age Hamilton was considered to have delicate features and a bit of a frail frame. This just contributes to the depth of the beginnings from which he is to later rise and take his place among our countries many great leaders. Alexander's childhood only declined after his grade school years. His father left unable to withstand the shame of the status his family had procured.
After that his mother stooped to borrowing from Alexander's Aunt, who had married into the Lytton family, or better put, into money. Unfortunately, the Lytton family as well, after having loaned Rachel money to provide for her children, suddenly lost their wealth and the next generation of heirs would lose their share of the fortune. Besides that, Alexander's cousin killed himself in 1769. To put proverbial icing on the cake, Rachel ended up back in the fort in which she was once imprisoned, Christiansted, running a shop selling goods bought from her landlord as well as others to support herself and her two children.
In or around the year 1768 both Alexander and Rachel became very ill. Alexander, most likely had a bad case of influenza. Alexander finally came around to defeating his illness, however to compound all his troubles when things are finally looking a little less bleak, Rachel, thirteen year old Alexander's mother, died of Typhoid fever. Alexander Hamilton shows us that even from the worse set of circumstances, people can make the best of what lies ahead of them, as opposed to focusing on the past, in a way, perpetuates an aspect of the modern American dream.
How desolate a background a person can have, and nonetheless, persevere into a person who helps to shape the world for future generations. Meanwhile his brother James was sent to a carpenter, and he was offered to a merchant, and an importer. He was to learn the role of a clerk, as an apprentice to a man named Nicholas Cruger, where his skills in reading, and subsequently, arithmetic, afforded him the opportunity through responsibility to prove his determination to succeed. In one instance, around the age sixteen, Hamilton was left in charge of monetary affairs while Mr.
Cruger was away on business. Where "Alexander showed an amazing grasp of business, sending off complete if breathless letters mingling accounts of staves, mules and caskets of vinegar with grim warnings of the Guardas Costas (privateers). " (Hendrickson 201) Eventually a preacher in the Presbyterian church by the name of Hugh Knox taken in with Hamilton's talent and skill in the medium of verse and among other things scales and figures, and pulled his resources to send Hamilton to college at Francis Barber's a Presbyterian academy near Elizabethtown, in New Jersey, and later at King's College (now Columbia), in New York City. And this path in Hamilton's life brings us to the beginnings of Hamilton as the Rebel. At the time Hamilton was attending Kings; terrible news ran through King's Liberty Hall that Boston had come under military garrison.
The year was 1773, the date, December 16. Boston was the staging area for one of America's earliest and most common known defiance's in the face of this world of oppression which Britain was perpetually trying to dominate. The Boston Tea Party was a reaction to the Tea tax, which the English parliament passed in May 1773. The prices of this import were to undercut local American merchants and help to prop up the East India Company, whose profits had been previously falling through the roof. The colonies fell into "political agitation that did not end until ten years later... [where] overlapping loyalties were not easily resolved" (Morris 32).
Because he wasn't from America, His classmates weren't sure what Alexander would do in the event of an ever brewing conflict. To be quite honest with himself, Alexander wasn't one hundred percent sure himself as to what he felt about the conflict. He had no real emotional ties, to England or the colonies. However, he did have instincts that put into effect another form of power and introduced obstacles of their own.
Hendricks, in his account of Hamilton, writes that "He loathed disorder, hated breakage, and the thought of rupture from what was often referred to as the "mother country" held profound implications for him that he did not care to face, " And then continues on to write about how torn Hamilton was because of this clash of these views that his affiliations to the people who were important to him, his friends his patrons. And from all this, we see how his distaste for disruption, and for uprisings against order were to follow him all his life. He started his injection into the American-British conflict with nothing more than well timed, well versed Pamphlets. He wrote "A full vindication of the measures of Congress" in 1774, and "The Farmer Refuted" in 1775, the latter being an answer to a slanderous attack by a clergyman, in February 1775. These two pieces contributed largely to George Washington taking Hamilton on as a writing aide two years later. We also see the light shed on a man becoming a rebel who originally didn't intend to be one, a man "who remained conservative at heart. " (Hendrickson 241) What had pushed Hamilton to stray from his comfortable, uninvolved path?
The British constitution had made it a mans right to be taxed only by members of a legislature that said man had voted for, either the House of Commons, or the colonial assemblies overseas. However, this new attempt to raise "ship money" was not passed by parliament, but by King Charles I, where this "breach of contract was abhorrent to Hamilton, as was another fear from his childhood-the fear of being powerless, in the hands of those whose interests were not his. " (Emery 178) Hamilton's appreciation for order and the delegations of power to those in such positions as to enforce order, was quickly finding more cynicism and contempt than ever before. Pamphlets were the medium he displayed his bubbling rage toward the standards enforced upon a young colonial settlement. However, for all his cynicism, it is written that "almost nowhere in his pages was t...
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