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Alexander Hamilton Today few Americans would be able to tell you anything about Alexander Hamilton. Yet his face is on every ten dollar bill and Talleyrand said of him: I consider Napoleon, Fox, and Hamilton the three greatest men of our epoch, and if I were forced to decide between the three, I would give without hesitation the first place to Hamilton. He divined Europe. Thomas Jefferson too praised him highly as he told James Madison in 1795, "Hamilton is really a colossus...
without numbers, he is a host within himself. " Alexander Hamilton was born on the Caribbean island of Nevis in about 1757. The exact date was not officially recorded as no birth certificate was obtained so the exact date is disputed, but Hamilton himself said that he was born in 1757. He was one of two boys born out of wedlock to a French Huguenot mother and an irresponsible Scots father who soon abandoned his family. His mother died of yellow fever in jail when Hamilton was only 13. Her husband then managed to acquire all her assets such as they were, leaving the two young boys with absolutely nothing. All his life Hamilton believed that people were aware his poor beginnings.
According to Lisa Marie de Coralis in 1769 Hamilton wrote to a friend claiming that what better way was there for a young man to change his station in life than through participating in a war. Rise he did, becoming Washingtons aide-de camp when only 20 years of age, Thesis Despite all his success Hamilton was, and always would be viewed as an outsider a non-American, a major reason why, despite his massive abilities he is not included in the list of American Presidents. Arguments as to why Hamilton was never considered as presidential material. He was an abolitionist, having seen the dark side of the slave trade. In 1779 rumors began to spread that Hamilton was about to lead an overthrow of congress and would install Washington as a dictator. He had affairs.
He was viewed as an outsider. He was just too clever for most people to understand. His success and closeness to Washington instigated jealousy. His financial policies were judged to be failures. Bibliography Hamilton, Allan McLane, 1911, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton based chiefly upon original family letters and other documents, many of which have never been published, New York, Charles and Sons Lambert, Frank, 2005, Alexander Hamilton: A Life, New York, The Historian, Volume 67, Miller, John, 1959, Alexander Hamilton Portrait in Paradox, New York, Harper and Brothers Randall, Willard Sterne, 2007, The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton: the Life and Legend of Americas Most Elusive Founding Father, New York, The Historian, Volume 69 Prescott, Frederick. 1934, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, Representative Selections, with Introduction, Bibliography, and Notes, New York, American Book Company,
Electronic Sources De Coralis, L. M.
From Revolution to Reconstruction, Biography of Alexander Hamilton web (accessed 8 th October 2008) Alexander Hamilton Introduction Jefferson was one of many in awe of him as he told James Madison in 1795, "Hamilton is really a colossus... without numbers, he is a host within himself. " Alexander Hamilton's birth in about 1757 took place not on the North American mainland, but on the small Caribbean island of Nevis. His parents were a French Huguenot mother, a married woman who had left her husband, and who had obtained an illegal divorce, and a Scots father who would later abandon his family. The birth was illegitimate. When Hamilton was 13 years old his mother, in jail for immorality, died of yellow fever.
Her husband somehow gained total control of her few assets and the two sons were left with nothing. Throughout his life Hamilton was concerned because he believed that people discussed his poor start in life behind his back and this seems to have affected to some extent his ability to make friends. Soon after the death of his mother he began work in the employ of Nicholas Cruger, a New Yorker. He soon learnt about international trade and in particular the darker side of the slave trade. Another adult who supported him at this period of his life was a clergyman, Hugh Knox.
These two men and others paid for him to attend what is now Columbia University then Kings College. The idea was that he become qualified as a doctor and then return to the Caribbean, something he never did. Thesis Despite all his success Hamilton was, and always would be viewed as an outsider and a non-American, a major reason why, despite his massive abilities he is not included in the list of American Presidents. Is this the main reason? What were the other factors? Other Reasons Although it seems that Hamilton was quite reticent about his origins they would be known to some and, coming from the Caribbean, his accent probably betrayed him, so, to some extent, it would be obvious that he was an outsider.
Perhaps his success and abilities made people jealous. Two years after the Boston Tea Party in 1773 Hamilton arrived in New York. At college he joined a military patriot group called the Corsican's who drilled every day. This was only a year before the first continental Congress met to decide what their reaction should be to what they perceived as the tyrannical rule of the English.
Hamilton soon became convinced that the colonists were in the right and he wrote his first pamphlet "A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress, " Lisa Marie de Coralis tells how, as early as 1769, Hamilton had written to a friend stating that there was no better way for a young man to succeed in changing his position in society than through war, because during a time of conflict one was judged on ones abilities and not on background. Considering his life story up to that point this conclusion is not surprising. When Washington died it was Hamilton who took charge of the army. : - Monsieur, that I learn from a letter from the Vicomte D'Orleans, that, confirming the choice already made by the public, the President has appointed you to fill the position of Commander-in-chief of the army, left vacant by the death of General Washington, so that what I told you a month ago is already partly realized, time will bring the rest, and I am very sure that in whatever post Fortune places you, you will justify the discrimination that put you there. Hamilton was 43 by this time, but he had become Washingtons aide de camp when only 20 and so had had many years of valuable experience. Despite this appointment, actually to the post of Senior-Major-General, he resigned from the army a few months later on July 2 nd 1800.
That letter was from Chevalier de Colbert, a close friend, but as Allan Hamilton writes his capacity for making lasting friends was greatly inferior to the ease with which he made enemies, this can be explained by the statement of one of his historians that "his love for his country was always greater than his love for his countrymen, " Towards the end of 1800 Hamilton returned to Philadelphia where he took up once again his work in finance. The country owed huge debts, not least to France which had supported the Revolution financially. He found it a frustrating task and by 1802 wrote: - Mine is an odd destiny, perhaps no man in the United States has sacrificed or done more for the present constitution than myself; and contrary to all my anticipations of its fate, as you know from the very beginning, I am still laboring to prop the frail and worthless fabric, yet I have the murmurs of its friends no less than the curses of its foes for my reward. What can I do better than withdraw from the scene? Every day proves to me more and more that this American world was not made for me. If this was his attitude to the new American nation it is hardly surprising that people did not take to him.
They would resent such an attitude and be doubtful where his loyalties lay despite his early promotion of the Revolutionary cause. And it also seems an incongruous statement for one who is seen as a creator of this new nation. As early as 1779 the ambitious Hamilton had his first taste of American prejudice against him when he received a letter from a friend, Colonel Brooks, reporting that a rumor was circulating about him which said that he was seeking an army uprising in order overthrow congress and that he planned to install Washington as a dictator. Colonel Brooks stated that the speaker had said: - Mr. Hamilton could be no ways interested in the defense of this country; and therefore, was most likely to pursue such a line of conduct as his great ambition dictated. I t seems that his closeness to Washington was a problem.
People saw Washington as incorruptible, but were wary of the influence of this outsider whom they did not trust. However, by 1780 it seems that Hamilton had become disillusioned with Washington as a leader. He also criticized the new Constitution of which the American people were so proud in The Federalist, which would have been widely read. However careful reading reveals that he was not trying to destroy the Constitution, but to perfect it. Despite his success in the Revolutionary War after Hamilton's death the English Consul in New York wrote of this as a loss to the King of England and the British government, of his abhorrence of all republican principles and doctrines, and his great attachment to the British Government. His admitted affair with Maria Reynolds has been called the first American political sex scandal.
She had attempted to blackmail him. There is no doubt he loved his wife, but it seems he also saw marrying her as a way to success and riches. He had earlier asked a friend to find him a wife and although he specified that she must be attractive he also specified that she must be rich. Intellectually she seems to have been far beneath him, but the marriage endured and the couple had eight children. Nowadays most politicians seem to recover ground quickly after the revelation of such sexual matters, but this affair took place during the whiter than white presidency of George Washington and the smear on Hamilton's character stuck... In 1789 the new President, George Washington appointed his former aide, Hamilton as the first Secretary of the Treasury.
During his tenure in that post Hamilton was able to consolidate debts that the new United States of America had accrued and repaid them fairly. He established a financial system, and argued for an economy that included the manufacturing industries as well as agriculture. He also tried to persuade America from coming out in support of the French Revolution, despite his own half French origins. His policies were not popular and brought about the enmity of former allies including both Madison and Jefferson.
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