Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757 – July 12, 1804) was the first United States secretary of the treasury, a founding father, economist, and political philosopher. Aide-de-camp to General George Washington during the American revolutionary war, he was a leader of nationalist forces calling for a new constitution; he was one of America's first constitutional lawyers, and wrote most of the federalist papers, a primary source for constitutional interpretation. He was the financial expert of Washington's administration; the Federalist Party formed to support his policies. Born and raised in the Caribbean, Hamilton attended king's college (now Columbia University) in New York. At the start of the American revolutionary war, he organized an artillery company and was chosen as its captain. Hamilton became the senior aide-de-camp and confidant to General George Washington, the American commander-in-chief. After the war, Hamilton was elected to the continental congress from New York, but he resigned to practice law and found the bank of New York. He served in the New York legislature, and he was the only New Yorker who signed the U.S. constitution. He wrote about half the federalist papers, which secured its ratification by New York; they are still the most important unofficial interpretation of the constitution. In the new government under President Washington he became secretary of the treasury. An admirer of British political systems, Hamilton was a nationalist who emphasized strong central government and successfully argued that the implied powers of the constitution could be used to fund the national debt, assume state debts, and create the government-owned bank of the United States. These programs were funded primarily by an ariff on imports and a highly controversial whiskey tax.

By 1792, the coalition led by Hamilton was opposed by a coalition led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Hamilton's Federalist Party now had to compete with Jefferson's Democratic - Republican Party. The parties fought over Hamilton's fiscal goals and national bank, as well as his foreign policy of extensive trade and friendly relations with Britain, especially the jay treaty which was ratified, by a single vote, after a lengthy struggle between the two coalitions. Embarrassed by a blackmail affair that became public; Hamilton resigned as the secretary of the treasury in 1795 and returned to the practice of law in New York. In 1798, the quasi-war with France led Hamilton to be awarded the rank of senior officer of the United States army and to argue for, and attempt to raise and organize, an army to fight the French (by invading the colonies of Spain, then a French ally).

Hamilton's opposition to his fellow federalist John Adams hurt the party in the 1800 elections. When Thomas Jefferson and Aaron burr tied in the Electoral College, Hamilton helped defeat his bitter personal enemy burr and elect Jefferson as president. With his party's defeat, Hamilton's nationalist and industrialization ideas lost their former national prominence. Hamilton's intense rivalry with burr resulted in a duel, in which Hamilton was mortally wounded. Hamilton was always denounced by the Jeffersonian and later the Jacksonians, but his economic ideas, especially support for a protective tariff and a national bank, were promoted by the Whig party and after the 1850s by the newly created Republican Party, which hailed him as the nation's greatest secretary of the treasury.

Early military career

In 1775, after the first engagement of American troops with the British in Boston, Hamilton joined a New York volunteer militia company called the hearts of oak, which included other king's college students. He drilled with the company before classes, in the graveyard of nearby St. Paul's chapel. Hamilton studied military history and tactics on his own and achieved the rank of lieutenant. Under fire from HMS Asia, he led a successful raid for British cannon in the battery, the capture of which resulted in the hearts of oak becoming an artillery company thereafter. Through his connections with influential New York patriots like Alexander McDougall and John jay, he raised the New York provincial company of artillery of sixty men in 1776, and was elected captain. It took part in the campaign of 1776 around New York City, particularly at the battle of White Plains; at the battle of Trenton, it was stationed at the high point of town, the meeting of the present warren and broad streets, to keep the hessians pinned in the Trenton barracks.

Washington's staff

Hamilton was invited to become an aide to Nathanael Greene and to Henry Knox; however, he declined these invitations in the hopes of obtaining a place on Washington's staff. Hamilton did receive such an invitation and joined as Washington's aide on March 1, 1777 with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Hamilton served for four years, in effect, as Washington's chief of staff; he handled letters to congress, state governors, and the most powerful generals in the continental army; he drafted many of Washington's orders and letters at the latter's direction; he eventually issued orders from Washington over Hamilton's own signature. Hamilton was involved in a wide variety of high-level duties, including intelligence, diplomacy, and negotiation with senior army officers as Washington's emissary. The important duties with which he was entrusted attest to Washington's deep confidence in his abilities and character, then and afterward. At the points in their relationship where there was little personal attachment, there was still always a reciprocal confidence and respect. During the war, Hamilton became close friends with several fellow officers. his letters to the marquis de Lafayette and to John Laurens, employing the sentimental literary conventions of the late eighteenth century and alluding to Greek history and mythology, have been read as revealing a homological or perhaps homosexual relationship, but few historians agree.

Constitution and federalist papers

In 1787, Hamilton served as assemblyman from New York County in the New York state legislature and was the first delegate chosen to the constitutional convention. In spite of the fact that Hamilton had been a leader in calling for a new constitutional convention, his direct influence at the convention itself was quite limited. Governor George Clinton's faction in the New York legislature had chosen New York's other two delegates, John Lansing and Robert Yates, and both of them opposed Hamilton's goal of a strong national government. thus, while the other two members of the New York delegation were present, they decided New York's vote; and when they left the convention in protest, Hamilton remained with no vote (two representatives were required for any state to cast a vote).Early in the convention he made a speech proposing a president-for-life; it had no effect upon the deliberations of the convention. He proposed to have an elected president and elected senators who would serve for life contingent upon "good behavior", and subject to removal for corruption or abuse; this idea contributed later to the hostile view of Hamilton as a monarchist sympathizer, held by James Madison. During the convention, Hamilton constructed a draft for the constitution on the basis of the convention debates, but he never presented it. this draft had most of the features of the actual constitution, including such details as the three-fifths clause. in this draft, the senate was to be elected in proportion to the population, being two-fifths the size of the house, and the president and senators were to be elected through complex multistage elections, in which chosen electors would elect smaller bodies of electors; they would hold office for life, but were removable for misconduct. The president would have an absolute veto. The Supreme Court was to have immediate jurisdiction over all law suits involving the United States, and state governors were to be appointed by the federal government. At the end of the convention, Hamilton was still not content with the final form of the constitution, but signed it anyway as a vast improvement over the articles of confederation, and urged his fellow delegates to do so also. Since the other two members of the New York delegation, Lansing and Yates, had already withdrawn, Hamilton was the only New York signer to the United States constitution. He then took a highly active part in the successful campaign for the document's ratification in New York in 1788, which was a crucial step in its national ratification. Hamilton recruited John jay and James Madison to write a defense of the proposed constitution, now known as the federalist papers, and made the largest contribution to that effort, writing 51 of 85 essays published (Madison wrote 29, jay only five). Hamilton's essays and arguments were influential in New York state, and elsewhere, during the debates over ratification. the federalist papers are more often cited than any other primary source by jurists, lawyers, historians, and political scientists as the major contemporary interpretation of the constitution.

In 1788, Hamilton served yet another term in what proved to be the last time the continental congress met under the articles of confederation. When Phillip Schuler's term ended in 1791, they began by electing, in his place, the attorney-general of New York, one Aaron burr. Hamilton blamed burr for this result, and ill characterizations of burr appear in his correspondence thereafter, although they did work together from time to time on various projects, including Hamilton's army of 1798 and the Manhattan water company.