Alexander Hamilton was born on the island of Nevis in the West Indies. His Scottish father and French mother were not married. Early in life he showed great intellectual potential and was sent to New York City for schooling by a sympathetic clergyman. Hamilton completed his basic schooling and was later admitted to King's College, now Columbia University. Patriotic fervor was at its height during the 1770s and young Hamilton impressed many with speeches and pamphlets.

Alexander Hamilton

During the War for Independence, following the battles of Lexington and Concord, Hamilton organized an artillery company and saw action at New York, Long Island, Trenton, Princeton, and White Plains. His abilities were soon recognized by George Washington, who appointed Hamilton as one of his aides-de-camp. Toward the end of the war, Hamilton resigned as a Washington advisor in order to resume active participation in the conflict. He served with distinction at Yorktown, in 1781.

Following the war, Hamilton studied law and married Elizabeth Schuyler, daughter of General Philip J. Schuyler, head of a prominent New York family. The Hamiltons had eight children.

In 1782-83, Hamilton served in the First Continental Congress and later developed a successful law practice. In 1786, at the Annapolis Convention, he proposed a future meeting to address the problems of the Articles of Confederation. That gathering was the Constitutional Convention in which Hamilton played a prominent role as an advocate of a strong central government. He presented a plan that called for life terms for senators and the executive.

Although the final constitution fell short of Hamilton's hopes, he actively supported ratification in his home state. The New York convention was initially heavily opposed to the new document, but Hamilton exhibited tremendous powers of persuasion and carried the day. He also played a prominent role in influencing opinion in other states by authoring at least 51 of the 85 Federalist Papers.

In 1789, Hamilton was appointed the nation's first Secretary of the Treasury, a position from which he issued bold ideas and a string of deeply insightful reports. His Report on Public Credit was followed by examinations of revenue generation, the establishment of a central bank*, creation of a mint, and an analysis of manufacturing.

Hamilton also accompanied army forces that put down the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794.

Hamilton's tenure in Washington's cabinet was also marked by the development of partisan disagreement with Thomas Jefferson. Much to the president's disappointment, the Federalists and Jeffersonian Republicans divided public opinion throughout the country, especially over implied powers and states' rights. Hamilton resigned in 1785.

Out of political office, Hamilton continued to be influential. He worked to defend Jay's Treaty with England in 1795, and assisted Washington in writing his Farewell Address.

As Secretary of the Treasury in President Washington's first cabinet, Hamilton negotiated the first loan obtained by the new government on September 13, 1789. The amount of $200,000 was obtained from the Bank of New York, a private corporation underwritten by the Bank of England, against which the treasury drew a series of warrants.

Those warrants constitute a milestone in establishing the credit of the new United States government, albeit with continued economic dependence upon the Bank of England. Hamilton's economic vision and firm grasp of banking principles served the Bank of New York well.

Working in concert with Hamilton, Aaron Burr helped to secure a charter and raise subscriptions for a private company to improve the water supply of pestilence-ridden Manhattan, but New Yorkers were shocked to learn that the surplus capital from the venture had been used to establish the Bank of Manhattan (renamed the Bank of New York). The Bank of New York was created by Hamilton and other wealthy New York investors that included Burr and the Bank of England. It was, and is still, underwritten by the Bank of England and was later chartered by the Congress as the First Bank of the United States.

Mortal combat

Hamilton became a mortal enemy of Aaron Burr. In 1791, Burr's election to the U.S. Senate unseated Senator Philip Schuyler and made a lifelong enemy of Schuyler's son-in-law, Hamilton. In 1792, Hamilton played a leading role in denying Burr the governorship of New York. The former had thrown his support to Thomas Jefferson, formerly his political adversary, in a successful effort to defeat Burr for the presidency in the disputed Election of 1800.

On July 11, 1804, Hamilton and Burr met in a pistol duel at Weehawken, New Jersey, in which Hamilton sustained a mortal wound.

Hamilton and Burr duel

Alexander Hamilton was a talented political figure in American history, but he was prevented from achieving widespread recognition because of an overbearing nature and an inability to relate to the concerns of the common man. His views on the issues of favoring federal authority over the states rights, now firmly established, are still argued today.