It may well be that the Jewish side of his family was through his mother,
but his wife may also have been a Jewess. He was well connected with
bankers and Jews, and may well have been a Jew secretly. The man who killed
him was certainly a Jew. Yours in Christ, Jim
The National Debt
A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.
Alexander Hamilton (1757‑1804), U.S. statesman. Letter, 30 April 1781.
Later, as secretary of the treasury (1789‑95), Hamilton sponsored
legislation to pay off the debt of the Continental Congress, and to charter
the short‑lived Bank of the United States.
Hamilton, Alexander
Hamilton, Alexander, 1755‑1804, U.S. statesman; b. West Indies. In the
AMERICAN REVOLUTION he was Gen. WASHINGTON's secretary and aide‑de‑camp and
served brilliantly in the YORKTOWN CAMPAIGN. As a delegate (1782‑83) to the
CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, he pressed for a strong national government. After
serving as a New York delegate to the FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
(1787), he did much to get the Constitution ratified, particularly by his
contributions to The Federalist. As secretary of the treasury (1789‑95)
under Pres. Washington, Hamilton sponsored legislation to pay off the debt
of the Continental Congress and to charter the BANK OF THE UNITED STATES.
To raise revenue he advocated a tariff on imported manufactures and excise
taxes. By these measures he hoped to strengthen the federal government and
tie it to persons of wealth. In foreign affairs Hamilton sought close ties
with Britain and opposed the FRENCH REVOLUTION. Opposition to Hamilton and
his supporters, who were known as Federalists, gathered around Thomas
JEFFERSON, and the FEDERALIST PARTY was swept under in the election of
1800. Hamilton was killed in a duel by Aaron BURR, whose bids for the
presidency (1800) and for New York governor (1804) Hamilton had thwarted.1
(b. Jan. 11, 1755/57, Nevis, British West Indies‑‑d. July 12, 1804, New
York City), New York
delegate to the Constitutional Convention (1787), major author of the
Federalist papers, and first
secretary of the Treasury of the United States (1789‑95), who was the
foremost champion of a
strong central government for the new United States. He was killed in a
duel with Aaron Burr.
Hamilton, Alexander
(b. Jan. 11, 1755/57, Nevis, British West Indies‑‑d. July 12, 1804, New
York City), New York
delegate to the Constitutional Convention (1787), major author of the
Federalist papers, and first
secretary of the Treasury of the United States (1789‑95), who was the
foremost champion of a
strong central government for the new United States. He was killed in a
duel with Aaron Burr.
Early life.
Hamilton's father was James Hamilton, a drifting trader and son of
Alexander Hamilton, the laird
of Cambuskeith, Ayrshire, Scot.; his mother was Rachel Fawcett Lavine, the
daughter of a
French Huguenot physician and the wife of John Michael Lavine, a German or
Danish merchant
who had settled on the island of St. Croix in the Danish West Indies.
Rachel probably began living
with James Hamilton in 1752, but Lavine did not divorce her until 1758.
In 1765 James Hamilton abandoned his family. Destitute, Rachel set up a
small shop, and at the
age of 11 Alexander went to work, becoming a clerk in the countinghouse of
two New York
merchants who had recently established themselves at St. Croix. When Rachel
died in 1768,
Alexander became a ward of his mother's relatives, and in 1772 his ability,
industry, and engaging
manners won him advancement from bookkeeper to manager. Later, friends sent
him to a
preparatory school in Elizabethtown, N.J., and in the autumn of 1773 he
entered King's College
(later Columbia) in New York. Intensely ambitious, he became a serious and
successful student,
but his studies were interrupted by the brewing revolt against Great
Britain. He publicly defended
the Boston Tea Party, in which Boston colonists destroyed several tea
cargoes in defiance of the
tea tax. In 1774‑75 he wrote three influential pamphlets, which upheld the
agreements of the
Continental Congress on the nonimportation, nonconsumption, and
nonexportation of British
products and attacked British policy in Quebec. Those anonymous
publications‑‑one of them
attributed to John Jay and John Adams, two of the ablest of American
propagandists‑‑gave the
first solid evidence of Hamilton's precocity.
Revolutionary War service.
In March 1776, through the influence of friends in the New York
legislature, Hamilton was
commissioned a captain in the provincial artillery. He organized his own
company and at the Battle
of Trenton, when he and his men prevented the British under Lord Cornwallis
from crossing the
Raritan River and attacking George Washington's main army, showed
conspicuous bravery. In
February 1777 Washington invited him to become an aide‑de‑camp with the
rank of lieutenant
colonel. In his four years on Washington's staff he grew close to the
General and was entrusted
with his correspondence. He was sent on important military missions and,
thanks to his fluent
command of French, became liaison officer between Washington and the French
generals and
admirals.
Eager to connect himself with wealth and influence, Hamilton married
Elizabeth, the daughter of
Gen. Philip Schuyler, the head of one of New York's most distinguished
families. Meantime,
having tired of the routine duties at headquarters and yearning for glory,
he pressed Washington
for an active command in the field. Washington refused, and in early 1781
Hamilton seized upon a
trivial quarrel to break with the General and leave his staff. Fortunately,
he had not forfeited the
General's friendship, for in July Washington gave him command of a
battalion. At the siege of
Cornwallis' army at Yorktown in October, Hamilton led an assault on a
British stronghold.
Early political activities.
In letters to a member of Congress and to Robert Morris, the superintendent
of finance, Hamilton
analyzed the financial and political weaknesses of the government. In
November 1781, with the
war virtually over, he moved to Albany, where he studied law and was
admitted to practice in July
1782. That same month he became receiver of continental taxes for the state
of New York, a
post he gave up a few months later, after the New York legislature elected
him to the Continental
Congress. Between July 1781 and July 1782 he wrote six essays for the New
York Packet under
the pen name of The Continentalist, in which he argued for a strong central
government. In
Congress from November 1782 to July 1783 he worked for the same end, being
convinced that
the Articles of Confederation were the source of the country's weakness and
disunion.
In 1783 Hamilton began to practice law in New York City. He defended
unpopular Loyalists
who had remained faithful to the British during the Revolution in suits
brought against them under a
state law called the Trespass Act. Using the pseudonym Phocion, he
published two pamphlets in
1784 pleading for moderation and justice in the treatment of Loyalists, and
in 1786, partly as a
result of his efforts, state acts disbarring Loyalist lawyers and
disfranchising Loyalist voters were
repealed. In that year he also won election to the lower house of the New
York legislature, taking
his seat in January 1787. Meanwhile, the legislature had appointed him a
delegate to the
convention in Annapolis, Md., that met in September 1786 to consider the
commercial plight of
the Union. Hamilton suggested that the convention exceed its delegated
powers and call for
another meeting of representatives from all the states to discuss various
problems confronting the
nation. He drew up the draft of the address to the states from which
emerged the Constitutional
Convention that met in Philadelphia in May 1787. After persuading New York
to send a
delegation, Hamilton obtained a place for himself on the delegation.
Hamilton went to Philadelphia as an uncompromising nationalist who wished
to replace the
Articles of Confederation with a strong centralized government, but he did
not take much part in
the debates. He served on two important committees, one on rules in the
beginning of the
convention and the other on style at the end of the convention. In a long
speech on June 18, he
presented his own idea of what the national government should be. His model
was the England of
George III: a government of three departments‑‑legislative, executive, and
judicial. The legislature
would consist of an assembly, or lower house, elected for three years by
free male citizens and of
a senate chosen indirectly by electors for life. The president, who also
would hold office for life
and was to be selected by a double set of electors, would have an absolute
veto over the
legislature. The central government would appoint the state governors, who
would have an
absolute veto over state legislation. The judiciary would consist of a
supreme court whose justices
would have life tenure. Although the states were to be preserved, they
would have virtually no
power. Under this essentially monarchical plan, the national government
would have unlimited
sovereignty. Hamilton's plan had little impact on the convention; the
delegates went ahead to
frame a constitution that, while it gave strong power to a federal
government, stood some chance
of being accepted by the people. Since the other two delegates from New
York, who were
strong opponents of a Federalist constitution, had withdrawn from the
convention, New York was
not officially represented, and Hamilton had no power to sign for his
state. Nonetheless, even
though he knew that his state wished to go no further than a revision of
the Articles of
Confederation, he signed the new constitution as an individual.
Opponents in New York quickly attacked the Constitution, and Hamilton an
swered them in the
newspapers under the signature Caesar. Since the Caesar letters seemed not
influential, Hamilton
turned to another classical pseudonym, Publius, and to two collaborators,
James Madison, the
delegate from Virginia, and John Jay, the secretary of foreign affairs, to
write The Federalist, a
series of 85 essays in defense of the Constitution and republican
government that appeared in
newspapers between October 1787 and May 1788. Hamilton wrote at least
two‑thirds of the
essays. The Federalist was widely read, had a great influence on
contemporaries, became one of
the classics of political literature, and helped shape American political
institutions. In 1788
Hamilton was reappointed a delegate to the Continental Congress from New
York. At the
ratifying convention in June, he became the chief champion of the
Constitution and, against strong
opposition, won approval for it.
Hamilton, Alexander
Hamilton's financial program.
When President Washington in 1789 appointed Hamilton the first secretary of
the Treasury,
Congress asked him to draw up a plan for the "adequate support of the
public credit." Envisaging
himself as something of a prime minister in Washington's official family,
Hamilton developed a bold
and masterly program designed to build a strong union, one that would weave
his political
philosophy into the government. His immediate objectives were to establish
credit at home and
abroad and to strengthen the national government at the expense of the
states. He outlined his
program in four notable reports to Congress (1790‑91).
A result of the struggle over Hamilton's program and over issues of foreign
policy was the
emergence of national political parties. Like Washington, Hamilton had
deplored parties, equating
them with disorder and instability. He had hoped to establish a government
of superior persons
who would be above party. Yet he became the leader of the Federalist Party,
a political
organization in large part dedicated to the support of his policies.
Hamilton placed himself at the
head of that party because he needed organized political support and strong
leadership in the
executive branch to get his program through Congress. The political
organization that challenged
the Hamiltonians was the Republican Party created by James Madison, a
member of the House of
Representatives, and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. In foreign
affairs the Federalists
favoured close ties with England, whereas the Republicans preferred to
strengthen the old
attachment to France. In attempting to carry out his program, Hamilton
interfered in Jefferson's
domain of foreign affairs. Detesting the French Revolution and the
egalitarian doctrines it
spawned, he tried to thwart Jefferson's policies that might aid France or
injure England and to
induce Washington to follow his own ideas in foreign policy. Hamilton went
so far as to warn
British officials of Jefferson's attachment to France and to suggest that
they bypass the Secretary
of State and instead work through himself and the President in matters of
foreign policy. This and
other parts of Hamilton's program led to a feud with Jefferson in which the
two men attempted to
drive each other from the Cabinet.
When war broke out between France and England in February 1793, Hamilton
wished to use the
war as an excuse for jettisoning the French alliance of 1778 and steering
the United States closer
to England, whereas Jefferson insisted that the alliance was still binding.
Washington essentially
accepted Hamilton's advice and in April issued a proclamation of neutrality
that Republicans said
favoured England. In that month an emissary from republican France,
Edmond‑Charles Genet, in
trying to advance the cause of his own country, violated American
neutrality by arming privateers
in U.S. ports. Hamilton in June began a series of articles under the name
"Pacificus" in defense of
the neutrality proclamation and in August another series under the name "No
Jacobin" that
condemned Genet's activities and eventually led to Genet's recall in 1794.
At the same time, British seizure of U.S. ships trading with the French
West Indies and other
grievances led to popular demands for war against Great Britain, which
Hamilton opposed. He
believed that such a war would be national suicide, for his program was
anchored on trade with
Britain and on the import duties that supported his funding system.
Hamilton persuaded the
President to send John Jay to London to negotiate grievances. Hamilton
wrote Jay's instructions,
manipulated the negotiations, and defended the unpopular treaty Jay brought
back in 1795,
notably in a series of newspaper essays he wrote under the signature
Camillus; the treaty kept the
peace and saved his system.
Out of the Cabinet.
Lashed by criticism, tired and anxious to repair his private fortune,
Hamilton left the Cabinet on
Jan. 31, 1795. His influence, as an unofficial adviser, however, continued
as strong as ever.
Washington and his Cabinet consulted him on almost all matters of policy.
When Washington
decided to retire, he turned to Hamilton, asking his opinion as to the best
time to publish his
farewell. With his eye on the coming presidential election, Hamilton
advised withholding the
announcement until a few months before the meeting of the presidential
electors. Following that
advice, Washington gave his Farewell Address in September 1796. Hamilton
drafted most of the
address, and some of his ideas were prominent in it. In the election,
Federalist leaders passed
over Hamilton's claims and nominated John Adams for the presidency and
Thomas Pinckney for
the vice presidency. Because Adams did not appear devoted to Hamiltonian
principles, Hamilton
tried to manipulate the electoral college so as to make Pinckney president.
Adams won the
election, and Hamilton's intrigue succeeded only in sowing distrust within
his own party.
Hamilton's influence in the government continued, however, for Adams
retained Washington's
Cabinet, and its members consulted Hamilton on all matters of policy, gave
him confidential
information, and in effect urged his policies on the president.
Early in 1797 James T. Callender, a Republican hack, published a History of
the United States
for the Year 1796, in which he accused Hamilton of corruption in connection
with an affair that
Hamilton had had six years earlier with Maria Reynolds. Hamilton met the
attack by writing a
pamphlet in which he confessed the "irregular and indelicate amour" and
printed the blackmailing
letters that the woman's husband, a confidence man, had sent to him but
denied any corrupt
dealings with him. Although Hamilton successfully defended his integrity as
a public man, he
subjected his private life to a bitter humiliation.
When France broke relations with the United States, Hamilton stood for
firmness but agreed with
the president's policy of trying to reestablish friendly relations. After
the failure of a peace mission
that President Adams had sent to Paris in 1798, followed by the publication
of dispatches insulting
to U.S. sovereignty, Hamilton wanted to place the country under arms. He
even believed that the
French, who had embarked on an undeclared naval war, might attempt to
invade the country.
Hamilton sought command of the new army, though Washington would be its
titular head. Adams
resisted Hamilton's desires, but in September 1798 Washington forced him to
make Hamilton
second in command of the army, the inspector general, with the rank of
major general. Adams
never forgave Hamilton for this humiliation. Hamilton wanted to lead his
army into Spain's
Louisiana and the Floridas and other points south but never did. Through
independent diplomacy,
Adams kept the quarrel from spreading and at the order of Congress
disbanded the provisional
army. Hamilton resigned his commission in June 1800. Meantime Adams had
purged his Cabinet
of those he regarded as "Hamilton's spies."
In retaliation, Hamilton tried to prevent Adams' reelection. In October
1800 he privately
circulated a personal attack on Adams, The Public Conduct and Character of
John Adams,
Esq., President of the United States. Aaron Burr of New York, the
Republican candidate for
vice president and Hamilton's political enemy, obtained a copy and had it
published. Hamilton was
then compelled to acknowledge his authorship and to bring his quarrel with
Adams into the open,
a feud that revealed an irreparable schism in the Federalist Party. Thomas
Jefferson and Aaron
Burr won the election, but, because both had received the same number of
electoral votes, the
choice between them for president was cast into the House of
Representatives. Hating Jefferson,
the Federalists wanted to throw the election to Burr. Hamilton helped to
persuade them to select
Jefferson instead. By supporting his old Republican enemy, who won the
presidency, Hamilton
lost prestige within his own party and virtually ended his public career.
Hamilton, Alexander
The Burr quarrel.
In 1801 Hamilton built a country house called the Grange on Manhattan
island and helped found a
Federalist newspaper, the New York Evening Post, the policies of which
reflected his ideas.
Through the Post he hailed the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, even though
New England
Federalists had opposed it. Some of them talked of secession and in 1804
began to negotiate with
Burr for his support. Almost all the Federalists but Hamilton favoured
Burr's candidacy for the
governorship of New York state. Hamilton urged the election of Burr's
Republican opponent,
who won by a close margin, but it is doubtful that Hamilton's influence
decided the outcome. In
any event, Hamilton and Burr had long been enemies, and Hamilton had
several times thwarted
Burr's ambitions. In June 1804, after the election, Burr demanded
satisfaction for remarks
Hamilton had allegedly made at a dinner party in April in which he said he
held a "despicable
opinion" of Burr. Hamilton held an aversion to dueling, but as a man of
honour he felt compelled
to accept Burr's challenge. The two antagonists met early in the morning of
July 11 on the heights
of Weehawken, N.J., where Hamilton's eldest son, Philip, had died in a duel
three years before.
Burr's bullet found its mark, and Hamilton fell. Hamilton left his wife and
seven children heavily in
debt, which friends helped to pay off. ( A.De C./Ed.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Hamilton's public and private life is examined by Nathan Schachner,
Alexander Hamilton (1946,
reissued 1961), well‑balanced and readable; Broadus Mitchell, Alexander
Hamilton, 2 vol.
(1957‑62), a scholarly study; John C. Miller, Alexander Hamilton: Portrait
in Paradox (1959,
reprinted 1979), strong on his public career; and Forrest McDonald,
Alexander Hamilton
(1979), a reexamination of his political philosophy. Jacob Ernest Cooke,
Alexander Hamilton
(1982); and Marie B. Hecht, Odd Destiny: The Life of Alexander Hamilton
(1982), are
political biographies.
Copyright (c) 1995 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. All Rights Reserved