Portrait of a Young Alexander Hamilton -- Acrylic on Cradled Gessobord, 24 x 18, 2018
Alexander Hamilton (1755 or 1757 - 1804), born on the British Caribbean island of Nevis, is presumed to be the illegitimate son of Rachel Faucette Lavien and James Hamilton. Alexander’s mother had left her abusive, much older husband, after he had her imprisoned for adultery. Fleeing to the island of St. Kitts she took up residence with merchant James Hamilton, with whom she bore two sons, the second being Alexander. James Hamilton, however, would soon abandon his mistress and her children. Poverty forced young Alexander to go to work as a child and the death of his mother from yellow fever in 1768 left him entirely on his own. Brilliant, intense, precocious, and ambitious, he made the most of his opportunity working as a clerk for a mercantile concern in St. Croix, Virgin Islands. His employer was so impressed with him that he and his friends raised funds to send Alexander to college in New York.
Alexander Hamilton enrolled in King’s College (later Columbia University) in 1773. There he joined the American protests against British tax and trade policies that would precipitate the Revolutionary War. When hostilities broke out between the colonials in New England and the British in April of 1775, he enlisted in a volunteer militia. In 1776 he raised his own company of men for the New York Provincial Company of Artillery and was elected its captain. In August 1776, after their victory in the Battle of Long Island, the British occupied New York City. King’s College closed down and Hamilton, never able to graduate, became a full-time soldier. He participated not only in the Battles of Long Island, but White Plains and Trenton, as well as the Battle of Princeton, January 1777, where he served heroically in a winning cause.
Alexander Hamilton attracted attention of his superiors as being a highly competent officer and courageous soldier. Refusing offers to join the staffs of other generals, Hamilton did accept a position as aide-de-camp to commander of the Continental Army, General George Washington, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Hamilton employed his writing skills in handling much of Washington’s correspondence. He soon became a trusted adviser on all matters and was treated by the childless Washington almost as a son. Nevertheless, Hamilton, after 4 years, resigned his staff position and implored that Washington give him the field command he had long yearned for. It was 6 months before an angered Washington relented, but in July 1781 he made Hamilton commander of three battalions that were to participate in what would be the crucial Battle of Yorktown. Hamilton played a significant role in that battle. His forces and those of the French captured the British fortifications, resulting in an American victory, the surrender of the British army under Cornwallis, and, eventually, British recognition of American independence.
Resigning from the army after Yorktown, Hamilton became a New York representative to the Congress of the Confederation, which would govern the United States until March 1789. He soon resigned, though, and after passing the New York bar examination, Hamilton became an attorney. Practicing in New York City, he ironically found himself defending the rights of erstwhile Loyalists. He participated in several important cases that established principles of due process and judicial review.
In 1784 Hamilton, much interested in and knowledgeable of financial matters, became one of the founders of the Bank of New York. This institution would endure and, after a 2006 merger, was renamed the Bank of New York Mellon. A rival New York bank, the Bank of Manhattan, was founded in 1799 by fellow lawyer and officer in the Continental Army, Aaron Burr. It would later become Chase Manhattan and, eventually, JPMorganChase.
Hamilton continued to keep his eye on politics and was concerned that the Articles of Confederation, under which the United States was governed, were insufficient to forge a strong and enduring nation. When a Constitutional Convention was held in Philadelphia in 1787, Alexander Hamilton was chosen one of the delegates from New York. Differing with Virginian Thomas Jefferson, who favored a looser confederation of states and an agrarian economy, Hamilton promoted his vision of a strong central government and an industrialized economy. Hamilton had little input in the writing of the Constitution: his suggestions mandating that an elected President and elected Senators serve for life and state governors be appointed by the federal government were rejected. The resulting Constitution, though, did establish the kind of strong central government he had advocated. Hamilton was the only New Yorker to sign the final draft of the Constitution, even though his enthusiasm for it was initially tepid. But Hamilton joined fellow New Yorker John Jay and James Madison, the principal architect of the Constitution, in penning a series of essays known as the Federalist Papers that eloquently made the case for the as yet unpopular Constitution. Hamilton personally lobbied the New York State delegates at its ratification convention and through his influence swayed not only New York but other states to adopt the new Constitution.
On April 30, 1789 George Washington was sworn in as the first elected President of the new United States of America. Alexander Hamilton was tapped by Washington to be its first Secretary of the Treasury, an office for which he was well qualified, perhaps uniquely qualified to fill. He used his position to foster a powerful national government and, with a broad interpretation of the Constitution, justified actions that led to that end.
Seeking compromise on the divisive issue of where the national capital should be located, Hamilton agreed to drop his support for New York’s bid to permanently host the federal capital and instead acquiesced to the concept favored by the Southerners, that of building a new capital on the Potomac, near Virginia. In return, Madison and the Virginians agreed to accept the federal government’s primacy over the states.
As Treasury Secretary Hamilton paid off the war debts of the states, established a system of taxation based on tariffs and excise taxes (such as that on whiskey), founded a national bank, established mints and a currency of dollars and cents, secured credit for the United States with other nations, and shepherded the establishment of what would become the United States Coast Guard. Washington sought Hamilton’s advice even on topics outside his department’s purview. Much to the dismay of Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Hamilton informally assumed the role of Washington’s prime minister.
When war broke out between France and Great Britain in 1793, Washington chose a policy of neutrality, a position favored by Hamilton, but not by the pro-French Jefferson. When, in 1794, a rebellion against the whiskey tax broke out in western Pennsylvania and Virginia, a large armed force was sent to repress it. Washington led it himself with Hamilton accompanying him as a Major-General. When Alexander Hamilton resigned as Treasury Secretary in January 1795, after five and half years, he left the federal government on a secure financial footing. Had he not done so, the union might well have failed.
Hamilton’s legacy would, however, be tarnished by a scandal triggered by an extra-marital affair. In 1780 Hamilton had married Eliza Schuyler, daughter of General Philip Schuyler and a member of one of New York’s most socially prominent and politically powerful families. By all accounts, they were in love and had eight children together. However, Hamilton was a man attractive to the ladies: this led to his downfall. In 1791, when Hamilton was still 34 years old, a 23 year old woman named Maria Reynolds stopped by Hamilton’s house in Philadelphia and begged that he give her some money so that she could return to her family in New York, since she was destitute after her husband James Reynolds had abandoned her. The compassionate Hamilton agreed to give her some money, but had little on hand. Later he visited Mrs. Reynolds’ boarding house to deliver to her $30, and, at her invitation, remained to accept her “thanks.” For the next year they conducted an affair, which he would later learn was merely a blackmail ploy. James Reynolds, who knew of the relationship and, for a time, encouraged it, extorted $1300 from Hamilton in return for his silence.
In November 1792 the shady Reynolds was arrested for an illegal scheme involving back wages of Revolutionary War veterans. He sought to use his knowledge of Hamilton’s affair with his wife to get himself out of trouble. One of his confederates, out on bail, confided what Reynolds knew to Hamilton’s political opponent, Virginia Senator James Monroe. Monroe, along with Virginia Representative Abraham Venable and Pennsylvania Representative, Speaker of the House Frederick Muhlenberg, confronted Hamilton about what seemed evidence of corruption. Hamilton convinced them that the money paid to Reynolds was not graft or part of a some nefarious scheme, but blackmail money to cover up an affair. To prove it he gave the men documents and letters he had received from the Reynolds, on the condition that they would not be made public. Monroe, though, betrayed his word and sent the papers to his ally and Hamilton’s rival, Thomas Jefferson.
Since he was born outside the original thirteen colonies, Alexander Hamilton was not constitutionally qualified to run for President, but he used his influence to affect the outcome of the 1796 election. Washington had chosen not to run for a third term. By now the ruling elites had fallen into two parties: the Federalists, such as Hamilton, John Jay of New York, John Adams of Massachusetts, and Thomas Pinckney of South Carolina and the Democratic-Republicans, such as Aaron Burr of New York and Virginians Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. Before the ratification of the 12th Amendment to the Constitution in 1804, electors did not vote a party ticket for President and Vice President; instead they would vote for two candidates, the winning vote getter becoming President and runner-up, irrespective of party, becoming the Vice-President. The Founding Fathers had deplored party politics in principle, but in practice they all, save Washington, found themselves embracing them — and this caused unforeseen problems in the electoral process.
John Adams was the Federalist candidate for President with Thomas Pinckney also running, but intended as the Vice-President candidate. Within the current system Adams not only needed to get enough votes to win the Presidency, he needed Pinckney to get only enough votes to finish second, but not so many votes as to displace him as the winner. Therefore, some Federalist electors were bid not to vote for Pinckney. Hamilton, however, worked against Adams, whom he felt lacked the temperament to be President and was an unworthy successor to Washington. He encouraged electors to vote for Pinckney, but his misguided efforts were counterproductive. In the end, Pinckney finished only third, Adams won; Jefferson finished second and became the Vice-President.
Jefferson, with knowledge of the Reynolds affair, spread rumors about Hamilton’s personal life and in the summer of 1797, a journalist made public what Jefferson had been privy to owing to Monroe’s treachery. Hamilton blamed Monroe for violating his word, Monroe, in turn, called him a “scoundrel.” A duel between Hamilton and Monroe seemed unavoidable. However, the men were assuaged and a duel averted through the efforts of former New York Senator and Presidential candidate Aaron Burr. (Colonel Burr had saved Hamilton’s bacon once before when, in the Revolutionary War: he ignored Washington’s orders and evacuated New York City. Had he not done so, Hamilton, serving there, might have been killed or captured).
Hamilton responded to the expose by published his own pamphlet admitting to the affair and refuting any charges of corruption. Jefferson felt vindicated in his low opinion of Hamilton. Washington’s admiration of him was not lessened, though, and Eliza Hamilton forgave her husband. While many credited Hamilton’s honesty and accepted his version of the story, the Reynolds Affair all but destroyed his reputation: Hamilton never held public office again.
During the Anglophile administration of the second President, John Adams, war with France seemed imminent, if not inevitable. Washington was called out of retirement to lead the army against any possible French invasion of the country. Hamilton, appointed a major general, became his second-in-command. With Washington remaining at his plantation, Mount Vernon, Hamilton became the de facto head of the army. While, from 1798 to 1800, there were hostilities on the seas with French privateers preying on American shipping, Adams was able settle differences with Napoleon’s France, and war between the two countries was averted. Before resigning from the army in June 1800, Hamilton officially served as its Inspector General from 1798-1800 and its Senior Officer after the death of George Washington in December 1799.
During the election of 1800 Hamilton opposed his fellow Federalist John Adams and hoped to use his influence to elect Adams’ prospective running mate, Charles Pinckney, the brother of Adams’ former running mate, Thomas Pinckney. This split the Federalist Party assured the victory of Jefferson and Aaron Burr, who, problematically, received an equal number of electoral votes. The House of Representatives voted to determine the winner, but were at first deadlocked. When Hamilton threw his support to Jefferson, whom he viewed as a lesser of evils, Jefferson became the third President, with Burr as his untrusted Vice President. For the election in 1804, Jefferson dropped Burr from the ticket. Aaron Burr then ran for Governor of New York as a Federalist, but was defeated by a large margin partly due to Hamilton’s efforts against him.
Aaron Burr, still Vice-President, brooded over his failure and took offense over the contents of a published letter written by Democratic-Republican politician to Philip Schuyler, Alexander Hamilton’s father-in-law. Revealing dinner table conversation, it quoted Hamilton as asserting that Burr was a dangerous man, unfit to wield political power. In June 1804 Burr demanded Hamilton’s denial, which he refused to give. More letters between the two men followed, the difference escalating into a bitter quarrel. Burr was probably more than willing to accept an apology, but Hamilton was honor-bound not to proffer one. As a result, Aaron Burr felt compelled to challenge him to a duel. Alexander Hamilton, a man with a keen sense of honor as well as pride, felt he could not back down, despite many logical reasons for doing so. Efforts by friends to placate the parties and prevent the duel were unsuccessful.
Hamilton had previously become involved in several affairs of honor, including one or two with Burr, but none had resulted in a shot being fired. However, three years earlier, Hamilton’s eldest son, 19 year-old Philip Hamilton had been killed in a duel, provoked by a quarrel with a Burr supporter. The family was grief-stricken by Philip’s death: his younger sister was driven insane; Alexander was devastated and never really recovered from the tragedy.
Fighting a duel was prohibited in New York. Dueling was illegal in New Jersey as well, but the laws against it were but laxly enforced. Thus, Burr and Hamilton arranged to conduct their duel in New Jersey — on heights overlooking the Hudson River outside of Weehawken. This was the near the place where Philip Hamilton had been killed.
Hamilton wrote of his intention to throw away his shot, to miss his opponent intentionally. Burr’s intentions are not known. But the two men, both at somewhat desperate points in their lives, fatalistically met at Weehawken at dawn on July 11, 1804. The exact details of the duel are controversial, the accounts of eye witnesses being uncertain. Hamilton, wearing glasses and with the rising sun in his eyes, fired his pistol first, missing Burr and hitting the branch of a tree above his head, while Burr took careful aim and shot Hamilton above the right hip — or perhaps Burr fired first with Hamilton discharging his gun wildly as he fell from the shot. The fatally wounded Hamilton was conveyed across the Hudson to the Greenwich Village home of a friend where, after much pain, he died at 2 o’clock the next afternoon.
Both New York and New Jersey charged Aaron Burr with several crimes in connection with the illegal duel. The Vice President fled to South Carolina and took refuge with the family of Theodosia Burr Alston, his brilliant and beloved daughter who, tragically, would die at age 29, lost at sea. But Burr soon returned to Philadelphia, the current seat of government, to serve out his term as Vice-President. All the charges against him were dropped, and he would never be prosecuted for his killing of Alexander Hamilton, although his political career was at an end. Later, in 1807, Burr, persecuted by a vindictive President Jefferson, would be tried for treason for his part in a vague, quixotic conspiracy to establish an independent country in lands beyond the Allegheny. He would be acquitted in a jury trial presided over by Chief Justice John Marshall.
Opinions of Hamilton varied greatly in his lifetime and have done so ever since. Time has vindicated many of his views on government and economics, while his opposition to slavery and belief in racial equality, his status as an outsider, and his persona as a self-made man have helped make Alexander Hamilton a favorite Founding Father for the 21st Century.
The uncertainty of Hamilton’s ancestry, even his parentage, has fueled much speculation as to whether he may have possessed black African lineage. It is not impossible that he did so, but it is more likely that he was merely of Scottish and French Caribbean derivation. His temperament seems consistent with this and his appearance was prototypically Scottish, a sharp nose, blue eyes, pale complexion, and hair that, before it turned gray, was red.
In 1917 Alexander Hamilton was portrayed by the great English actor George Arliss in a Broadway play, Hamilton, which he co-authored. It focused on the Reynold scandal. An older Arliss also starred in the film adaptation, Alexander Hamilton, produced by Warner Brothers in 1931. Recently, Hamilton: An American Musical written by and starring Lin-Manuel Miranda and featuring a non-white cast premiered on Broadway in 2015. This innovative, up-to-date musical was a smash hit, was the recipient many awards, including a Pulitzer Prize, and has significantly formed modern views of Hamilton.
Since 1928 an image of Hamilton, based on a 1805 portrait by John Trumbull, has been famously featured on the US 10-dollar bill. Recent plans to replace this picture with that of a woman were scrapped after the enthusiastic reception of the musical Hamilton.
