Alexander Hamilton, Part 2

                Founding Father Alexander Hamilton was very active in the founding of our nation.  I found too much information about him to include in one post and so divided it.  See Part 1 for more information.

Alexander Hamilton was an active participant in the Constitutional Convention.  Even though he did not like the final form of the Constitution, he considered it to be a “vast improvement over the Articles of Confederation”.  He signed the Constitution and urged his fellow delegates to also sign.  Hamilton was the only signer from New York because the other members of the delegation left the convention earlier.  He “took a highly active part” in successfully getting New York to ratify the document in 1788.

Realizing that New York’s ratification “was a crucial step in its national ratification,” Hamilton recruited John Jay and James Madison to write a series of essays defending the proposed Constitution.  Their essays are known as the Federalist Papers.  Hamilton wrote 51 of the 85 essays while Madison wrote 29 and Jay wrote 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.”

Hamilton wrote in the Federalist No. 11, 1787:  “Let the thirteen States, bound together in a strict and indissoluble Union, concur in erecting one great American system, superior to the control of all trans-Atlantic force or influence and able to dictate the terms of the connection between the old and the new world.”

In 1788, Hamilton served another term in the Continental Congress in the final session under the Articles of Confederation.  Newly elected President George Washington appointed Hamilton to be the first United States Secretary of the Treasury on September 11, 1789, and he served until January 31, 1795.  “Much of the structure of the government of the United States was worked out in those five years, beginning with the structure and function of the cabinet itself.”

While Hamilton served as Treasury Secretary, political factions began to emerge.  James Madison and Thomas Jefferson belonged to the Republicans, now called the Democratic-Republican Party, and Hamilton and his allies called themselves the Federalists. Hamilton’s Federalists supported the Administration and expansive financial programs and opposed France.  The Jeffersonian Republicans opposed banks and cities but favored France.  “Both sides gained the support of local political factions; each side developed its own partisan newspapers… All the newspapers were characterized by intense personal attacks, major exaggerations and invented claims.”

France and Britain went to war early in 1793, and President George Washington consulted with all four members of his Cabinet.  Washington and his Cabinet were unanimous in their decision to remain neutral and to send the French ambassador home.  By 1794 the American policy toward Britain was a major cause of problems between the two parties.  The Federalists wanted more trade with Britain, America’s largest trading partner, and Republicans thought Britain was a threat to republicanism and proposed a trade war.

Washington did not want war and sent Chief Justice John Jay to negotiate with the British.  Jay’s instructions were mostly written by Hamilton, and the result was Jay’s Treaty.  The Republicans denounced the Treaty, but it passed the Senate in 1795 by exactly the required two-thirds majority.  “The Treaty resolved issues remaining from the Revolution, averted war, and made possible ten years of peaceful trade between the United States and Britain.”

Hamilton was involved in an affair with Maria Reynolds in 1791 that nearly ruined his reputation.  Her husband James blackmailed Hamilton for money by threatening to tell Mrs. Hamilton.  He told several prominent members of the Democratic-Republican Party – two of whom were James Monroe and Aaron Burr – who interviewed Hamilton.  He insisted that he had not abused his position but admitted to the affair.  Since his personal behavior had not affected his official duties, the interviewers did not publish the information.  After Hamilton retired, rumors began to spread about an affair, and he published a confession which shocked his family and supporters.  This confession damaged his reputation for the rest of his life.

Even though Hamilton resigned from the office of Secretary of the Treasury in 1795, he remained close to Washington as an advisor and friend.  He “influenced Washington in the composition of his Farewell Address; Washington and members of his Cabinet often consulted with him.”

Hamilton worked behind the scenes in the presidential elections, sometimes working against candidates from both parties, and made enemies.  He apparently said or wrote things that caused Aaron Burr to sense an attack on his honor.  Burr demanded an apology, but Hamilton could not recall any reason to apologize.  The two men exchanged “three testy letters”, and friends tried to avert a confrontation.  In spite of all the efforts, a duel was scheduled for dawn on July 11, 1804; the site chosen was a rocky ledge in Weehawken, New Jersey, along the west bank of the Hudson River.  As chance would have it, this was the same dueling site where Hamilton’s eldest son, Philip, was killed three years earlier.

Vice President Aaron Burr shot Hamilton while Hamilton’s shot broke a tree branch directly above Burr’s head.  Hamilton may or may not have missed on purpose.  Burr’s shot hit Hamilton in the lower abdomen above the right hip, ricocheted off his second or third “false rib”, fractured the rib, and caused internal damage, particularly to the liver and diaphragm.  The bullet “lodged in the first or second lumbar vertebra.”

Hamilton was paralyzed and knew he had been mortally wounded.  He was taken back to Greenwich Village in New York to the home of his friend William Bayard, Jr. who was waiting on the dock.  Hamilton was visited by his family and friends and had “considerable suffering” before he died on the following afternoon, July 12, 1804, at Bayard’s home (now 80-82 Jane Street) at the age of 49.

Gouverneur Morris was one of Hamilton’s political allies and gave the eulogy at his funeral; he also secretly established a fund to support Widow Hamilton and the children.  Alexander Hamilton was buried in the Trinity Churchyard Cemetery in Manhattan.

Alexander Hamilton’s likeness is on the Series 2004A $10 Federal Reserve Note, based on an 1805 portrait by John Trumbull.  His interpretations of the Constitution as set forth in the Federalist Papers remain highly influential, as shown by scholarly studies and court decisions.

The Constitution does not state the exact balance of power between national and state governments, and Hamilton was consistent in his efforts to give greater power to the federal government at the expense of the states.  “As Secretary of the Treasury, he established – against the intense opposition of Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson – the country’s first national bank.  Hamilton justified the creation of this bank, and other increased federal powers, under Congress’s constitutional powers to issue currency, to regulate interstate commerce, and to do anything else that would be `necessary and proper’ to enact the provisions of the Constitution.”  Jefferson found no specific authorization in the Constitution for a national bank, and the controversy was later settled by the Supreme Court in McCulloch v. Maryland.  The court took the same view as Hamilton and granted “the federal government broad freedom to select the best means to execute its constitutionally enumerated powers, specifically the doctrine of implied powers.”

Hamilton’s policies as Secretary of the Treasury affected at the time and continue to influence the federal government.  “His constitutional interpretation, specifically of the Necessary and Proper Clause, set precedents for federal authority that are still used by the courts and are considered an authority on constitutional interpretation.

“Opinions of Hamilton have run the gamut:  both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson viewed him as unprincipled and dangerously aristocratic.  Aaron Burr and Hamilton became personal enemies.  Herbert Croly, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Theodore Roosevelt directed attention to him at the end of the 19^th century in the interest of an active federal government, whether or not supported by tariffs. Several nineteenth- and twentieth-century Republicans entered politics by writing laudatory biographies of Hamilton.”

                While historians use him to push their favored agenda, Hamilton is remembered by numerous monuments and memorials.  Hamilton’s portrait began to appear on US currency ($2, $5, $10, and $50 notes) by the time of the Civil War.  His likeness was also on US postage beginning in 1870.  His picture is currently on the $10 bill and also on the $500 Series EE Savings Bond.  The portrait of Hamilton on the $10 bill is John Trumbull’s 1805 portrait of Hamilton found in the portrait collection of New York City Hall.  A statue of Hamilton is located on the south side of the Treasury Building in Washington.  The US Postal Service issued on March 19, 1956, the $5 Liberty Issue postage stamp honoring Hamilton.

                “The only home Hamilton ever owned was a Federal style mansion designed by John McComb Jr., which he built on his 32 acre country estate in Harlem in upper Manhattan.  He named the house – which was completed in 1802 – the `Grange’ after his grandfather Alexander’s estate in Ayrshire, Scotland.  The house remained in the family until 1833 when his widow sold it to Thomas E. Davis, a British born real estate developer for $25,000.  Part of the proceeds were used by Eliza to purchase a new townhouse from Davis (Hamilton-Holly House) in Greenwich Village with her son Alexander Hamilton Jr.  The Grange, first moved from its original location in 1889, was moved again in 2008 to a spot in St. Nicholas Park on land that was once part of the Hamilton estate.  The historic structure was restored to its original 1802 appearance in 2011, and is maintained by the National Park Service as Hamilton Grange National Memorial.”

                Alexander Hamilton was one of the first trustees of the Hamilton-Oneida Academy in New York state.  The name of the school was formally changed to Hamilton College in 1812.  A statue of Hamilton stands in front of the school’s chapel, and an “extensive collection” of his personal documents are in the Burke Library.

                Elizabeth Hamilton, Alexander’s widow, survived her husband by fifty years and died in Washington, D.C. in 1854.  She was known as Eliza or Betsy and referred to by Hamilton as the “best of wives and best of women”.  She was an “extremely religious woman” who “spent much of her life working to help widows and orphans.”  “She co-founded New York’s first private orphanage, the New York Orphan Asylum Society.”  In spite of the Reynolds affair, Eliza and Alexander were very close – and grew closer after the affair ended. 

 

                Hamilton’s alma mater, Columbia University, also honored Hamilton.  Its main classroom building for the humanities is Hamilton Hall and has a large statue of Hamilton in front of it.  Hamilton’s complete works were published by the university press in a multivolume letterpress edition.  The Columbia student group for ROTC cadets and Marine officers candidates is the Alexander Hamilton Society.

                Hamilton created the United States Revenue Cutter Service, one of the predecessor services of the US Coast Guard.  He has the honor of having the main administration building of the Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT, named Hamilton Hall.  Hamilton also has an U.S. Army fort – Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn – named after him.  His country home – “The Grange” is located in Hamilton Heights, a neighborhood in upper Manhattan.  There is also a gilded statue of Alexander Hamilton in Chicago.                

Alexander Hamilton, Part 1

                Founding Father Alexander Hamilton was also a soldier, political philosopher, one of America’s first constitutional attorneys, and the first Secretary of the Treasury for the United States of America.

                Alexander was born January 11, 1757 or 1755 in Charlestown, Nevis, Leeward Islands, British West Indies.  He was born out of wedlock to Rachel Faucette Buck, a married woman of partial French Huguenot descent, and James A. Hamilton, the fourth son of the Scottish laird Alexander Hamilton of Grange, Ayrshire.  Rachel had been married previously to Johann Michael Lavien of St. Croix, a merchant planter who was much older than she.  Rachel was not happy in the marriage and left her husband and eldest son in order to travel to St. Kitts in 1750.  She met Hamilton there, and the two of them moved to Nevis where Rachel was born and had inherited property from her father.  Rachel and James were parents of two sons, James, Jr. and Alexander. 

Alexander Hamilton was denied membership in the Church of England and education in the church school because his parents were not married.  He received private tutoring and attended classes in a private school led by a Jewish headmistress.  He supplemented his education by reading the books in the family library – thirty-four books, including Greek and Roman classics.

Hamilton’s father James abandoned Rachel and their two sons, supposedly because he learned that her first husband “intend[ed] to divorce her under Danish law on grounds of adultery and desertion.”  Rachel supported her family in St. Croix by working at a small store in Christiansted, but she died of a severe fever on February 19, 1768, 1:02 a.m., leaving Hamilton alone without mother or father at age 11.  This probably caused him some emotional problems.  Rachel’s first husband went to probate court; he “seized her estate” and took the few valuables Rachel had owned, including some household silver.  Many of Rachel’s belongings were auctioned off; a friend who purchased the family books later returned them to Hamilton.

 Hamilton started clerking at a local import-export firm.  A cousin, Peter Lytton, adopted Alexander and his older brother James, but the brothers were separated when Lytton committed suicide.  James apprenticed with a local carpenter while Alexander was adopted by a Nevis merchant, Thomas Stevens.  The two boys looked alike and shared similar interests while also speaking fluent French. 

Alexander continued clerking.  While already an avid reader, he developed an interest in writing as well as a desire to leave his small island.  He wrote an essay published in the Royal Danish-American Gazette, a detailed account of a hurricane that had devastated Christiansted on August 30, 1772.  His essay illustrated his talents and abilities.  Community leaders were so impressed that they decided to become his sponsors; they collected enough money to send him to the North American colonies to be educated. 

Hamilton entered the American Colonies in Boston, Massachusetts and arrived at Elizabethtown Academy, a grammar school in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, in the autumn of 1772.  He prepared for college by studying with Francis Barber in 1773, and he was greatly influenced by William Livingston, a leading intellectual and revolutionary with whom he lived for a time.  Hamilton applied to the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and asked to accelerate his studies in order to complete them in a shorter period of time.  His request was denied by the college’s Board of Trustees so he made a similar request to King’s College in New York City (now Columbia University).  King’s College accepted his request, and Hamilton started college there in late 1773 or early 1774.

The next year Samuel Seabury, a clergyman for the Church of England, published a series of pamphlets in support of the Loyalist cause.  As a supporter of the cause of Patriot liberty, Hamilton responded with his first political writings:  “A Full vindication of the Measures of Congress” and “The Farmer Refuted”.  He also published two additional essays attacking the Quebec Act and fourteen anonymous installments of “The Monitor” for the New York Journal.  Hamilton saved his college president Myles Cooper, a Loyalist, from an angry mob on May 10, 1775, by speaking to the crowd long enough for Cooper to escape.

Alexander was active in many areas of the founding of the United States.  He served in the military several times.  At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, he organized an artillery company and served as its captain.  He declined invitations to become an aide to Nathanael Greene and to Henry Knox because he wanted the glory of the battlefield.  He did however accept an invitation that he could not refuse and became the senior aide-de-camp and confidant of General George Washington.  He held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and served four years as Washington’s chief of staff.

In this position Hamilton “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 when there was little personal attachment, there was still always a reciprocal confidence and respect.

While serving honorably and well as General Washington’s chief of staff, Hamilton also longed to return to active combat in a command position.  He threatened to resign his position if he did not receive a command position, and Washington finally relented on July 31, 1781.  Hamilton was assigned as commander of a New York light infantry battalion.  “In the planning for the assault on Yorktown, Hamilton was given command of three battalions, which were to fight in conjunction with French troops in taking Redoubts No. 9 and No. 10 of the British fortifications at Yorktown.  Hamilton and his battalions fought bravely and took Redoubt No. 10 with bayonets in a nighttime action, as planned.  The French also fought bravely, took heavy casualties, and successfully took Redoubt No. 9.  This action forced the British surrender of an entire army at Yorktown, effectively ending major British military operations in North America.”

Hamilton also served with Washington when an army was raised to defeat the Whiskey Rebellion, a tax revolt of western farmers in 1794.  He called for military mobilization against France in 1798 after the XYZ Affair.  He commanded and trained a new army for the Quasi-War, which was never officially declared.  Although there were some hard-fought battles at sea, President John Adams found a diplomatic solution to avoid war.

While serving as a soldier in the Revolutionary War, Hamilton married Elizabeth Schuyler on December 14, 1780, at the Schuyler Mansion in Albany, New York.  Elizabeth was the daughter of Philip Schuyler, a general and wealthy landowner from one of the most prominent families in New York.  Elizabeth’s older sister, Angelica, eloped with John Barker Church, an Englishman who made a fortune in the American colonies during the Revolution and took her back to London with him after the war.  Alexander and Elizabeth became the parents of Philip (born January 22, 1782, and killed in 1801 in a duel with George I. Eacker, whom he had publicly insulted in a Manhattan theater), Angelica (born September 25, 1784), Alexander (born May 16, 1796), James Alexander (April 14, 1788-September 1878), John Church (born August 22, 1792), William Stephen (born August 4, 1797), Elizabeth (Eliza) Hamilton Holy (born November 26, 1799), and Philip (“Little Phil”; born June 2, 1802, right after the first Philip was killed.).  The family belonged to the Episcopalian religion.

Hamilton resigned his military commission after the Battle of Yorktown and was elected to the Congress of the Confederation in July 1782 as a representative of New York.  He supported other congressmen – such as Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris, his assistant Gouverneur Morris (no relation), James Wilson and James Madison – in an effort to provide an independent source of revenue to Congress lacking under the Articles of Confederation.  He was well aware of the shortcomings of the Articles of Confederation and had been frustrated during the war.  Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress had no power to collect taxes or to demand money from the states.  This lack of a stable funding source made it difficult for Congress to provide the necessary provisions and pay to the soldiers of the Continental Army.  During the war  and even afterwards, Congress had to depend on subsidies from the King of France, European loans, and the meager amounts contributed by the states to pay expenses.

Thomas Burke proposed an amendment to the Articles in February 1781 to give Congress the power to collect a 5% impost, or duty on all imports; Rhode Island rejected the proposal in November 1782.  A delegation was sent by Congress to Rhode Island, but the negotiations ended when Virginia rescinded its ratification of the proposal.

Congress was unable to pay its commitments to the soldiers who were buying much of their own supplies.  After Valley Forge, officers had been promised pensions of half their pay when discharged.  General Henry Knox organized a group of officers who sent a delegation to Congress under the direction of Captain Alexander MacDougall.  Known as the Newburgh Conspiracy, the officers had three demands:  the Army’s pay, their own pensions, and commutation of those pensions into a lump-sum payment.

Hamilton, the Morrises, and other congressmen tried to leverage these demands to secure independent support from the states and in Congress for funding the confederated government.  They encourage MacDougall in his aggressive approach and even contacted General Knox to suggest civil disobedience.  Hamilton sought support from General Washington who declined and warned of dangers of using the army as leverage.  Washington defused the situation on March 15 by speaking to the officers, and Congress ordered the army to officially disband in April 1783.  The Continental Congress made other attempts to secure funding but was never able to secure full ratification for back pay, pensions, or its own independent sources of funding.

A different group of unhappy soldiers marched from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia in June 1783 demanding their back pay.  There were attempts to intercept the men, but the mob arrived in Philadelphia and “proceeded to harangue Congress for their pay.”  Congress adjourned to Princeton, New Jersey.

Hamilton was frustrated with the weakness of the central government and drafted a call to revise the Articles of Confederation.  His resolution included “many features of the future US Constitution, including a strong federal government with the ability to collect taxes and raise an army.  It also included the separation of powers into the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches.”

Hamilton resigned from Congress and returned to New York where he proceeded to educate himself about the law.  He was admitted to the New York Bar in July 1983 and practiced law in New York City in partnership with Richard Harrison.  He specialized in defending Tories and British subjects.

In 1784, Hamilton founded the Bank of New York, which is now the oldest ongoing bank in the United States.  King’s College had been suspended since 1776 and severely damaged during the war; Hamilton was one of several men who restored it as Columbia College.  Hamilton had long considered the Articles of Confederation weak, and “he played a major leadership role at the Annapolis Convention in 1786.  He drafted its resolution for a constitutional convention, and in doing so brought his longtime desire to have a more powerful, more financially independent federal government one step closer to reality.”

Hamilton was serving as an assemblyman from New York County in the New York State Legislature in 1787 and was the first delegate chosen to the Constitutional Convention.  The other two delegates from New York, John Lansing and Robert Yates, opposed Hamilton’s goal of a strong national government and voted against him when present.  After they decided to leave the convention, Hamilton could not vote at all because each state needed two representatives to cast a vote.

I suppose that we are fortunate that Hamilton did not have much influence in the convention.  Early in the process, Hamilton proposed electing a President and Senators who would serve for life and caused James Madison to consider him to be a “monarchist sympathizer”.  Hamilton constructed a draft for the Constitution based on the debates in the convention but never presented it.  His “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 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.”

For more on Alexander Hamilton, see part 2.