Alexander Hamilton Life, Politics and Achievements

At the beginning of Hamilton's career, he served as one of the New York delegates to the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. He proposed that senators and the executive serve for life and that the executors can have an absolute veto. His proposals were not accepted and even though they weren’t accepted, Hamilton campaigned for the Constitution. He wanted everyone to hear about it. Hamilton joined James Madison and John Jay in writing The Federalist Papers in support of removing the majority of the essays in the Constitution. Hamilton was also a delegate to the New York ratifying the convention in Poughkeepsie. He did this in the summer of 1788 and helped convince the anti federalist, New York, to remove the new Constitution.

After his close friend, George Washington was elected America's first president in 1789, he appointed Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury. Hamilton wanted to create a stable financial foundation for America and increase the power of the central government. He wanted the nation to know their debts which would be bind creditors to the federal government. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison opposed this plan but only just assisted its passage to the Congress. Hamilton then agreed for the nation’s capital to be along the Potomac River. Hamilton then founded the First Bank of the United States which is the centerpiece of his financial plan. It was based on the Bank of England. It holds the government funds, issued loans to the government, provided currency or money, and increased liquid capital to facilitate economic growth. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison thought that Hamilton's policies favored the central government and the rich over the poor. In a few years, Hamilton became the leader of the democratic party and Jefferson the leader of the Republican party.

When war Great Britain and France started fighting in 1793, Hamilton favored Washington’s Proclamation of Neutrality which states that America is neutral with any conflicts between France and Great Britain. Jefferson opposed this idea and frustrated that Washington sided with Hamilton most of the time he resigned in December of 1793. In 1794 Hamilton then helped stop the Whiskey Rebellion, and in 1795 resigned from his post in January of 1795. Hamilton was still political after leaving the cabinet and helped draft Washington’s Farewell Address in 1796. Washington was called out for retirement in 1798 to lead a Provisional Army when war with France seemed near. Washington insisted that Hamilton was his second in command and was made the senior-ranking officer when Washington died in December of 1799. He then resigned from the army in 1800.

During 1800 Thomas Jefferson finished in an electoral tie with Aaron Burr. Some Federalist Congressmen wanted Burr to be president but Hamilton believed that Thomas Jefferson was preferable over Burr. He wrote a detailed essay on why he thought that Thomas Jefferson should be a president over Aaron Burr. The exact words of one letter included, “ a man(Burr) of extreme and irregular ambition; that he is selfish to a degree which excludes all social affections. He is inferior in real ability to Jefferson.” Hamilton helped break the tie and as we know Thomas Jefferson became the third president.

Again in 1804, during the New York election for state governor, the Albany Register published a piece stating that once again, Hamilton had insulted Burr which had caused him to lose this election too. Burr then confronted Hamilton on his reported slander. Slander means an insult to the meaning of a phrase pointed toward someone. Burr was so infuriated he challenged Hamilton to a duel. Hamilton reluctantly accepted and chose the date July 11, 1804. On that day Burr mortally wounded Hamilton in Weehawken, New Jersey. Hamilton died on July 12, 1804, due to severe blood loss and wounds. Now Hamilton is recognized to be one of the founding fathers of our nation and also the national treasury. His portrait is printed on the ten-dollar bill.