Michael E. Newton's Blog, page 3
July 8, 2015
How Wikipedia gets the Alexander Hamilton story wrong
Wikipedia is perhaps the single most used source of information on just about anything.It is generally reliable for uncontested facts, but when matters are up for dispute Wikipedia too often presents information as truth even when such details are far from certain. For most biographies, the details of one’s life are known and a site like Wikipedia can’t go too far astray. But when it comes to Alexander Hamilton, perhaps the most controversial Founding Father and certainly the one whose early...
July 6, 2015
Discovering the “last will and testament” of Alexander Hamilton’s half brother
On St. Croix in the West Indies, Alexander Hamilton had a half-brother named Peter Lavien. Around 1764, Peter Lavien moved to South Carolina, where he owned a plantation in Prince William’s Parish along with co-partner John Kean. Kean later represented South Carolina in the Continental Congress, supported ratification in the state’s ratifying convention, was a leading Federalist, became cashier of the Bank of the United States, and married Susan Livingston, niece of William Livingston. As a l...
July 1, 2015
Identifying the two doctors who treated Hamilton in November 1777
On October 30, 1777, George Washington sent Alexander Hamilton about 230 miles northward to General Horatio Gates in Albany “to point out to him the many happy consequences that will accrue from an immediate reinforcement being sent from the Northern Army.” The ride from Pennsylvania to New Windsor, then to Albany, then back to New Windsor–a journey of over three hundred miles in ten days– and the clashes with Gates and Israel Putnam as well took their toll on Alexander Hamilton’s health. Des...
Alexander Hamilton: The Formative Years is now available for sale.
The wait is over. After four years of hard work,Alexander Hamilton: The Formative Years is now available for sale.
The print edition ofAlexander Hamilton: The Formative Yearscan be purchased at:
The ebook of Alexander Hamilton: The Formative Yearscan be purchased and downloadedfrom:
June 19, 2015
Don’t be so naive: the real reason the Treasury plans to remove Hamilton from the $10 bill.
Up until two days ago, there was a growing movement to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with a woman. A bill was proposed in Congress to do this. A website was established to promote this idea. A poll wastaken to choose a worthy woman to replace Jackson, which Harriet Tubman narrowly won, beating out Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, and Wilma Mankiller.
But then the Treasury suddenly and somewhat unexpectedly announced that it would replace Hamilton on the $10 bill with a woman. Why the s...
June 18, 2015
Alexander Hamilton speaks to us from the grave about his planned removal from the $10 bill.
I had the distinct pleasure of asking Alexander Hamilton what he thought about his planned removal from the $10 bill. Major General Hamilton replied:
Mine is an odd destiny. Perhaps no man in the UStates has sacrificed or done more for the present Constitution than myself—and contrary to all my anticipations of its fate, as you know from the very begginning I am still labouring to prop the frail and worthless fabric. Yet I have the murmurs of its friends no less than the curses of its foes fo...
Why Alexander Hamilton should stay on the $10 bill, according to his contemporaries.
“He smote the rock of the national resources, and abundant streams gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of the public credit, and it sprung to its feet. The fabled birth of Minerva from the brain of Jove was hardly more sudden or more perfect than the financial system of the United States as it burst forth from the conception of Alexander Hamilton.”
~ Daniel Webster
“He did more with his pen and his tongue than any other man, not only in reference to the origin and adoption of the Federal...
The irreplaceable Alexander Hamilton is being replaced on the $10 bill
If you haven’t already heard, the Secretary of the Treasury announced that Alexander Hamilton, the firstSecretary of the Treasury, will be replaced on the $10 bill by a woman. Social media sites are up in arms about this. How can the man most closely related to our monetary and financial system be replaced without any public input? I too have been posting on facebook and twitter about this ridiculous action. Here’s a sample of what I’ve had to say on this topic:
I predict there will be such...June 9, 2015
Enter to win a free autographed copy of Alexander Hamilton: The Formative Years on Goodreads.
Alexander Hamilton by Michael E. Newton Giveaway ends June 14, 2015.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
May 28, 2015
Kindle version of Alexander Hamilton: The Formative Years now available for preorder
After more than 200 copies of the print edition ofAlexander Hamilton: The Formative Years were pre-ordered on Kickstarter, I have great news for those waiting for the ebook edition. The Kindle edition of AHTFY is now available for pre-order.
I have also set the official publication date as July 1. Anyone who pre-orders the Kindle edition of AHTFY will automatically have the book delivered to their Kindle or Kindle app (when connected to Internet and app is running). Additionally, July 1is now...
