Alexander Hamilton

by Ron Chernow

a coronet of six feathers—the last surviving emblem of British rule in the city.

“The Clintons had power, the Livingstons had numbers, and the Schuylers had Hamilton.”

It also paved the way for Aaron Burr to work his peculiar mischief in state politics.

A man of irreproachable integrity, Hamilton severed all outside sources of income while in office, something that neither Washington nor Jefferson nor Madison dared to do.

September 11,

Hamilton was that rare revolutionary: a master administrator and as competent a public servant as American politics would ever produce.

Because the Constitution made no mention of a cabinet, Washington had to invent it.

Hamilton as secretary of the treasury, Jefferson as secretary of state, and Henry Knox as secretary of war.

During his first three years as president, Washington seldom assembled his secretaries for meetings—as

Hamilton’s opinions were so numerous and his influence so pervasive that most historians regard him as having been something akin to a prime minister.

If Washington lacked the first-rate intellect of Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, and

At the close of the war, Washington had circulated a letter to the thirteen governors, outlining four things America would need to attain greatness: consolidation of the states under a strong federal government, timely payment of its debts, creation of an army and a navy, and harmony among its people.

On fundamental political matters, Washington was simply more attuned to Hamilton than he was to Jefferson. For that reason, Washington willingly served as the political shield that Alexander Hamilton needed as he became America’s most influential and controversial man.

thirty-nine employees,

five for State,

When Eliza returned later in the month, she and Alexander had the thrilling experience of going with George and Martha Washington to the John Street Theater to see Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s comedy The Critic.

“I have under consideration the business of establishing guard boats,” he told one correspondent in perhaps the first recorded allusion to what would turn into the Coast Guard.

Because Jefferson hadn’t yet arrived in New York to take up his duties as secretary of state, Hamilton wasn’t shy about acting as his surrogate.

As he toiled over the report, Hamilton queried several contemporaries, including John Witherspoon, the Princeton president who had rebuffed his request for accelerated study.

hazarded their money and should be rewarded for the risk.

the notion that securities are freely transferable and that buyers assume all rights to profit or loss in transactions.

Hamilton knew that bondholders would feel a stake in preserving any government that owed them money.

They could receive, for instance, part of their payment at the original 6 percent interest rate and part in western land, enabling them to participate in the appreciation of frontier property. Or they could take payment at a lower interest rate but stretched over a longer period. To enhance such choices, investors would be paid quarterly, not annually. Most significantly, creditors would be paid with taxes pledged for that express purpose. Hamilton’s supporters praised the byzantine brilliance of this program; for his foes, it smacked of impenetrable mumbo jumbo, designed to hoodwink the public. To make

Even as Hamilton compiled this magnum opus, the prices of government securities streaked upward in anticipation of its publication, the psychological effect being even more pronounced than Hamilton had expected.

This falling-out was to be more than personal, for the rift between Hamilton and Madison precipitated the start of the two-party system in America.

than a footnote in the country’s early history. Slavery was gradually fading away in many parts of the north, but with each passing year it became more deeply embedded in the southern economy.

They inveighed against the concentrated wealth of northern merchants when southern slave plantations clearly represented the most heinous form of concentrated wealth.

violent personal attack on Hamilton by Judge Burke of South Carolina, which the men of the blade say must produce a duel.”

This supreme rationalist, who feared the passions of the mob more than any other founder, was himself a man of deep and often ungovernable emotions.

He had sailed from Paris in October 1789, ending a five-year stint as American minister to France.

Like Burr, Thomas Jefferson found strength in secrecy, in silence.

Like Hamilton, Jefferson was a fanatic for self-improvement.

opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil.”

For Jefferson, the Revolution was an unwelcome distraction from a treasured private life, while for Hamilton it was a fantastic opportunity for escape and advancement.

Voltaire’s observation offers itself perpetually that every man here must be either the hammer or the anvil,”

Sally Hemings was her half sister.

Hamilton, who never set foot in Europe, was much more clear-sighted about the French Revolution.

That Hamilton and Jefferson were to become antagonists in a bloody, unrelenting feud would not have occurred to either man upon first meeting,

“Hamilton was indeed a singular character of acute understanding, disinterested, honest, and honorable in all private transactions, amiable in society, and duly valuing virtue in private life—yet

Since Hamilton’s agenda was to strengthen the central government, bolster the executive branch at the expense of the legislature, and subordinate the states, it embodied everything Jefferson abhorred.

From May 10 to June 24, Washington was too feeble to record an entry in his diary, and Hamilton seemed to function as the de facto head of state.

He wanted to be a statesman who led courageously, not a politician who made compromises.

famous anecdote told by Jefferson about the dinner bargain that fixed the capital on the Potomac.

If we are to credit Jefferson’s story, the dinner held at his lodgings on Maiden Lane on June 20, 1790, fixed the future site of the capital. It is perhaps the most celebrated meal in American history, the guests including Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton,

In one letter, he told Angelica that his “favorite wish” was to visit Europe one day, but he never left the country and seldom ventured beyond Albany or Philadelphia.

his grandiose plans left scant space for commonplace thoughts.

When they were in separate cities, he often kept one or two of the older boys with him, allowing them to share his bed at night, while the younger children remained with their mother.

Hamilton loved the arts and shared this interest with his children.

Already a trustee of Columbia College, he now harvested a succession of honorary doctorates from Columbia, Dartmouth, Princeton, Harvard, and Brown, all before the tender age of

Hamilton College