Alexander Hamilton

This book is the most comprehensive biography of Alexander Hamilton in modern times and this book tells it well with a fountain of scholarly research and new material. Hamilton (1755-1804) was born in the West Indies (Nevis), descended from a Laird of Scotland from his father and from French Huguenots on his mother's side. Brought up in relative poverty, he was recognized as a child prodigy as a teenager by Hugh Knox, a Presbyterian minister in the islands. As an extremely proficient clerk at a Counting House in St. Croix, his employers also appreciated his precocity and intelligence. Knox arranged for young Hamilton, now age 17, to receive financial assistant from the admiring islanders, who backed Hamilton to travel to America and study on scholarship. America was then a land in revolutionary turmoil, rebelling against British rule. As a student, Hamilton soon became embroiled in the heat of politics and revolution. Hamilton studied at Kings College (later Columbia University) in New York, but as open rebellion erupted in America, he soon joined the ranks of the revolutionaries. He wrote incendiary articles, orated for the revolution, and when war came he served as an artillery officer in the New York militia. Discovered by George Washington, he was made an military adjutant, promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in the Revolutionary Army. He was commissioned and served six years under George Washington (1776-1781), became a hero of the Battle of Yorktown (1781), served brilliantly as Secretary of the Treasury (1789-1795), and later as Deputy Chief of the U.S. Army (as Major General; 1799-1800).A passionate and controversial figure, Hamilton established the basis for the economic powerhouse that the United States would become, only to be senselessly killed in a duel by Aaron Burr, the Vice President of the United States, across the Hudson River in Weehawken, New Jersey on July 12, 1804. Upon learning of his death there was general lamentation in New York, and other Federalist city strongholds, such as Boston and Philadelphia. Charles Biddle, Aaron's Burr friend, admitted there was as much lamentation as when George Washington died. Hamilton's public funeral was financed by the merchants of New York. Historian Ron Chernow describes the funeral scene: "... New York militia units set out at the head of the funeral procession, bearing their arms in reversed position, their muzzles pointed downward. Numerous clergymen and members of the Society of the Cincinnati trooped behind them.... Preceded by two small black boys in white turbans, eight pallbearers shouldered Hamilton's corpse, set in a rich mahogany casket with his hat and sword perched on top. Hamilton's gray horse trailed behind with the boots and spurs of its former rider reversed in the stirrups." (p. 711)Hamilton was both hated and loved with passion. There was no middle ground for the sentiments he evoked during his lifetime. Nevertheless, both friends and foes marveled at his genius. Chernow's book has an interesting amalgam of opinions about Hamilton by famous contemporaries who knew him:New York Judge Ambrose Spencer who frequently presided over legal courtroom battles opined that Hamilton "was the greatest man his country ever produced... In power of reasoning Hamilton was the equal of [Daniel] Webster... In creative power, Hamilton was infinitely Webster's superior." (p. 189)Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story: "I have heard Samuel Dexter, John Marshall, and Chancellor (Robert R.) Livingston say that Hamilton's reach of thought was so far beyond theirs that by his side they were schoolboys -- rush tapers before the sun on noonday." (p. 189)Fisher Ames: "With other men, law is a trade, with him it was a science." (p. 190)Rev. John M. Mason: "...the greatest statesman in the western world, perhaps the greatest man of the age." (p. 714)Hamilton's friend Robert Troup: "I used to tell him that he was not content with knocking down [his opponent] in the head, but that he persisted until he banished every little insect that buzzed around his ears." (p. 190)John Quincy Adams, son of one of Hamilton's most vociferous critics and intemperate enemy, John Adams, admitted that Hamilton's financial system "operated like enchantment for the restoration of public credit." (p. 481)Occasionally political enemies rendered backhanded praise for Hamilton. Thomas Jefferson wrote to his friend and collaborator James Madison about the time of the Jay Treaty (a winning political issue for the Republicans) in 1793: "He is really a colossus to the anti-Republican party. Without numbers, he is a host [i.e., an army] within himself... We have only middling performances to oppose him. In truth, when he comes forward, there is nobody but yourself, who can meet him." (p. 496) Madison did not accept the challenge. He opposed Hamilton legislatively but not with the pen, and the Treaty was approved for the good of the country, which was totally unprepared for war.When Jefferson was President of the United States, he charged Albert Gallatin, his new Secretary of the Treasury and a political foe of Hamilton, to rifle through files, dig up any financial material in the Department incriminating Hamilton of malfeasance. Gallatin went at it with gusto. Gallatin wrote years later: "Well Gallatin, what have you found? [Jefferson asked]. "I answered: 'I have found the most perfect system ever formed. Any change should be made in it would injure it. Hamilton made no blunders, committed no frauds. He did nothing wrong.' " (pp. 646-647) Despite their criticisms, both Jefferson and Madison as Presidents left the Hamiltonian economic system largely in place.The praise was not restricted to sectarian Americans. The French Revolution exile, the duc de La Rochefoucald-Liancourt, noted; "the lack of interest in money, rare anywhere, but even rarer in America is one of the most universally recognized traits of Mr. Hamilton." In fact, although Hamilton would not take cases in which he deemed the defendant guilty, he frequently undertook to defend many indigent legal cases. (p. 188)And the famous Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, arguably the greatest diplomat-statesman in history, who got to know Hamilton during his two year exile in America, opined: "I consider Napoleon, Fox, and Hamilton the three greatest men of our epoch and, if I were forced to decide between the three, I would give without hesitation the firs place to Hamilton. He divined Europe." Talleyrand further told an American traveler that he had known nearly all the marked men of his time, but that he had never known one on the whole equal to Hamilton. (p. 466)Posterity, in the voice of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge has justly judged Hamilton: "We look in vain for a man who, in an equal space of time, has produced such direct and lasting effect upon our institutions and history." (p. 481) And Ron Chernow himself, who remained for the most part objective and dispassionate in the book, wrote: "If Washington was the father of the country, and Madison the father of the Constitution, then Hamilton is the father of the American government." (p. 481)Hamilton succeeded with almost all the programs he conceived including the First Bank of the United States, the funding of the national debt, the American tax system, the efficient Custom Service, the inception of the Coast Guard; as Deputy Chief of the U.S. Army, Hamilton even contained the Whiskey Rebellion without bloodshed -- all of which promoted the peace and prosperity of the new nation. When asked, during a dinner meeting at the historic Fraunces Tavern, "Who was right about America, Jefferson or Hamilton?", another Hamilton biographer, Willard Sterne Randall responded briefly, "Jefferson for the eighteenth century, Hamilton for modern times." That is a good summation with which Chernow also would have agreed.Miguel A. Faria Jr., M.D. is Associate Editor in Chief and World Affairs Editor of Surgical Neurology International. He is Clinical Professor of Surgery (Neurosurgery, ret.) and Adjunct Professor of Medical History (ret.), Mercer University School of Medicine. Dr. Faria is the author of Cuba in Revolution -- Escape From a Lost Paradise (2002). He is the author of numerous articles on politics, history, and science, including "Stalin's Mysterious Death" (2011) and "The Political Spectrum -- From the Extreme Right and Anarchism to the Extreme Left and Communism" (2011 -- all posted at the author's websites: www.haciendapub.com & www.drmiguelfaria.com

Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton presents a detailed picture of this complicated founding father. As Washington's aide during the Revolutionary War and as the first Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton was brilliant, hardworking, and devoted to Washington. However, there was another, darker side of Hamilton which only presented itself when he escaped Washington's steadying influence. Left to his own devices, Hamilton could be dogmatic, reckless, and vain. In this review, I'll offer some examples of the two Hamiltons, which I hope will entice the interested reader to pursue Chernow's lengthy but exceptionally well written and objective biography.When Washington's Administration took office in 1789 under the new Constitution, the country was literally bankrupt. Under the Articles of Confederation, the Congress had no authority to levy taxes. However, it did have the authority to print paper money and issue debt and used this authority to finance the Revolution. In 1789, the continental currency was essentially worthless, and the national debt was trading for pennies on the dollar of face value. Hamilton's job was to restore the credit of the United States. Incredibly, he succeeded. Using the federal government's newfound taxing authority under the Constitution, Hamilton setup a system of tariffs on imported products that produced a steady, but modest stream of income. He used this income to:1. Fund the national debt at full face value. On foreign debts, mostly to France and Holland, full interest payments were initiated along with some payments of principal. This action was essential to establish American credit in Europe. Interest on debts to domestic holders was initially paid at a reduced interest rate which rose as the country's financial situation improved.2. Avoid discrimination between original and subsequent holders. Many of the original holders of the debt were soldiers in the Continental Army who accepted the debt in lieu of cash payments. Many of these soldiers had sold their bonds to raise money to pay their own debts, often at a small fraction of the bonds' face value. A significant element of the government (led by Madison and Jefferson) objected to paying the "speculators" who purchased the bonds from their original holders and advocated dividing the payments between the original and subsequent holders, with a large portion going to the former. Hamilton argued that the bonds may have passed through many hands, making the division of payments impossible to resolve. Furthermore, the original holders had chosen to sell their bonds and had received what they considered an acceptable, although discounted, value. Finally, to refuse to pay the current holders would constitute a breach of contract that would impair the country's credit. Hamilton won the argument.3. Use the federal debt as the backing for a new currency. Precious little gold and silver were available in the new United States. Paper currency not backed by some form of reserve had been demonstrated to lose its value rapidly. By reestablishing the value of the federal debt, Hamilton was able to use it as the backing for new bank notes which held their value and provided a stable medium of exchange.4. Assume all state debts from the Revolution into the federal debt. By assuming the state debts, Hamilton sought to establish the federal government as the single authority responsible for America's foreign debts and eliminate the possibility that the states would damage the country's credit.5. Establish a central bank to facilitate. The banking system in the United States consisted of a few state chartered banks that operated independently of each other and the federal government. By creating the Bank of the United States, Hamilton established a banking system and a mechanism for processing government tax receipts and payments.In the process of implementing the above plan, Hamilton developed and articulated economic concepts that predated their common acceptance. In justifying the debt-backed currency, his arguments included ideas which included the concept of the Velocity of Money. In setting the tariff rates, he argued that the largest revenue would not be realized by setting the tariff to the highest possible rate, an idea now referred to as the Laffer Curve.Although highly effective while working under the steadying hand of Washington, Hamilton could be erratic and often out of control without it. Examples of the Dark Side of Hamilton include:1. The Newburgh rebellion. In January 1783, the Revolutionary War was essentially over but the treaty with Britain was still under negotiation. The Continental Army had not been disbanded, but Congress (still under the Articles of Confederation) had no money to pay it. A group of army officers in Newburgh, NY, drafted a petition listing their grievances and proposed to march on Congress to present it. Hamilton, who had already resigned from the army, saw this protest as an opportunity to demonstrate the need for a more effective government, and sought to encourage the implicit threat to the government. Washington intervened, calmed the troops, and firmly established the principle that the military is the servant of the civilian government.2. Speech at the Constitutional Convention. As a delegate from New York at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Hamilton strongly supported the creation of a stronger central government than the one provided under the Articles of Confederation. He took his position a few steps too far for the rest of the delegates when he argued that under the new Constitution the President and Senate should serve for life. He was never able to escape being labeled a "monarchist" after that. In the process, he probably limited his future political career.3. Maria Reynolds pamphlet. Hamilton became romantically involved with a woman named Maria Reynolds in what was a simple blackmail scheme by Reynolds and her husband. After commencing the affair, the Reynolds presented Hamilton with increasingly large demands for money on threat of exposure. Hamilton paid out of his own funds. When word of the blackmail reached Congress, a delegation of congressmen approached Hamilton, primarily to verify that he had not embezzled any Treasury funds. They were satisfied that Hamilton's failings were entirely personal, not professional, and let the matter rest. When knowledge of the affair later became public, Hamilton felt compelled to make a full public confession which he did via a detailed pamphlet, published in his name, which provided every sordid detail. Any potential career beyond Treasury Secretary was probably doomed by these revelations.4. John Adams pamphlet. In the runup to the 1800 presidential election, Hamilton, as one of the leaders of the Federalist Party, felt compelled to publish another pamphlet. This one was an unbridled attack on the character and performance of John Adams, the current president and Federalist candidate for reelection. Speculation holds that Hamilton only sought to damage Adams enough to lead to the election of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the Federalist candidate for vice president. (Under the constitution at that time, all candidates nominally ran for the presidency. The candidate with the most electoral votes became president, the runnerup vice president.) Hamilton's pamphlet contributed significantly to Adams defeat and Jefferson's election.5. Letter to John Jay seeking to change the NY electoral law. Under New York law in 1800, presidential electors were selected in the fall of a presidential election year by the new NY state legislature that had been elected the previous spring and took office that fall. When the NY legislature election in the spring of 1800 transferred control of that body from the Federalist to the Republican (Jeffersonian) Party, Hamilton wrote John Jay, the Federalist governor of New York to advise Jay that he should recall the old, Federalist-controlled legislature which had adjourned and propose a change to the electoral law to enable it to select the presidential electors. This change, thwarting the electorate's choice of a new legislature, would save the electoral votes of New York for the Federalist candidate. To his credit, Jay ignored the suggestion.In conclusion, we are very lucky to have had Hamilton's services as our first, and very effective, Secretary of the Treasury. We are also probably equally lucky that he ruined any chance he had to become president.