lessons from. the book 📖 Alexander Hamilton

Overview

Alexander Hamilton (2004) is a sprawling biography of one of the most important figures in American history. It is based on copious original research, especially into Hamilton’s early years. As a political theorist, a polemicist, and the first Treasury secretary, Hamilton dedicated his life, his intellect, and a seemingly limitless stream of words to the cause of unifying and strengthening the United States. He did perhaps more than any other one person to ensure the strength of the American union, even as his pride and hot-headedness kept him from the presidency and led to his early death.

Hamilton claimed to have been born on the island of Nevis in the British West Indies, probably in 1755. Orphaned and illegitimate, Hamilton had perhaps the least advantageous childhood of all the founders. He apprenticed as a clerk with merchant trader Thomas Stevens, a man who may have been his biological father. His literary talents inspired local leaders to take up a subscription to send him to be educated in what would become the United States.

At age 17, Hamilton began attending King’s College, later Columbia University, in New York in 1773. He quickly became an ardent supporter of colonial independence, writing popular pamphlets against Great Britain, most notably A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress (1774), which defended the actions of the Continental Congress in refusing to compromise with England.

When battle did come, in 1775, Hamilton was eager, and viewed military glory as a route to advancement. He studied military history and tactics, and soon was heading an artillery unit. He was asked to be an aide to several important generals, but only gave up his hopes for action in the field when George Washington, the commander of the army himself, asked for his services.

Washington could be a difficult boss, but he and Hamilton worked well together, and Hamilton effectively became Washington’s chief of staff. Hamilton not only wrote letters on Washington’s behalf, but issued orders himself and engaged in negotiations with other army officers on behalf of Washington.

During these years, Hamilton met and married Elizabeth “Eliza” Schuyler, the daughter of Philip Schuyler, an important New York landowner and political figure. The association moved Hamilton into the political elite in New York; he and Eliza had eight children, and a close, lifelong relationship.

Hamilton also became close friends with another officer, John Laurens. Hamilton’s letters to Laurens were so impassioned that some historians have wondered if the two were lovers. Laurens’s death in battle at the end of the war was one of the great losses of Hamilton’s life.

Hamilton himself was eager to see battle again, and finally prevailed upon Washington to give him a commission. He led three battalions valiantly in the 1781 battle at Yorktown, the encounter which won the war for the colonists.

Hamilton left the army and was appointed to Congress as a representative from New York. Under the governing Articles of Confederation, Congress had no power to levy taxes, and was dependent on voluntary contributions from the states. As a result, it could not pay soldiers what they were owed. The situation became so bad that disgruntled soldiers began to pose a threat to the government. Hamilton became even more fixed in his conviction that a stronger central government with the power of taxation was vital if the United States was to survive.

After resigning from Congress, Hamilton took up law in New York City. He specialized in defending Loyalists who had supported Britain during the war, demonstrating his commitment to justice and the rule of law by taking former enemies as clients. He also continued to call for a stronger central government, and was a major force in precipitating the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

At the convention, Hamilton did something that damaged his political career. He stood up and gave a speech advocating for an elected monarch as president of the new republic. The speech was used against him as evidence of his tyrannical impulses for the rest of his life.

Hamilton wasn’t happy with everything in the Constitution, but he felt it was a great and necessary improvement to the Articles of Confederation, so he did everything he could to win its ratification. This included lobbying the New York legislature to ratify the document. As part of that effort, he collaborated with James Madison and John Jay to write The Federalist Papers . The collection of 85 essays and articles, published from 1787-1788, was a broad defense of republican government and an explanation of the workings of the Constitution that remains hugely influential to this day.

New York did ratify the Constitution, on July 26, 1788, though legislators did so more from fear that New York would be left out of the Union than because of Hamilton’s arguments in its favor. The new government was organized, with Washington the overwhelming choice for president. Washington chose his old aide Hamilton as secretary of the Treasury, and he served from 1789-1795.

In the cabinet, Hamilton was Washington’s closest confidante, and at times functioned almost as a prime minister, much to the consternation of the ambitious Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. It was the feverish workhorse Hamilton, supported by Washington, who established much of the basic structure of the executive branch, not to mention the financial basis for the government.

Hamilton’s first major accomplishment was to convince Congress to consolidate and take responsibility for state debt. He then went on to establish a national bank, and to place a national tax on liquor as a way to raise federal funds. This last move was extremely controversial, and prompted a near rebellion in Pennsylvania, which was put down by a show of force from federal troops. Hamilton also was closely involved in diplomacy, and pushed to form closer ties with Britain, which he saw as a vital trading partner.

Due to these efforts, Hamilton came to be considered the most important figure of the emerging Federalist party. He therefore came under heavy attack from the opposing political party, the Republicans, who were led by Jefferson. The Republicans argued that Hamilton wanted to establish an autocratic government and impose tyranny. They viewed his advocacy for trade with Britain as a sign of his monarchical tendencies. In contrast, the Republicans favored France and supported the French Revolution. Hamilton, for his part, saw the Republicans as dangerous revolutionaries who would treasonously undermine US interests at the behest of France.

Hamilton resigned from office in 1795, but he continued to consult with Washington and to advise cabinet ministers. He helped to write Washington’s Farewell Address, which argued for a strong union and warned against foreign entanglements—a warning meant in part as a response to Republican enthusiasm for France.

After his triumphant service to Washington, Hamilton destroyed his political career. His first move was to take sides against John Adams in the 1796 presidential election. Adams had been Washington’s vice president, and was the logical Federalist successor. Hamilton, however, didn’t trust the temperamental Adams, and instead backed Thomas Pinckney. Adams predictably won the election, and never forgave Hamilton. Their feud effectively split the Federalists and helped destroy the party.

Hamilton’s second problem involved a woman named Maria Reynolds with whom he had an affair in the early 1790s. His political enemies used rumors of the affair to attack him, and linked it to accusations that Hamilton had embezzled money while the secretary of the Treasury. Hamilton was incensed at these charges, and wrote a long pamphlet admitting to the affair in detail, but denied the charges of financial misdoing. The pamphlet must have caused great pain to his wife, and gave his enemies ammunition for years. It also ensured he could never successfully run for president.

Hamilton devoted himself to his law practice, and to trying to raise money for his growing family, as he had made relatively little income as Treasury secretary. He was still involved in politics, though. In 1798, war loomed with France, and Washington was called out to oversee the creation of an army. He chose Hamilton again to aid him. But Congress never was willing to provide sufficient funds, and the army languished until Adams concluded a peace deal with France in 1800.

In the election of 1800, Hamilton wrote yet another ill-considered pamphlet, this time attacking Federalist candidate Adams. The pamphlet helped Hamilton’s arch-nemesis Jefferson consolidate support in his bid for the presidency. Jefferson still had a stumbling block after defeating Adams, however. He and the vice presidential nominee, Aaron Burr, both had the same number of votes from electors. According to the election rules of the time, this meant that they were tied. Federalists thought that they could work better with Burr than with Jefferson. But Hamilton mistrusted Burr’s character, and successfully fought against him. Jefferson was finally elected, thanks in part to his longtime foe, Hamilton.

Hamilton had now helped to split and destroy his own party, and the opposition was in power. Ensconced in New York and working on his law practice, he continued to be embroiled in controversy, with terrible consequences. His eldest son, Philip Hamilton, was killed in a duel in 1801 waged to defend his father from insult. Hamilton and Eliza were both crushed.

Yet despite this tragedy, Hamilton allowed himself to follow in his son’s footsteps a few years later. In 1804, Burr remained angry at Hamilton for blocking his path to the presidency. When some of Hamilton’s private disparaging remarks about Burr were reported in the press, the vice president used them as a pretext to challenge Hamilton to a duel, and killed him.

Hamilton left behind copious debts, a large family, and a widow. Eliza lived for another 50 years, and devoted her life to defending Hamilton’s memory.

Character Analysis

Alexander Hamilton 

Alexander Hamilton was an intellectual with ambitious ideas. Hamilton looked at the feuding colonies, each pursuing its own self-interest, and in his head he saw a great unified nation. He saw how Congress under the Articles of Confederation was unable to raise money and barely able to coordinate an army, and out of his imagination came plans for a central bank, national taxation, and a standing army. Before there was government under the Constitution, Hamilton described how it would work in The Federalist Papers . Before the United States was a center of industry, Hamilton imagined it as a manufacturing power. He wasn’t just a dreamer; he dreamed, and then he rolled out plans for making his dreams into reality, thereby changing the basis of government. In this sense, Hamilton’s big ideas helped establish the character of the US government.

Big ideas were also Hamilton’s downfall. Once he had an idea, it seized him and wouldn’t let go. This was useful when he was working to establish the credit of the United States, but it worked less well in other instances: for instance, his unrestrained enthusiasm for a hereditary president at the Constitutional Convention gave his enemies fodder for attack pamphlets for the rest of his life. And when Hamilton decided it was the right and honorable thing to do to accept Aaron Burr’s challenge to a duel, he also decided it would be even more honorable if he fired into the air rather than at his opponent. Lofty ideas helped Hamilton build the United States, but also wrecked his political career, and ultimately helped kill him.

Relationships

Hamilton was consumed by politics—literally in the case of his final duel with Aaron Burr, but figuratively throughout his political relationships, which all ultimately became very personal relationships. This was most obviously the case with his lengthy collaboration with George Washington, first as aide, then as Treasury secretary, and finally as friend and colleague. But it was also true with his relationship with James Madison, who was first a friend, confidant, and collaborator on The Federalist Papers , and then a political opponent and personal enemy. It was notoriously true in Hamilton’s relationship with John Adams, who was a Federalist like Hamilton, and who ought to have been a political ally. But because Hamilton personally disliked Adams, he opposed his reelection bid, splitting the Federalists, and destroying Hamilton’s own political career.

The merging of the personal and political was evident even in Hamilton’s family life. His marriage to Eliza Schuyler was unquestionably based on mutual love, but it also had major political implications. Philip Schuyler, Eliza’s father, was a powerful figure in New York politics. Schuyler’s position was a boost to Hamilton in state politics, while his opposition to Governor George Clinton shaped Hamilton’s own career.

At various points in his career, Hamilton attempted to retire, spend more time with his family, make some money as a lawyer, and generally be a private rather than a public citizen. But he could never manage it. Politics was his life, but also led directly to his death. A little more separation between his personal and political life might have made him less of a political and intellectual force. But it may also have allowed him to live longer, and have made his family happier.

Themes

Foreignness and Patriotism 

Alexander Hamilton was born in the West Indies—which means he wasn’t born in the English colonies which were later to become the United States. His illegitimate birth was a major stigma in the islands, and after his mother’s death he was repeatedly rebuffed by relatives. In contrast, most of the founders were men of wealth and power with strong roots in the colonies. Hamilton was an interloper and an outsider.

Or at least a lot of other people felt this way. John Adams, in particular, often sneered at Hamilton’s foreign birth and at his illegitimacy, suggesting that both of those things made him untrustworthy. Political opponents linked Hamilton’s foreign birth to charges that he was un-American and too pro-British. These charges echo with conspiracy theories suggesting that President Barack Obama is a foreigner, and therefore was illegitimately elected president. The United States has a long tradition of distrusting foreigners, and of labeling certain people as unpatriotic because of where they were born, or even where their parents or grandparents were born. For example, US citizens and residents of Japanese birth were placed in concentration camps during World War II because their ethnicity was equated with disloyalty. During World War I, the Justice Department compiled a list of German immigrants, and arrested thousands of them as spies on little evidence.

Hamilton’s life proves, however, that immigrants have been central to the story of the United States since before there was a United States. Hamilton didn’t just love his adopted country; he did as much as anybody to create it. Hamilton came to the future United States to pursue his fortune. And part of making that fortune compelled him to help create a system of wealth and credit which he believed would be most advantageous.

Like many foreign transplants after him, though, Hamilton was not always welcoming to immigrants who followed. He spoke out against Irish immigrants, for example, because he feared that they would support his Republican opponents, and betray the United States to France. But this hypocrisy perhaps shows just how thoroughly the West Indian had become American, and how much he thought of himself as part of an American people that distrusted foreigners.

Tyranny vs. Anarchy 

For later generations, Hamilton was to symbolize one side of the great American effort to balance liberty and stability. Jefferson is seen as the proponent of freedom, or less charitably, as the proponent of mob rule. Hamilton is regarded the champion of stability, or, for his enemies, the champion of authoritarianism. [1] The charge that Hamilton was a champion of tyranny has continued to the present. Historians and writers continue to point to his enthusiasm for federal power and military glory as the foundation of America’s imperialist and militaristic present. [2]

However, close study of Hamilton’s career reveals that tyranny and anarchy are not distinguished so easily. For instance, following the Revolutionary War, the government in New York set about persecuting British loyalists, passing laws to expropriate their property or even exile them in contravention of the peace treaty. Hamilton defended many Loyalists, which was often seen as part of his larger sympathies to Great Britain and his anti-Revolutionary support of monarchy. But in fact, Hamilton was defending individuals against unjust actions by the government, which can be interpreted as support of law and freedom against a tyrannical government.

This debate has reemerged throughout US history. Southern states before the Civil War insisted that they were fighting for freedom from federal intervention—but of course, the freedom they were fighting for was the ability to own slaves and to rule over them as tyrannically as they saw fit. Later racist accounts of the post Civil War period, such as Thomas Dixon’s The Clansman , presented Reconstruction as a battle between a tyrannical central government supporting racial equality and Southern rebels fighting valiantly to retain their racist way of life. [3]

In the United States, then, what has historically counted as tyranny and what has counted as anarchy has depended from the beginning on one’s point of view. The American Revolution was presented as a fight for liberty, but it surely did not look like a fight for liberty to the colonies’ slaves.

Abusive Argument 

In twenty-first century American politics, it has become commonplace to argue that in the past, before social media, and before today’s bitter partisan disputes, political discussions were kinder, more civil, less personal, and more productive. A look at Hamilton’s career, however, shows that partisanship and abusive rhetoric have been part of American politics since colonial times. Hamilton was constantly harassed throughout his life. His political enemies jeered at his foreign and illegitimate birth. His critics sometimes claimed he was black, a deadly slur given the racism of the day, even though Hamilton did not identify as such and there is no evidence his parents had African heritage. Anonymous pamphleteers accused him of financial impropriety and of all sorts of sexual misconduct. Except for one instance of adultery that he admitted, these charges seem to have been baseless.

That isn’t to say that Hamilton was always an innocent victim. On the contrary, he engaged in abuse and harassment himself. He very often wrote both anonymously and unfairly. Even though he opposed slavery, he tried to stir up Southern opposition to Jefferson by suggesting that his opponent would free slaves. He also attacked Jefferson as an atheist, which was false. Jefferson was a deist, which meant he was not conventionally Christian, but did believe in God. Both Federalists and Republicans were quick to accuse each other of treason.

Marriage 

The relationship of John Adams to Abigail Adams appears to be the most idealized and celebrated marriage among the most prominent founders of the United States. Abigail was fiercely intelligent. Her letters reveal the way she pushed John to embrace women’s equality in general, and to express his affection to her more openly, in particular. During the Revolution, she even provided vital information to him about the state of the war in western Massachusetts. [4]

Hamilton’s marriage to Eliza, in contrast, seems very unequal. Hamilton was a public person; he was away on official business for long stretches of time. Eliza stayed at home to raise eight children. Hamilton had at least one serious affair, to which he confessed in writing. And then, at 49, despite his responsibility to his family, he accepted a duel with Aaron Burr, died, and left his family deeply in debt.

Some have argued that Hamilton’s marriage was never really intended to make Eliza happy [5]. The ambitious orphan from the West Indies was certainly determined to raise his social status, and the marriage to Eliza might be understood as a straightforward effort at self-advancement. However, from the couple’s letters, and especially from Eliza’s long devotion to his memory, it seems that she and her husband shared real affection, enjoyed each other’s company, and cared about one another and their children.

Honor 

Many historians have speculated about the causes of Hamilton’s final duel with Aaron Burr, and why he felt he needed to accept the challenge and fight. [6] But the truth is that Hamilton’s need to prove himself caused him to gravitate to dueling as a way to prove his status all his life. Hamilton often challenged others to duels to force them to retract criticism or insults. None of these ever resulted in an actual battle, but they help explain why he didn’t back away when Burr issued a challenge.

Hamilton’s pursuit of honor pushed him to heights of ambition, but it also got him into trouble. Perhaps the real problem for Hamilton wasn’t that he wanted to be honored, but that he wanted to be honored by everyone, even those he made his enemies. Many of his worst mistakes—such as agreeing to the duel and writing the pamphlet in which he confessed his extramarital affair—came about because he was trying to prove that he was worthwhile and upstanding to people who hated him, and whom he himself didn’t respect.

Race and Slavery 

Hamilton opposed slavery. He saw slaves brutalized in the West Indies when he was growing up. This experience shaped his opposition to injustice in general, and the slave trade in particular, in ways that have been underappreciated by many scholars. [7] He joined a manumission society in New York, and he opposed the return of slaves to the United States by the British after the Revolutionary War. Very unusually for the time, he was not only anti-slavery, but anti-racist. He said repeatedly that blacks were equal to whites, and openly mocked Thomas Jefferson for saying they weren’t.

Hamilton’s legacy demonstrates that some people, and even some national leaders, knew even back at the very dawn of the nation that slavery was wrong, that racism was wrong, and that people should take political action against slavery. But it also shows that even principled politicians with great power were unable to dismantle slavery in the United States.

Main Characters

Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804) was the first secretary of the Treasury of the United States, George Washington’s chief aide during the Revolutionary War, a main author of The Federalist Papers , and one of the most controversial and dynamic of the US founders.

Elizabeth “Eliza” Schuyler Hamilton (1757-1854) was Alexander Hamilton’s wife. She bore him eight children and worked throughout her long widowhood to preserve and promote his memory. She was also active in establishing the first orphanage in New York City.

George Washington (1732-1799) was the commander of American forces during the Revolutionary War and the first president of the United States. He was Hamilton’s commander, colleague, and patron and, despite some mutual irritation, his friend.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was the third president of the United States, and Hamilton’s most consistent political enemy. He led the Republican Party, which pushed for decentralized government against Hamilton’s Federalists.

John Adams (1735-1826) was the second president of the United States. As a Federalist, he was at first allied with Hamilton, but mutual temper, pride, and jealousy eventually made the two men bitter enemies.

Aaron Burr (1756-1836) was a New York politician who became vice president under Thomas Jefferson. He and Hamilton were sometimes allies, but more often enemies, and eventually Burr killed Hamilton in an 1804 duel, ending Burr’s political career.

Author’s Style

Chernow is a journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer. He has a gift for vivid characters and dramatic action, but he also explains philosophical and technical arguments clearly. This is essential for a study of Hamilton, whose career centered on political theory and practical economy.

The book is sympathetic to its subject. Hamilton’s virtues and genius are presented as peerless and essential to understanding his life, while his faults are downplayed as uncharacteristic lapses of judgment. For instance, when Hamilton opposes Irish immigration, it is presented as a lapse from his otherwise principled support of foreign-born Americans. Similarly, his marriage into a slaveholding family is presented as an inconsistency, rather than as a sign that he doesn’t truly hold the abolitionist principles he professes. In contrast, Hamilton’s enemies, such as Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, come across as duplicitous and villainous. Jefferson’s political career is presented as being based on hypocrisy, since he imagined a democratic America of small farmers while remaining a large slaveholder.

References

Cate, Alan. “‘Jefferson and Hamilton’ recounts the saga of two towering Founding Fathers at loggerheads.” Cleveland.com , November 8, 2013. Accessed January 31, 2016. http://www.cleveland.com/books/index.ssf/2013/11/jefferson_and_hamilton_recount.html

Berlatsky, Noah. “Alexander Hamilton Was an Authoritarian Jerk.” Splice Today , September 26, 2013. Accessed January 26, 2016. http://splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/alexander-hamilton-was-an-authoritarian-jerk

Clymer, Jeffory A. America’s Culture of Terrorism: Violence, Capitalism and the Written Word . Raleigh, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2003, p. 114-115.

Maier, Pauline. “A Marriage That Worked.” New York Times , September 20, 1981. Accessed January 29, 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/20/books/a-marriage-that-worked.html

DuRoss, Michelle. “Somewhere in Between: Alexander Hamilton and Slavery.” The Early America Review , Volume 15, Winter/Spring 2011. Accessed January 26, 2016. http://www.earlyamerica.com/early-america-review/volume-15/hamilton-and-slavery/

National Constitution Center. “Burr vs. Hamilton: Their deadly duel 211 years ago today.” July 11, 2015. Accessed January 26, 2016. http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2015/07/burr-vs-hamilton-behind-the-ultimate-political-feud/

Harper, Douglas. “Chernow’s Hamilton.” The Sciolist Chernow’s Hamilton.” The Sciolist, September 29, 2004 September 29, 2004. Accessed January 26, 2016. http://slavenorth.com/columns/Hamilton.htm