<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="8.6">Alexander HamiltonAlexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 July 12, 1804) was an American statesman, journalist, and lawyer.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="18.5">He is credited as being America's greatest constitutional lawyer, and with successfully defending the U.S. Constitution to <MPQA autoclass="negative">skeptical</MPQA> New Yorkers as the principal author of the Federalist Papers.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="9.8">He also put the new United States of America onto a sound economic footing as its first and most influential Secretary of the Treasury, establishing a central bank, public credit, and the foundations for a mixed economy and stock and commodity exchanges.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="10.8">1 Early years 2 Secretary of the Treasury 3 Hamilton as industrialist 4 The Maria Reynolds affair and rivalry with Aaron Burr 5 Hamilton and modern politics 6 Biographies 7 WritingsEarly yearsAlexander Hamilton was born on the West Indies island of Nevis, the son of James Hamilton, a struggling businessman from Scotland, and Rachel Fawcet Lavien, who was then married to another man.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="15.1">His father abandoned the family, and his mother died when Hamilton was in his early teens.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="1.6">As a teenager, a letter he wrote to the local paper caused such a sensation that community leaders raised money to fund his passage to America.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="20.1">He settled in New York in 1772 for formal education, beginning with grammar school.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="24.0">Later he attended King's College, which is now Columbia University.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="24.5">Hamilton posessed talents of the highest order.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="21.0">At the start of his teenage years, Hamilton is an impoverished orphan with no family connections, working as a clerk on the island of St. Croix in the caribbean.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="11.5">By the closing of his Teenage years, Alexander Hamilton is in America, General George Washington's most trusted aide-de-camp, an accomplished Artillery captain, and a published pampheleteer of renown in his own state of New York.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="10.9">It was while on the battlefield however that Hamilton began formulating the ideas on government and economics that would make him a historic figure.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="16.3">He left Washington to take command of an infantry regiment that took part in the siege of Yorktown.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="6.0">At the age of 25, he served as a member of the Continental Congress from 1782-1783, then retired to open his own law office in New York City.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="20.7">His public career resumed when he attended the Annapolis Convention as a delegate in 1786.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="1.6">He also served in the New York State Legislature and attended the Philadelphia Convention in 1787.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="42.5">Throughout the convention's proceedings, Hamilton, who was a federalist, argued consistently for a strong central government, including a king-like, though not hereditary, president, and an upper house based on the House of Lords.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="43.9">Hamilton <MPQA autoclass="negative">opposed</MPQA> equal representation in the Senate, <MPQA autoclass="speechDirectSubjective">saying</MPQA> the idea "<MPQA autoclass="negative">shocks</MPQA> too much the ideas of justice and every human feeling" and <MPQA autoclass="speechDirectSubjective">wanted</MPQA> Senators to serve for life, subject to good behavior.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="43.1">Although the document finally produced by the convention was less centralist than Hamilton proposed, and the tenures of those exercising power were shorter than he desired, Hamilton was active in the successful campaign for its ratification in New York.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="0.2">In this endeavour Hamilton made the largest single contribution to the authorship of the Federalist Papers.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="0.4">Hamilton served another term in 1788 in what proved to be the last time the Continental Congress met under the new Articles of Confederation.Secretary of the TreasuryOn the recommendation of Robert Morris, with whom Hamilton had discussed economics as an aide-de-camp, President George Washington appointed Hamilton to be the first Secretary of the Treasury when the first Congress passed an Act establishing the Treasury Department.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="14.8">He served in that post from September 11, 1789 until September 8, 1798 It is for his tenure as Secretary of the Treasury that Hamilton is <MPQA autoclass="speechDirectSubjective">considered</MPQA> one of America's greatest statesman.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="18.4">Hamilton's term as Secretary of the Treasury was marked by bold innovation, statesmanlike planning, and masterful reports.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="1.9">In office for barely a month, he proposed the idea of a seagoing branch of the military to secure the tax revenue against contraband shipments.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="20.0">The following summer, the Congress authorized a Revenue Marine force of ten cutters, the precursor to the United States Coast Guard.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="23.2">He also played a crucial role in creating the United States Navy (the Naval Act of 1794).</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="5.3">He published Report on the Public Credit in January 1790, which was a milestone in American financial history, marking the end of an era of bankruptcy and repudiation.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="1.7">The plan provided for the assumption of both the domestic and the foreign debts.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="15.5">Both James Madison and Thomas Jefferson strongly <MPQA autoclass="negative">opposed</MPQA> Hamilton's plan, but it passed overwhelmingly.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="12.2">He advocated the assumption of the debts of the States by the Federal Government.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="13.0">Madison and Jefferson also <MPQA autoclass="negative">opposed</MPQA> this plan, but they settled the contest in a private meeting on July 21, 1790.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="27.6">During this meeting, Hamilton agreed to the future location of the nation's capital on the Potomac River, in return for Jefferson's support of assumption.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="33.6">Hamilton's perceptive and creative mind, coupled with his driving ambition to set his ideas in motion, resulted in many proposals to the Congress.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="0.7">His proposals included a plan including import duties and excise taxes for raising revenue, funding of the revolutionary debt, and suggestions on naval laws.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="13.2">He also developed plans for a Congressional charter for the First Bank of the United States, and for placing the revenues on firm ground.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="0.1">Strong opposition to collection efforts of his excise tax on spirits erupted into the Whiskey Rebellion in Western Pennsylvania and Virginia in 1794.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="12.1">Hamilton felt that compliance with the laws was very urgent.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="16.0">He accompanied General "Light Horse Harry" Lee and his troops part of the way in an advisory capacity to help put down the insurrection.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="8.7">Hamilton as industrialist Statue of Hamilton overlooking the Great Falls of the Passaic River in Paterson, New Jersey.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="16.9">Hamilton envisioned the use of the falls to power a new city based on industryHamilton was among the first to recognize the larger transformations of industry and capitalism of his era, in particular the trend to larger-scale manufacturing financed through credit institutions.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="9.2">In 1778 he had visited the Great Falls of the Passaic River in northern New Jersey and had envisioned that the falls could one day be harnessed to provide power for a manufacturing center on the site.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="7.2">As Secretary of Treasury, he put this plan into motion, helping to found the Society for the Establishment of Useful Manufactures, a private corporation which would use the power of the falls to operate fills.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="6.2">Although company did not succeed in its original purpose, it leased the land around the falls to other mill ventures and continued operate for over a century and a half.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="14.9">The city which grew on the spot of Hamilton's vision, Paterson, New Jersey became one of the most important manufacturing centers successsively for cotton, steel, and then silk, until its decline after World War II.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="10.0">The Maria Reynolds affair and rivalry with Aaron BurrOne scandal damaged Alexander Hamilton's reputation as Secretary of the Treasury, and prevented his further elevation in American politics.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="9.5">In 1794, he became intimately involved with Maria Reynolds, a woman whose husband subsequently blackmailed the Secretary for money, while still permitting sexual liaisons between Hamilton and his wife.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="23.0">When James Reynolds was <MPQA autoclass="negative">arrested</MPQA> for counterfeiting, he contacted several prominent Jeffersonians, most notably James Monroe.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="35.2">When they visited Hamilton with their <MPQA autoclass="negative">suspicions</MPQA> of malfeasance, he <MPQA autoclass="speechDirectSubjective">stressed</MPQA> his innocence, while admitting to an affair with Maria Reynolds.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="12.3">Monroe promised to keep details from public knowledge, but Thomas Jefferson had no such compunctions.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="3.0">Hamilton was forced to publish a confession of his affair, which shocked his family and supporters.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="15.5">A duel with Monroe over his supposed breach was averted by none other than Senator Aaron Burr.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="8.6">Ironically, attorney Aaron Burr would later represent Maria Reynolds in her <MPQA autoclass="negative">divorce</MPQA> lawsuit, leading some to <MPQA autoclass="negative">suspect</MPQA> he set Hamilton up.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="33.0">However, Hamilton's relationship with Burr had been cordial during their years as New York lawyers; in fact, their families often met for social occasions.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="16.1">When Burr <MPQA autoclass="negative">defeated</MPQA> Hamilton's [father-in-law], Philip Schuyler in the 1791 Senate race, Hamilton began a secret campaign to <MPQA autoclass="negative">destroy</MPQA> his <MPQA autoclass="negative">opportunistic</MPQA> <MPQA autoclass="negative">rival</MPQA>, who had sought the Presidential nomination in 1796, and would do so again in 1800.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="14.9">Hamilton's resignation as Secretary of the Treasury in 1795 did not remove him from public life.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="2.0">With the resumption of his law practice, he remained close to Washington as an advisor and friend and he is <MPQA autoclass="speechDirectSubjective">believed</MPQA> to have influenced Washington in the latter's composition of his Farewell Address.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="21.0">Relations between Hamilton and Washington's successor, John Adams, were frequently <MPQA autoclass="negative">strained</MPQA> and Hamilton's attempts to <MPQA autoclass="negative">frustrate</MPQA> Adams' adoption as presidential candidate of the Federalist Party split the party and contributed to the victory of the Jeffersonian Republicans in the election of 1800.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="3.5">Hamilton's role in ensuring the subsequent selection of Jefferson as President in preference to Aaron Burr marked his first bold stroke against his erstwhile friend.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="2.8">Burr sought the New York governorship in 1804, first running as a Federalist, then as an independent.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="11.2">One newspaper referred to a "<MPQA autoclass="negative">despicable</MPQA> opinion" that a Dr. Charles D. Cooper attributed to Hamilton about Burr.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="5.6">Scenting a chance to regain political honor, Aaron Burr demanded an apology.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="16.9">Hamilton refused , on grounds he could not recall the instance the newspaper mentioned.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="14.8">A duel was arranged for July 11, on a rocky ledge in Weehawken, New Jersey, the same place where Hamilton's son Phillip had lost a duel over three years earlier, defending his father's honor.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="19.5">At dawn, the duel began.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="2.5">Hamilton, who had come to oppose dueling following his son's death , may have fired his shot into the air.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="0.2">Others have speculated he could have misfired his pistol, one of a pair that belonged to his family.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="23.6">Regardless, Burr shot Hamilton, the bullet entering below the chest.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="26.5">He died the next day and was interred in the Trinity Churchyard Cemetery in Manhattan.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="6.6">Burr fled New York under charges of murder and later of treason.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="13.8">He died in 1836, having <MPQA autoclass="negative">squandered</MPQA> his fortune, and having become almost universally reviled because of his 1807 <MPQA autoclass="negative">conspiracy</MPQA> trial.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="1.4">General James Wilkinson had also approached Hamilton repeatedly with plans for filibuster expeditions along the Spanish frontier.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="3.3">Hamilton and modern politicsHamilton's legacy is manyfold.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="28.8">Arguably, he set the path for American economic and military greatness, though the benefits might be argued.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="32.4">His most important contribution however, was establishing the supremacy of the executive branch of American Government over the legislative and the judicial.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="48.1">At the moment of founding, it was not clear at all to the founders whether the Executive should wield most of the power, especially when it came to the creation of policy, which was supposed to be a legislative task.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="43.0">From the start however, Hamilton set a hugely consequential precedent as a cabinet member of the Executive, by dreaming up a federal program, writing them in form of Reports, <MPQA autoclass="negative">pushing</MPQA> for their approval by apearing in person to argue them on the floor of congress, and by implementing them.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="22.7">Hamilton did this brilliantly, and forcefully, setting a high standard for administrative competence in the Executive.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="44.2">In the whole of Hamilton's policy making, the legislature was a <MPQA autoclass="negative">passive</MPQA> observer, ultimately approving his projects with little left for it to do.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="25.0">Another legacy from Hamilton, which in his time was regarded as being a precedent of "vast consequence" by James Madison, the father of the Constitution, was Hamilton's own interpretation of the Constitution.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="31.5">The document was framed by lawyers mostly, who <MPQA autoclass="speechDirectSubjective">believed</MPQA> that they had clearly enumerated what could, and what could not be done.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="4.7">The constitution was a document whereby statesmen could govern within succinctly defined borders.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="25.0">Not so according to Hamilton, who had to resort to a historic argument to justify his National Bank, and the provisions in some of his Reports.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="42.1">Hamilton's Argument to justify his National Bank was that, the Constitution outlined the ends of society, justifying the means if they were necessary to achieve those ends.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="36.7">His National bank was perfectly constitutional therefore, since it was a crucial component of a project to finance government expenditures.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="29.0">Hamilton's view was termed loose-contruction, while the interpretation of the constitution desired by James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson is known as Strict-construction.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="37.1">Many Scholars <MPQA autoclass="speechDirectSubjective">believe</MPQA> that, had Hamilton's view <MPQA autoclass="negative">failed</MPQA>, and Madison's prevailed, the Constitution might have become a <MPQA autoclass="negative">dead</MPQA> letter.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="subj" certainty="24.5">Hamiltons portrait began to appear on money during the Civil <MPQA autoclass="negative">War</MPQA>, when he appeared on the $2, $5, $10, and $50 notes, which was symbolic of his ideological <MPQA autoclass="negative">opposition</MPQA> to the ideas of the Confederacy.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="2.8">Hamilton's portrait appears on the U.S. $10 bill.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="13.9">Some conservatives <MPQA autoclass="objectiveSpeech">want</MPQA> to replace Hamilton with Ronald Reagans portrait.</MPQA>
<MPQA autoclass="obj" certainty="30.3">BiographiesAlexander Hamilton: A Biography by Forrest McDonald (1979, ISBN 039330048X)Alexander Hamilton, American by Richard Brookhiser (1999, ISBN 0684839199)Alexander Hamilton: A Life by Willard Sterne Randall (2003, ISBN 0060195495)Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (2004, ISBN 1594200092)The Young Hamilton: A Biography by James Thomas Flexner (1997, ISBN 0823217906)Alexander Hamilton and the Persistence of Myth by Stephen F. Knott (2002, ISBN 0700611576)Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Future of America by Thomas Fleming (2000, ISBN 0465017371)WritingsHamilton: Writings by Alexander Hamilton (2001, ISBN 1931082049)Preceded by: None United States Secretary of the Treasury Succeeded by: Oliver Wolcott, Jr.Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamilton"</MPQA>