Alexander Hamilton: Our Most Brilliant and Conflicted Founder

After reading the most recent biography of Alexander Hamilton written by Ron Chernow, I am astounded and impressed by Hamilton’s brilliance and creativity. He not only built several systems for the newly founded country, but much of it he did mostly on his own. He was fearless when he took on new projects, and showed an extreme desire to serve the Constitution and maintain the unity of the country.

Although I knew a small amount of Hamilton’s history—his becoming orphaned as a child, his passion for writing, his essays in the Federalist Papers and his collaboration with James Madison and John Jay, his death by duel—I was astonished at his productivity, ingenuity and development of entire systems that formed primarily the economic framework for the country.

Since he showed so much skill and productivity that helped move our country forward, some of the monumental tasks he took on are worth studying. Reviewing the barriers, criticisms and attacks he incurred are also worth reviewing, since he encountered many people who tried to stop his progress and accomplishments.

When he decided to leave St. Croix, he was able to enlist the financial assistance of family members to help him make his way in this country. Their help was modest but critical to laying the groundwork for his future success. His own brilliance assisted him in his legal studies at a young age:

Hamilton raced through his legal studies with quicksilver speed. By July, just six months after starting his self-education, he passed the bar exam and was licensed as an attorney who could prepare cases before the New York State Supreme Court.

He was one of the writers of the Federalist Papers, which some people would say helped to establish the foundation of our government:

In the final tally, The Federalist Papers ran to eighty-five essays, with fifty-one attributed to Hamilton, twenty-nine to Madison, and only five to Jay.

He was often criticized for favoring many aspects of the British systems, and even accused of favoring monarchy, which couldn’t have been further from the truth:

In fact, everything that Hamilton planned to create to transform America into a powerful, modern nation-state—a central bank, a funded debt, a mint, a customs service, manufacturing subsidies, and so on—was to strike critics as a slavish imitation of the British model.

During the Revolutionary War, he became an irreplaceable aide to General George Washington, who relied on him to complete work well above his station. He was writing orders, correspondence and other documents on the general’s behalf.

But early on, when Washington became President, Hamilton was a target of Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson’s criticism; Hamilton was a Federalist, which Jefferson mischaracterized as supportive of monarchy, and Jefferson supported the Republicans, who believed in a strong central government. Jefferson was so vehement in his opposition to Hamilton (who became Secretary of the Treasury) that Hamilton was obsessed with protecting his honor against Jefferson’s lies and misrepresentations:

Far from heeding Washington’s call to desist from attacking Jefferson, Hamilton stepped up his efforts. Increasingly bitter, he was incapable of the forbearance Washington requested.

[snip]

The furious exchanges between Hamilton and Jefferson had hardened into a mutual vendetta that Washington was powerless to stop. Since he [Hamilton] saw both his personal honor and the republic’s future at stake, he fought with his full arsenal of verbal weapons. Again and again in his career, Hamilton committed the same political error: he never knew when to stop, and the resulting excesses led him into irremediable indiscretions.

Although Jefferson is honored as one of our Founders, he actually proved to be a duplicitous and hateful man. Until Hamilton’s death, Jefferson and his colleague, Madison, continued to attack Hamilton:

Even as Jefferson mouthed sedative pledges of peace, he and Madison were secretly orchestrating the first concerted effort in American history to expel a cabinet member for official misconduct. They had come to regard Hamilton as a grave threat to republican government, a monarchist bent on destroying the republic—all without any proof

[snip]

One Jefferson resolution exposed the true intent behind his vendetta: ‘Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury has been guilty of maladministration in the duties of his office and should, in the opinion of Congress, be removed from his office by the President of the United States.’ Despite Madison’s support, the House roundly voted down these resolutions.

Hamilton did not get along with President John Adams, either, although both men were Federalists. Hamilton’s secret communications with Adams’ cabinet (which had actually been Washington’s own cabinet first) didn’t help matters.

But then came the infamous duel. As attorneys, Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton were professional rivals but mostly got along with each other. Until they didn’t. Their dispute led to a duel, and the factors that led up to the duel were so convoluted that they barely make any sense to the modern world. There were a number of ways to avoid a duel, but Hamilton, in spite of his growing disapproval of dueling, was determined to hold his own viewpoint on the subject:

Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton had moved from frosty words to a mutual and irreversible commitment to a duel. Burr was deliberately making impossible demands, asking Hamilton to deny that he had ever maligned Burr, at any time or place, in his public or private character. Hamilton could not sign such a document, which would have been untrue and which Burr might have brandished in future elections as an endorsement.

[snip]

In contemplating the duel, Hamilton may have miscalculated, may have been egregiously foolish, may have talked himself into the mad and elliptical logic of dueling, but he definitely was not in a suicidal state of mind.

As for the duel with Hamilton, Burr almost never showed any remorse.

Chernow shared many more stories about Alexander Hamilton and his service to this country, as well as his personal life: his outstanding service during the Revolutionary War; in spite of an illicit affair, his devotion to his wife and family was admired by those around him; his friends were devoted to him, and he to them; and he was generous to those in need.

After Hamilton was killed by Aaron Burr, Hamilton’s wife, Eliza, found herself nearly penniless. Friends and families reached out to help her. And her dedication to the poor remained intact:

On March 16, 1806, less than two years after the duel, Eliza and other evangelical women cofounded the New York Orphan Asylum Society, the first private orphanage in New York. Perhaps nothing expressed her affection for Hamilton more tenderly than her efforts on behalf of orphans.

Although I came away frustrated by Hamilton’s overwrought disposition and how it influenced him to make poor personal decisions, I still couldn’t help but admire all that he had accomplished for this country, and his outstanding performance in doing it. Ron Chernow sums up Hamilton’s contributions in this way:

Under the tutelage of Washington, Adams, and Hamilton, the Federalists had bequeathed to American history a sound federal government with a central bank, a funded debt, a high credit rating, a tax system, a customs service, a coast guard, a navy, and many other institutions that would guarantee the strength to preserve liberty. They activated critical constitutional doctrines that gave the American charter flexibility, forged the bonds of nationhood, and lent an energetic tone to the executive branch in foreign and domestic policy.

We have many reasons to thank Alexander Hamilton for his dedication to this country and for his many contributions. Chernow’s book was an outstanding addition to understanding our nation’s founding.

[originally published in American Thinker]