Were America's Founders "destined" for infamy? Most of America’s Founding Fathers were raised in either stable or advantaged families in the American colonies. George Washington and James Madison, like several other Founders, grew up on their families’ large plantations. Thomas Jefferson once said that his earliest memory was being carried, while lying on a pillow, by one of his father’s slaves.
Not so, Alexander Hamilton. He was born out of wedlock, raised in a disadvantaged family in the Caribbean, and orphaned when thirteen years of age.
At the age of 14, Hamilton became a clerk at a local import-export firm on the island of St. Croix. Hamilton’s employer soon learned that his young clerk was “a quick study,” and by the age of 17 Hamilton had learned all aspects of running the business. He was put in complete charge of the company for months when the owner put out to sea.
When not clerking, Hamilton voraciously devoured books on a wide variety of subjects, and wrote poetry and articles for a local newspaper. Municipal leaders on St. Croix decided that this talented, amiable youth should be given an opportunity to improve himself. They pooled their resources and sent Alexander Hamilton to New York to pursue a college education.
Hamilton was formally enrolled in New York’s King’s College (now Columbia University) in 1774. At King’s College, Hamilton’s powerful mind, exceptional work ethic, and agreeable personality soon earned him the respect and friendship of both peers and professors. Hamilton became supportive of the movement for America’s independence from Great Britain, and he wrote articles in support of the actions of a patriot organization known as the Sons of Liberty. He supplemented his academic pursuits with studies in the military arts, and after the first shots of the rebellion were fired in 1775, twenty-year-old Hamilton joined a New York volunteer militia company.
Hamilton’s natural leadership abilities earned him the rank of captain of artillery, and his courage and good judgement in battle soon gained the attention of general George Washington. Recognizing Hamilton’s leadership qualities, Washington asked Hamilton to join his staff. The young officer was soon writing orders, substituting for Washington in meetings, and dealing with Congress on the general’s behalf. Washington depended on Hamilton’s judgement and gave him responsibilities that were far beyond what most young men his age could ever expect to receive. In the last major battle of the Revolutionary War, Hamilton led a charge against the British ramparts at Yorktown, and was credited with taking a fort that soon forced the British army’s surrender, and the end of the war.
Eight years later, when George Washington became president, he asked 34-year old Alexander Hamilton to become the first Secretary of the Treasury. It was in this role that Hamilton’s powerful mind was fully utilized. He proposed to Congress several brilliant plans for a complete overhaul of the struggling American economy. He proposed a national bank, a system of collecting revenue via taxation, a method of relieving the country’s overwhelming debt, and a plan for building a new American economy based on manufacturing of goods.
Hamilton founded the nation’s first indigenous political party, the Federalist, and led the fight against Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party. The ideological battles these two men fought—one favoring a strong central government, powerful banking system, and strong manufacturing economy and the other favoring a weak central government, state rights, and agricultural economy—formed the basis for the two-party American political structure that has survived to the present day.
Hamilton was a brilliant visionary but he had an aristocratic leadership style, was highly impetuous, and usually impatient with his political foes. He openly waged an intellectual and ideological war with Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson had a strong mind also and was no less aristocratic than his opponent from New York, but as a Virginia plantation owner he had subtle (some would say underhanded) ways of fighting back. Jefferson became America’s third president, but we shall never know how far Hamilton would have gone politically. He was shot and killed in a duel by an equally impetuous man—Thomas Jefferson’s Vice President Aaron Burr—when Hamilton was only 49 years old.
Interesting topics for students to consider in regards to Alexander Hamilton are what would have happened if he had lived longer. Hamilton was adamantly opposed to slavery, and Thomas Jefferson in favor of it. Would Hamilton have had an interest in halting slavery’s expansion? If Hamilton had lived, would the South’s economy have become less agriculturally-centric? Would the North’s economy have overwhelmed and diminished the political influence of the South? If Hamilton’s Federalist Party had survived longer, would Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party have lost power? Would a Federalist have become president in 1809 instead of Democratic-Republican James Madison? Would the American Civil War have ever happened?
For a brief introduction to Hamilton and the Founding Fathers as leaders, I suggest my new book Leadership Secrets of Hamilton: 7 Steps to Revolutionary Leadership from Alexander Hamilton and the Founding Fathers, published by Simpletruths.com. But for a more in-depth study of Hamilton, Washington, and Jefferson I recommend Washington and Hamilton: The Alliance that Forged America by Stephen F. Knott and Tony Williams.
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