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Alexander Hamilton 
 
 BY / 
 
 GEORGE SHEA 
 
 ^12^ 
 
 NEW YORK 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 iSSo 
 
 [Price, 25 Cents. ] 
 
Alexander Hamilton 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE SHEA 
 
 NEW YORK '^' Q ' 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SO 
 1880 - 
 
 [ Price, 25 Cents. ] 
 
 
 /- 
 
• (o 
 
 Copyright, 1880, by 
 GEORGE SHEA 
 
 Trow's 
 
 Printing and Bookbinding Company, 
 
 201-213 East Tivelfth Street, 
 
 New York. 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 
 
 Alexander Hamilton, the ablest Ameri- 
 can jurist and statesman of the early constitu- 
 tional era of the United States, was born at the 
 island of Nevis, one of the Antilles under the 
 dominion of England, on January ii, 1757- 
 His father was a Scotch emigrant who had 
 settled at St. Christopher, where he engaged in 
 mercantile business. His mother was the 
 daughter of a Huguenot named Faucette, a 
 prosperous physician of Nevis. She had been 
 the wife of a Mr. (lirvine, also a physician, and 
 during a brief married life dwelt at St. Chris- 
 topher ; but, owing to faults of his, she ap- 
 pears to have been driven to procure the judicial 
 dissolution of the marriage, after which she re- 
 turned to her father's home at Nevis, and there 
 married James Hamilton. She bore to him 
 
4 ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 
 
 many sons, of whom none but Thomas and 
 Alexander Hved to maturity. Alexander, the 
 youngest, was called after his paternal grand- 
 father, who described himself " of Grange," 
 which is said to have been the family seat in 
 Ayrshire, Scotland. The master of Grange 
 married, in 1730, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of 
 Sir Robert Pollock ; and young Hamilton, when 
 he had risen to fame and station, said, " My 
 blood is as good as that of those who plume 
 themselves upon their ancestry." He styled 
 his suburban residence, near New York, ''The 
 Grange." 
 
 His mother died while he was still a child, but 
 not before he was capable of receiving and pre- 
 serving distinct recollections of her. He de- 
 rived from her an independent spirit, energy, 
 self-reliance, and a disposition for metaphysical 
 inquiries ; and these qualities were conspicuous 
 from an early age. His father's business mis- 
 fortunes casting the boy upon the care of some 
 of the mother's relatives, he was taken by them 
 to their home at St. Croix, and there at school 
 he first evinced that proficiency which marked 
 him throughout his career. The opportunities 
 for school training were at that time very lim- 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 5 
 
 ited at St. Croix, and when, in his thirteenth 
 year, he entered the counting-house of Mr. Nicho- 
 las Cruger, at that port, he had already received 
 all the benefit such schools were able to impart. 
 This was in the autumn of 1769. In less than a 
 year he was capable of more than clerkly duty, 
 and Mr. Cruger, going on a foreign journey, 
 left him in sole charge of the mercantile house. 
 His business correspondence during this time, 
 and the prosperity which attended the affairs, 
 show that Mr. Cruger's confidence was not mis- 
 placed. This practical acquaintance with mer- 
 cantile affairs was to be most serviceable to 
 Hamilton. In the methodical and energetic 
 management of matters of state, and in the pru- 
 dent care of weighty interests, the influence of 
 the knowledge and experience acquired by him 
 in the counting-house at St. Croix is notable. 
 During these three years he was the same close 
 student that his after years more fully reveal. 
 He read standard books, which laid open the 
 theories of value and of trade, thinking out to 
 feasible methods how those theories might be 
 advantageously applied to the daily work he 
 had in hand. He read history, poetry, and 
 philosophy. The French language became 
 
6 ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 
 
 familiar to him by its general use in society and 
 in the transactions of commerce, and he always 
 wrote it with accuracy and elegance, and spoke 
 it fluently and with the accent of native speech. 
 The Rev. Hugh Knox, D.D., an Irishman, a 
 divine of the Presbyterian Church, a scholar of 
 distinction honored as such by the university 
 of Glasgow, was Hamilton's first adequate pre- 
 ceptor, and was the first to discover the rich 
 resources and useful tendencies of his intellectual 
 and moral character. Under his friendly and 
 gratuitous tutorship Hamilton supplied many 
 parts in which his education was deficient. But 
 the boy had aims beyond where he was ; and 
 when an incident, trivial in itself, led to an ar- 
 rangement by which a more liberal education 
 was opened to him, he left the West Indies, in 
 October, 1772, and proceeded to New York. 
 There, aided by letters from his friend Dr. 
 Knox, he made the acquaintance of some of the 
 leading men in that and the adjoining province 
 of New Jersey. A year at the grammar school 
 at Elizabethtown in the latter province proved 
 sufficient to prepare him for the collegiate course, 
 and in the spring of 1774 he entered as a student 
 the King's (now Columbia) College, and, by 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 7 
 
 special privilege, pursued the usual studies ac- 
 cording to a plan which he laid out for himself. 
 When, in 1774, the enforcement of the Bos- 
 ton '* Port Bill " aroused even the most moder- 
 ate in the other colonies to sympathize with the 
 province of Massachusetts Bay, Hamilton 
 studied the political questions relating to the 
 controversy between the colonies and the par- 
 liament of England with his habitual research 
 and enlightened reasoning. He was convinced 
 that his duty as an Englishman required him to 
 take part with the colonists against the assertion 
 of the ''omnipotence of parliament." The 
 famous tract by Lord Somers entitled The 
 Judgment of ivhole Kingdojns and Nations, &c., 
 which repudiates this as a thing unknown to the 
 law of England, was republished in 1773 at 
 Philadelphia, and widely circulated throughout 
 the provinces, in aid of the cause of colonial re- 
 sistance. Its effect upon the mind of Hamilton 
 is to be observed in his writings of this time. 
 With his usual ardor he now busied himself in 
 public discussion. Before his eighteenth year 
 ended his reputation as an orator and writer was 
 established. His chief opponent at this period 
 was the distinguished divine Samuel Seabury, 
 
8 ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 
 
 who a few years later (1783) was consecrated in 
 Scotland the first bishop of the United States of 
 America. The fame of their debates spread 
 over the whole country, and Hamilton was the 
 acknowledged " oracle " of the party of moder- 
 ation, with which he acted. 
 
 While still a collegian he joined the military 
 of the province of New York, and began as the 
 captain of its first company of artillery employed 
 in the continental service. To qualify himself 
 for such a position he had, under the immediate 
 instruction of an experienced soldier and officer, 
 not only studied the theoretic art of war, but en- 
 gaged with others in receiving daily for several 
 months practical lessons in the field-drill. He 
 was active with his company of artillerists at the 
 battle on Long Island, at Harlem Plains, at 
 Chatterton's Hill, New Brunswick, Trenton, and 
 Princeton. At Harlem Heights he first attract- 
 ed the attention of Washington, and again at 
 New Brunswick excited the commander's admi- 
 ration by the courage and skill with which he 
 held in check the advance of the British forces, 
 while the American army was retreating toward 
 the Delaware. When the army went, in Janu- 
 ary, 1777, into winter quarters at Morristown, 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 9 
 
 Hamilton, now grown in the friendship and con- 
 fidence of Washington, resigned his command, 
 became Washington's private secretary, and was 
 raised to the rank of Heutenant-colonel. Ham- 
 ilton remained on the staff until April, 1781, 
 when an unusual and hasty warmth of temper 
 on both sides led to the severance of this partic- 
 ular connection, but their mutual friendship re- 
 mained and even increased. He was married 
 in 1780 to Elizabeth, second daughter of Gen- 
 eral Philip Schuyler, a distinguished soldier and 
 statesman of the Revolution. For a brief space 
 Hamilton occupied his time in exposing the in- 
 herent defects of the existing confederation by 
 a series of excellent papers known as The Con- 
 tinentalist. But the country once more needed 
 his more active aid ; he returned to the army, 
 led one most brilliant attack, and was present 
 with a command at the surrender of Lord Corn- 
 wallis. 
 
 The war to maintain the declaration of inde- 
 pendence was fought, but it did not make nor 
 leave the United Colonies a nation. A new 
 system of government and '* a coercive union " 
 were insisted upon by Hamilton and other fore- 
 most men as necessary. But many obstacles 
 
10 ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 
 
 stood in the way. Historical prejudice and the 
 selfishness of local interests were against con- 
 cessions to a union of the States. Traditional 
 dread of centralized government, traditional 
 dread of an hereditary aristocracy, dread that a 
 national legislature, if allowed full authority, 
 might assert and act upon the repudiated doc- 
 trine of an omnipotence of parliament, dread 
 that a supreme general government might ab- 
 sorb, or even usurp, under the plea of care for 
 the public welfare, those local interests which 
 the States were now able to maintain, and which 
 the Confederation was meant to protect — the 
 concurrence of these several causes contributed 
 to bring out opposition whenever a more perfect 
 union was proposed. 
 
 The first suggestion toward the establishment 
 of an adequate and permanent government 
 came, as it is now conceded, from Hamilton. 
 It was contained in a letter written by him, 
 September 3, 1780, to James Duane, a delegate 
 from New York to the Congress at Philadelphia. 
 He wrote a yet more remarkable letter the fol- 
 lowing year (April 30) to Robert Morris, the 
 famous financier of the Revolution, in which not 
 a mere suggestion but a matured and complete 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. II 
 
 scheme of national finance, including a plan for 
 a United States bank, was discussed and laid 
 out. These letters are, indeed, the principia 
 of the American government in its organization 
 and administration. When the convention of 
 delegates met at Annapolis, Maryland, in Sep- 
 tember, 1786, the influence of Hamilton upon 
 the destinies of his country began to be favored 
 by circumstances. Although the object of that 
 convention was limited to simply commercial 
 projects, yet, under his and Madison's prudent 
 management, an address was finally issued which 
 brought about the great and conclusive conven- 
 tion of 1787 at Philadelphia. The form of gov- 
 ernment then instituted is, in its groundwork 
 and its principal features, a restoration and per- 
 fecting of the ancient constitutional liberties of 
 England. While the particular plan proposed 
 by Hamilton was, as were other projects, laid 
 aside, yet it was the spirit of the system con- 
 ceived by him which then prevailed, and has 
 since been a controlling principle in the admin- 
 istration of government. Guizot says of him 
 that "there is not in the constitution of the 
 United States an element of order, of force, of 
 duration, which he did not powerfully contribute 
 
12 ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 
 
 to introduce into it and to cause to predomi- 
 nate." It was at tliis period that Hamilton, in 
 association with John Jay and James Madison, 
 wrote his parts of TJie Federalist. 
 
 At the convention, called by the State of New 
 York, which met at Poughkeepsie, on the Hud- 
 son River, June, 1788, to ratify the proposed 
 National Constitution, the superb ability of 
 Hamilton for organizing and leading intelligent 
 pubhc opinion displayed itself fully. The util- 
 ity of candid, earnest, reasonable debate has 
 seldom been more approved by its results. A 
 most disheartening minority of the delegates 
 when the convention first met were in favor of 
 the Constitution. When Hamilton ceased his 
 efforts, not only had he gained to his support a 
 majority, but even ultimately he had the aid and 
 vote of his most eloquent and most powerful an- 
 tagonist. At length Hamilton arose in the con- 
 vention, and, stating that Virginia had ratified 
 the Constitution, and that the Union was there- 
 by an accomplished fact, moved that they cease 
 their contentions and add New York to the new 
 empire of republican states. That day his la- 
 bors culminated in entire success. 
 
 Washington, when forming the cabinet for 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. I3 
 
 his first presidential administration, naturally 
 turned to Robert Morris as the proper person 
 to take the secretaryship of the treasury ; but 
 Morris declined, insisting that Hamilton was 
 *'the one man in the United States" fitted by 
 studies and ability to create a public credit and 
 bring the resources of the country into active 
 efficiency. Washington found his former mili- 
 tary secretary more than equal to the task. The 
 fiscal affairs of the country were at once organ- 
 ized, and prosperity quickly came. Hamilton 
 achieved an immediate success which all aeree 
 is without parallel. He also was really the or- 
 ganizer of the administration of the new Gov- 
 ernment, and in its chief department it remains 
 to this day without change. His state papers, 
 written during the two presidential terms of 
 Washington, are regarded as of the highest 
 character for knowledge of the case, wisdom, 
 and practical method ; and his report on the 
 constitutionality of a national bank, in which he 
 fully develops his favorite pohcy of the implied 
 powers of the Government, and the other report, 
 nominally upon manufactures, which embraces 
 in its range every pursuit of human industry 
 susceptible of encouragement under such a gov- 
 
14 ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 
 
 ernment as he wished to see that of the United 
 States, are those productions in which the rare 
 quaHties of his mind abundantly manifest their 
 force and precision. President Van Buren de- 
 clared the latter paper to be '* Hamilton's mas- 
 terpiece." 
 
 After these labors Hamilton, though offered 
 the position of chief-justice of the United States, 
 remained at the bar of his adopted State. He 
 soon rose to its highest rank, and was esteemed 
 its unrivalled leader. As a citizen, and without 
 the desire of public office, he continued always 
 actively interested in public aff*airs. His intense 
 and uncompromising moral nature engendered 
 many political antipathies, though personally 
 few were more loved for amiability and respected 
 for their honor. Among those men whom he 
 deemed it a patriotic duty to defeat in a personal 
 ambition was Aaron Burr, the vice-president of 
 the United States. Party lines were marked 
 and party spirit fierce. Burr appreciated what 
 would be the effect of Hamilton's continued op- 
 position to his political designs, and knew that 
 he was a man to be neither conciliated in this 
 respect nor outmanoeuvred. He eagerly watched 
 for an opportunity to impute offence. A trivial 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. I 5 
 
 and inadequate occasion soon came. An indis- 
 creet person repeated a remark which he said 
 Hamilton made in a familiar conversation at the 
 house of a common friend, to the purport that 
 he had a *' despicable " opinion of Burr. Upon 
 this gossip Burr acted ; and so subtle was the 
 manner with which he managed the correspon- 
 dence for his determined purpose that he, accord- 
 ing to the tone of society at that time, made 
 it, in Hamilton's misconception, an obligation, 
 due to his continued usefulness in public affairs, 
 to accept a challenge. They met early on the 
 morning of July 1 1, 1804, at a sequestered place 
 beneath the hills of Weehawken, on the west 
 bank of the Hudson River, opposite to the city 
 of New York. Hamilton was mortally wounded 
 at the first fire. As he fell, his own pistol was 
 by accident discharged, and the ball struck the 
 ground near him. He did not himself intend to 
 fire. He died the following day, in the forty- 
 eighth year of his age. His death was consid- 
 ered a national calamity. Eight of his children, 
 four boys and four girls, were left to his widow's 
 care. She survived him half a century, dying 
 at the age of ninety-seven, and during all that 
 
l6 ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 
 
 time she remained attired in the widow's dress 
 of the early times. 
 
 The peculiarity of Hamilton's genius consist- 
 ed of qualities which eminently distinguish him 
 from the other great personages of his time. 
 The epithet precocious was never applicable to 
 him, for whatever he did, even in his boyhood, 
 was accomplished with facility, and resulted in 
 a perfection that the works of latter years did 
 not exceed. He was ever mature. His intel- 
 lect pierced through the most subtle and pro- 
 found problems, and apparently without the 
 labor of experiment. He "could see conse- 
 quents yet dormant in their principles," or, as 
 Talleyrand said of him on more than one occa- 
 sion, ** he divined." ''Hamilton avait devM 
 I'Europe," was the reason given by the prince 
 when he compared him to Fox and Napoleon. 
 His industry was marvellous, and his learning 
 equal to the creative faculty of his mind. The 
 fecundity, power, vigor, and maturity of his in- 
 tellectual works as fully impressed his contem- 
 poraries as they have since impressed posterity. 
 
 His political writings seem, in the estimation 
 of judicious and eminent writers in America, 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 1/ 
 
 Great Britain, and France, to place him in the 
 first rank of master minds. The most widely 
 known of these writings are those contained in 
 The Federalist. Translations of them have 
 been published at Paris (the first as early as 
 1792), and were studied by the chief public men 
 of that period. It has been asserted that they 
 exhibit an extent and precision of information, 
 a profundity of research, and an accurateness of 
 understanding which would have done honor to 
 the most illustrious statesmen of ancient or 
 modern times, that for comprehensiveness of 
 design, strength, clearness, and simplicity they 
 have no parallel {Blackwood's Magazine, Janu- 
 ary, 1825, and The Edinbiu'gJi Reviezu, No. 24). 
 Talleyrand called the attention of European 
 statesmen to the merits of The Federalist as a 
 copious source of correct maxims and profound 
 thought ; and Guizot says that, " in the applica- 
 tion of elementary principles of government to 
 practical administration, it was the greatest work 
 known to him." Laboulaye has expressed at 
 great length his deliberate judgment of Hamil- 
 ton's genius and wisdom, and of the consummate 
 ability with which he called into existence a new 
 system of government and organized its admin- 
 
1 8 ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 
 
 istration {Histoire des Etats-Unis, tome iii.). 
 And Hamilton's own countrymen have not been 
 less emphatic in grateful acknowledgment, espe- 
 cially Chief-Justice Marshall, the judicial inter- 
 preter and expounder of the principles of the 
 American Constitution. 
 
 In person Hamilton was below the medium 
 height, slender, almost delicate in frame, instinct 
 with life, erect and quick in gait; his general 
 address was graceful and nervous, indicating the 
 energy, exactness, and activity of his mind. 
 His complexion was bright and ruddy, his hair 
 light, and the whole countenance decidedly Scot- 
 tish in form and expression. His political ene- 
 mies frankly spoke of his manner and conversa- 
 tion, and regretted its irresistible charm. The 
 best portraits of him are by Trumbull, Wiemar, 
 Ames, and there is a good bust by Cerrachi. 
 
 For full memoirs of Hamilton, see the elabor- 
 ate Life, in 7 vols., by John Church Hamilton, 
 one of his sons, New York, 1857 ; the Life by 
 Dr. Renwick, published in Harper s Family 
 Library ; LJfe by Morse, 2 vols., Boston, 1876 ; 
 Edouard Laboulaye's Histoire des Etats-Unis, 
 tome iii., Paris, 1870; Curtis's History of the 
 Constitution of the United States, 2 vols.. New 
 
ALEXANDER HAMILTON. I9 
 
 York, 1858; Relthmiiller's Hamilton and his 
 Conte7)iporaries, London, 1864; Bancroft's His- 
 tory of the United States, in the 7th and suc- 
 ceeding vols.; and Shea's Life and Epoch of 
 Hamilton, 2d ed., New York, 1880. 
 
The Standard Edition of Gladstone's Essays. 
 
 (JiFflnings of JPhsI^ Sfafs, 
 
 CY 
 
 The Right Hon. W. E. GLADSTONE. 
 
 Seven Volumes, IGtno, Cloth, per volume, $1.00. 
 
 The extraordinary scope of Mr. Gladstone's learning — the wonder ol 
 his friends and enemies alike — and his firm grasp of every subject he 
 discusses, make his essays much more than transient literature. Their 
 collection and publication in permanent shape were of course certain to 
 be undertaken sooner or later; and now that they are so published with 
 the benefit of his own revision, they will need little heralding in England 
 or America. 
 
 What Mr. Gladstone has written in the last thirty-six years — the period 
 covered by this collection — has probably had the attention of as large an 
 English-speaking public as any writer on political and social topics ever 
 reached in his own life-time. The papers which he has chosen as of 
 lasting value, and included here under the title of G leanings of Past 
 Years, will form the standard edition of his miscellanies, both for his 
 
 E resent multitude of readers, and for those who will study his writings 
 Iter. 
 
 Vol. I. The Throne, and the Prince Consort; 
 The Cabinet, and Constitution. 
 Vol. IL— Personal and Literary. 
 Vol. II!.— Historical and Speculative. 
 Vol. IV.-Foreigrw ^ 9. 3 
 
 Vol'. y\\ \ Eccies'^s^'ca'- 
 
 Vol. VII.— ^^isceilaneouso 
 
 *^^The above books for sale by all booksellers^ or ivill be sent, j>repaid, ■upo-'^ 
 receipt of J>rice, by 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Pltblishers, 
 
 743 AND 745 Broadway, New York 
 
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