The Story of Alexander Hamilton

The Story of Alexander Hamilton

Written by: Anna Pafenberg

Most people remember the founding fathers as the men who wore white wigs while discussing the fate of our country and then later becoming some of our first presidents. However, there was one incredibly important man who was not the president and is sometimes forgotten in our minds when we think of those who formed our country. This man was Alexander Hamilton. 

Hamilton did not have such glamorous beginnings, he was born on January 11th, 1757 on the Island of Nevis which is in the Caribbean and was considered part of the British West Indies. Hamilton’s mother was cast away and his father abandoned his family. It can be a common misconception that Hamilton was one of the people drafting up the Declaration of Independence alongside people like Thomas Jefferson. On the contrary, Hamilton came to the colonies when he was 15 in 1772 and then joined the continental army to fight in the Revolutionary war in 1776. Before he fought he was a student at King’s College, which was later named Columbia. 

Hamilton fought in George Washington’s army and then for multiple years was a part of the Continental Congress in the 1780’s. During the war he met a woman named Elizabeth Schuyler and married her. Schuyler was the daughter of a wealthy New York landowner. Because he was at the Annapolis Convention in 1786, he was able to write a draft that created the Constitutional Convention the following year. In 1787 he was elected to the New York State Assembly and then to the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention, which ended up creating our constitution! While Hamilton did not really write the Constitution, he, James Madison, and John Jay wrote 85 essays called the Federalist Papers, which was a great inspiration to the document. Hamilton wrote over ⅔!

Once America became an official country and not just one from England, Hamilton was elected the Secretary of Treasury alongside President Washington. Because Hamilton was fighting in war during some of his most formative years where he could not have been in law school, it was hard to take the bar, which is a test that lawyers take to become official lawyers. New York City changed the Trespass Act to allow war veterans to come back to school, and by pulling some strings, Hamilton took the Bar exam without completing all four years of law school.

Overall, while Hamilton somewhat struggled in early life, the middle of it was quite great. Sadly, Hamilton died in a duel between him and a longtime rival, Aaron Burr in 1804. Despite this, Hamilton’s legacy will rule on forever as one of the most influential people toward the creation of the constitution.