Introduction:
“ I Consider Napoleon, Fox, and Hamilton the three greatest men of our epoch, and If I were force to decide between the three, I would give without hesitation the first place to Hamilton (Kaplan 284)”. Those are the words of prominent French diplomat Charles Maurice De Talleyrand after spending a year in the United States. Those words of respect came because of the actions and influences that Alexander Hamilton had on a young United States that still have an effect today. Hamilton helped shaped and interpret the United States constitution and set up the financial system that lead to the United States rise to a global power.
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Hamilton was born in 1757 on a small island in the British West Indies. At the Age of
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At the Annapolis Convention, Hamilton was called upon to create an address that was to be sent to all states, calling for delegates to be sent to Philadelphia convention. The Philadelphia convention ultimately resulted in the new Constitution for the United States. Hamilton had little influence on writing the constitution and felt like it was still not 100 percent optimal to his view of a strong central government, but signed it anyway as a delegate from New York. In Hamilton’s eyes it was much better in his eyes then the Articles of Confederation. Even Though the constitution did not align with Hamilton’s views perfectly, he championed the ratification of the constitution. Hamilton along with James Madison, and John Jay then authored a series of papers that became known as the Federalist Papers. These Papers supported the ratification of the New Constitution. After the Ratification of the Constitution, Alexander Hamilton was chosen by President Washington to be the first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. As the First Secretary of Treasury Hamilton’s influence and decisions would help shape the direction of the new United States of America.
As the Secretary of the Treasury Hamilton faced the difficult task on how to make the United States a “Major Commercial and Military Power” (Foner 295). In
Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay published the Federalist Papers a series of 85 essays on October 27, 1787 to urge the citizens of United States to ratify the Constitution. Hamilton gave a speech on June 18, 1777 during the time period of the constitutional convention Hamilton gave a six hour speech otherwise known as “Hamilton Day”. Hamilton demonstrated what it took to form a strong centralized government, “Talks for six hours! The convention is listless!” this revealed Hamilton wanted nothing more than a strong centralized government and was willing to speak
Alexander Hamilton wanted a national government that had complete political authority. Although Hamilton did not like state governments and wanted them to be eliminated, he knew it was not possible. Therefore, he proposed the idea of having the central government to have the most power, but allow the states to control many of their own rights and individuality. In collaboration with James Madison and John Jay, Hamilton wrote 51 essays out of 85 essays called “The Federalist Papers”. These essays explained and defended the new Constitution prior to its approval and with his effort, nine states agreed to ratify the Constitution. Alexander Hamilton led the Federalist Party, who believed in a centralized national government with strong economic roots, unlike Thomas Jefferson, who wanted a limited government. Hamilton also proposed to
In 1787, Hamilton was the first New York delegate chosen to the Constitutional Convention. He also served as assemblyman in the New York State Legislature, but his influence was quite limited. The Convention convened in the State House, which is now known as Independence Hall, in Philadelphia. On May 14th there were only delegations from two states, so the revision of the Articles of Confederation was adjourned from a day to day debate. On May 25th a quorum of seven states was obtained, debate continued and it was clear that by mid-June that the delegates present decided not to just amend the current Articles, they would draft an entirely new frame of government. During the late 1780’s there were 85 letters written to newspapers to try and sway at least 9 of the 13 states to ratify the new document they were writing during the Convention in 1787. The letters were written under the pseudo-name
A meeting, called the Continental Congress, took place where representatives from each state would discuss how they could improve it. Hamilton was one of the three representatives from New York, but he was the only Federalist of the three, which means he was the only one that was in favor of a strong national government. Eventually, the Continental Congress agreed on the Constitution. It would take more work than that though. After the Constitution was agreed upon by the Continental Congress, it had to get ratified by each state, and New York would be one of the hardest to get the Constitution ratified in. Hamilton, knowing that it was going to be hard, took a stand alongside James Madison and John Jay, and the wrote a series of essay entitled The Federalist, defended the new U.S. Constitution. The three of them combined wrote a total of eighty five essays, of which Hamilton himself wrote fifty one. The essays convinced the people of New York City of how important it would be, but upstate farmers were holding out. It wasn’t until New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution and thus make it law, that New York realized that holding out wouldn’t benefit them and accepted the new Constitution, on the condition that there would be a list of amendments that we now call The Bill of
Alexander Hamilton never achieved the highest position in office, but he was a few of America's Founding Fathers. He first joined the army during the Revolution and became an aide for George Washington. Hamilton quickly moved up in society. Political parties began to form during the struggle over ratification of the Federal Constitution of 1787. The attention changed for the creation of a new Federal Government to the question of how powerful the Federal Government would be. Led by the Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton, a Federalist, really wanted a strong central government. Alexander Hamilton's view on human nature was shaped by his war experiences. People had their own hobbies, interests, and money put above patriotism and of the country. Another role that Hamilton played in establishing the U.S. Government was that he really depended on the United States developing a strong economy. In all, there were three roles Alexander Hamilton used in establishing the U.S Government which were forming a strong central government, his view on human nature, and developing a strong economy.
Alexander Hamilton (born 1755 or 1757, died 1804) was perhaps the original American self-made man, an immigrant who rose from poverty to help establish the foundations of the United States. This Founding Father fought in the American Revolutionary War, was a leading voice in the [Constitutional](/history/us/documents/constitution/) Convention, co-wrote the Federalist Papers with [James Madison](/history/us/pres/madison/) and John Jay, and established a strong national banking system as the first US Secretary of the Treasury. Hamilton’s life was cut short in a duel with Aaron Burr, a former friend.
Alexander Hamilton was a very influential leader at the time of the American Revolution and helped with many complications. When Hamilton was a young adult, he started out as George Washington’s consultant during the Revolutionary War, writing many documents and letters for him. In 1782, Alexander was chosen to be a representative for New York in Congress. Just a mere 2 years later, Hamilton began to serve in the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention. He saved the Convention from failing, by declaring another Convention the next year. Since Hamilton was the founder of the Federalist Party, he helped write the Federalist
Few Americans are aware of the profound impact Alexander Hamilton had on our nation’s development with his creation of multiple, important institutions. Hamilton, a true Founding Father of our nation, is primarily accountable for the design and establishment of Federal institutions, especially for the financial system which helped form the states into a nation. These creations of his helped put this nation on its path toward an industrial economy. Hamilton wanted a manufacturing economy founded on financial principles. He played a key role in shaping President George Washington’s foreign policy based on American self-interest.
Due to the weak powers and poor economic state resulting from the Articles of Confederation, Hamilton took the opportunity, under the new Constitution, to fix these issues. As a result, many controversial, yet positively-resulting actions were taken. For one, an excise tax was placed on domestic goods in order to alleviate the troubles emitting from the federal debt. Furthermore, he established a national bank in order to further expand and unify the country, putting them all under a controllable banking system rather than having several different systems, each with their very own currency. Prior to the ratification of the Constitution, the country was rather divided and the federal government had no control over fixing such problems in their country. As a result, especially during this point that he now has the power to mend the drawbacks of their old system, he saw “federal debt” as a sort of commonality between the states. Now that they’re all under a stronger government, they were forced to deal with this issue together. This created a sense of united between the nation and, overall, was an immense motivator of bringing the country together for the good of its future
Hamilton was of the view that the nation’s elite had to have a permanent seat in determining key decisions of the nation and aggressively pushed three white papers between 1790-91 to lay the framework of American Capitalism as it stands today. He also advocated for a strong Federal government and weak State governments. By his actions, he became the de facto leader of the Federalists.
By the 1820’s, the Embargo Act, War of 1812 and the Panic of 1819 played a very important role in the reshaping of our countries economic development. Hamilton believe that America would flourish only if we
"Cabinet Battle 1", "Cabinet Battle 2" and "Cabinet Battle 3" are songs written for The Hamilton Musical and are based on the life of Alexander Hamilton. These songs relate the discussions between George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson about different points of view in relation to three themes, the national debt, the organization of the national bank, and the proper course of foreign relations. Hamilton and Jefferson always had differences in criterion and this generated controversy and discussions between both. Hamilton understands that Jefferson was not present during part of the War of Independence because he remained in Paris a long time; he left in 1784 and it was not until 1789 that returned and accuses of not protecting the values of the American people.
Although Hamilton attended most of the proceedings at the 1787 Philadelphia Convention, he did not actually participate much in the drafting of the new document. Hamilton argued that a new and stronger central government was needed to correct the mistakes made in the government outlined in the Articles of Confederation, but
Alexander Hamilton, recognized as one of the Founding Fathers of our country, had a great impact on the wars and political issues of his time. He presented himself as a well respected man and proved himself worthy of the tasks he was given. He impressed many people and played a substantial part in influencing where America stands today. Although his early childhood circumstances were difficult, putting him at a disadvantage, Alexander proved himself capable of achieving success all on his own, without the need of others’ assistance or provision. His efforts ultimately played a significant role in the founding of America.
During that period England was experimenting the Industrial Revolution which was improving its economy, so, therefore, Hamilton wanted the United States to be industrial as England to become stronger. Hamilton’s interpretation of the constitution was a loose construction, so a broad interpretation that gives more power to the national government in matters of protection of people from foreign wars and creation of a good credit by paying off the debts accumulated by the states and the nation. Hamilton had if is it possible to consider that way, the most pessimistic view of humanity existent. According to Hamilton humans were inherently bad, motivated by the love of money and the love of power. Moreover, he was an advocate for a national government run by wealthy and educated people, without giving chances to common people to participate in. On the foreign affair’s subject, Hamilton believed that the United States should stay out of the conflict between France and Great Britain because the country was not strong enough and because Britain was its major trading