HAMILTON, ALEXANDER

(17571804), American statesman. 8B. in Charles Town, Nevis Island, West Indies, Jan. 11, 1757; d. in New York, July 12, 1804. He was a natural s. of James Hamilton and Rachel Levine, a woman of French extraction separated from her husband. After his mother’s death her relatives cared for him and sent him to the United States to be educated. Graduating from King’s College now Columbia in 1773, he became noted for his brilliant advocacy of the cause of the Colonists. Captain of the first Continental Artillery Company he fought in the battles of Long reataee White Plains, Trenton, and Princeton, and in 1777 was Lt. Colonel and aid-de= camp on Washington’s staff. In 1780 he married Elizabeth Schuyler, d. of General Schuyler of New York. At the siege of York town he headed a storming party that captured an important British redoubt. After the war he practiced law; was a2 member of the Continental Contion of 1776 and Constitutional Convention of 1787. A member of Congre 1787-1788 he was the first U. S. Secretary of the Treasury 1789-1795. After parties were formed he ied the Federalists being opposed by Jefferson, the Republican leader. When a French war was threatened in 1899-1800, John Adams through deference to Washington made Hamilton the actual head of the army. The Federals were defeated in 1800 through the publication of an anti-Adams pamphlet written by Hamilton. When Burr and Jefferson were nominated, Hamilton forgot his differences with the latter and worked for his succe . Burr never forgot this, and found a pretext to call Hamilton out. They fought a duel at Weehawken, July 11, 1804 when Hamilton was mortally wounded and d. July 12, 1804. He was brilliant in framing constructive measures of government and his services to the young nation cannot be overestimated.