HAMILTON
HAMILTON
Fawcett, a practising plijsician of Nevis, and the
divorced wife of a Dane named Levine ; but may
have been a Miss Lytton. She died in his child-
hood and he was educated chiefly under the
instruction of the Rev. Hugh Knox, a Presbyte-
rian clergyman, residing in Nevis and with
whom Hamilton kept
up a correspondence
during his manhood.
In 1770 the boy be-
came a clerk in the
office of Nicholas
Cruger, a West In-
dian merchant, and
he was soon entrusted
with the entire
charge of the count-
ing house. His de-
scription of a severe
hurricane that vis-
ited the island, pub-
lished in a local
paper, attracted at-
tention to the literary ability of the young
accountant and friends decided to send him to
New York and give him school advantages. He
reached Boston in October, 1772, and having
letters from Doctor Knox to persons in New
York city, he repaired thither and was placed in
a preparatory scliool at Elizabethtown, N.J. He
matriculated at King's college in 1774 and aided
by a tutor he made rapid advancement in his
college course which was inteniipted, April 6,
1776, by the college buildings being taken for
military purposes. In 1774 he visited Boston and
there interviewed the leaders of the Revolutionary
movement and became a convert to the cause of
the colonists. On his return to New York he
attended a meeting held in an open field in the
interest of the Revolutionary cause and finding
that the speaker failed to grasp tlie question, or
fire the assembled patriots, he mounted the
platform uninvited and although but a boy of
seventeen made an eloquent speech in behalf of
colonial rights that reached the hearts of his
listeners and accomplished the purpose of the
meeting, to force a Tory assembly to declare its
position on the gi-eat question of the day. He
soon after wrote anonymously two pamphlets:
"A Full Vindication " and "The Farmer Re-
futed," and so convincing were his arguments,
that their authorship was credited to John Jay
and to other well-known patriot writers. The
disclosure of the author's name placed him as a
patriot leader in New York. Early in 1776,
although scarcely nineteen years old, he was
given command of an artillery company by the
New York convention, and his thorough disci-
pline made it the model organization of the army
of General Greene. He was commissioned cap-
tain and at the battles of Long Island and White
Plains demonstrated such military ability as an
officer that General Greene recommended him
as a staff officer to the commander-in-chief and
he was appointed and commissioned lieutenant-
colonel in the Continental army. His position
on Washington's staff gave full scope not only to
his military genius but to his ready pen, and he
soon proved himself indispensable to his chief.
He diplomatically secured from General Gates,
after the Burgoyne campaign, troops to re-enforce
Washington's army, and in the capture and trial
of Andre was a prominent figure, holding inter-
views with both Andre and Mrs. Arnold. His
close friendshij) with Washington was disturbed,
Feb. 16, 1781, when he took hasty offence at a re-
proof from his chief and resigned from his staff.
He then entered the field in command of the New
York artillery with the rank of lieutenant-colonel
of state troops. At Yorktown he headed a
storming party that captured a British redoubt,
and he was brevetted colonel. During the progress
of the Revolution he was a coi-respondent of Rob-
ert Morris and James Duane on the subjects of
finance and government. He suggested plans in
these letters for establishing a national bank and
for amending the confederation of the colonies.
While studying law in New York after the close
of the war, he was named by Robert Morris as
Continental receiver of taxes for New York and
he accepted the position.
He greatly prospered
as a lawyer and as Tory
sympathizers were ex-
cluded from practice be-
fore the courts his
clientage rapidly in-
creased. His efforts as
a tax collector disclosed
the defects in the ar-
ticles of confederation
governing the colonies.
He was elected a dele-
gate to the Continental
congress that met at
Philadelphia in Novem-
ber, 1782, and was con-
tinued at Princeton,
N.J., June 30, 1783. In
congress he was with
the minority, and find-
ing his efforts there
futile he resigned and ^lexaajper hamilto/^. resumed the practice of
law. It was not till bankruptcy followed the fi- nancial policy of congress and secession threatened the compact of states, that the people were awakened to the danger foretold by Hamilton in
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