Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/65

 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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