Alexander Hamilton and the Constitution proponents James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, were perhaps the three most important people in the early years of America.

Of those three alone, Hamilton became the first Secretary of the Treasury, Madison became the first Secretary of State and fourth President, and Thomas Jefferson became the third President of the United States.

Hamilton was perhaps the most interesting as his personal life and his oppositional attitude made him stand out.

Though Hamilton did not support the Constitution at the Constitutional Convention, he felt that the Articles of Confederation needed replacement and became the biggest proponent of the Constitution, writing 51 of the 85 Federalist Papers.

Hamilton died after a duel with former Vice-President Aaron Burr after an apparent misunderstanding.

THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. HAMILTON

CONGRESS

Hamilton was less than thrilled about the state of the Continental Congress during the Revolutionary War, especially the reliance on individual states. The Congress could not collect taxes from the individual states because they had no authority and therefore the military operation suffered due to lack of funding.

Hamilton was elected to the Congress of the Confederation to represent New York in 1782, and along with others like Robert Morris and James Madison, began to push for a revenue source for the federal government which it did not have under the Articles of Confederation.

Hamilton only stayed in Congress for two years and upon his return to New York he founded the Bank of New York. He continued to attend major political conventions such as the Annapolis Convention in 1786.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND THE CONSTITUTION

Hamilton, upon becoming a member of the New York State legislature, was selected to serve as a delegate at the Constitutional Convention, having been one of the people pushing the hardest to create a Constitutional Convention.

Hamilton’s proposal to the Constitutional Convention did not go over well as he wanted a system with an elected President and Senate all serving life terms.

Alexander Hamilton and the Constitution supporters did not agree on the final version but Hamilton signed it anyway seeing as it was better than the Articles of Confederation. Alexander Hamilton and many of the Constitution Framers did agree on a strong central government.

Creating the Constitution was the easy part, getting it ratified was the hard part. Despite not being its biggest fan, Hamilton took the lead in the Federalist movement to get the Constitution ratified, leading James Madison and John Jay to write the famous Federalist Papers to argue for the federalist system in the Constitution.

Alexander Hamilton and the Constitution framers James Madison and John Jay wrote 85 essays that made up the Federalist Papers.

Hamilton was also a crucial figure in getting the state of New York to ratify the Constitution. New York was one of the last states to do so.

LATER POLITICS

After the creation of the Constitutional Government and the unanimous election of George Washington, the President selected Alexander Hamilton and the Constitution framers to the Cabinet, Hamilton would be the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury.

During his tenure at the White House, Hamilton founded the United States Mint and the first national bank while working to create a very complex system of taxes and tariffs to build revenue.

Though he was much on the side of Jefferson and Madison during the ratification of the Constitution, Hamilton split from Jefferson and Madison while in office and Hamilton became the leader of the new Federalist Party while Jefferson and Madison founded the Democratic-Republican Party which is the Democratic Party of today.

After his resignation from office in 1796, Hamilton lived a pretty scandalous life, both politically and privately.

Though Hamilton and Washington were very close, Hamilton disliked Washington’s Vice President John Adams as well as Thomas Jefferson who ran against Adams in 1796. Hamilton tried to work behind the scenes to ensure that neither was elected President and instead got an administration with Adams as President and Jefferson as Vice President.

Hamilton tried once again in 1800 despite the fact that Adams was in his own party but failed and instead led to Thomas Jefferson becoming the new President.

In his private life, Hamilton’s reputation was somewhat ruined after a controversial affair with a married woman. George Washington and his friends still considered him a great advisor.

Hamilton died after the infamous duel between himself and former Vice President Aaron Burr.