Alexander Hamilton Research Paper

“Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.” This quote by Alexander Hamilton shows his desire to leave a legacy, just like the focus of our unit. Throughout our legacy unit we have been looking at different celebrities, political figures, and many other types of people to see how they have impacted our world. The legacy that will be covered in this paper is the legacy of Alexander Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton was the first Secretary of the Treasury and has left a huge legacy in the U.S.

On January 11th, 1757 Alexander Hamilton was born in the British West Indies on the Island of Nevis (“Alexander Hamilton: Biography”). At this time, the Caribbean was a desolate place of famine and disease. Alexander’s mother was Rachel Fawcett Lavien,

In the war John Laurens was killed and after the war ended Lafayette was sent back to France where the French Revolution was brewing. While Hamilton was serving as an advisor for Washington he realized that Congress’ state allegiance was caused by the flawed Articles of Confederation. When Hamilton was sent to the Constitutional Convention he made a speech, that was 6 hours, presenting his own form of government. This structure of this government is almost identical to the one we run today. It was a three branched government with an Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. The only variation is that the president would serve for all of his life. This is eventually developed into the constitution after Hamilton and his fellow Federalists (James Madison and John Jay) wrote the Federalist papers. The Federalist papers were a series of essays that are trying to convince the American public to accept Hamilton’s Democracy. John Jay got sick after writing 5 of the federalist papers, James Madison wrote 29, Hamilton wrote the other 51(“Alexander Hamilton Biography”). Soon after George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States. George Washington nominates his group of advisors, his cabinet members. He nominates Alexander as Secretary of the Treasury. For Secretary of State he nominates a diplomat who had just returned from a diplomatic trip to France, Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson and

They are (in order of birth) Philip Hamilton, Angelica Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton Jr., James Alexander Hamilton, John Church Hamilton, William S. Hamilton, Eliza Hamilton, and Philip Hamilton II (“Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton: Alexander Hamilton’s Beloved Wife”). Alexander Hamilton’s kids were his pride and joy, but in all of Hamilton’s success he did one unspeakable thing. He began to see a woman named Mariah Reynolds. This would turn out to be one of the first political sex scandals in American history. He had a one year affair with Mariah while paying money to her husband, who was blackmailing him. Once Hamilton was confronted on these charges by future president James Monroe he came clean to the world. He published a very long pamphlet telling the whole public, in explicit detail, his encounters with Mariah Reynolds.This would be called the Reynolds Pamphlet. This poisoned Hamilton’s political career. Eliza was so shocked and heartbroken that she did not make any public comment on the pamphlet. The Hamilton’s moved uptown to try and get away from the taunting and the gazes that the family was receiving in the city. The Reynolds Pamphlet soon caused even more damage to the Hamilton family when Hamilton’s first born, Philip challenged George Eacker to a duel because he was taunting his father about his affair in a public speech. This duel would end up in