Alexander Hamilton: Founding Father

The term "Founding Father" is given to the men who fought for American liberation from Britain in the 18th century and proceeded to build an independent country from the ground up. Certain names are almost synonymous with the term founding father – George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin for example. However, one man who embodied the American Dream before the term was even coined and had an enormous role in shaping America is Alexander Hamilton. Undoubtedly a lesser known figure to the general public, Hamilton is probably best known to most Americans for being on the 10-dollar bill. Hamilton was born in 1757 on the island of Nevis in the West Indies before he arrived in the colonies as an orphaned teenager, hoping to get a …show more content…
Hamilton was hugely influential in the Revolutionary War and developing a financial system for independent America. By discussing Hamilton's life under the following headings: (A) early military career, (B) George Washington's Staff, © Congress of the Confederation, (D) The Federalist Papers and (E) Secretary of the Treasury, I will make it clear that Hamilton's legacy is still hugely relevant in modern day America.

Hamilton was a student at King's College (now Columbia) in New York until it closed in 1775 as a result of British occupation of the city. Hamilton had to discontinue his studies as a result of this and instead, following the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, he joined a militia called the Hearts of Oak, along with other students from King's College. Hamilton already had links to New York patriots such as John Jay and Alexander McDougall, and these connections soon led him into full time service. In August 1775, the Hearts of Oak successfully seized British cannons from the …show more content…
Hamilton's aims were to create a stable financial foundation for the nation and to increase the power of the central government. Hamilton pushed for the government to assume the debts of the states that had not yet repaid their Revolutionary War bonds and scrip. Hamilton argued that the assumption of the debts would entail expanding federal taxation, including a tariff and excise tax on whiskey, which farmers violently protested in the Whiskey Rebellion. The assumption would involve the Federal Treasury taking over and paying all state debts by issuing bonds that the wealthier people in society would buy. These people would then have a stake in the success of the national government. A new tariff on imports would, in turn, pay off the bonds. This led Hamilton to conflict with James Madison and Thomas Jefferson who believed the control of debt gave too much power to the national government. The three men compromised when Hamilton agreed to a capital in the South and Jefferson and Madison agreed to let Hamilton go ahead with his policy of assumption. The bill was passed in 1790 and the credit of the US was firmly established at home and abroad. This bill allowed Jefferson's government to borrow to finance the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and to finance the War of 1812. Hamilton went on the create the First Bank of the United States and to

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