Ciao!

Alexander Hamilton

07.05.2005

Not as well-revered as Jefferson or Franklin or Washington, but he's my guy nonetheless. Don't get me wrong, the other guys are good too, but there's a few things about Hamilton that put him over the top, in my book.

First, he's an immigrant, like me. He was born in the West Indies. Not only that, he was an illegitimate son of a poor woman, and became an orphan ten years later. Talk about hard luck case. Still, he was a smart kid, eventually made his way over to the Thirteen Colonies, where someone noticed.

During the war, he served on Washington's staff, but also led regiments-of-the-line. So he was smart, but also brave & willing to fight. And he led from the front.

He may not have written the Declaration of Independence (w/ that great first paragraph of Jefferson's). But he wrote most of The Federalist Papers, which stand as some of the strongest philosophical defenses of the US Constitution (which he helped write). Very often, when people want to figure out what the Founding Fathers mean in the Constitution, they turn to The Federalist Papers.

This first immigrant politician, the forerunner to Barack Obama and Ahnold, rose to become the first Secretary of the Treasury. He set up the Federal Bank, the stock market, and set the ground work for American capitalism. Which I also like.

Finally, he died in a duel against Aaron Burr, even though he fired first (in the air).

Posted by Miguel at 02:39 PM

Comments

Posted by: Miguel (MABB) at July 5, 2005 03:35 PM