reversing the impious doctrine that the people were made for the kings, and not the kings for the people.

It is sufficient evidence of the master mind, and noble, patriotic and religious spirit of Hamilton, that he was conspicuous in the formation of this instrument, now the wonder and admiration of the civilized world, and the most prominent person in the preparation of all the formative details and legislations, necessary to put it into effective execution.

Chauncey M. Depew says of Hamilton: "In no age or country has there appeared a more precocious or amazing intelligence than Hamilton's. At seventeen he annihilated the president of his college upon the question of rights of the colonies, in a series of anonymous articles which were credited to the ablest man in the country. At forty-seven, when he died, his briefs had become the law of the land, and his fiscal system was, and after a hundred years, remains the rule and policy of our government. He gave life to the corpse of national credit, and the strength for self-preservation and aggressive power to the Federal Union. Both as an expounder of the principles and an administrator of the affairs of the government he stands supreme and unrivalled in American history. His eloquence was so magnetic, his language so clear, and his reasoning so irresistible, that he swayed with equal ease popular assemblies, grave senates, and learned judges. He captured the people of the whole country for the Constitution by his papers in the Federalist, and conquered the hostile majority in the New York convention by his splendid oratory."

BIOGRAPHY.

Hamilton was born of Scotch parentage January 11th, 1757, in the Island of Nevis, then under control of Great Britain. His father was a merchant. His mother was possessed of great beauty and wit, and died early. Alexander was the only surviving child, and his father failing in business, he was left to the care of his maternal relations, and at about twelve years of age was placed in a counting room as a clerk. In a letter to his friend, Edward Stevens, about this time, he says: "I contemn the grovelling condition of a

Depew's Orations and After-dinner Speeches, p. 18.

clerk, or the like, to which my fortune condemns me, and would willingly risk my life, though not my character, to exalt my station. I am confident that my youth excludes me from any hope of immediate preferment, nor do I desire it, but I mean to prepare the way for futurity." This indicates the spirit that animated him all through his comparatively short, but eventful life. He read and wrote much at every leisure period. Pope and Plutarch were his favorite authors. His vivid account of a severe hurricane which raged with great destructive power in the West Indies attracted a good deal of attention among his friends as his first literary effort, and they wisely decided that such talent should have a better field for development than a counting house in the West Indies.

In his fifteenth year he bade a final adieu to his birthplace and sailed for Boston, arriving in October, 1772. Thence he went to New York and entered a noted grammar school at Elizabethtown, where he studied through the winter with his usual fiery zeal and untiring energy that he always showed in every undertaking in life. He wrote both prose and poetry, including hymns, elegies and verses of all sorts. He entered King's College, New York, and through the aid of private tutors pushed forward irrespective of the regular college course. A visit in 1774 to Boston led him to adopt the side of the colonies. He says he had formed strong prejudices on the ministerial side until he became convinced by the force of the superior argument in favor of the claims of the colonies.

His masterful temper and innate love and respect for government and order and strong rule dictated his prejudices. His clear, vigorous mind, and his profound belief in reasoning and argument, which so prevailed with him always, showed him plainly that the colonies were in the right.

A meeting was held July 6, 1774, under the direction of patriotic leaders to coripel New York to come into line with the other colonies then preparing for the first Congress. Hamilton listened for a time, and believing he could supply the omissions he detected, took his place upon the platform and made his first address to the public. He spoke so well that the crowd murmured: "It is a Collegian! It is a Collegian!" and were deeply stirred by the oratory of the stranger, who in appearance was a mere boy.

He spoke frequently and wrote many political pamphlets of marked ability on the controverted questions of the day. Early in 1776, the New York convention ordered a company of artillery to be raised. Hamilton applied for the command, and in spite of his youthful appearance he passed the examination and was appointed. He rapidly recruited his company, and spent the last remittance from home friends to help defray the expenses. His spirit was soon imparted to his company and the excellent discipline of his company attracted the attention of General Greene, who introduced him to Washington, thus early putting him in the direct line of promotion. At the disastrous battle of Long Island his powers as a commander were tested. He also distinguished himself in his retreat up the Hudson, and at the battle of White Plains. He was with the army in the terrible march through New Jersey, and shared the brilliant campaign of Trenton and Princeton, New Jersey. After six months of hard fighting his company were reduced to twenty-five men, who retained their excellent discipline, though there was little else left. His reputation was, however, established, and when barely twenty years of age he was appointed, March Ist, 1777, one of Washington's aides, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was peculiarly fitted for this new field of action, where the duties were various and highly respon- · sible. He did not sigh for an independent command, but was present at all the battles in which the army was engaged, took a part in them and always gained honor and distinction. His principal occupation was to conduct the immense correspondence of his chief, General Washington, and in this he was signally successful.

He was sent on many missions of a diplomatic nature to different parts of the army, and to officials of the States and the army, and was remarkably successful. It was his mission to strive to console Mrs. Arnold in her great distress after the flight of her traitor husband, and he was much with the gifted but ill-fated Andre.

February 18th, 1781, his service was terminated as a member of the staff of Washington. Hamilton having been sent for by Washington, delayed a few moments in obeying, and finding Washington at the head of the stairs who reproved him sharply, saying that to keep him waiting was a mark of disrespect. Hamilton replied: "I am not conscious of

it, sir; but since you have thought it, we part." Perhaps his conduct at Yorktown was the most conspicuous and characteristic of the man. At the head of his men Hamilton rushed with all his fiery impetuosity upon the British works, carried all before him and took the position in ten minutes, doing his work much sooner than the French, to whom the other redoubt had been assigned. From the college to the battle of Yorktown, a comparatively short time, and yet it had changed the boy to the man. He was loved by his friends, and he loved them. All his comrades on the staff and all the officers, both old and young, who knew him, loved him and were proud of his talents and military ability. From Lafayette down all the French were very fond of Hamilton. This personal power to make and keep friends was of great service to him afterward as a political leader.

At the age of twenty-three, in the beginning of the year 1780, he addressed an anonymous letter to Robert Morris on the conditions of the finances, which attracted great attention.

He was married December 14, 1780, to Miss Elizabeth Schuyler, of Albany, a daughter of General Schuyler. In 1782 he was admitted to the bar, had a wife and child, and nothing else except his claims for back pay against the government. He was successful as a lawyer and soon was in easy financial circumstances. In June, 1782, Robert Morris appointed him Continental Receiver of Taxes of New York. He was elected to the Legislature and to Congress, and resigning his receivership entered Congress November, 1782. Here he took high rank as a brilliant debater and

statesman.

Through the remainder of his life he was exceedingly active as a member of the constitutional convention and in the Cabinet of Washington's first term as Secretary of the Treasury. And his articles in the Federalist of a political and constitutional character are those upon which his fame must largely rest, though many of his other articles and speeches are of equal power and force.

The greatest charge against the fame of this distinguished and wonderfully gifted man is his submission under the duelist's code to be shot by Aaron Burr. Their efforts in political contests had been in different lines, and hard words had been written and spoken by both parties. As an excuse

for what I at least regard as the greatest weakness in his character, he says: "The ability to be in future useful, whether in resisting mischief or effecting good, in those crises of our public affairs which seem likely to happen, would probably be irreparable from a conformity with the public prejudice in this particular." He might have said: I renounce the code; it is senseless and barbarous. I have attacked you as a public man, and I choose to consider it a purely public matter. I decline to fight. This seems to us would have been far more honorable. Another says: "Each man prepared for the meeting in his own fashion, Burr by pistol practice in his garden; Hamilton by settling the business of his clients. As the fatal day drew near Hamilton displayed a calm cheerfulness, such as became a gallant man of strong character, and wrote farewell letters to his wife of the most intense feeling and touching pathos. They met at last on the beautiful morning of July 11, 1804, beneath the hills of the Weehawken, by the banks of the Hudson. Hamilton fell at the first fire, mortally wounded, discharging his own pistol into the air. He was taken home, lingered a few hours in terrible pain, and died surrounded by his agonized family. Burr went forth unharmed, to engage in abortive treason, and to become a wanderer and an outcast on the face of the earth.