Big Apple History . Business and Politics . Alexander Hamilton


	Alexander Hamilton at 22

It's unlikely that Manhattan would have blossomed into the financial giant it is today in 1825 without the bold vision of Alexander Hamilton. Although Mr. Hamilton's life was cut short almost twenty years ago by his famous, fatal duel with Aaron Burr, Hamilton's influence on our economy lives on. In fact, Alexander Hamilton embodied what we now think of as the American ideal. From humble beginnings he rose by his wits and invented his own destiny.

Mr. Hamilton helped organize New York's first bank in 1783. Hamilton's talent for commerce so impressed George Washington that our first President appointed Hamilton as his Secretary of the Treasury.

When our nation was young, Hamilton believed that the United States needed financial strength to survive. In pursuit of this goal, he persuaded Congress to assume all 80 million dollars of the war debts. People who had lent the U.S. money were given federal "stock."

Thomas Jefferson strongly opposed this plan. However, Hamilton met Jefferson on a New York street one day and convinced him to persuade southern congressmen to vote "yes" to the U.S. government taking on all war debts. Jefferson agreed on one condition, the nation's capital had to move from New York to a place near the Potomac River. Soon, money poured into New York, and the number of stocks and bonds traded soared. Hamilton had imagined the future -- a nation of men making their fortunes through industry and banking.

Illustration: from the portrait by James Peale, 1779, courtesy of Culver Pictures.