Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton was born January 11, 1755, in Nevis, Caribbean. It is now part of Saints Kitts and Nevis. Hamilton was born out of wedlock to Rachel Faucett Lavien. Hamilton was the first United States Secretary of treasury. He was also a Founding Father, economist, and political philosopher. Hamilton was a leader of nationalist forces calling for a new Constitution. He was one of America’s first constitutional lawyers. He wrote most of the Federalist papers. Hamilton attended King’s College, which is now Columbia University, in New York. When the American Revolutionary War begun he became the senior aide-de-camp and confidant to General George Washington. Hamilton was elected to the Continental Congress from New York, but he resigned to practice law and found the bank of New York. Hamilton helped found the United States Mint, the first national bank. In 1791, while Secretary of the Treasury, he worked a private capacity to help found the Society for the Establishment of Useful Manufactures Few people other than U.S. presidents are ever honored more than once on US Postage, but Alexander Hamilton is one of them. The very first postage stamp to honor Hamilton was issued by the US Post Office in 1870. On march 19, 1956, the United States Postal Service issued the $5 Liberty Issue postage stamp honoring Hamilton.
On December 14, 1780, Hamilton married Elizabeth Schuyler. Together they had eight children; Hamilton’s first child Philip, was killed in 1801, George I, Eacker, Philip, Angelica, James Alexander, John Church, William Stephen, Philip (“Little Phil”), and Eliza Hamilton Holly. In 1791, Hamilton became involved in an affair with Maria Reynolds that badly damaged his reputation. Reynolds husband, James, blackmailed Hamilton for money, threatening to inform Hamilton’s wife. Rumors began spreading after his retirement, so Hamilton published a confession of his affair. It shocked his family and supporters by not confessing but by...