Alexander Hamilton, the Zelig of American military and political history.

The circumstances surrounding the birth of Alexander Hamilton are complicated and even when he was born is a matter of dispute.  His mother, Rachel Faucette, was of British and French descent.  His father, James Hamilton was a Scot.  They met on the island of St. Kitts in the British West Indies where James Hamilton was unsuccessfully attempting to build a career trading sugar and other goods.

Although it only involved a total of less than four thousand men and less than twenty-five artillery pieces, the Battle of Trenton is revered as one of the most important moments in US military history.  On Christmas night, 1776, George Washington ordered approximately 2,000 troops to begin crossing the Delaware River, near Trenton, New Jersey.  Hamilton and his company, now only thirty men in total were part of this attack.  In spite of dreadful weather, the entire American force made it across the Delaware River and as dawn approached, marched a dozen miles to the outskirts of the town.  At eight in the morning, a coordinated attack on the Hessian barracks began.

In the summer of 1791, according to Hamilton, a woman named Maria Reynolds knocked on the door of his Philadelphia home and met with him privately (despite the presence in the house of Hamilton’s wife).  She recounted a terrible tale of mistreatment at the hands of her husband, claimed she was abandoned and utterly destitute and pleaded with Hamilton for financial help for her and her young daughter.  That very evening Hamilton walked over to Maria’s residence and handed cash to the twenty-three year old and impulsively began a physical relationship that would last for two years.

The United States finally began to experience peace and prosperity in the first term of Thomas Jefferson and with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Hamilton’s former adversary enjoyed his greatest popularity.  Hamilton was reduced to practicing law but political developments in 1804 again involved him in New York State politics.  It was clear that Jefferson fully intended to dump Aaron Burr as vice-President in the upcoming presidential election.  In the machinations surrounding the Presidential election of 1800, Burr had refused to publically state that he was Jefferson’s Vice-Presidential running mate and even maneuvered behind the scenes to try and win in the House of Representatives.  As a result Jefferson completely isolated him from any role in the administration and replaced him on the 1804 ticket with New York State governor George Clinton.  Burr then decided to run for Governor of New York.  He would be soundly defeated in a bitter campaign marked by personal attacks of all kinds.  For this, he and his followers blamed Alexander Hamilton.  Burr personally began to obsess about the man who had blocked both his Presidential and gubernatorial aspirations.

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