Alexander hamilton: secretary of treasury

It’s not a common thing for a man to be a secretary of treasury, be in the military for many years, and die after a duel from a bullet. Yet, this is how the life of Alexander Hamilton went. Hamilton was a very interesting and brilliant man. He accomplished many things in his short life. And he may have died young, but he had many family members and friends to keep him company.

On the day of January 11th, on the small island of Nevis, a British colony, a baby boy was born. Little the parents know at this time, the boy would grow to be a very smart and important person. Not much happened for Alexander Hamilton as a small child, but at the age of 12 he was employed as a clerk in a general store. There and a little bit after people began to realize that Hamilton had an amazing talent in writing and working. Hamilton started school in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. In the year of 1773, he joined Kings College, which is now Columbia. He was very smart for his age, which had many ways of showing. As an article titled “ Alexander Hamilton” from the website www. ushistory. org stated, “ He was quite a mature young man, with a strong grasp on political issues with a working knowledge of British and American government which he exhibited in a series of anonymous pamphlets.” This is when his life really started to get interesting, and many more important things started to happen.

About two years after joining Kings College in 1775 he decided on leaving. Instead Hamilton founded a volunteer military company. His hard work paid off, because almost a year later on March 14th of 1776, he was made Captain of the Provincial Company on New York Artillery. People decided he was good at his job, and made him Lieutenant Colonel. On March 1st 1777, he was made General George Washington’s aide-de-camp. In December of 1780, Hamilton married one of the general’s daughters, Elizabeth Schuyler. From 1782-1783 he was in Congress, then went to be a lawyer in New York, meaning he left the military in 1783.

In the the year of 1789 Hamilton was made a member of the first cabinet for the first president as the first Secretary of Treasury. He stayed in that job for about 6 years, but he was found guilty of telling a major from Britain named George Beckwith secrets of the cabinet. In 1798 he was asked to go back to the military because the states were threatened with war from France. He was made a Major General and stayed in the military for about 2 years. He also had 8 children, unfortunately in 1801 the eldest child died in a duel. Hamilton and a man named Aaron Burr had bad blood, and in 1804 Hamilton used his power to keep Burr from being elected as governor for New York. This lead to them fighting in a duel the same year. Sadly Hamilton did not win that duel. Burr won, and Hamilton was shot causing him to die the next day, on July 12 of 1804 at the age of 47.