How did Hamilton Died
Alexander Hamilton, (born January 11, 1755/57, Nevis, British West Indies—died July 12, 1804, New York, U.S.), New York delegate to the Constitutional Convention (1787), major author of the Federalist papers, and first secretary of the treasury of the United States (1789–95), who was the foremost champion of a strong central government for the new United States. He was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr.
Early life
Hamilton’s father was James Hamilton, a drifting trader and son of Alexander Hamilton, the laird of Cambuskeith, Ayrshire, Scotland; his mother was Rachel Fawcett Lavine, the daughter of a French Huguenot physician and the wife of John Michael Lavine, a German or Danish merchant who had settled on the island of St. Croix in the Danish West Indies. Rachel probably began living with James Hamilton in 1752, but Lavine did not divorce her until 1758.
Background
Hamilton and Burr had an acrimonious relationship that dated to 1791, when Burr defeated Hamilton’s father-in-law, Gen. Philip John Schuyler, for a seat in the U.S. Senate. Burr incurred the enmity of Hamilton, who subsequently tried to thwart his political aspirations on numerous occasions. A notable example occurred during the 1800 presidential election, in which Burr was Thomas Jefferson’s vice presidential running mate on the Democratic-Republican ticket. Due to quirks in the election process, Burr tied with Jefferson in the electoral college vote, and he chose to vie with Jefferson for the top office. As a result of Hamilton’s influence on his fellow Federalists, however, Burr lost. He became vice president but was marginalized by Jefferson. In an attempt to revitalize his political career—it had become clear he would not be renominated for vice president—Burr switched parties and sought the nomination as the Federalist candidate for governor of New York in early 1804. Again, Hamilton used his influence to block the ambitions of Burr, who subsequently ran as an independent and lost badly in April 1804.
That month a newspaper published a letter in which Dr. Charles D. Cooper claimed that at a dinner party Hamilton had called Burr “a dangerous man.” In Cooper’s words, Hamilton also expressed a “more despicable opinion” of Burr. In June the aggrieved Burr wrote a letter to Hamilton, calling for an explanation. The two men engaged in a correspondence that ultimately resulted in Burr demanding that Hamilton deny that he had ever spoken ill of him. Hamilton felt that he could not comply without sacrificing his own political career, and although he opposed the practice of dueling—his eldest son Philip had died in a duel three years earlier—he accepted Burr’s challenge. Duels were illegal in both New York and New Jersey but were dealt with less harshly in New Jersey, so Burr and Hamilton agreed to meet at Weehawken on a secluded ledge above the Hudson River, a spot that had become a popular dueling ground; it had been the site of Philip’s fateful duel.
American Revolution
In March 1776, through the influence of friends in the New York legislature, Hamilton was commissioned a captain in the provincial artillery. He organized his own company and at the Battle of Trenton, when he and his men prevented the British under Lord Cornwallis from crossing the Raritan River and attacking George Washington’s main army, showed conspicuous bravery. In February 1777 Washington invited him to become an aide-de-camp with the rank of lieutenant colonel. In his four years on Washington’s staff he grew close to the general and was entrusted with his correspondence. He was sent on important military missions and, thanks to his fluent command of French, became liaison officer between Washington and the French generals and admirals.
Eager to connect himself with wealth and influence, Hamilton married Elizabeth, the daughter of Gen. Philip Schuyler, the head of one of New York’s most distinguished families. Meantime, having tired of the routine duties at headquarters and yearning for glory, he pressed Washington for an active command in the field. Washington refused, and in early 1781 Hamilton seized upon a trivial quarrel to break with the general and leave his staff. Fortunately, he had not forfeited the general’s friendship, for in July Washington gave him command of a battalion. At the siege of Cornwallis’s army at Yorktown in October, Hamilton led an assault on a British stronghold.
Early political activities
In letters to a member of Congress and to Robert Morris, the superintendent of finance, Hamilton analyzed the financial and political weaknesses of the government. In November 1781, with the war virtually over, he moved to Albany, where he studied law and was admitted to practice in July 1782. A few months later the New York legislature elected him to the Continental Congress. He continued to argue in essays for a strong central government, and in Congress from November 1782 to July 1783 he worked for the same end, being convinced that the Articles of Confederation were the source of the country’s weakness and disunion.
In 1783 Hamilton began to practice law in New York City. He defended unpopular loyalists who had remained faithful to the British during the Revolution in suits brought against them under a state law called the Trespass Act. Partly as a result of his efforts, state acts disbarring loyalist lawyers and disfranchising loyalist voters were repealed. In that year he also won election to the lower house of the New York legislature, taking his seat in January 1787. Meanwhile, the legislature had appointed him a delegate to the convention in Annapolis, Maryland, that met in September 1786 to consider the commercial plight of the Union. Hamilton suggested that the convention exceed its delegated powers and call for another meeting of representatives from all the states to discuss various problems confronting the nation. He drew up the draft of the address to the states from which emerged the Constitutional Convention that met in Philadelphia in May 1787. After persuading New York to send a delegation, Hamilton obtained a place for himself on the delegation.
Duel
To keep the duel secret, Burr and Hamilton left Manhattan from separate docks at 5:00 AM on July 11, 1804, and were each rowed by four men to New Jersey. Burr arrived at Weehawken first, at 6:30 AM; Hamilton landed some 30 minutes later. Both men were accompanied by their seconds (individuals who were responsible for the duel being conducted honorably). Hamilton’s second was Nathaniel Pendleton, a Revolutionary War veteran and Georgia district court judge, while Burr had William P. Van Ness, a New York City federal judge. In addition, Hamilton had also brought Dr. David Hosack, a professor of medicine and botany at Columbia College (now Columbia University). By lot, Hamilton picked the side from which he would fire. Though he had distinguished himself in the Continental Army and was Gen. George Washington’s most-trusted aide during the war, it was unlikely that Hamilton had shot a pistol since the Revolution. Burr too had been a Revolutionary War hero, but, whether or not he had been an able shot during the war, there was evidence that he had been practicing his pistol marksmanship at his Richmond Hill estate (on the edge of modern Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood) for some time in advance of the duel.
As he stood facing Burr, Hamilton aimed his pistol and then asked for a moment to put on spectacles. Hamilton, however, had already told confidants and made clear in valedictory letters that he intended to throw away his shot, possibly by purposefully shooting wide of Burr. The seconds offered conflicting accounts of who shot first and what happened, whether Hamilton missed on purpose or whether he shot wide as a result of involuntarily discharging his pistol after being hit by Burr. In any case, Hamilton missed. Burr did not. His shot hit Hamilton in the abdomen area above the right hip, fractured a rib, tore through his diaphragm and liver, and lodged in his spine.
Aftermath
Having already declared himself a dead man, Hamilton was conveyed back to Manhattan, surviving for roughly 31 hours, mostly in the presence of his family, before he died on July 12, 1804. His death was met with an outpouring of grief, especially from his beloved wife, Eliza. While his legacy was secure as one of America’s great nationalists, Hamilton later became an unexpected popular culture icon with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop musical Hamilton, which became a Broadway blockbuster in 2015. The climax of the production was the duel with Burr.
Hamilton's Final Years and Fatal Duel: 1797–1804
Although Hamilton's life had been filled with extraordinary successes, the year 1797 marked a turning point in his life. From this point on until his death, Hamilton's life was plagued with scandal and political frustrations. His first pitfall struck in 1797, when James Monroe, who would later become president but was at this time a prominent Congressman from Virginia, denounced Hamilton as an adulterer. Monroe accused Hamilton of having an affair in 1791 and 1792 with Maria Reynolds while Hamilton's own wife was away in Philadelphia with their children, and of trying to bribe Reynolds's husband into keeping the affair quiet. Hamilton did, in fact, bribe James Reynolds, but he argued that the money he paid came out of his own pocket, and not out of the government's purse. Monroe had earlier pledged to keep quiet about the affair, but chose for unknown reasons to break his pledge in 1797. Hamilton wrote a public statement admitting his involvement in the extramarital affair, but continued to deny that he had used government funds to pay the bribe. Historians have since determined that James Reynolds had actually encouraged his wife to seduce Hamilton so that the family could make Hamilton purchase their silence.
Conclusion
Hamilton's financial plan was very important, one reason being that it essentially saved the entire nation from economic collapse. Through the creation of the First Bank of the United States the nation raised much needed revenue to pay off is huge war debt. Although in many ways it was a giant success it also caused some conflict and opposition towards the federal government especially in the North West region. Alexander Hamilton's financial plan is a very important part of United States history because the success of the newly established nation would not have been possible if the economy had fallen apart in its first few years of independence. Hamilton's leadership qualities helped to get his plan executed and therefore left a very important legacy that can still be seen in economic practices today.
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