HAMILTON, ALEXANDER. – American statesman, b. on the island of Nevis (Antilles) on 11 January 1757, d. in New York on 12 July 1804. Of precocious talent, he was sent to study in New York, where the outbreak of the War of Independence caught up with him. Having taken a decisive stand, first as a publicist and then as a soldier, for the colonies and against England, in 1777 he became Washington’s aide-de-camp, a position he held for four years. After the victorious conclusion of the war, he was a delegate of the State of New York to the Continental Congress and then to the Philadelphia Assembly (of which he was one of the promoters), which drafted the new federal Constitution.
To secure his State’s votes for it, he published, with the collaboration of Madison and Jay, a series of articles which, having appeared in a newspaper and then been collected under the title The federalist, became a classic exegesis of the American Constitution. An advocate of a strong, unitary state, H. opposed the revolutionary and democratic currents that wished to leave the individual States the greatest possible autonomy, at the expense of the central government. Appointed Secretary of the Treasury, he implemented an energetic policy of economic reorganization in order to consolidate federal authority. Far removed from the Enlightenment, inspired by vigorous realism and a policy of power, he clashed with Jefferson, Secretary of State and leader of the democratic movement. After a long struggle, he resigned in 1795. Killed in a duel by a political opponent, he left an indelible mark on the political and economic history of the United States, and the country’s conservative movements still invoke his teaching.