From April 17, 2020--Alexander Hamilton and the American System Part 3

Alexander Hamilton Part 3—The Origins of America’s Great Young Economic Genius.

On March 1, 1777, Alexander Hamilton was appointed the Aide-de-camp to Commanding General of the Continental Army, George Washington, at the rank of Lt. Colonel. He had served as Captain of a New York Artillery Company for the year prior. He operated mostly out of Washington’s Headquarters by later that year after the British capture of Philadelphia, then relocated to the famous 3 story house at the Valley Forge Encampment beginning December 19, 1777, remaining until June 19, 1778. 

Throughout that time, Hamilton assisted Washington in managing the dire shortages after the collapse of the Army’s supplies; he also coordinated logistics and communication between the commanding Generals, Washington, future Quartermaster and his most reliable General, Nathaniel Greene, Marquis de Lafayette, General Anthony Wayne, and Baron von Steuben, the man who trained the rag tag Army, and others. He liasoned with the Continental Congress, and fought along with his dear friend Henry Laurens to procure more support for the starving and sick Soldiers Headquartered there, navigating a treacherous political terrain through often corrupt and parochial State oriented Congressmen, who in many ways sabotaged the Army and their efforts.

Hamilton did what an effective Chief of Staff does, which is handle most of the details in running the day to day operations of the Army, helping free up Washington to concentrate on strategy and maintaining morale. Hamilton helped manage Washington’s time, coordinated meetings, provided maps, and was often the daily briefing officer, reporting directly to Washington with battle reports and Intelligence. He was no Gopher, which is why Washington passed over so many in favor of him.

He was 20 years old.

Yes, you read that correctly. He was 20 years old and was virtually running the day to day operations of the American War of Independence. Now, the obvious question, how did that happen? Maybe he was born to a wealthy and old patrician family of Virginia Plantation slaveowners, who ordained his future success before he was born. Maybe he was raised in comfort, tutored by brilliant scholars as a child, and brought along through the right social layers so that he could marry into George Washington’s family, or even his Daughter, just like Jared Kushner, and found himself plopped right into the Command HQ and put in charge. Uh, no, that's not exactly what happened.

Hamilton was born illegitimate, and grew up poor on a small Caribbean island, Nevis, Charlestown in the British West Indies. His Mother, Rachel Faucett, was forced into an arranged marriage by her family to a merchant named Lavien, who was thought to be wealthy by his extravagant wardrobe, but was not. He was abusive and out of paranoia had her incarcerated. Finally she left, later believing she had obtained a legal Divorce. She moved to Nevis, and took up with one James Hamilton, who though of noble lineage, was an unsuccessful drunk, and they had Alexander out of Wedlock. 

Years later, they married, however on a business trip, James was arrested and charged because the Divorce had never gone through, and he was told he had to pay an indemnity for marrying Lavien’s wife. He fled the Island and disappeared, leaving Rachel, Alexander and brother James alone and saddled with debt. Overworked and growing sicker, Rachel died of Tropical Fever, and her former Husband Lavien successfully claimed his right to take her home and meager means remaining. Alexander and his Brother therefore were orphaned and destitute, and they were placed with his mother’s nephew, Peter Lytton, who not long after, committed suicide. So, at that point, he needed to be taken in by the Father of a friend and became separated from his Brother.

However, Young Alexander had proven to be extremely bright, and a quick study. He was homeschooled by a Jewish Woman on the Island, who was a friend of his mother, and she taught him some Hebrew, among other things. He quickly became conversant in French, and displayed his talent in other areas. He was sent to work as a clerk for a shipping company at age 9, called Beckman and Cruger. They soon recognized that the young man was an organizational genius, and gradually gave him more responsibility for the enterprise, while they travelled. In short, he coordinated the loading and inventory of cargo, shipping schedules, became paymaster for the other employees, and managed the financial records of transactions. He initiated and ran a double entry booking system of Income Accounting, to guard against fraud and theft, and by the age of 12, was running the company. Within two years, Cruger moved to New York for health reasons, and left Hamilton in charge entirely, and at 14 he was coordinating all the Cargo and giving orders to Sea Captains, while on his own, mastering the principles of retail and Wholesale Trade. In the meantime, he spent his time off reading Plutarch’s Lives, the writings of Alexander Pope, writing Poetry, and studying Mathematics and Science.

He was working on the Island of St. Croix, when he was “discovered”, by a visiting businessman and Minister named Reverend Hugh Knox in 1772, who saw immediately that Hamilton was an aspiring young genius. He found that one of the most important influences on him growing up in the Islands, was his hatred and condemnation of slavery. In the Colony where he grew up, the idle rich lived in luxury which was based on the slave labor of most of the native population, which outnumbered the Whites 10 to 1. Knox and Cruger arranged for Hamilton to be moved to New Jersey to live with the Princeton educated Knox, and he was basically groomed from that point on to become the person he turned out to be.

The incredible good fortune for Hamilton and for the United States, and for History, was that the Family and associates of the Knox family of New Jersey were playing a central role in the growing movement for Independence from the Crown of England, and adopting the first ever great experiment in Self Government. This grouping which Hamilton was brought into, not coincidentally, was the coordinating body for what was then the Abolitionist Movement, and they were a group that was known for their courting of controversy and danger. They were outliers in American Society at that time, willing to stake their names and livelihoods for a cause that was a Capital offense in those days, namely Sedition, which would have gotten them hung. This was the environment that shaped the young Hamilton’s identity and ambitions.

From a very early age, he not only displayed genius qualities, but his character was stamped with an idealism that led him to become a Revolutionary Leader at the age of 17, writing pamphlets, getting commissioned in the Continental Army as a Captain and leading men into battle, while all along finishing a very difficult curriculum at King’s College, (later Columbia U) within a year and a half of his enrollment.

This is what he was doing when he was called upon to become Washington’s aide-de-camp, and right hand man.

--to be continued,
Part 4, Hamilton realizes that Articles of Confederation won't work