Hamilton’s wife, Elizabeth, lived for 50 years after his death, and from all evidence she pined for him the entire time. The handwritten statement he composed days before he died is one example, but I find another set of documents from long after Hamilton’s death even more revealing and touching. I don’t mean to sound too sentimental, but there is something exhilarating about holding the same pieces of paper he held even his tediously detailed reports to Congress on manufacturing or letters to Congress with statements on “imports, exports and tonnage.” Elizabeth Hamilton, 1781 ARC Identifier 532936 / Local Identifier 148-GW-933 Records of Legislative Commissions, Record Group 148 National Archives, College Park MD.Įven more fascinating than the official reports and studies, however, are the records that shed light on the personal side of Hamilton. Working with the records of Congress at the National Archives allows me to see firsthand evidence of Hamilton’s life and work. Mint, and the Coast Guard.Įven Hamilton’s contemporaries scorned him-John Adams, for instance, called him “the bastard brat of a Scotch pedlar.” But Hamilton’s ability to frustrate his detractors just made him more appealing to me. Were his negatives-he was born out of wedlock, philandered, promoted the benefits of child labor, and lost a duel-overshadowing his many accomplishments? Hamilton served in the Continental Army, Continental Congress, and Constitutional Convention was the first Secretary of Treasury and established the first National Bank, the U.S. I often wondered why Jefferson was so beloved while Hamilton, clearly brilliant with remarkable foresight, was so underappreciated. An orphan from the British West Indies who traveled alone to America as a teenager, Hamilton rose from his humble beginnings to become one of the most important men in our nation’s history. In school, most of my teachers touted the importance of founders like James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, but after reading the Federalist Papers, I became hooked on Alexander Hamilton.
I’ve been fascinated by Hamilton for as long as I’ve studied American history. Maybe the gigantic replica $10 bill hanging in my office gives it away? Most of my colleagues are all too aware that Alexander Hamilton is my history crush.
She’s been carrying a torch for one of our record-makers for quite some time! Today’s “History Crush” comes from Jessie Kratz, an archives specialist with the Center for Legislative Archives. Alexander Hamilton, by John Trumbull (after painting by Giuseppe Ceracchi, 1801) National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution Gift of Henry Cabot Lodge
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