Jun 20, 2018 By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 6 min read

Until he became a Broadway sensation, Alexander Hamilton mainly was known for being the guy in a powdered wig on the $10 bill.

Then came Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award-winning “Hamilton: An American Musical,” which not only took the art of rapping back to the 18th century but sparked widespread interest in a man whose life story features the elements of a Shakespearean tragedy: Overcoming the humblest of origins to propel him upward, only to have his life end in an eminently dramatic manner.

In between, he combined forces with a much more famous American to set the wheels in motion for a new nation and two-plus centuries of its future.

“There are a lot of partnerships that were critical to the founding of the United States,” Denver Brunsman said. “But the one between George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, I think, was the most important.”

And so the George Washington University history professor launched his presentation to a capacity crowd on June 14 – Flag Day, appropriately enough – at Peters Township Public Library, addressing the topic “Hamilton, Washington and the Creation of the United States.”

We learn a great deal in school about the Father of Our Country, from his (fictional) chopping down a cherry tree and telling the truth about it to his leading the military during the Revolution and serving as the first U.S. president.

We don’t hear as much, though, about a teenager (possibly) whom Washington took on as his assistant during the war for independence, starting an alliance that eventually launched the American financial system.

In the meantime, there’s the origin story:

“Hamilton comes from such obscure beginnings that there’s a debate among historians about when he was born,” Brunsman said, with 1755 and 1757 as the contenders, and Hamilton, of course, going with the latter when he was alive.

Historians do agree that he was born on the minuscule Caribbean island of Nevis, that he was the illegitimate son of a Scottish father and still-married-to-someone-else mother, and that she died when Alexander was 11, leaving him effectively orphaned.

By that time, he had made his way slightly northwest to the Virgin Islands, where a kindly soul named Thomas Stevens and his family took in the youngster. They also set him up as an apprentice to a merchant, and despite his age, he showed a strong aptitude for financial matters and soon was keeping track of the company ledgers.

Hamilton showed an aptitude for writing, too. His account of a Caribbean hurricane in 1772 was widely read and acclaimed after making its way to mainland newspapers, and the Stevens family and friends promptly raised enough money to send him to New York City.

Library hosts Hamilton exhibition

Peters Township Public Library is hosting “Alexander Hamilton: Immigrant, Patriot, Visionary,” a national traveling exhibition, through July 7.

Thursday, June 14 through Saturday, July 7

Using primarily reproductions from the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s renowned collections and drawing on recent scholarship about Alexander Hamilton, the exhibition examines Hamilton’s role during the Revolutionary War and founding of the United States in creating the economic, constitutional, social, journalistic, political and foreign-policy templates for modern America.

The exhibition is made possible by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Fast-forward to 1776, when the possibly 19-year-old soldier for the Continental Army met its commander and apparently made a dazzling impression. Early the following year, Washington appointed Hamilton as his aide-de-camp, or top assistant.

One of his primary duties was to write letters in the general’s name.

“It was a critical position that Hamilton had, particularly begging Congress for resources for the Continental Army,” Brunsman explained. “But he hated it. He wanted the battlefield glory.

“He constantly asked Washington to basically be released from his position and to have a battlefield commission. And Washington repeatedly said no.”

Hamilton eventually got his way, just in time for the decisive Battle of Yorktown. On Oct. 14, 1781, he led his column against a British fortification in what Brunsman called “pretty grisly hand-to-hand combat,” one of the actions that hastened Lord Cornwallis’ surrender five days later.

Having established himself as a war hero in addition to a capable right-hand man, Hamilton in 1787 was Washington’s choice for the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury. Actually, he was the second choice: financier Robert Morris, of the Moon Township university fame, turned down the new president.

In his cabinet role, Hamilton drafted reports supporting his ideas of establishing a national bank and national taxation system, consolidating the financial obligations of various states into a national debt, and promoting a manufacturing-based economy.

“They’re all genius,” Brunsman said about the writings. “They really went back, I think, to his roots in St. Croix running that merchant firm, because they all promote a capitalistic, commercial economic system, what we would call capitalism.”

Not all early Americans were on board, though, especially with regard to taxes and especially in Western Pennsylvania.

“Alexander Hamilton actually coined the term ‘the Whiskey Rebellion,'” Brunsman reported. “It was his policy, after all, that the farmers in this region were opposing, and they opposed it from the very beginning.

“Tax collectors got tarred and feathered. Houses were burnt. And Hamilton and Washington decided there had to be some response from the national government.”

The response, by 13,000 troops in 1794, proved to be more than enough for the rebels and went a long way to establishing the national government’s authority.

Hamilton resigned from the cabinet shortly afterward, ostensibly to spend the proverbial more time with the family, but he remained a political force for the rest of his life.

As you may recall from history class, Hamilton wasn’t on the best of terms with Aaron Burr, whose shot at being elected president in 1800 was derailed by Hamilton’s begrudging support of Thomas Jefferson. By the practice of the time, Burr had to settle for vice president, and Jefferson didn’t want him around for a second term.

So in 1804, Burr decided to run for governor of New York.

“Hamilton said he was despicable,” Brunsman said. “Burr challenged him to a duel. They went to New Jersey, where, as they say in the musical, everything is legal.”

Brunsman then explained the period protocol for such confrontations.

“You were supposed to be strong enough to go put yourself in that position, but then you were really supposed to miss. You weren’t supposed to aim.

“Hamilton missed. He shot into the air. Burr aimed and hit Hamilton.”

Goodnight, sweet prince.