Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton. (aff.) New York: Penguin Books, 2004. 818 pages.
This book could be “Exhibit A” for why I love biographies. Ron Chernow is an excellent historian and an engaging writer. He has written several of my favorite biographies, including books on J.P. Morgan (House of Morgan) and John Rockefeller (Titan). He writes an adequate number of pages, researches extensively, and includes plenty of brilliant turns of phrases. Finally, Chernow picked a character who is both historically significant and personally fascinating.
Alexander Hamilton is considered one of the Founding Fathers of America, perhaps the only one of the famous founders who did not ultimately become president. I have read biographies on George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe, and Hamilton regularly appears in those narratives, rarely in a positive light. Only George Washington seemed to genuinely admire his talents, and Washington was seldom wrong in such estimations.
Hamilton is someone about whom one cannot remain neutral. He inspires either admiration or loathing. He made many close friends but also generated more than his fair share of enemies. He did much to assist George Washington in setting the original precedents for the United States government and, being the first secretary of the treasury, did much to establish the United States as the world’s eventual superpower in commerce and banking. Perhaps Hamilton’s crowning achievement in acquiring fame was his mode of death: shot during a duel with an unseemly character at age 49. That he left behind a devoted wife and seven children is the final reason it is all but impossible to be indifferent to him.
I have not yet seen the Broadway musical Hamilton, which is based on this biography. At first, I was puzzled why Broadway would choose Hamilton over some of his peers who ultimately became president. But after I read this book, I understood why much of his life strongly appeals to people today. He was a highly unlikely person to achieve a fraction of what he did.
Hamilton was born in Nevis in the British West Indies (6). Chernow notes, “While other founding fathers were reared in tidy New England villages or cossetted on baronial Virginia estates, Hamilton grew up in a tropical hellhole of dissipated whites and fractious slaves” (8). Hamilton’s mother, Rachel Faucette, suffered a miserable existence. Her parents were legally separated. As a result, Rachel inherited a small amount of money as a young girl. She married Johanne Lavien, twelve years her senior, when she was 16 (10). He clearly married her for money, not love. The marriage soon became unbearable for Rachel. She finally abandoned her husband and their only child, Peter (11). Lavien, an insufferable boor, accused Rachel of adultery and blamed the failed marriage entirely on her. The courts decided in Lavien’s favor and forbid Rachel to remarry. So, when Rachel met James Hamilton, an impoverished fourth son of a minor Scottish noble family, she could not legally marry him. This restriction forced Alexander into illegitimacy, a stigma of which Alexander would be ashamed and hypersensitive for the rest of his life.
James Hamilton was a lazy, untalented man who soon left his two sons with Rachel and disappeared from Alexander’s life. Rachel sought to rear her sons as a single mom and started her own business. Eventually, she and Alexander both contracted a serious illness. The two of them lay in the same bed fighting for their lives. Rachel succumbed to the disease, just inches from Alexander. Immediately, government officials seized the family’s possessions. Rachel’s former husband, Lavien, claimed his son Peter was entitled to all of the assets as Rachel had abandoned her first child. The courts found in his favor, leaving Alexander without his mother or any of his possessions. Alexander and his brother were eventually placed with a first cousin, Peter Lytton, age 32. But Lytton eventually committed suicide, leaving Alexander abandoned once more.
One cannot read the story of Alexander Hamilton’s childhood without being amazed that he could, within a few short years, become the right-hand man of George Washington during the Revolutionary War and then serve in the first cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury. His is truly the American story!
Many aspects of Hamilton’s character and legacy only make sense after understanding his childhood. He grew up in a place populated by more black slaves than free whites. He witnessed the slavery system’s debauchery. Thus, he was the most consistent anti-slavery advocate of the Founding Fathers. Nine of the first American presidents owned slaves. Only Washington set his free (after his death). Hamilton was always sensitive about his illegitimacy and the fact he had little to no contact with his father. A mystery surrounded his birth father. His mother was accused of adultery and loose living, perhaps as a means of surviving and feeding her children. Eventually, a businessman named Thomas Stevens took Alexander into his home. Curiously, he did not take in Alexander’s brother. Many have speculated that Stevens may actually have been Alexander’s father. Stevens’ son Edward looked remarkably like Hamilton and remained much closer to him than Hamilton’s biological brother did. Chernow speculates that this theory might explain why James Hamilton abandoned his son so easily. It would also explain why Alexander always seemed closer to the Stevens family than to his own. As an immigrant who was the child of a single mother and perhaps unsure of his father’s identity, Hamilton was always sensitive about his family history.
Chernow notes that Hamilton could always attract the attention and patronage of older, powerful men. He gained the support of Thomas Stevens (who may have been his father), George Washington (whom some accused of being his father), and Hugh Knox, a minister on the island (34). After a hurricane devastated the island, Hamilton wrote a letter to his father describing the chaos. Knox was so impressed with Hamilton’s writing ability that he submitted it to a magazine for publication. The resultant notoriety changed Hamilton’s life forever. Local businesspeople sponsored Hamilton to go to America to receive an education.
Hamilton learned two valuable lessons before leaving his homeland. Having clerked for his adoptive father in his trade business, he had learned about international commerce. This experience helped him immensely when he supervised trade for the United States. He had also learned the power of the pen. His use of words won him fame and power for the remainder of his life.
Hamilton was a notoriously hard worker. Chernow notes, “Orphan boys do not enjoy the option of idleness” (30). Hamilton was also a voracious reader who studied feverishly and determined to master any subject that interested him. He had a choice of nine schools in the United States. He first inquired at Princeton, the school where James Madison and Aaron Burr studied. But Hamilton precociously informed the president that he wanted to advance more rapidly than was usual. Hamilton seemed always to be in a hurry to make up for lost time. When he learned he would not be allowed to do so, he ultimately enrolled at King’s College in New York, which would eventually become Columbia University. Ironically, rather than being linked to Princeton, New Jersey, and other rising political stars like James Madison, Hamilton was linked to New York City and a British institution, which would lead his enemies to brand him as an anglophile for the remainder of his life.
The Revolutionary War erupted while Hamilton was in college. He immediately leapt into the fray, making compelling speeches and writing persuasive articles. Ironically, the recent immigrant was fully immersed in the fight for independence from the outset. Chernow notes that “. . . it placed his ambition at the service of loftier ideals” (58). He always employed a vigorous take-no-prisoners writing approach. Chernow observes, “This slashing style of attack would make Hamilton the most feared polemist in America, but it won him enemies as well as admirers. Unlike Franklin or Jefferson, he never learned to subdue his opponents with a slight touch or a sly, artful, understated turn of phrase” (60). As with so many influential people in history, the feature that gave Hamilton his power also led to his undoing.
At 21, Hamilton became the captain of an artillery company. He immediately enlisted thirty men (73). He read military manuals and drilled his men until they were highly efficient. His bravery and thoroughness eventually caught Washington’s attention, and he was enlisted to serve with him (85). Perhaps Hamilton’s greatest desire was to win military honor. Although he became indispensable to Washington, he asked to be released from his service so he could engage in active combat. He eventually fought at Yorktown. Chernow notes, “Throughout his career, Hamilton had a knack for being present at historic moments” (140).
Hamilton married Elizabeth Schuyler. Her father was a successful businessman in Albany. Once again, Hamilton won the admiration and loyalty of an older, powerful man. Hamilton became an attorney on Wall Street in New York City after the war. He may well have done more than anyone else at that time to make New York City the commercial colossus it became (186). Nevertheless, Chernow notes, “However loaded with superabundant talent, Hamilton was a man of insecurities that he usually kept well hidden” (144).
Hamilton believed deeply in America. He believed less in Americans (232). He valued freedom, but he feared unrestrained freedom that could lead to mobs. Hamilton never shared Jefferson’s optimism in the people. He had grown up with a front row seat to people’s evil behavior, and he knew sufficient laws and checks and balances were necessary to prevent people from succumbing to their worst tendencies.
This conviction led Hamilton to write his most brilliant work, The Federalist Papers, with James Madison and John Jay. It continues to be required reading for anyone attempting to understand the American system of government. One of Hamilton’s problems was that he had deep principles and exalted values. He preferred leading from above as a statesman rather than making compromises as a politician (324). However, “Beneath his invincible facade, Hamilton was still the hypersensitive boy from the west Indies. His combativeness was always more than just a political calculation. For he brooded obsessively about slights to his honor. The supreme rationalist, who feared the passions of the mob more than any other founder, was himself a man of deep and often ungovernable emotions” (309).
Chernow argues that Hamilton was at his best when he was tethered to a wise anchor like Washington. But, when free from such constraints, his emotions and passions could lead him to make uncharacteristically foolish decisions.
Chernow claims that if Washington was the father of the country and Madison the father of the constitution, then Hamilton was the father of the American government (481). Hamilton believed that the executive branch, not Congress, should be the leading branch of the government (351). He established the Bank of America so the country could maintain its own financing and spur investments. He did much to establish the capitalist, entrepreneurial system of commerce that would promote business in the new country.
What makes Hamilton such a fascinating subject for study is that he was both brilliant and deeply flawed. One of his greatest mistakes was his sordid affair with Maria Reynolds (362). Her husband ultimately blackmailed him. This devastating failure haunted Hamilton the remainder of his days, because he was accused of being an unfaithful husband while seeking his countrymen’s trust. His marriage survived this gross shortfall in judgment and thrived in the later days. Hamilton’s eight children never spoke an unkind word about him.
Another huge mistake was Hamilton’s eventual assault on John Adams. The two men suffered such a grievous falling out that Hamilton eventually wrote a scathing pamphlet against Adams that was ineffective and greatly harmed Hamilton. It certainly helped guarantee Thomas Jefferson’s election.
Chernow lays out the life-long interaction between Hamilton and Aaron Burr in such a way that he foreshadows the eventual duel in New Jersey that ended Hamilton’s life. Aaron Burr and Hamilton followed parallel tracks in their careers in many ways. Burr is portrayed as a schemer with few guiding principles except his desire for success. Chernow goes to great lengths to make a case for why Hamilton could not turn aside from the impending conflict for the sake of his family or career. Having always been hypersensitive about his honor, he could not bring himself to appear as a coward. Hamilton’s oldest son, Phillip, had died previously from a duel over his father’s honor. Phillip had followed his father’s advice and refused to shoot at his opponent. Such a strategy cost him his life. It also cost the sanity of Hamilton’s daughter Angelica who was close to her brother. Yet Hamilton chose to use the same strategy against Burr, and it had the same result.
This book is fascinating on many levels. It certainly explains much of what the Founding Fathers intended when they established the United States. It also raises the interesting point that, though the founders were brilliant politicians, they also degenerated into vicious animosity. Chernow holds no punches in revealing John Adams as petty, claiming he “had an encyclopedic memory for slights” (271). Adams became estranged from his drunkard son Charles and vowed never to lay eyes on him again (a vow he kept) (597). Adams was also one of only three outgoing presidents who refused to attend his successor’s inauguration. Thomas Jefferson is shown as a conniving schemer who was a greater womanizer than Hamilton was. Although he constantly accused Hamilton of being concerned about the wealthy businesspeople, Jefferson represented plantation owners who maintained their wealth on the backs of slaves. Chernow portrays Madison as a brilliant man who shied away from direct confrontation with Hamilton. James Monroe is also shown to have been complicit in underhanded dealings to harm Hamilton, something for which Hamilton’s wife never forgave him.
Chernow also shows how brutal and personal politics could be in that era. Lies and character assassination were commonplace. From the beginning, politicians tried to represent each other as caring for the wealthy at the expense of the common working person. There were also heated political divides on how to handle immigration (at the time, the concern was over allowing entry to Irish immigrants). As bad as politics seems today, there is truly nothing new under the sun!
Chernow takes time near the end of the book to examine Hamilton’s growing interest in religion. Though he did not regularly attend church or take communion, he claimed to believe that Christianity could be proven in a court of law. He also pleaded to receive communion before he died. The first ministers were reluctant to comply, since he had not practiced that rite throughout his life.
I highly recommend this book. It provides a graphic view of the founding of America and addresses many of the issues the founders faced. It focuses on a man whose life was deeply flawed and scarred yet managed to face his demons and produce a life filled with noble and heroic accomplishments. Hamilton lived his life in such a manner that it was impossible to remain indifferent to him. I suspect this biography will meet with a similar response.
Rating: 5
