Alexander Hamilton, by Daniel Huntington, circa 1865.


Oil on canvas portrait of Alexander Hamilton, standing with his hand resting on a table. He wears a green velvet suit, gold vest, and white, high neck, lace shirt.
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"Next to him, I was but a candle in the noon-day sun." So said Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall when describing Alexander Hamilton. Born on the West Indies in 1755 to a debt-prone father of noble Scottish lineage and a beautiful mother of French Huguenot blood, Alexander Hamilton did not begin life with any better than an average prospect of success. By the summer of 1787, Hamilton was in Philadelphia as a new York delegate and went on to be the primary author of The Federalist; 85 essays that helped turn the tide of opinion and see the Constitution ratified. As first Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton was tasked to establish national credit where none existed, and on the morning of July 11, 1804, he was shot in a duel by Vice President Aaron Burr and died the next day.