Preview

Alexander Hamilton Economic Genius Essay

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2730 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Alexander Hamilton Economic Genius Essay
PART ONE: ISSUE #7 Alexander Hamilton was born on January 17, 1755 in the Caribbean. He attended Kings College, which is now Columbia University, in New York. Throughout his career(s), he was a military officer, lawyer, financier, and political theorist. Hamilton was elected to the Continental Congress from New York, but he resigned to study law. He served in the New York Legislature, and he was the only New Yorker who signed the U.S. Constitution. Many people considered Alexander Hamilton to be single person to be responsible for the superior economic procedures we hold today. This brings us to our first question: Was Alexander Hamilton an economic genius? Historian John Steele Gordon said yes, Alexander Hamilton was indeed an economic genius. He claimed that Hamilton’s policies for funding and assuming the debts of the confederation and state governments and for establishing a privately controlled Bank of the United States laid the foundation for the rich and powerful national economy we enjoy today. “Hamilton, a deep student of economics, understood public finance thoroughly, a fact he would make dazzlingly clear in the next few years”, says John Steele Gordon. “He sought to …show more content…
He boldly claimed that Lincoln stated over and over that he was opposed to racial equality. “Lincoln also said that he was not and never had been in favor of making voters and jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people” This was quite the strong and bold statement to make about our 16th and arguably best president we as a nation have ever had. DiLorenzo says that Abe also defended slave-owners rights to own their “property”. According to DiLorenzo, “on the topic of emancipation, Lincoln said, free them, and make them politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this… We cannot, then, make them

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The country is in serious debt. Our government has two completely different viewpoints and ideas in the Federalists and Republicans in Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. The ideas of Hamilton will be the only way for our government to have any success and riding our debt, establishing good credit, and keeping the country together. Hamilton has the brilliant idea of assuming all of the states debts. The government will get the states out of debt and issue them government bonds and rid the states of the continentals. Not only will this rid the states of their debts but also it will now allow for all the states to start equal economically. Also the states will trust the government and will loan them money if they need it because the government is slowly establishing good credit, which is necessary if we are to ever fight a war or have a need to borrow money. Hamilton also wants to redeem all of the continentals that were primarily in the hands of veterans or prospectors who had bought them for much lower than par price. Hamilton wants to just get the continentals out of circulation and to start issuing new government bonds. Under Hamilton’s plan, the government will give the people who have the continentals at par no matter how much they bought them for. Jefferson and his colleagues such as Madison realize that the prospectors will now get a large sum of money from the government and the people who had sold given their money to prospectors for far less than its worth will get nothing. The republicans want to track down who originally had the money and pay them; also the republicans accuse Hamilton of wanting an oligarchy made up of wealthy aristocrats like Britain. First of all it is not realistic or possible to track down the original owners of the continentals, the government has much more important things to do. Also although Hamilton wanted the wealthy to have some power in the government because the…

    • 727 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every other founding father's story gets told, every other founding father gets to grow old yet Alexander Hamilton doesn’t get enough credit for all the credit he gave our nation. Alexander Hamilton deserves the legacy he always longed for.Hamilton had a difficult childhood in the Caribbean, his father left when he was only ten. This left Hamilton and his mother in destitution.Two years later Hamilton and his mother fell ill and tragically his mother passed away leaving him an orphan. Alexander knew he had to educate himself and rise up or else he would live a transient life in despair. To escape the impecunious conditions he wrote a book collection and with the income he garnered he purchased a ticket for a ship that was headed to New…

    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After creating a Bill of Rights, the new United States congress turned its focus to the issue of financing the new government. Alexander Hamilton was hired to be the Treasury Secretary by president George Washington. Hamilton made it his duty to develop an economic structure for the United States that would ensure public confidence in the government’s financial affairs.…

    • 319 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Alexander is an orphan who was born in a small island. Even though the odds were against him, that didn’t keep Hamilton from succes. Alexander Hamilton was a pioneer. Hamilton created many things, but he didn’t get to reach his full potential because his life ended in a duel. Therefore, I believe that Hamilton is an extraordinary founding father, and he may be one of the top three founding fathers. First, I will first present the background of Alexander Hamilton. I will give the reader all the information about Hamilton’s path to his succes. After I present Hamilton’s biography, I will begin the argument of why Hamilton is an important founding father. I will support my theories with scholarly sources. The sources will be retrieved from a…

    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alexander Hamilton helped shape America as a founding father, in ways such as politics and government. One of the most famous quotes from him is “Those who stand for nothing fall for anything” (Alexander Hamilton). Born on the small West British Indies island of Nevis, Alexander was made to be a historical figure of importance. He had shown signs of great intelligence starting after a hurricane hit his hometown, and he wrote essays non-stop. He was one of the hardest working founding fathers of America, who did a lot for our country. Without him, the U.S. Constitution might not be, since alongside John Jay and James Madison, they wrote eighty-five essays amongst themselves, defending it. He contributed the other fifty-one essays to what…

    • 368 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hamilton understood that a strong central government would be needed to keep the fledgling country alive. In order to keep a strong government that understood the problems at hand, it needed to be run by first class, educated men. Hamilton also makes a good point in saying that, though Jeffersonians thought the rich would corrupt the government in order to profit for themselves, the rich had nothing to gain as they were already at the top of the social ladder. Whiele Hamilton was a realist, Jefferson was a romantic. He lagged…

    • 974 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The document Alexandre Hamilton Envisions a Developed American Economy 1791 revealed the plans Hamilton had for America. He wanted a division of labor, in order for people to perfect their craft. He also wanted the use of Machinery, employment, he promoted emigration and he also spoke about diversity. Hamilton discussed how the wealth of the country can be gain through manufacturing and the importance of agriculture for the economy.…

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    First of all, Hamilton had a lot of determination. It took Hamilton about a year to persuade Congress to use his financial plan. To persuade Congress, Hamilton agreed to move the nations state capital around the vicinity of the Potomac river(biography.com). Earlier in this article it is mentioned that Hamilton wrote 51 out of 85 of the Federalist papers(Chernow 260). That also shows that he was determined to defend the constitution. He had a lot of integrity as well. Hamilton chose Thomas Jefferson over Aaron Burr to withhold presidency, so he helped with Jefferson's campaign(biography.com). Which shows that Hamilton stood up for what he believed in and followed through. Hamilton was also very visionary. He developed the idea of his financial plan(Biography.com). Which in turn, took a lot of imagination and…

    • 380 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alexander Hamilton was viewed as a military figure and a politician. Hamilton rose in his life and he became a good man throughout his life until he was killed. He had some problems but he figure them out. Alexander Hamilton was born on January 11, 1755 in Charlestown but he states he was born in 1757. Hamilton's mom was Rachel Faucett Lavien. She was a British and French Huguenot descent. Hamilton's father was James Hamilton who was a Scottish trader. Hamilton and his family moved back to St. Croix. After a while Hamilton's father JAmes abandoned his family when Hamilton was just a young boy. He left Rachel and her kids impoverished. Hamilton's mother became sick and soon died which left Hamilton and his siblings orphaned. In 1777 Hamilton has been fighting for years in battle of Brandywine Creek, Germantown and Princeton, Hamilton got…

    • 725 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alexander Hamilton, on the other side, distrusted popular rule and emphasized law, order, authority and property. Alexander Hamilton wanted to promote commerce and industry through a strong central government. He also would diversify American economic life by encouraging shipping and creating manufacturing by legislative directive. Hamilton also believed that a republican style of government could only succeed by the direction of a governing class. He believed that to preserve order and the alliance between business and government, the moneyed class and the wealthy aristocracy should hold all the power.…

    • 618 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alexander Hamilton believed that since The United States was growing as a new nation, they could take advantage of it and use it as a source of energy and cohesion. Furthermore, his main goal was just to spark up the economy and revive it to the point where it was normally flowing. So, his first idea was to completely eradicate all national and stately debt. He wanted to look at the accumulated debt of the Revolutionary War at face value and completely do away with it. Also, he wanted to create a budget for the country with allowed them just enough money to get by and not create any more debt. A federal tax system was also thought of to help bring the nation into financial clearance. The nation would…

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    lived from 1755-1804, and had a large impact on the country. Lots of his influences are still relevant to this day. Not only was he in the artillery at the outbreak of war, but he created the Bank of America. Over all of that, he was also highly favored by the people and even the president.…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alexander Hamilton had a rough and tough childhood. Born on the West Indian Island of Nevis as the illegitimate son of James Hamilton (a Scottish trader) and Rachel Faucett Lavien. Hamilton underwent a lot as a child. He had to face his mother's death at the age of twelve and his dad's bankruptcy, which forced him to go live with some folks that accepted to take him in.…

    • 874 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alexander Hamilton was a very impressive man. He was born in Charlestown Nevis, in the West Indies on January 11, 1757. He died on July 12, 1804 at age 49. Hamilton accomplished many things in his life snap, for example he was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States; he was also well-respected statesman and a successful military leader. Alexander Hamilton. (n.d.). Retrieved October 12, 2017, from bhttp://colonialhall.com/hamilton/hamilton.php…

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imagine having your father leave your family and your mother die at the age of twelve. Imagine after all of that, spend years studying in the Caribbean alone and finally being sent to America. That is what happened to Alexander Hamilton. All of that time he spent reading and writing helped him in the future. He used the skills he created to make a brilliant financial system that would be used hundreds of years later. In addition to a financial system, Hamilton wrote most of the Federalist Papers. Hamilton wrote 51 essays out of the 85 essays. He could not have done this without his ambition, determination, and brilliance. Because of all the time he spent studying, Hamilton became very smart and rose up in power and was chosen to be a New…

    • 1186 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays