A Documentary Companion to the Exhibition at the New-YYork Historical Society — FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS — A Documentary Companion to the Exhibition at the New-YYork Historical Society — FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS — with an Introduction by Richard Brookhiser Published in honor of the New-York Historical Society by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History New York, NY Richard Brookhiser is an independent scholar and writer based in New York City. He is the author of Alexander Hamilton, American (New York, 1999) and Historian Curator of the exhibition Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America, at the New-York Historical Society from September 10, 2004 through February 28, 2005 and, in panel form, nationally thereafter. EDITORIAL COMMITTEE James Basker Justine Ahlstrom Libby Garland Nicole Seary Stacy Ward Thanks to the following for additional research: Clare Brown, New-York Historical Society Donna Davey, New-York Historical Society Sandra Trenholm, Gilder Lehrman Collection Mina Rieur Weiner, New-York Historical Society Illustration credits: p. 8: from the Collection of the New-York Historical Society (N-YHS) 1904.1; p. 11: from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, GLC 79; p. 12: N-YHS 1952.359ab (musket), N-YHS INV.5996.1 (cannonball), N-YHS INV. 5778.19-23 (grapeshot); p. 15: N-YHS, Hyde Collection 1338; p. 17: Manuscript Collection of the N-YHS; p. 20: GLC 819.01; p. 21: GLC 3585; p. 23: Museum of American Financial History (paper currency); N-YHS INV.13710.5 (Mexican coin), N-YHS INV.13864a (NJ copper), N-YHS INV.13867c (“Fugio cent”), N-YHS INV.13896ab (silver dollar); p. 25: GLC 7882; p. 27: N-YHS Manuscript Collection; back cover: NYHS 1978.58 (portrait of Elizabeth Hamilton), N-YHS Manuscript Collection (newspaper article). ISBN 1-932821-05-8 Copyright © 2004 The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION by Richard Brookhiser 4 NOTE TO EDUCATORS 6 IMMIGRATION 8 An Immigrant’s View of America: New York City in the 1750s REVOLUTION 10 The Declaration of Independence The Continental Army The American Rattle Snake, April 12, 1782 ABOLITION 16 “Regard, with Compassion, the Injustice done to . Slaves”: The Principles of the New York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, February 4, 1785 CONSTITUTION 18 “We the People of the States”: The Preamble to a Draft of the Constitution of the United States, August 1787 “We the People of the United States”: The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States, September 17, 1787 TREASURY 22 Money in the Early United States DUEL 24 “General Hamilton was this morning woun[d]ed: A Letter from Hamilton’s Sister-in-Law Angelica Church to Her Brother Philip J. Schuyler, July 11, 1804 DEATH 26 “During his last illness”: The Physician’s Bill for Attending Hamilton’s Deathbed The Order of March for Hamilton’s Funeral, July 14, 1804 [Shown on BACK COVER] A Portrait of His Widow, Elizabeth Hamilton [Shown on BACK COVER] ANSWER GUIDE 30 INTRODUCTION Alexander Hamilton lives in our memory because he died in a lurid duel with Vice President Aaron Burr, and because we carry his face in our wallets, on the ten dol- lar bill. But Hamilton’s packed and varied career was impressive enough for Mount Rushmore. More than any other Founder, he foresaw the America we now live in. All the Founders had high ideals, but Hamilton—industrious, visionary, combative and urbane—shaped the institutions that would make those ideals come to life. The new nation’s legal, economic and political systems all bore Hamilton’s mark. Hamilton was born on the Caribbean island of Nevis, probably in 1757, and raised on St. Croix. Those early years marked him. The shame of his birth, to unmar- ried parents, fueled a lifelong concern with honor. The West Indian sugar economy, prosperous and brutal, gave him a firsthand view of slavery, a system he would come to oppose. Clerking in a New York-based merchant house in St. Croix taught him the workings of international commerce from the bottom up. In 1773, Hamilton was sent to New York to be educated. His identity as an immi- grant shaped his identity as an American. When native-born Americans of the period spoke of their “country,” they usually meant their home states; Hamilton’s loyalty was only and always to the United States. Sometimes the short-sighted particularism of his countrymen drove him to despair, but Hamilton always overcame it, and worked for the unity, strength and self-respect of his adopted nation. Hamilton arrived in New York during a dramatic time. Shortly after he began his studies at King’s College (now Columbia University), Britain and its colonies went to war. Hamilton left school to fight. His experience in the American Revolution—first as the captain of a New York artillery company, then as a colonel on George Washington’s staff—was an education in military and political affairs. In his private affairs, as in his public ones, Hamilton joined the new nation’s elite. In December 1780, he had married Elizabeth Schuyler, daughter of General Philip Schuyler and one of the most eligible young women in New York. Hamilton believed ardently in the Revolutionary cause, but he could also face reality, and much of it was dark. Working for the commander in chief plunged him into the country’s financial and constitutional problems. Congress, in its original form, lacked the power to tax; funding the war was thus a constant struggle. Hamilton chafed at the inefficiencies and lack of coordination. At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Hamilton and the other framers under- took to repair the systemic weakness that Hamilton had witnessed during the war. Hamilton and his fellow Federalists argued passionately for a stronger, more central- ized government. The document that the delegates to the Convention produced is an elaborate mechanism, but the change in the opening words of the Preamble, from the first draft to the final version, symbolizes its nationalizing and energizing tendencies: “We the People of the United States.” That prophetic language was the handiwork of Gouverneur Morris, delegate from Pennsylvania. But it reflected the hopes and the 4 ideas of Morris’s friend Hamilton, who would spend the rest of his career implement- ing them. In 1788, the Constitution was ratified, in part because of Hamilton’s intense pub- lic efforts on its behalf in The Federalist Papers, published in eighty-five installments in New York newspapers between October 1787 and May 1788. Hamilton conceived of the project and wrote nearly two-thirds of the essays; John Jay and James Madison wrote the rest. In 1789, Washington became the nation’s first President under the Constitution and chose Hamilton, his former aide, as Treasury Secretary. Hamilton more than any other Founder kept the weak new nation from bankruptcy; he and Washington kept it out of world war; he and his admirer John Marshall kept it from capricious justice. If he had failed, we might use the phrase “maple republics” instead of “banana republics,” and the United States would have been the first one. No politician achieves everything he wants—especially not a politician as creative and headstrong as Hamilton. In the late 1790s, he fought against the demise of the Federalist party and the rise of Jefferson’s Republicans. But when the deadlocked presidential election of 1800 was thrown to the House of Representatives to break the tie, Hamilton advised Federalists to perform the irksome task of choosing one enemy, Thomas Jefferson, over another, Aaron Burr. All the Founders were ambitious, said Hamilton, but they all moderated (or made compacts with) their ambition: all of them save Aaron Burr. Hence Hamilton reluctantly preferred Jefferson. Burr finally resented this, and many other slights. The gentlemen corresponded, and agreed to do what gentlemen did when honor was at stake. The Vice President and the former Treasury Secretary met on July 11, 1804, at Weehawken, New Jersey. Hamilton’s bullet hit the branch of a cedar tree. Burr’s pierced Hamilton’s abdomen. The hectic note of Elizabeth’s sister Angelica Church, dashed off the morning her brother-in-law (and perhaps lover) was shot, expresses the hope that Hamilton would recover, but he died the next day. The description of his funeral procession was printed in the New-York Evening Post, the newspaper he founded. Alexander Hamilton’s death was two centuries ago. The issues he lived with— war and peace; law and disorder; debt and prosperity; passion and ambition—are the eternal stuff of politics. —RICHARD BROOKHISER 5 NOTE TO EDUCATORS Immigration, Revolution, Abolition, Constitution: These are some of the topics that we share with you and your students in this documentary companion. Through Alexander Hamilton's honor in life and notoriety in death students gain an additional perspective with which to study these important themes in America’s history. Activities in this resource are divided into mini-units based on these topics. The units can be used singularly, to support your established curriculum, or collectively, to offer an introduction to Hamilton and defining American moments of which he was a part. Student activities are located adjacent to the primary sources. This provides an opportunity to delve into important historical topics through contemporary materials. Document analysis allows students to hone critical thinking skills. In completing the included exercises, students gain historical content, while practicing English language arts, mathematics and geography skills within the context of Hamilton's life. As you explore the contents of this book, you might consider the following activities: • Write an essay that supports Alexander Hamilton's life as an example of the American Dream.