Born in 1755 of Scottish and French Huguenot parents, Hamilton became a Lieutenant Colonel in the Continental Army under Washington. He was also a successful lawyer who argued many cases in New York. Significantly, Hamilton was a financial innovator at a time when the new nation desperately needed money. Along with Madison and Jay, Hamilton wrote the Federalist Papers, a series of debates about how best to govern the new republic.

Hamilton did not believe in a Bill of Rights. Instead, he believed in a strong central government that could secure the nation from Europe; any limitations on that power simply hindered the national security effort. On the issue of a constitution, he offered this: “Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things.”  He understood the problems of government: “In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.”

As an attorney, he believed that “the first duty of society is justice.” He did not believe in the wisdom of the common citizen: “The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and, however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true to fact. The people are turbulent and changing, they seldom judge or determine right.” Even though he favored a strong central government, it was to be a government of limited powers: “It’s not tyranny we desire; it’s a just, limited, federal government.”

Hamilton did not own slaves, so his legacy is free of the blight of that evil institution.

He died after an 1804 duel with Aaron Burr over a political dispute.