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ilton was more successful in New York. In King's College (now Columbia University) he might sue for a degree whenever he could show the title of sufficient learning; and so Hamilton fixed upon the New York institution. Some great men of the future were then in King's College, but there was only one Alexander Hamilton there. In the debating club he controlled everything by his acuteness and eloquence. His room-mate was awed, night and morning, by the fervid passion of his prayers, and has testified that Hamilton's firm faith in Christianity, and his mighty and convincing arguments, did much to confirm his own wavering faith. Hamilton was a versatile genius; he wrote hymns and burlesques; he was pious and punctilious; ambitious and gay.

THE STIRRING DAYS OF '73.

While Hamilton was at his studies in King's College, great events were taking place outside. The quarrel with Great Britain was becoming irrecon cilable. In December, 1773, occurred the “Boston Tea Party," when a band of patriots, disguised as Indians, boarded the British vessels laden with tea, and emptied their contents in the harbor. The excitement throughout the country, already great, increased in intensity; the methods of resistance to be adopted were on every man's tongue. In September, 1774, the first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. Nothing was thought of but resistance to the tyranny of England.

In college Hamilton never relaxed the severe application which his ambition. and his tastes made natural; but he was not unmindful of the storm gathering beyond his quiet cloisters. His mind, his pen, and his voice were from the first employed in defending colonial opposition to the acts of the British Parliament. He organized a military corps, mostly of fellow-students, who practiced their daily drill early in the morning, before the commencement of their college duties. They assumed the name of "Hearts of Oak," and wore a green uniform, surmounted by a leather cap, on which was inscribed "Freedom or Death!" Early and late he was busy, not only in promoting measures of resistance, but in mastering the science of political economy, the laws of commerce, the balance of trade, and the circulating medium; so that when these topics became prominent, no one was better equipped for dealing with them than Hamilton.

Hamilton's first political speech to a popular assembly was delivered at "the great meeting in the fields," as it was long afterward called, called to choose delegates to the first Continental Congress. He was still a student, and exceedingly juvenile in appearance. Being unexpectedly called upon, he at first faltered and hesitated; but soon he recovered himself, and the immense multitude were astonished and electrified by the "infant orator," as they called him. After a discussion, clear, forcible, and striking, of the great principles

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involved, he depicted in glowing colors the aggravated oppressions of the mother-country. Touching this point he burst forth in a strain of bold and thrilling eloquence :

"The sacred rights of

mankind," he declared, "are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records; they are written as with a sunbeam in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of Divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power."

He insisted on the duty of resistance, pointed out the means and certainty of success, and described "the waves of rebellion, sparkling with fire, and washing back on the shores of England the wrecks of her power, her wealth, and her glory." Under this spontaneous burst of mature eloquence from lips so youthful, the vast multitude first listened in awe and surprise, and then rose with irrepressible astonishment. The death-like silence ceased as he closed, and repeated cheers resounded to the heavens. Then the whisper, "A collegian-it is a collegian!" passed in surprise from one to another through the crowd.

In March, 1776, Ham

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ilton left college, and, joining a band of volunteers, obtained the command of a company of artillery. One day, while Washington was preparing for the

defense of New York, General Greene, on his way to headquarters, had his attention attracted to Hamilton's company, which was drilling in a neighboring field. The captain seemed a mere boy, small and slight, but quick in his movements, and with an air of remarkable intelligence; and his company was handled with an ease and skill which roused Greene's admiration. He stopped to talk with him, and was soon convinced, from Hamilton's conversation, that he had met a youth of no common abilities. He spoke of Hamilton to General Washington at the time, expressing his opinion of his character.

At the passage of the Raritan, in the memorable retreat through New Jersey, Washington observed with admiration the courage and skill of the youthful artillery officer, and ordered his aide-de-camp, Fitzgerald, to ascertain who he was, and to bring him to headquarters at the first halt of the army. In the evening Hamilton was appointed Washington's aide-de-camp, with the rank of colonel. From this time he continued until February, 1781, the inseparable companion of the commander-in-chief, and was always consulted by him, and by all the leading functionaries, on the most important occasions. He acted as his first aid at the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. At the siege of Yorktown he led the detachment which carried by assault one of the strongest outworks of the foe; and Washington, in recognition of his gallantry, ordered that Hamilton should receive the surrender of one of the divisions of Cornwallis's army.

It would be difficult to overestimate the value of Hamilton's services during the long period he acted as Washington's first aid and confidential secretary. The principal portions of the voluminous correspondence fell on him, and the most elaborate communications are understood to have been made essentially by his assistance. "The pen of our country," says Troup, "was held by Hamilton; and for dignity of manner, pith of matter, and elegance of style, General Washington's letters are unrivaled in military annals."

At the time of Arnold's treason, Hamilton's position led him into acquaint ance with the ill-fated André, for whom he felt a strong admiration. He urged the wisdom and good policy of sparing André's life, arguing, with great force, that it would compel a cessation of British cruelties to American prisoners; but unfortunately he was overborne, and André was executed.

Hamilton's military achievements are such as to warrant the belief that he would have made a great soldier; but his tastes and abilities alike tended toward the work of the statesman, and, fortunately for the country, led him in that direction. The embarrassments of the Treasury and consequent sufferings of the army prompted him to take up the study of finance, and in 1779, in private and anonymous communications to Robert Morris, he proposed a great financial scheme for the country, in which, rising above all the crude systems of that age, and pointing to a combination of public with private credit

HIS FINANCIAL ABILITIES.

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as the basis of his plan, he led the way to the establishment of the first Ameri

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preeminent degree. He went on to show the defects and total inefficiency of the Articles of Confederation, and to prove that we stood in need of a national government with the requisite sovereign powers; such, indeed, as.

the confederation theoretically contained, but without any fit organs to receive them. He suggested the idea of a national convention to amend and reorganize the government. This was undoubtedly the ablest and truest production on the state of the Union, its finances, its army, its miseries, its resources, and its remedies, that appeared during the Revolution. It contained in embryo the existing Federal Constitution, and it was the production of a young man of the age of twenty-three.'

In December, 1780, he was married to Elizabeth, a daughter of General Philip Schuyler, and on the first of March, 1781, he retired from the military family of Washington, resigning his pay, and retaining his commission only that he might have the power, should there be occasion, still to serve his country in the field.

THE GREAT WORK OF HAMILTON'S LIFE.

At the close of the war with England the government was so weak that it had sunk into contempt. The mutiny of some eighty soldiers at Philadelphia actually obliged Congress to adjourn to Princeton. It afterward removed to Annapolis; and, as the States could not agree on a seat of government, it seemed likely to become a migratory body, with constantly diminishing numbers and influence. It had so dwindled away, that when the Treaty of Peace was finally to be ratified, weeks elapsed before the attendance of the required number of nine States could be procured, and, even then, only twenty-three members were present at the ratification. Manifestly the construction of a strong and stable government was essential; and after much delay and many disputes, the famous Convention of 1787, to form the Constitution, met in Philadelphia.

Since the meeting of that renowned first Congress, which led the way in the struggle for independence, America had seen no such body of men as now assembled. Thither came George Washington, from his retirement at Mount Vernon, where he had hoped "to glide gently down a stream which no human effort can ascend," called to engage once more in the service of his country. From Virginia also came James Madison, afterward President, but then a young and rising politician. From Massachusetts came Rufus King, jurist and statesman; from South Carolina, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, soldier, scholar, and lawyer. Pennsylvania was peculiarly fortunate in her representatives. At their head was Benjamin Franklin, now in his eighty-second year, the oldest and most widely known of American public men, and in some sort combining in his own person many of the leading characteristics of America. His venerable age, his long services, his serene and benignant aspect, commanded the respect of all, and imposed a controlling power on the assembly. With him came Gouverneur Morris, one of the best and wisest of American patriots; and Robert Morris, who had made the first attempts at dealing with the complicated difficulties of American finance. There were other men of note in the Convention, such as Roger

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