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 **Alexander Hamilton**

Federalist
 * Federalist or Anti-federalist**?

New York
 * Represented which state**?

-Middle colony, fertile soil, harbors and rivers. -Due to fertile soil and harbors and rivers, New York had a strong trading system. -Mostly aristocratic. During the revolution when the New York Legislature refused to quart British Soldiers, its legislature and governor were expelled. Events like this caused the post revolution New York to fear the idea of a strong federal government in fear of the over controlling power of parliament. This caused New York citizens to be primarily Anti-Federalist. -Historically fair minded people, when the Dutch were expelled they allowed the cultures to assimilate and knew how to make compromises. With the exception of slavery.  Alexander Hamilton was born in the West Indies (British colony), his mother died and father was away so his relatives sent him to New York to be educated. In his pursuits towards education he was later known as an American soldier, lawyer, banker and statesman. At 17 Hamilton wrote anti-British pamphlets that were not attributed to him due to his age. After his education at Kings College now Columbia University he enlisted himself in a New York artillery division, within these pursuits he met one of the most influential people in the shaping of his life. He became quite close to General Washington, who made him his confidential secretary and advisor. In effect he was secretary of war when Washington was appointed commander in chief in the revolution. This connection caused Hamilton to become a strong advocate of the patriot cause. Washington often said that Hamilton’s true weapon was the pen, stating his strong talent in written advocacy. After the war he became a lawyer and married into New York aristocracy. He married the second daughter of Schuyler one of the richest and most influential families in New York. Through his wealth acquired he had a strong economic background and had a lot of banking experience. This experience gave Hamilton a strong sense of commerce as a banker and shaped his views on taxes.
 * States geography, economy, population, and social structure.**
 * New York**
 * Occupation and socio-economic background**

Alexander Hamilton was a member of the constitutional convention. He played a strong in role in the convention in that he helped propose it with the help of James Madison. He wrote an essay on September 14th 1786, which proposed for a new constitution to be written due to the many grievances of the articles of confederation (188) during the Annapolis Convention, which had 12 delegates not including New England or the South. The first delegate appointed to the convention he was a very outspoken orator towards the federalist cause. Hamilton provided a six-hour speech in which laid his concerns with both New York and Virginia Plans and set the pros and cons and laid out his own plan, which stated the powers and way to elect each of the three branches of government. Overall he was praised, yet not taken too seriously. Many people viewed Hamilton in that he wanted to create a new monarchy, angered by this at one point he left the conference.
 * Member of the constitutional convention? Role?**

Alexander Hamilton was a strong member in the process towards ratifying the constitution in New York. He participated within multiple debates and formal written pamphlets entitled the federalist papers in conjunction with other strong-minded federalists. The collection of 85 essays were distributed to the public and were a rallying force towards the balance of power in a strong central government. An example of a debate was with Melancton Smith a strong anti-federalist in (June 21st) 1788 as to the proper number of representatives of the legislature. Hamilton participated also in a tactic that was unexpected that was the use of delay. Hamilton was a federalist while the other two delegates from New York were both anti-federalists. Hamilton participated heavily in keeping up with both oral and written debate of the ideas in the constitution while quietly acquiring votes from other states. The majority was decided without New York and three other states, forcing them to agree with the plan or disband from the union. New York did not want to disband of the union so they had to agree with the policy of the constitution. Although Hamilton voted for the constitution
 * Discover whether the character was a member of the States ratifying convention and how he voted.**

Alexander Hamilton had strong views of revising the Articles of Confederation in respect to his views. He had a strong vision of a strong central government and had strong views on commerce and taxation. He believed that if a government required certain monetary resources and the power to tax to pay for necessary functions of government infrastructure (war, etc).
 * Characters arguments for or against ratification**

Views: -Hamilton had strong views upon the executive branch of government, he believed that an analysis through reason proved that there must be one single executive head, but should have the proper checks and balances with other branches of government. He believed that the executive should have the power of legislative veto and control of foreign affairs. He believed that human nature would cause the downfall of having more than one executive head.

-Hamilton’s view of the number of legislatures stated that there should be a proper ratio in both houses. In a debate with Melancton Smith he argued that the legislative powers should not have the ability to change the amount of delegates. He believed that this would give them too much power, and that larger states would continue to increase the amounts of delegates and attempt to gain as much power as possible. He considered the population changes of the states and considered the ration between census and representative. Strongly disagreed with mobocracy and believed that there must be a proper balance, small enough to prevent mobocracy and large enough to represent the people. He also believed that quality of representatives was more important than quantity and that not every viewpoint of the states should be represented. He believed that a representative with general knowledge of its constituents and understood general government including taxation and commerce.

-Friends: Washington, Madison, and John Jay -Foes: Jefferson, Adams, and Burr
 * Friends and foes**


 * Bibliography** MLA

//Chronicle of America.// Mount Kisco, N.Y: ECAM Publications, 1989. Print. Hamilton, Alexander. “Publius: An Open Letter to the People of the State of New York.” __Federalist no. 70__. Childs, Francis. //Ed.// New York: Independent Journal. May 1788.* Hamilton, Alexander “Debates and Proceedings of the Convention of the State of New York.” Preface to “//The People Are Adequately Represented by Congress in the Constitution//” New York: NY, 1788* Newman, John J., and John M. Schmalbach. //United States History// //Preparing for the Advanced Placement Examination (12-15795)//. Boston: Amsco School Pubns Inc, 2001. Print

“United States History.” Newman, J. //ed//. Amsco School Pub., Inc. p. 100. (1998).