Just learned about Hamilton's establishment of the first Bank of the United States in my history class, 20 minutes ago. My teacher explained it as "the first substantial economic decision to protect the welfare of the American upper class by screwing over the poor. Hamilton stabilized the economy by destroying equal opportunity forever. Welcome to America from here on out."
(edit: not to say it wasn't genius. It was genius, and my teacher raves about Hamilton otherwise. But this was a point to be made.)
Don't forget that Hamilton also ran the Bank of New York, which made the first loan to the US government. He knew banking -- because money is a great buffer against being dismissed as an illegitimate. For those of you not coming out of the 20th Century: it used to be embarrassing (on the verge of public ostracism) if your parents were not married when you were born. Hamilton's dad was a Scottish beachcomber in the West Indies. A perpetual state of debt guaranteed... something. Hamilton had the answers. Too bad the question was "how can we wind up the robber baron nation?" Aaron Burr killed him. Sounds noble, but Burr ran what is now Chase Morgan (the Chase side of it).
Haven't gotten to that yet in my class, though I'm two days behind on my textbook readings! To people unfamiliar with the story, it is absolutely vital to note that Burr killed Hamilton because they tried to settle their beef with a duel. yeah. an actual, fucking duel. Which Hamilton– leader of the first political party of the United States, father of the first U.S. Bank, and Washington's Chief of Staff after signing the Declaration of Independence– thought was a good idea. And then Burr ran away to Georgia.
The most important politician in the United States until Lincoln. His influence was less notable than a Madison or a Washington, for a variety of reasons (economics isn't sexy, the Federalist Papers were originally pseudonymous, etc) -- but you would still 100 percent have heard of him if a) he hadn't been shot in 1804, and b) he hadn't been born out of wedlock in the West Indies, but rather to some rich Virginia cotton-grower. And needless to say every American schoolkid hears a lot about him, although probably not anything very worthwhile.
Hamilton was a founding father of the United States, and played a key role which began all the way from when he fought in the Revolutionary War, which led to American independence. I'm gonna go ahead and make the blanket statement that his name was on every significant piece of paper until his political party (the first one ever in the U.S.) lost control to Thomas Jefferson and the Republicans in 1800– Which was Hamilton's decision as well, by the way. He wrote major journals (Federalist Papers) that put his ideas in the center of states' attention, giving him enough influence to take part in a commerce-related meeting in Cincinnati a year before the Constitution was signed. When nothing came out of that meeting, he made everyone promise to meet again the next year to figure some more shit out, and that's when they ended up writing the U.S. Constitution we all know. Then, Washington made him secretary of Treasury and he established the economic strategy, with the use of bonds as well as lies, that the U.S. uses to this day to keep its economy stable. I haven't yet learned in detail what happens after that, but I can keep you posted :D
You must attend a private school. My public schooling on Hamilton & co. was "Founding Father thus = Perfection".
I attend a very, very public school. Our textbook/AP test puts it that way actually. It's too easy to pass any prominent figure s perfect, when you've created such a cloud of significance 'round yourself you're bound to slip up here and there. Or, like, get shot in a duel and stuff.
You're in your senior year, then. Imagine things a decade later, when you're looking back upon your youth's schooling, and if you haven't continued your study of American history, things start to get hazy. I did take AP History, so I vaguely recall that I was taught some of the intricacies of Hamilton's bullshit, but the other 10 years of warm-and-fuzzy, feel-good American public-school/borderline-propaganda tend to dominate the brain. I do recall the Burr duel though, because that was straight up memorable. This problem is likely magnified in my case, as I've tended towards math and science pursuits, and the "use it or lose it" adage is always applicable to anyone's knowledge base. This has devolved into an old geezer style type comment, but yeah. I got a 4 on my AP History test 10 years ago, and I hardly remember a damn thing except for the fact that I got some college credits for knowing some things, once. I won't externalize all the blame to booze or pot (though I do enjoy flipping the bird to inanimate objects). Instead I'll mostly blame my own shitty judgement. I'd just like to point out that the capacity of the human brain is certainly finite, and everyone eventually runs out of neural pathways. Except for kleinbl00, fuck that guy/humanoid. I'm not going to tag him, since it's his birthday, and he/it should have the day off.