American Biography - Alexander Hamilton（美国传记u2014u2014亚历山大·汉密尔顿）.pdfVIP

American Biography – Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804) Alexander was born on the island of Nevis in the British West Indies. His mother was the daughter of a French Protestant doctor; and his father was a traveling trader and younger son of a Scottish nobleman. Alexander was born three years before his parents married. He was always self-conscious about his birth and his political enemies often tried to embarrass him because of it. When Alexander was about ten years old his parents moved to the island of St.Croix . Soon after, his father deserted them. The next year Alexander went to work for a New York based firm that had established an outpost on the island. In 1768, his mother died. He continued to work, rising to the position of manager of the outpost by the time he was seventeen. Alexander’s talents and abilities impressed several other businessmen who lived on the island. They realized that Alexander’s brilliance would be wasted if he remained in St.Croix. Therefore, they paid his way to the British colonies in America to be educated. In 1773, he enrolled in King’s College (now Columbia University) in New York City. At college, he strongly supported the revolutionary cause and wrote several pamphlets that justified revolutionary actions. In fact, they were so well written and reasoned that their readers though they had been written by older radicals like John Jay and John Adams . In March 1776, he secured a commission in the revolutionary forces as a captain of artillery. He formed his own unit, which performed brilliantly in battles against the British. General Washington invited him to join his staff as an aide-de-camp with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Hamilton was fiercely ambitious. His brilliance, cockiness, almost arrogance, liveliness, and hot-headedness secured Washington’s favour for him. He became the General’s private secretary and personal representative on s