Alexander Hamilton – first U.S. treasury secretary
Alexander Hamilton was one of the youngest and brightest of the founders of the United States. He was the first secretary of the treasury. He worked to create a strong U.S. government.
Hamilton was born on January 11, probably in 1755, in the British West Indies. He was the illegitimate son of James Hamilton, a Scotsman, and Rachel Fawcett Lavien, daughter of a French Huguenot physician. At the age of 12 he worked as a clerk in a trading firm in St. Croix. The boy went to school in New Jersey and New York. In 1776 he left college without graduating. Hamilton joined the military during the American Revolution. From 1777 to 1781 he served with General George Washington. Noticed by Washington, Hamilton became the general’s trusted aide-de-camp. After the war Hamilton became a lawyer.
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