Biography

HAMILTON, ALEXANDER (1757-1804). —Statesman and political writer, b. in the West Indies, was one of the framers of the Constitution of the United States, and was the first Sec. of the national Treasury. He was one of the greatest of American statesmen, and has also a place in literature as the principal writer in the Federalist, a periodical founded to expound and defend the new Constitution, which was afterwards pub. as a permanent work. He contributed 51 of its 85 articles.