ed at Philadelphia on
the 6th of July, 1835; more would be superfluous.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

Upon the accession of the Republicans to the control of the government,
Jefferson ordered the books of Hamilton searched to ascertain what
charges could be made against him, and to discover the alleged blunders
and frauds perpetrated by the Federal official while in office. Albert
Gallatin, himself one of the greatest financiers of his age, undertook
the task with a hearty relish as he at that time entertained no great
esteem for the great Federalist. Struck by the almost absolute
perfection of the system, Gallatin reported to the President that any
change would certainly injure it and that no blunders or frauds had been
committed.

This great man was born on one of the West India Islands, January 11th,
1757. His father failed when he was young and his mother died leaving
the poor child in actual want. He was taken by friends at Santa Cruz. He
had no great educational advantages there, but being able to read both
English and French he devoured all such books as fell in his way. He was
placed in a counting-house in Santa Cruz and, although he detested the
business, applied himself diligently to his task and the knowledge here
gained was no small factor of his future great success as a financier.

He applied every spare moment to study and early began to use his pen.
In 1772 a hurricane passed through St. Christophers, and an account
which young Hamilton then wrote for the papers attracted so much
attention that his friends decided to give him a better chance. They
accordingly raised the money with which to send him to New York to
school, and after a few months spent at a grammar school in
Elizabethtown, New Jersey, he entered Columbia College, New York--then
called Kings College. Here he began study preparatory to a medical
course.

About this time his attention became drawn toward the struggle which was
about to commence between Great Britain and America, and at a public
meeting he made a short speech which attracted general attention. He was
now but seventeen years of age, yet his pen was keenly felt in the
interest of America, through the columns of _Holts Journal_, to which he
had become a regular contributor. He entered the army as captain of an
artillery company which he was the chief means of raising, and did good
service at White Plains, Trenton and Princeton.

He secured this position through the influenc