OF THE SADDLE AND SIRLOIN CLUB 231 
FOUNDER OF FEDERAL UNITY 
90. Possibly the most brilliant intellect involved in the founda- 
tion and organization of the American government was that of 
ALEXANDER Hamitton. Of historically uncertain parentage, he 
was born on the island of Nevis in the West Indies, January 11, 
1757. His education seems to have been desultory, as at the age 
of thirteen he was forced to enter the office of a West India trades- 
man and merchant. Owing to an early isolation he possessed a 
most precocious independence, and at fourteen years of age wrote 
business letters that were models of tradesmanship. His employer 
soon became in the habit of going away for days at a time and 
leaving this mere child in charge of the counting house. A severe 
hurricane wreaked unprecedented devastation on the islands, and 
young HAMILTON prepared so vivid a description of it for the 
press, that numerous friends and relatives combined to send him 
to Boston for an education. Friends here, however, advised him 
to proceed to Elizabethtown, N. J., where he studied energetically 
in preparation for college, and wrote much prose and verse that 
received wide publication. On the completion of his course here 
he went to King’s College, New York (now Columbia) where he 
made remarkable progress. 
About this time the difficulties with the mother country were 
coming to a head, and although temperamentally a loyalist, he 
was soon won to the colonies’ cause. His articles, although writ- 
ten when only seventeen, possessed such remarkable ability that 
they were popularly attributed to Jon Jay, or other patriots. 
The discovery of their authorship made him a leader in New York 
politics, and at the outset of the war he was appointed a captain 
of New York artillery. At Long Island and White Plains his 
battery so distinguished themselves by their smartness and disci- 
pline (almost rare qualities in the Continental army) that he was 
appointed staff officer with GENERAL WASHINGTON. Always pas- 
sionate, he resigned this honor in 1781 as a result of mild 
