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هل تولد الحياة من رحم الموت؟؟؟ دراسة بحثية
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08-18-2010, 10:43 PM
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مراقب عام سابقا
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تاريخ الإنضمام :
Sep 2009
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الكسندر هاملتون
Alexander Hamilton
(January 11, 1755 or 1757 – July 12, 1804) was the first
United States Secretary of the Treasury
, a
Founding Father
,
economist
, and
political philosopher
.
Aide-de-camp
to General
George Washington
during the
American Revolutionary War
, he was a leader of nationalist forces calling for a new
Constitution
; he was one of America's first
Constitutional lawyers
, and wrote most of the
Federalist Papers
, a primary source for
Constitutional interpretation
. Hamilton was the primary author of many of the policies supported by the
Federalist Party
.
Born and raised in the Caribbean, Hamilton attended King's College (now
Columbia University
) in New York. At the start of the
American Revolutionary War
, he organized an artillery company and was chosen as its captain. Hamilton became the senior
[1]
aide-de-camp
and confidant to General
George Washington
, the American
commander-in-chief
. After the war, Hamilton was elected to the
Continental Congress
from New York, but he resigned to practice law and found the
Bank of New York
. He served in the
New York Legislature
, and he was the only New Yorker who signed the U.S. Constitution. He wrote about half the
Federalist Papers
, which helped to secure ratification of the Constitution by New York. The Federalist Papers are still an important source for interpretation of the Constitution
[2]
. In the new government under President Washington he became
Secretary of the Treasury
.
[3]
An admirer of British political systems, Hamilton was a nationalist who emphasized strong central government and successfully argued that the
implied powers
of the Constitution could be used to fund the
national debt
, assume state debts, and create the
government-owned Bank of the United States
. These programs were funded primarily by
a tariff on imports
and a highly controversial excise tax on
whiskey
.
Childhood in the Caribbean
Hamilton
was born in
Charlestown
, the capital of
Nevis
in the
British West Indies
. He was born out of wedlock to Rachel Faucett Lavien, of partial French
Huguenot
descent, and James A. Hamilton, the fourth son of
Scottish
laird
Alexander Hamilton of
Grange
,
Ayrshire
.
[6]
There is some question about whether the year of Hamilton's birth was 1757 or 1755. Most historical evidence after Hamilton's arrival in New England suggests a year of 1757, and as such, most historians had accepted it. However, new evidence from Hamilton's life in the Caribbean has caused more recent historians to opt for a birth year of 1755.
[7]
Hamilton listed his birth year as 1757 when he first arrived in the
Thirteen Colonies
.
However, probate papers from
St. Croix
in 1768 after the death of Hamilton's mother list him as 13 years old,
[8]
a date that would support a birth year of 1755. If Hamilton's birth year were, in fact, 1755, there would be a number of possible explanations. Hamilton may have been trying to appear younger than his college classmates or to avoid standing out as older; the probate document indicating a birth year of 1755 may have misreported; or Hamilton may have been passing as 13 to be more employable after his mother's death
Hamilton's mother had been separated previously from Johann Michael Lavien of
St. Croix
("a much older German Jewish merchant-planter"
[6]
);
[10]
to escape an unhappy marriage, Rachel left her husband and first son for
St. Kitts
in 1750, where she met James.
[11]
They moved together to Rachel's birthplace of Nevis, where she had inherited property from her father.
[12]
Their two sons were James, Jr., and Alexander. Because Hamilton's parents were not legally married, the
Church of England
denied him membership or education in the church school. Instead, he received "individual tutoring"
[12]
and classes in a private
Jewish
school.
[13]
Hamilton supplemented his education with a family library of thirty-four books,
[14]
including Greek and Roman
classics
.
James then abandoned Rachel and their two sons, allegedly to "spar[e] [Rachel] a charge of bigamy . . . [after finding out that her first husband] intend[ed] to divorce her under Danish law on grounds of adultery and desertion
.
Rachel supported the family by keeping a small store in
Christiansted
. However, she contracted a severe fever and died on February 19, 1768, 1:02 am, leaving Hamilton effectively orphaned
.
This may have had severe emotional consequences for him, even by the standards of an eighteenth-century childhood.
[15]
In probate court, Rachel's "first husband seized her estate"
[6]
and obtained the few valuables Rachel had owned, including some household silver. Many items were auctioned off, but a friend purchased the family books and returned them to the studious young Hamilton.
[16]
Hamilton then became a clerk at a local import-export firm, Beekman and Cruger, which traded with New England; he was left in charge of the firm for five months in 1771, while the owner was at sea.
He and his older brother James were adopted briefly by a cousin, Peter Lytton, but when Lytton committed suicide, Hamilton was separated from his brother.
[17]
James apprenticed with a local carpenter, while Hamilton was adopted by Nevis merchant Thomas Stevens. Some evidence suggests that Stevens may have been Hamilton's biological father: his son, Edward Stevens, became a close friend of Hamilton. The two boys looked much alike, both were fluent in French, and both shared similar interests.
[18]
Hamilton continued clerking, remained an avid reader, developed an interest in writing, and began to long for a life off his small island. Hamilton wrote an essay published in the
Royal Danish-American Gazette
, with a detailed account of a hurricane that had devastated Christiansted on August 30, 1772. The essay impressed community leaders, who collected a fund to educate the young Hamilton in the much larger American colonies
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