Alexander Hamilton (1755 or 1757-1804) was one of the founding fathers of the United States of America. Born out of wedlock in the Caribbean, Hamilton immigrated to America on the eve of its revolution against British control. He studied law and wrote essays arguing passionately for greater freedom from Britain, one of the most known being a rebuttal against “a Westchester Farmer” (a pen name for Samuel Seabury) called ‘Farmer Refuted’. Hamilton interrupted his schooling to join the continental army where his leadership skills were noticed and he rose through the ranks to eventually become right hand man to General and first President George Washington (ESI). After the war, Hamilton took part in the constitutional convention to replace the failing articles of confederation, in which he gave a 6-hour speech in support of his own form of government, which many in the convention believed gave far too much authority to the executive branch and thus this speech made made him a lot of enemies. Once the new constitution was decided on, Hamilton partnered with John Jay and James Madison (LII) to write the Federalist papers, which argued for New York state to ratify the constitution. Hamilton served as the first Treasury Secretary under President Washington, in which he repeatedly clashed with Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson (LII) over the size of the federal government and concentration of power (Hamilton wanted more, Jefferson wanted less), before both left the administration (Jefferson quit due to his lack of ability to combat Hamilton’s policies, while Hamilton quit to pursue other projects and due to lack of funds). During this time, Hamilton also founded the Federalist party to combat the anti-Federalists led by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. Out of political office, Hamilton would clash with the second President John Adams (ILI) who was a Federalist, a rivalry which caused the Federalist party to cannibalize itself and eventually implode during the presidencies of three successive Democratic-Republicans, Jefferson, Madison, and James Monroe (EII). In 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr (SLE), knowing he would be replaced as President Jefferson’s running mate in the election that year, ran for governor of New York, and Hamilton, viewing Burr as a scoundrel with no values or morals, stepped in to prevent Burr from winning the election. In response, Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel. Hamilton accepted, and in the duel, Burr fatally shot Hamilton, who died of his wound on July 12th, 1804. Today, Hamilton is credited first and foremost with having created the American financial system that lasted to the present day. Hamilton’s face is on the $10 bill, the only person other than Benjamin Franklin (ILE) to appear on current U.S. currency without having been President. He was also recently thrust back into the spotlight as the subject of Lin Manuel Miranda’s hit Broadway musical ‘Hamilton’.
Hamilton’s greatest strength, and the reason he was valued so much by George Washington and others, was his pure competence in everything he did. Alexander Hamilton was a genius manager of people and resources, with an eye for efficiency that was almost completely unmatched. In his early teenage years, shortly after being orphaned, Hamilton was employed as a clerk at a local import-export firm which traded with New York and New England on the island of St. Croix, and his management was so impressive that the owner of the firm felt completely comfortable leaving the teenaged Alexander Hamilton in charge for five months while he, the owner, was at sea. All this while voraciously reading every single book that he could get his hands on. At the beginning of the American war for independence, Hamilton joined the army and cobbled together 60 men for an artillery regiment in which he was elected captain, and his leadership abilities were noticed. His skill in managing the regiment was the primary feature noticed and got him many requests by high-ranking officers to join their staff, all of which Hamilton refused until he got an offer he couldn’t refuse: to become General George Washington’s aide-de-camp. Washington believed in choosing as an aide-de-camp one whom he could put all of his faith in to execute the duties required of them with competence. Following the war, Alexander Hamilton taught himself law and managed to pass the bar so that he could practice as an attorney. Hamilton was appointed to the Congress under the Articles of Confederation, which he was already criticizing prior to joining on the basis that Congress under the articles did not have any of the power necessary to perform any of its duties, that it could only collect voluntary taxes from the states and with such strict requirements for passing a bill that it was impossible for anything to get done. Hamilton was not interested in the abstract values of freedom and liberty that were used to defend the articles, basing all his criticisms on the Congress’ lack of efficiency or ability to do what it needed. Hamilton’s defense of the new, proposed constitution in the Federalist Papers, of which he wrote 51 out of 85, was based on how much more efficient the constitution would be than the articles of confederation.
Following the adoption of the constitution and the ascendancy of George Washington to the Presidency, Hamilton was chosen to become the first Secretary of the Treasury, at which point he set about creating a financial system predicated on efficiency and progress, with a large part of this program being the Federal Government’s assumption of state debt, which centralized Federal power by requiring all states to collectively pay off the nation’s debt rather than pay off their own debt individually. His anti-Federalist opponents, the Democratic-Republicans (though they simply called themselves 'Republicans' at the time) who were led by Thomas Jefferson, opposed Hamilton and his financial plan on the basis that this expanded government power and thus went against the core values of the American revolution. Hamilton’s arguments for his economic policies were their effectiveness in increasing economic well being, often citing the United Kingdom as an example of effective economics (and effective politics, having argued for an executive branch similar to the British system when he spoke for 6 hours at the constitutional convention), a stance that was anathema to the Republicans and caused them to label Hamilton as a monarchist and accuse him of working on behalf of Britain.
Hamilton’s other programs were justified in similar ways, always on the basis of pragmatism, while his opponents criticized his disregard for the principles of the revolution, a conflict that would form the basis of the first set of political parties, the Federalists founded by Alexander Hamilton, and the Democratic-Republicans founded by Thomas Jefferson. The first party system was, in essence, a conflict between Hamilton’s calculating pragmatism and Jefferson’s loyalty to the idealistic, abstract principles of the revolution, essentially a conflict between P and L, with Hamilton supporting the P approach. This reliance on P, with very little focus on L, not to mention Hamilton’s incredible skill with practical management of resources, makes it clear that P was Hamilton’s most valued and skillful element, and consistent only with P1.
Though Hamilton certainly ignored L in favor of P, It cannot be said that Hamilton was bad at L. Hamilton was a very skilled lawyer, and his defense of the new constitution shows that he understood the necessity for having a structure in place to pursue pragmatic benefits. Still though, his complete dismissal of abstract ideological values in favor of tangible benefit is enough to say that L was an area of very low focus despite its strength, fitting L7.
Hamilton’s approach to P always took a very future-oriented approach. Most notably, his financial system was made specifically for the purpose of lasting long into the future. His concern was if this financial plan would last and keep America successful and stable in the long-term. His focus on promoting manufacturing was on the basis of preparing for the changing times, namely the industrial revolution, which was just starting up in Britain at the time. Hamilton was always concerned with the future implications of actions taken by himself and others, and his early correspondence shows that, even during the revolutionary war, Hamilton was very concerned about the future economic system the United States would adopt and was putting thought into the system he believed would be best to implement. All this shows a strong focus on T as well as P.
Hamilton also concerned himself with a very large variety of issues, most pertaining to economics but also concerning himself with the law, the constitution, government centralization, and the creation of a standing army. He worked to push president John Adams to establish a standing army, which was meant to be led by George Washington, although Washington never took command in person and died while Adams was still in office during his only term of four years. Hamilton was also a curious and voracious reader, reading constantly even at a very early age the works of a wide variety of philosophers and thinkers.
To have been involved in such a wide variety of pursuits, despite his life having been cut short by his duel with Aaron Burr, is astounding, with a breadth of knowledge, intellectual curiosity, and variety of pursuits strongly indicating a focus on I. However, the vast majority of his interests were centered on ensuring his vision of a strong central government. Hamilton did not view his creativity and variety of interests as something to pursue for its own sake, relegating it to a tool to be used in service of P and T, which put together with his focus on T being used to support P, is most consistent with T2 and I8.
In pursuit of his policies and ideals, Hamilton worked non-stop. The poster child for workaholics, Hamilton’s health frequently suffered from his endless workload and his wife, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton (ESI) had to force him to take a break and take care of his body through exercise and adequate rest, however he was always working on something and could rarely be pulled away from his work, a dismissiveness consistent with S4.
Alexander Hamilton was notoriously combative in pursuit of his goals, having picked fights with nearly every single founding father except for his patron George Washington. Just as many picked fights with Hamilton as well. Hamilton was known to enjoy conflict, unlike his main rival Thomas Jefferson who dreaded direct confrontation and primarily worked through proxies. The key thing to point out with regard to this is that, while Hamilton could certainly be very assertive when carrying out his duties for others, he only came into his own regarding pushing for his own agenda later in life. On St. Croix, even at the tender age of 14 when he was in charge of the local import-export firm, Hamilton had no trouble admonishing workers who were not up to his standards, even when they were more than triple his age. He could also be very pushy when fulfilling the requests of George Washington, but with the exception of a brief resignation from Washington’s staff over Washington’s refusal to grant him command of troops, Hamilton only started engaging in conflict consistently for the sake of his agenda after becoming Secretary of the Treasury. When he did so, he was very effective with it, primarily because President Washington, despite seeking to appear politically neutral, leaned toward the Federalists far more than the anti-Federalists. With Washington on his side, he was given free reign to act how he wanted. After Washington stepped down, he was succeeded by John Adams, who hated Hamilton. At this point, it became clear that Hamilton, through constant bickering with other politicians, had no friends in power when he needed them most, with the exception of holdovers from the Washington administration, particularly his successor Secretary of the Treasury. However, these men were distrusted by the notoriously paranoid and vindictive Adams who eventually decided to fire them. During these four years Hamilton engaged in a never-ending feud with John Adams, despite both being from the same party. This feud brought out the worst of Hamilton’s personality, as he became more vindictive, paranoid, and authoritarian in his outlook, eventually coming around to supporting the Alien and Sedition Acts, which are widely regarded as blatantly unconstitutional, especially the Sedition Act which made it illegal to slander or defame the government of the United States, with language so vague as to allow the administration to imprison or fine anyone who wrote criticisms of the Adams administration.
Hamilton was also known to harbor many fantasies of battlefield glory, repeatedly requesting to be given command of soldiers from George Washington, who consistently refused because Washington did not want to risk losing his closest and most competent assistant, and due to a need to appoint men of higher rank. Eventually, after Hamilton threatened to resign, Washington relented and gave him command of three battalions near the end of the war. These fantasies came back later in the Adams administration as Hamilton requested to be a general in the newly created standing army. Though after the revolutionary war, Hamilton never actually took part in combat.
Hamilton also had a strange relationship to dueling. Despite his moral opposition to dueling due to his religious beliefs (which became more and more important to him as he grew older) he seemed almost enthralled by the idea of dueling and yet he rarely engaged in duels himself. He served as a second in several duels and was almost the principle in several duels himself but ultimately agreed to call them off. He was quick to aggressively protect his reputation by threatening a duel, and that was usually enough to gain a retraction from his detractors, yet the only duel he ever fully went through with was his deadly 1804 duel with Aaron Burr.
From all of this, we can see that Hamilton certainly valued F, and quite strongly, yet had an often immature relationship to it. Later in life, he grew into someone who was willing to resort to open conflict much more in pursuit of his goals but in doing so, his use of F could be accurately described as ‘hyperactive’ later on in life, i.e. something he voluntarily grew in over time, which is most consistent with F6.
I would also add that, in addition to the already mentioned conflict between P and L that formed the basis of the first party system, Hamilton and the Federalists supported centralized government power, while Jefferson and the Republicans supported decentralized power, essentially a conflict between valued F and unvalued F.
As would be expected of someone as quick to resort to conflict as Alexander Hamilton, he made many enemies and not very many friends. Much like his one-time acquaintance, later adversary and eventual killer Aaron Burr, Hamilton had a way of somehow turning pretty much everyone against him, including people who should have been his political allies, such as President John Adams, though Adams, due his jealousy and "encyclopedic memory for slights", also played a large role in creating and perpetuating this rivalry. Hamilton’s only consistent, major political ally was George Washington, and after Washington stepped down as President, Hamilton was stripped of most of his political influence, only being able to affect events indirectly as a major leader of the Federalist party, though even then his influence over them would eventually wane, primarily due to his rivalry with fellow Federalist John Adams, someone who also made too many enemies and not enough friends. Though John Adams was paranoid about the holdovers from Washington’s administration serving at Hamilton’s behest, Hamilton was not close enough to them to influence them in any meaningful way.
In terms of personal relationships outside of politics, Hamilton was also quite a poor judge of character, relying often on friends who showed their corruption time and time again, as well as being somewhat of a dupe with regard to his extended family. Despite his extended family in Scotland never trying to contact him or help him in any way during the rough years of his adolescence and never reaching out to him after he had achieved enormous success in politics, some of them reached out during dire times asking for financial aid, which Hamilton obliged. When he trusted someone, often based on very little reasoning, it was very easy for them to take advantage of him.
This all generally indicates a severe deficiency in R, and combined with the points already indicating weak F, it’s clear that Hamilton, while definitely a genius policy-maker, was an inept politician. While researching Hamilton, I was asked on occasion by friends and family why he never became President, despite his nearly unparalleled ambition and intelligence. The answer was his lack of self-control in starting conflicts and his inability to manage his relationships with others, essentially weak R and overactive F. Of course, it is also likely that Hamilton did not have any desire to be President, but he certainly did want to be a major political leader, and after Washington stepped down, his weak R and F is what held him back from that.
However, while R was certainly an extraordinarily weak point for Hamilton, it also served as his only source of comfort and respite from the stress of politics. At times of intense strain in both politics and his law practice, Hamilton would always look to his very close relations, primarily his family and particularly his wife Elizabeth, for support. This, combined with his choice to rely on close friends in politics, sometimes to his detriment, and help out family who did not really have his best interests at heart, makes it clear that Hamilton valued R quite a lot, and with his ineptitude consistent with R5. Hamilton also had a strong vindictive streak, causing him to act antagonistically on harsh, personal judgements, such as against John Adams, culminating in his writing of the Adams pamphlet, a tirade against the President which tanked his (Hamilton's and Adams') popularity and turned the cracks in the Federalist Party's foundation into a gaping hole. Another example would be his vindictiveness against Aaron Burr, portraying him as nothing more than a power-hungry opportunist with no morals or principles who was even more dangerous than Thomas Jefferson (whom Hamilton also despised), a characterization of Burr that most scholars agree is unfair though they disagree on how much. He went so far as stepping in to stop Burr from becoming President during the tie in the election of 1800 and stopping Burr from becoming Governor of New York in 1804. This vindictiveness is more consistent with valued R+F, i.e., Gamma Quadra rather than R+I, i.e., Delta Quadra.
So with P1, T2, S4, R5, F6, L7, and I8, it is clear that Alexander Hamilton was an LIE.
To learn more about LIE, click here.
If you are confused about our use of Socionics shorthand, click here.
Sources
My main source was Ron Chernow's biography 'Alexander Hamilton'
