Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1884-03-26
HAMILTON'ssR]
OF West India Nativity...Hanilton
Childhood, Early Work and
Ambition.
["Gath's" Letter. in The Enquirer.

["Gath's' Letter. in The Enquirer.]
Said I: "How many of those smaller islands
of the Lesser Antilles are there?"
"There are very great many of them, ana
they are divided up amongst the Swedes,
Danes, Dutch, French and British. Some
very distinguished men came out of those
islands, like Alexander Hamilton, Judah +.
Benjamin and the father of Vice President
Dallas"
"What island did Hamilton come from"
"He came from a little island named Nevis,
which is a volcanic island, made of a single
conical mountain which rises to the height OF
$500 feet and has fertile land around its
borders, an area of only twenty-one square
miles, and population of perhaps 10000. 1t
exports about $3.50, 900 year of sugar, rum
and molasses"
"How did Hamilton originate there"
"He was born there in 1757 in the month Of
January. His mother was the daughter of a
West India doctor named Faucette. She
was of French Protestant origin, and had
first been married to Dane named Levine,
who is said to have been Jew. Levine was
rich, and she hated him and got divorce
from him and married a young Scotch
man, who was a trader in the
island of st. Christopher. This Scotch
man, Hamilton, made badfailure
in business and never got on his feet
again. and lived obscure That is not to be
wondered at considering the small opportuni-
ties in those islands for career. Alexander
Hamilton left in the island of Nevis might
have been OF no consequence. / saw people
there who Impressed me as strong and brill
liant, but they had merely colonial opportuni-
ties, and in that hot climate the energies of
men soon decay.
Hamilton's mother died unhappy, when he
was child, but she had some respectable
kin in the island of Santa Cruz, who took
charge OF the orphan boy, who was the only
child to survive her. Hamilton was, there
fore, brought up in st. Croix, and his earli-
est letters are dated from that island. He
wrote one to friend named Edward
Stevens in 1869, which says: "Ned,
my ambition is prevalent, so that
contemn the groveling condition of
a clerk or the like, to which my fortune con-
dennis me, and would willingly risk my life
though not my character, to exalt my sta
ton. wish there was q war;" Hamilton
was good French as well as English scholar.
His first friend was Presbyterian preacher
at St Croix. Though he despised clerkship,
in that position he developed the abilities
which made him great fnancier. He was a
newspaper writer, and absorption of hurri-
cane in the island of st. Christopher, which
was published in one of the West India news
papers, was talked about so much that his
friends concluded to send him to New York
to be educated. He went to school at Eliza
beth, N. j., and then at Kings college, in
this city, and thought he would be physi-
clan. He had only been in the country about
a year or two when he addressed public
meeting aud wrote articles for the New York
newspapers against the British government
His precocity may be ascribed to his French
and Scotch nature, and to an ambition
which never ceased. The French element
gave him his brilliancy, and the Scotch his
exactness and Judgment