第 5 章
Alexander Hamilton: The Hypomanic Architect of America's Economy
Alexander Hamilton rose from unimaginable beginnings-a bastard, penniless orphan, and immigrant-to become one of America's most consequential founders. His life was a constant charge against the nation's biggest problems, from winning the revolution to designing its economy, until his final fatal encounter with Aaron Burr.
Born out of wedlock on the Caribbean island of Nevis, Hamilton's illegitimate birth haunted him throughout life. At thirteen, he became a destitute orphan when his mother died of fever. After a brief stay with a cousin who committed suicide, Hamilton was completely alone in what he called "this selfish rapacious world."
While working as a clerk for merchant Nicholas Cruger, sixteen-year-old Hamilton revealed his burning ambition in a letter to his friend: "I condemn the groveling condition of a clerk... I would willingly risk my life, though not my character, to exalt my station.... I wish there was a war." Hamilton idolized Julius Caesar, whose biography became the template for his grandiose self-image. When Cruger left Saint Croix for medical treatment, Hamilton-just sixteen-took charge of the business for six months with remarkable confidence.
The American Revolution provided Hamilton the war he'd longed for. His fearlessness bordered on recklessness, as demonstrated when the massive 34-gun British warship Asia opened fire and everyone fled except Hamilton, who calmly continued dragging his cannon uphill. Like most hypomanics, risk simply failed to register emotionally with him.
After four years with Washington, their relationship dramatically ruptured when Hamilton kept Washington waiting for ten minutes. When Washington angrily accused him of disrespect, Hamilton impulsively resigned on the spot-a classic hypomanic error in judgment. Washington attempted reconciliation, but Hamilton stubbornly refused the olive branch.
With the Revolutionary War over, America was no longer a colony but not yet a country. The Articles of Confederation had left the federal government powerless, unable to collect revenue from the states. Hamilton, now a New York assemblyman, found himself battling George Clinton, the boss-like governor who ran New York as a personal fiefdom and opposed surrendering power to a federal government.
At the Constitutional Convention, Hamilton grew increasingly agitated. After three weeks of uncharacteristic silence, he impulsively delivered a six-hour speech proposing radical ideas: a president and senators elected for life, praise for the British monarchy, and hints at abolishing state powers. His friend Gouverneur Morris called it an "indiscretion" that would "plague him for the rest of his life."
Hamilton, Madison, and John Jay joined forces to sell the Constitution to the public through The Federalist Papers. In a hypomanic burst of productivity, Hamilton wrote fifty-one of the eighty-five essays, often penning text while the type was being set. Though originally planned for twice-weekly publication, Hamilton doubled the pace, nearly killing himself with the effort.
When Washington began his presidency in 1789, America was in fiscal chaos-bankrupt with no revenue, defaulting on Revolutionary War debts, lacking viable currency, and recovering from depression. Hamilton, as Treasury Secretary, solved these problems through his economic genius. Washington was amazed, having never known Hamilton had "any knowledge of finance." Robert Morris simply replied, "He knows everything, Sir; to a mind like his nothing is amiss."
Hamilton immediately produced his forty-thousand-word Report on Public Credit in a three-month "surge of desperate speed," working with "almost superhuman" capacity. His solution was for the federal government to assume all state and federal war debts, consolidating them into one national debt serviced with reliable monthly payments. This established America's credit and sparked "America's first bull market" as government securities rose from 10 cents on the dollar.
Hamilton's second economic initiative was creating a national bank to print paper currency, provide liquid capital for commerce, facilitate tax collection, lend money to the government in emergencies, regulate the national banking system, and issue shares of stock. The bank sparked America's first speculative bubble ("Bancomania") with shares quadrupling in value immediately. When the bubble burst in the Panic of 1792, Hamilton stabilized markets by purchasing thousands of shares. In response to this crisis, merchants organized under the "Buttonwood Agreement"-the foundation of what would become the New York Stock Exchange.
After Washington's death in 1799, Hamilton lost his most powerful protector. Without Washington's steadying influence, Hamilton made critical political missteps, most notably splitting the Federalist vote by backing Charles Pinckney against President Adams in 1800, inadvertently helping Jefferson win the presidency.
Hamilton's rivalry with Aaron Burr, another bipolar politician, intensified. Despite hating Jefferson, Hamilton had intervened in the contested 1800 election to prevent Burr from becoming president, considering him truly dangerous. After losing the New York governor's race, a humiliated and depressed Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel over a relatively minor slight. Hamilton, who had been deeply depressed, showed a sudden euphoric mood shift before the duel-possibly indicating suicidal intent. He fired into the air, while Burr shot to kill.
Hamilton was buried on Wall Street-a fitting resting place for the founder of America's economy. Before Hamilton, Wall Street was just a street.
