Basic Information
Name: Alexander Hamilton
Nickname: The Founding Rapper
Born: January 11th, 1755
Died: July 12th, 1804
Nationality: American
Hometown: Charlestown, British West Indies
WORK & EDUCATION
Occupation: Merchant, Treasury Secretary
Education: Columbia University
FAMILY & FRIENDS
Parents: James A. Hamilton, Rachel Faucette
Siblings: James Hamilton, Jr.
Spouse: Elizabeth Schuyler
Children: Philip, Angelica, Alexander, Jr., James, John, William, Eliza
Friends: George Washington, James Madison
Foes: Aaron Burr, Patrick Henry, John Adams, John Adams
Analysis
The Young Federalist
While the other people on this list were drafting the Articles of Confederation in Congress, Hamilton was headlining a massively successful Broadway show—er, fighting in George Washington's army.
Washington and Hamilton became close friends, and both believed that the government of the liberated states was too weak to hold the nation together. Washington even called it "little more than a shadow without the substance." (Source)
So when the states got together again in 1787 to revise the Articles of Confederation, Hamilton was leading the charge to scrap the whole thing and start from scratch. A strong nationalist and mercantilist, he believed that America would benefit from a powerful government with the ability to raise and spend some cold, hard cash. (Source)
In other words, Hamilton was one of the leading figures in moving the country away from the Articles and towards what became the Constitution. Along with John Jay and James Madison, he wrote a book called The Federalist, a bunch essays arguing for a stronger government that also sounds like a gritty crime novel. (Source)
Respect the Hamilton
Nowadays, the federal government raises a ton of taxes and spends a ton of money. Hamilton, whom Washington appointed to be the nation's first Treasury Secretary, gets credit for establishing this precedent. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew even said, "our economy, many of the institutions of our democracy, are really attributable to his contributions." (Source)
That's how you know you've hit big-time fame.
Hamilton argued that America should be "a nation of merchants," or businesspeople. At the time, most Americans were independent farmers, and some Founding Fathers like Thomas Jefferson thought that things should stay that way. By creating institutions like the Federal Reserve Bank, Hamilton injected money into the American experiment.
No wonder he gets to be on the 10-dollar bill and gets to be the star of a musical.