News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Jan. 11, 2013: The 256th birthday of America’s first secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton, is set to be marked today, with a wreath laying and church service today in Lower Manhattan and simultaneous celebration in his birthplace of Nevis, West Indies.
A wreath laying ceremony at Hamilton’s grave site at Trinity Church yard at Broadway and Wall Street will kick off the events at 12:45 p.m. today, Friday January 11th.
The wreath laying ceremony will be followed by a church service at Trinity at 1 p.m. with Dr. Richard Sylla, chairman of the Museum Of American Finance, set to deliver a tribute to Hamilton.
The birthday celebration is being hosted by Trinity Church, The Museum Of American Finance, the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society, The Hamilton Museum – Nevis, West Indies and the Bowling Green Association.
A first ever live webcast will take place between Hamilton’s birthplace in Charlestown, Nevis, and the Museum of American Finance in New York City, at 48 Wall Street, where Hamilton founded the Bank of New York, and just yards away from the first U.S. Capital where Hamilton was made the First U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, September 11, 1789, at 5 p.m.
Hamilton was born on January 11, 1757, on the island of Nevis, British West Indies. In 1777, Hamilton became General George Washington’s assistant. In 1788, he convinced New Yorkers to agree to ratify the U.S Constitution. He then served as the nation’s First Secretary of the Treasury.
At the time, the nation was facing great foreign and domestic debt due to expenses incurred during the American Revolution. Ever a proponent for a strong central government, during his tenure as treasury secretary, Hamilton butted heads with fellow cabinet members who were fearful of a central government holding so much power. Lacking their state loyalties, Hamilton went so far as to turn down New York’s opportunity to house the nation’s capitol in favor of securing backing for his economic program, dubbed the “dinner table bargain.”
It was Hamilton’s belief that the Constitution gave him the authority to create economic policies that strengthened the central government. His proposed fiscal policies initiated the payment of federal war bonds, had the federal government assume states’ debts, instituted a federal system for tax collection and would help the United States establish credit with other nations.
Hamilton stepped down from his position as secretary of the treasury in 1795, leaving behind a far more secure U.S. economy to back a strengthened federal government.
On July 12, 1804, in New York City, Hamilton died of a gunshot wound that he sustained during a duel with Aaron Burr.
