Alexander Hamilton was born on the island of Nevis in the British West Indies on January 11, 1757. He lived with his brother and a single mother. In 1772 Hamilton moved to the United States. He entered the Continental Army in 1776 as a captain of artillery while in New York, where he also studied law at King's College. He was married to Elizabeth Schuyler in 1780. Elizabeth came from a wealthy landowning family, this helped Alexander maintain ties with rich and powerful leaders of New York. Alexander Hamilton died in 1804 on July 12. Aaron Burr was the man who killed him in a duel because Mr. Hamilton helped Thomas Jefferson win the election to become the third president of the United States. Hamilton was President Washington's secretary of the treasury in the Cabinet in 1789-1795. The first task that Hamilton took on for President Washington was the problem of public credit. Because the government had incurred so much debt during the Revolution, it put a plan in place to pay it off. In proposing this idea, the promise to pay them back was not taken very seriously. By the late 1780s, state IOUs, or money borrowed to finance the Revolution, were considered almost worthless. Hamilton then launched a bold proposal that the federal government should repay all state debts at face value. To raise money for this, Hamilton offered to issue new bonds. The people who bought them would pay a huge profit. Alexander was also asked to create a national monetary system. He proposed to the Bank of the United States that a central bank help the new nation's economic change through a more secure paper currency. Eventually, with the president's support, the bank was leased with its first command post to P... middle of paper... which would never be seen as a stable and reliable nation. To repay the debts Hamilton intended to raise taxes across the country. And when the capital moved from Philadelphia to New York City, Hamilton offered to convince Congress and the President to move the capital south to a designated area near Virginia now known as the District of Columbia. Ron Chernow and Web. February 16, 2014. United States History. Independence Hall Association of Philadelphia, n.d. Web. 16 February 2014. .History of the United States. Np, nd Web. 16 February 2014. brandywine/special/art08.htm>. Notes of sparkle. Np, nd Web. 16 February 2014.biography/hamilton/section7.rhtml>.