His ardent support of a strong central government and his economic plans placed Hamilton at the head of a growing political faction that grew into the Federalist Party. The Federalists favored a strong association between government and wealthy merchants, financiers, and manufacturers. Hamilton distrusted democracy (a government ruled through decisions by the majority of the people), believing that the common person was not sufficiently knowledgeable to vote in the bestinterests of the nation. Hamilton also sought to put limits on republicanism (governing a country by the consent of the people and for the benefit of the people through elected representatives). He wanted to establish national wealth and power and maintain political order in the young United States. However, his goals and ideas for the nation would come into sharp conflict with those of other political leaders in America.
A Natural Talent for Economic Trade
Alexander Hamilton was born on the island of Nevis, a British colony in the West Indies. There is uncertainty about whether he was born in 1755 or 1757. He grew up on the nearby island of Saint Croix. Alexander was the second of two sons born out of wedlock to James Hamilton, who came from a wealthy Scottish family, and Rachel Fawcett Lavien, daughter of a French Huguenot physician (the Huguenots were French Protestants who faced religious persecution by the French Catholic government after 1685).
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