Similarities Between Hamilton And Aaron Burr

Many political rivals throughout American history have had their share of courtroom tiffs and arguments, but no set of enemies quite compare to Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. American politics has seen plenty of adversaries in its unconventional history. Hamilton and Burr are famous simply because of their story’s end. No other political conflict had ended in a duel that would go down in history. How did their rivalry differ from everyone else’s? Though Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr had their similarities, their differences are what truly defines them.
Alexander Hamilton was born on the small island of Nevis in the West Indies. Young Hamilton had very humble beginnings. The Hamiltons were a middle class family trying to get by with the cards life had dealt them. Alexander’s parents were Rachel Lavien and James Hamilton. His parents were never married. Rachel had a previous husband, and had even been jailed for adultery (Chernow 11). After she served her sentence, she ran into the son of a Scottish lord, James. Alexander and his older brother, James Jr., knew that they were illegitimate and faced prejudice for it. Their father left them in the year 1766. Two years later, Alex and his mother had gotten a fever. Alex recovered as his mother died in the bed next to him. The brothers then went to live with their
In 1789, Hamilton was appointed to be the Secretary of the Treasury, a newly founded department in the government. Immediately, he sprung towards the plan of a national bank. Before he could reach that goal, he had to take care of the public credit. His plan had the federal government assuming the debts of the states. The southern states opposed greatly, but Hamilton managed to pull it through. He could finally propose his report for support of a national bank. Before he even finished his proposal, senators were already audibly disagreeing with him (“Alexander