Hamilton began serving in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812, attaining the rank of second lieutenant. During this time he served as an aide-de-camp to Major General William Henry Harrison, a future president of the United States. In June 1814, without having ever been actively engaged in the field, he resigned his position in the army and returned to private life.
Historian
Upon returning from military service, "he did not apply himself to the practice of law," according to his obituary in the New York Times. Instead, "having strong literary tastes, devoted himself to the study of history, with a view to writing his father's life." Between 1834 and 1840, Hamilton read, sorted, and organized his father's letters and other papers, and wrote a two-volume biography titled The Life of Alexander Hamilton. The biography was published in 1840–1841; however, nearly all copies were destroyed in a fire while in the process of binding. During the next decade, Hamilton edited his father's collected writings under the authority of the Joint Library Committee of the United States Congress. The seven-volume authorized edition, The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Containing His Correspondence, and His Political and Official Writings, Exclusive of the Federalist, Civil and Military, was published by order of Congress in 1850–1851. Hamilton also wrote a biography in seven volumes, published between 1857 and 1864, titled Life of Alexander Hamilton: A History of the Republic of the United States of America. The work combined a biography of his father with a history of the United States "as traced in his writings and in those of his contemporaries." After several other biographers had abandoned the project, Hamilton had been prompted to write the comprehensive biography by his mother, who died prior to its publication. In 1869, Hamilton published an edition of The Federalist, with historical notes and commentary.
Politics
Hamilton was a member of the Whig Party and later a Republican, but never held elected office, having lost a run for Congress to represent part of New York City. His opinions on economics were at different times solicited by Presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Chester A. Arthur.
Later life
In 1880, he presented a statue of Alexander Hamilton to the city of New York, "though preferring it were the act of others." At the November 22, 1880, unveiling of the statue in Central Park near the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he said that after a century of the nation's existence, time had shown "the utility of public services and the lessons of his polity," and that he trusted "that this memorial may aid in their being recalled and usefully appreciated." On July 25, 1882, the 89-year-old Hamilton died at Stockton Cottage, on Ocean Avenue in Long Branch, New Jersey, due to complications of jaundice and catarrh. His funeral was held at Trinity Church in Manhattan.
Family
He was married to Maria Eliza van den Heuvel, the daughter of Jan Cornelis Van den Heuvel, a Dutch born plantation owner and politician who served as governor of the Dutch province of Demerara from 1765 to 1770 and later became a merchant in New York City with the Dutch West India Company. Together they had fourteen children:
General Alexander Hamilton, a major general in the Civil War, author of Dramas and Poems.
Maria Eliza Hamilton, who married Judge Charles A. Peabody
Charles Apthorp Hamilton, was educated in New York, England, and Germany. After clerking for a New York law firm, he practiced law in Wisconsin. He enlisted in the Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry at the start of the Civil War in 1861, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. A severe battle injury to both legs compelled his resignation in March 1863, and he returned to practicing law. In 1881, he was elected judge of the circuit court for Milwaukee.
Laurens Hamilton, an 1854 graduate of Columbia College, who died at the age of 23. He had served for one year as a private in the Seventh Regiment of New York, and drowned accidentally while serving as part of a military escort aboard a ship returning the remains of President James Monroe to Richmond, Virginia.
