Dear Ellie

Chapter 2: Pinky Promise

"Hi my name is Ellie Peterson and I did my project on Alexander Hamilton, you know the guy on the ten dollar bill," I said standing in front of my Honors English class. We had gotten assigned to do a project on an influential person in history and present it in order to get ready for the next book we were going to read. I of course chose Alexander Hamilton which Hannah, who was in my class, was unhappy about because she wanted to do him, but I won the coin toss, so she ended up doing it on Lafayette. Which I for one thought would get her extra credit since he was a very unknown person. I click on the first slide and begin speaking on Alexander's earlier life, "So Alexander Hamilton was born in the Caribbean on the island of Saint Croix. He grew up poor and at 10 years old his father left him and his mother. Flash forward to two years later and him and his mother become very sick, even though Alex got better his mother sadly died leaving him orphaned and broke. He started working for his late mothers landlord to earn money and he would write letters saying that he wished that there was a war. He wished for this war because he knew that the only way for him to get anywhere in life would be to either die in glory on the battlefield or play a part in the war coming out as a war hero of sorts." I looked around at the class and saw some people bored but mostly everyone was actually listening intently and seemed interested. Liam, Hannah and Ian were sitting in the back and smiling at me and I took a deep breath and then continued.

"So as Alexander is working to survive and dreaming of something better in life a hurricane strikes his island killing many and destroying the town. After this Alexander writes a poem about the struggles he's had to face in his life so far and how he just wants to do something more. He writes this poem so well that when the town members get ahold of it they raise money to send him to New York to get an education and do something with his life." I pause and skip to the next slide, "Hamilton arrives in New York in 1776 where he is attending Princeton collage and meets one Aaron Burr, who's father happens to be the president of Princeton collage. Hamilton befriends Burr along with John Laurens, who's dream was to create an all black military regiment, Marquis Lafayette, a French solider, and Hercules Mulligan, a tailors apprentice, who all end up joining in the revolution and fighting together. So Hamilton starts fighting in the revolution and people start trying to recruit him to be their secretary because of how good of a writer he is. He denies all offers, knowing that secretaries are never remember after a war is over and that doesn't fit his 'I want to be a war hero or die in glory' agenda. He finally agrees to be a secretary when non other than the father of the country himself, George Washington, asks him to write for him." I pause clicking to the next slide and look at my classmates who are all now listening intently and my teacher is smiling but also has a glint of curiosity in her eye.

"Hamilton continues helping Washington and in 1780 he meets Elizabeth Schuyler, or Eliza as she was called. They write letters to each other for three weeks until they decide to get married, in one of Hamilton's final letters before their marriage he tells her that she must be ready to be poor. For Eliza came from a very wealthy family and Alexander was poor and did not know what his future held, financially and morally. He basically begs her to leave him unless she is sure that this is the life she wants and she is so in love she says yes and they are married. After their married Alexander keeps helping Washington trying to get him to let him be in charge of a battalion of men and fight in the war, but Washington tells him no, keeping him as a secretary. Later Hamilton is sent home by Washington and when he arrives home he learns that Eliza is pregnant and stays out of the war until 1781. Hamilton is called back by Washington to lead a battalion of men into Yorktown where the war will end, they spend a week fighting and finally with the help of supplies and money from the French the British surrender and the Americans win their freedom." I say and click to the next slide, I can see people wanting to clap thinking I'm done but I'm not.

"So after the war Hamilton goes back to New York to finish up his studies and practices law along side his friend and fellow solider Aaron Burr. They become lawyers together and Hamilton the starts to write what would be known as the Federalist papers; a series of essays anonymously published defending the US Constitution to the public. Hamilton joins forces with James Madison and John Jay to write 25 essays and have the work divided evenly between them. In the end they wrote 85 essays in the span of six months, John Jay got sick after writing five, James Madison wrote 29, and Hamilton wrote the other 51." I say, feeling very cool whist saying it. I look at Hannah who is fangirling and trying to stay quiet, I almost laugh but I keep talking instead, "Hamilton then gets invited to the constitutional convention where he speaks for six hours about a plan of government and a financial system that he has come up with. Shortly after this George Washington approaches Hamilton and asks him to be in charge of the Secretary of Treasury and Hamilton accepts the offer. Then in 1789 Thomas Jefferson, who's been in France for quite some time, comes home and is immediately made Secretary of State by Washington and immediately butts heads with Hamilton. Jefferson and Hamilton fought on everything from taxes, to slavery, to Hamilton's financial plan, to weather they should help France in the French Revolution or not. And this fighting was so often and intense that the cabinet split into two parties, which is why we now have the different parties in politics. But one thing that Jefferson and Hamilton made a deal on was what could be called the biggest back room deal in American history. Hamilton wanted to pass a debt plan he had and create a national bank but Jefferson was opposed and so were many others making it impossible for Hamilton to get the votes for congressional approval. Meanwhile the country was fighting about where to put the U.S. capital, Hamilton approaches Jefferson wanting to sit down and talk about a proposition he has, Jefferson conferred with Madison and the three of them sat down to dinner. This became one of the most iconic dinners in American history because over the course of it Hamilton traded away the capital to Jefferson and Madison and in exchange they would get him his votes to pass his debt plan. If this historical dinner wouldn't had taken place our capital would be in Pennsylvania and our financial system would be completely different. A few years later Washington steps down from his position as president and the election for president begins. Jefferson resigns from being in the Cabinet to run for president, in the end the new president is John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, coming in second, is the vice-president. Hamilton then quits, resigning from the cabinet and publishing 'The Adams Pamphlet' bashing John Adams, who was the only remaining member of his party. And even though that damages Hamiltons image Jefferson, Madison and Burr know that as long as Hamilton can write and has any power he is a threat to them so they start looking for something that Hamilton has done that can ruin his political career and what they find is nothing short of a scandal." I see Hannah trying to stifle a laugh knowing what I'm about to say.