Alexander Hamilton’s Garden State Legacy

A statue on the Morristown Green commemorates a meeting between George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and the Marquis de Lafayette. Photo by Maryrose Mullen.

Morristown Green, Morristown
A sculpture of Hamilton, Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette stands on Morristown Green, part of Morristown National Historical Park, where the Continental Army camped in 1779 and 1780.  During the winter months, when plans were laid for battle, Hamilton served as translator between Washington and Lafayette.

The Schuyler-Hamilton House, 1936. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Schuyler-Hamilton House, Morristown
Hamilton asked friend John Laurens to find him a wife who “must be young, handsome (I lay most stress upon a good shape) sensible (a little learning will do), well bred (but she must have an aversion to the word ton) chaste and tender (I am an enthusiast in my notions of fidelity and fondness) of some good nature, a great deal of generosity (she must neither love money nor scolding, for I dislike equally a termagent and an œconomist).”  When he met Eliza Schuyler, and courted her in Morristown, she fit the bill.  The couple married on December 14, 1780.

Photo by Steve Greer

The Great Falls, Paterson
Hamilton first saw the Great Falls during the Revolutionary War on July 10, 1778, while picnicking with George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette.   Today a statue of Hamilton looks out over the falls, reportedly marking the picnic spot.

As Washington’s Secretary of the Treasury,  Alexander Hamilton established Paterson in 1791 as the first planned industrial city in the new nation. Hamilton organized the Society for the Establishing of Useful Manufactures (S.U.M.), intended to free the United States from reliance on Britain’s manufactured goods.  Hamilton raised private funds for the S.U.M. to purchase land at the Great Falls on the Passaic River in Paterson and established an incubator of manufacturing start-ups powered by the Great Falls.

Hamilton’s vision became reality in the following century. Known as “Silk City,” Paterson became the largest manufacturer of silk goods in the world during the 19th century. More than a hundred factories were located in Paterson, producing cotton, flax, and paper. Paterson also produced the first Colt firearms, the first motorized submarine, the engine for Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis,  both locomotives used in the Civil War’s Great Locomotive Chase, and hundreds of locomotives used to build the Panama Canal.

View of the Weekhawken dueling grounds in 1830s. Photo courtesy of the New York Public Library.

Weehawken Dueling Grounds
The Weehawken dueling grounds was home to numerous affairs of honor.  In 1801, Hamilton’s 19-year-old son Philip dueled with George Eacker after Eacker made a derogatory speech about Alexander Hamilton.  Philip Hamilton was shot and died the next day.

Three years later, Hamilton and Burr met at the Weehawken dueling grounds to settle decades of grudges..  Burr shot Hamilton in the torso. Fatally wounded, Hamilton was carried back across the Hudson to the home of his close friend William Bayard.  He died on July 12, 1804.