Hamilton, John Church, 1792-1882

John Church Hamilton (1792-1882), son of the first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, Alexander Hamilton, was a lawyer who devoted much of his life to writing a multi-volume biography of his father.

John Church Hamilton (August 22, 1792 − July 25, 1882) was a historian, biographer, and lawyer. He was a son of Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Hamilton was born on August 22, 1792, in Philadelphia.[1] He was the fourth son, and the fifth of eight children, born to Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton. His maternal grandparents were Philip Schuyler, a Revolutionary War hero and United States senator from New York, and Catherine Van Rensselaer. He was named for his uncle John Barker Church. In 1809, he graduated from Columbia College, and subsequently studied law.[1]

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.[1] In June 1814, without having ever been actively engaged in the field, he resigned his position in the army and returned to private life.[1] 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.[3] The biography was published in 1840–1841; however, nearly all copies were destroyed in a fire while in the process of binding.[3]

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.[3]

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."[3] 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.[4]: 17, 726 

In 1869, Hamilton published an edition of The Federalist, with historical notes and commentary.[5]

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.[1]

His opinions on economics were at different times solicited by Presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Chester A. Arthur.[1] In 1880, he presented a statue of Alexander Hamilton to the city of New York, "though preferring it were the act of others."[1] 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 [Hamilton's] public services and the lessons of his polity," and that he trusted "that this memorial may aid in their being recalled and usefully appreciated."[1]

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.[1] He was married to Maria Eliza van den Heuvel (January 4, 1795 – September 13, 1873), 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.[6] Together they had fourteen children