On this episode of Newt's World, as part of Founding Father's Week, I'm talking

about the lives and legacies of our original founders and the impact they've had in our country.

On this episode of Newt's World, Alexander Hamilton's life is one of the more extraordinary stories of a

founding father's rise to greatness. He's truly an immortal. He was born in the Caribbean on the

island of Nevis in the British West Indies in January 1755 or 1757 to parents who were unmarried at the time.

And then he was orphaned. The idea that an orphan child would grow up to become more of the most

influential leaders in the founding of the United States of America is stunning. And he really

personifies the American dream before we had defined what that meant. Hamilton was a lawyer by training,

but also got very involved in financial markets, founded the Bank of New York, and later would serve as the

first secretary of the Treasury under President George Washington. More importantly, it's what he did

behind the scenes to establish the United States that's significant. He served in the Revolutionary War,

both in the field as an artillery officer and as a senior aide to General George Washington. After the war,

he was elected as a representative from New York to the Congress of the Confederation. He led the

Annapolis Convention of 1786 and wrote 51 of the 85 Federalist Papers. Most of us these days, no Hamilton

from the Broadway musical by Lin Manuel Miranda, which debuted in 2015. Miranda was inspired by the 2004

Ron Chernau biography of Hamilton. The musical has introduced a new generation to Alexander Hamilton's life and

legacy and made it an entertaining one. Hamilton in a sense has had a new burst of fame, but he's somebody

who really never should have disappeared. First of all, he was extraordinarily bright. Hamilton may have been

in sheer IQ the smartest of all the founding fathers. He was just deeply admired by Washington. He was invaluable to

Washington as a staff officer. He was endlessly competent. And I think that's a key part of this, is that Hamilton was

a person who was very ambitious, but he was also a person who worked very hard and who applied his considerable

intelligence to whatever job he had. Now, he actually had not gotten to the US very much before the

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