Illustrated history of the United States mint / with a complete description of American coinage, from the earliest period to the present time

by Unknown

ALEXANDER HAMILTON,

Statesman, orator, and financier, born in the West Indian island of Nevis, 11th of January, 1757. His father was a Scotch merchant, and his mother was the daughter of a French Huguenot. He was educated at King’s College, N. Y. When he was 18 years of age he surprised the people by his public speeches and pamphlets in favor of American independence. He was commissioned Captain of a Company of Artillery in March, 1776, and served with distinction at the battles of Long Island, White Plains, Trenton, and Princeton, and was appointed Aid-de-camp and Private Secretary to General Washington in March, 1777, and gained his special favor and confidence in planning campaigns and devising means to support the army. In 1782 he was elected a member of the Continental Congress, and Washington expressed the opinion that no one excelled him in probity and sterling virtue. He was an active member of an anti-slavery party in New York, and offered a resolution in 1784, that every member of that society should liberate his own slaves. He was a delegate to the convention which met in Philadelphia in May, 1787, to form a Federal Constitution and to promote the Union of the States, and it appears was the principal author of the movement. Hamilton was appointed Secretary of the Treasury in 1789, at the time the nation was burdened with a heavy debt, almost destitute of credit, and on the verge of bankruptcy. The results of his financial policy were the restoration of public credit, protection to American industry, and a rapid revival of trade and commerce. He resigned his office to resume his practice of law, January 31, 1795. He declined the position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States previously tendered him. Washington testified his great esteem for Hamilton by consulting him in the preparation of his Farewell Address, as well as in many other acts of his noble career.

In 1804, Aaron Burr, presenting himself as a candidate for Governor of New York, but Hamilton opposed his election expressing the opinion that “Burr was a dangerous man and unfit to be trusted with power.” The election of Gen. Lewis blasted the ambitious projects of Burr, who insolently demanded an explanation of Hamilton, and finally challenged him, Hamilton accepted the challenge, was mortally wounded at Weehawken, and died July 12, 1804. His death was profoundly lamented throughout the country.

Note.—His eldest son had been killed in a duel by a political adversary about 1802. Mr. Hamilton was the principal author of the Federalist, and the real father of our financial system. Immediately after adopting the constitution, he strongly advocated the establishment of a Mint, so that the New World would not be dependant on the Old for a circulating medium.

HON. JAMES PUTNAM KIMBALL,
President Director of all the Mints,

was born in Salem, Mass., April 26, 1836. After graduating at the High School of his native town in 1854, he entered the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University. In the summer of the following year he went to Germany, and matriculated at the University of Frederick Wilhelm, Berlin, in the Fall of the same year, and was graduated at the University of George Augusta, at Gottingen, in the Autumn of 1857, with the degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy. Upon his graduation he entered upon a practical course in Mining and Metallurgy, at the Mining School of Freiburg, in Saxony.

After making a tour of the Continent and England, he returned home and engaged as the Assistant of Prof. J. D. Whitney, now of Harvard University, in the State Geological Surveys of the States of Wisconsin and Illinois, embracing the Upper Mississippi lead region. He continued with Prof. Whitney during the survey, comprising the southeastern part of Iowa.

On the establishment of the New York State Agricultural College at Ovid, the foundation of which was subsequently merged with that of Cornell University, Dr. Kimball was appointed to the Chair of Professor of Chemistry and Economic Geology. Upon the appointment of the President of the college, Gen. Patrick, as Brigadier-General of Volunteers, Dr. Kimball became that officer’s Chief of Staff, with a commission from the President of the United States, as Assistant Adjutant-General of Volunteers, with the rank of Captain. This was in 1862. His first service in the field was with the Army of the Rappahannock, under Gen. McDowell. He took part in numerous engagements, notably, those of Groveton, Manassas, Chantilly, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. General Patrick having been assigned to duty as Provost-Marshal of the Army of the Potomac, Capt. Kimball accompanied him, and served on the General Staff of that army under Generals McClellan, Burnside, Hooker, and Meade, successively.

When the army went into winter quarters, Capt. Kimball, whose health had become impaired, resigned from the army, and settled in New York. He resumed the practice of his profession as Mining Engineer and Metallurgist. Upon his marriage, in 1874, he accepted an honorary Professorship in Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa., removing from New York to one of the houses in the beautiful park and grounds of that institution, though retaining his office and business in New York City.

Dr. Kimball has been largely identified with the mineral development of Bedford County, Pa., and at the time of his appointment as Director of the Mints, was President of the Everett Iron Company, whose blast furnace, built in 1883-84, is one of the largest and finest in this country. As a scientist he is a contributor to various scientific journals at home and abroad, and among others the American Journal of Science, published at New Haven. Several of his papers have appeared in the proceedings of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, of which he has been Vice President. Dr. Kimball has traveled extensively in the United States, Mexico, and the West Indies, in prosecuting his professional practice, and as a man of scientific accomplishments and of affairs, bears a deservedly high reputation.

Dr. Kimball comes of Revolutionary stock. His paternal great-grandfather, William Russell, of Boston, was associated with the Sons of Liberty, and the leaders in public affairs in the times that tried men’s souls. He was present, disguised as an Indian, and assisted in the famous Tea Party in Boston harbor on the memorable 16th of December, 1773. Later, Mr. Russell was adjutant of the Massachusetts Artillery, raised for the defense of Boston, and which served in the Rhode Island campaign of 1777-78. Still later, while serving as Secretary to Commander John Manley, of the U. S. war vessel Jason, Russell was captured by the British frigate Surprise, and confined in Mill prison till June 24, 1782, when he was exchanged. But so sturdy a patriot could not rest unemployed, and twenty days after his liberation, found him again in the naval service. He was again made prisoner by the British, in November following, and consigned to the notorious British prison ship, Jersey, lying off New York.

An anecdote is related by Mr. James Kimball, father of the subject of this sketch, in a memoir on the Tea Party in Boston harbor furnished the Essex Institute Historical collections (1874), which illustrates the temper of Mr. Russell as a patriot. Returning to his home after the destruction of the tea, he took off his shoes, and carefully dusted them over the fire; he then took the tea canister and emptied its contents. Next morning he had printed on one side of the canister, “Coffee,” and on the other, “No Tea.” This was the brief decree of banishment promulgated by the Tea Destroyers, and the prohibited luxury disappeared from their tables.