American Minute - July 11 - First Secretary of Treasury killed in duel

American Minute
with Bill Federer

He intentionally fired into the air, but his political rival, Aaron Burr, took deadly aim and fatally shot him in a duel JULY 11, 1804.

Born in the West Indies, he fought in the Revolution and was aide-de-camp to General Washington.

He helped write the Constitution and convinced States to ratify it by writing The Federalist Papers.

His name was Alexander Hamilton.

The first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton had written in "The Farmer Refuted," February 23, 1775:

"The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the Hand of the Divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power."

Alexander Hamilton continued:

"Good and wise men, in all ages...have supposed that the Deity, from the relations we stand in to Himself, and to each other, has constituted an eternal and immutable law, which is indispensably obligatory upon all mankind."

On April 16, 1802, Alexander Hamilton wrote to James Bayard:

"Let an association be formed to be denominated 'The Christian Constitutional Society,' its object to be first: The support of Christian religion; second: The support of the United States."