What's in a namesake? The man behind the town
HAMILTON -- If John B. Rhinelander didn't know the town of Hamilton was named for his great-great-great-grandfather, he can understand why others don't either.
''I never put two and two together," said Rhinelander, 72, a lawyer who summered in Gloucester as a child and has retired to the city. ''It never occurred to me that Hamilton, Massachusetts, was named after Alexander Hamilton."
A former clerk to Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan, Rhinelander isn't the only local resident learning that bit of local history at the Hamilton-Wenham Public Library this month. It is hosting a traveling exhibition commemorating the life of one of the most influential and controversial Founding Fathers, with ''Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America" running through March 29 at the library on Union Street.
The exhibition, which opened this month, consists of seven panels on the library's second floor, as well as two life-size statues depicting Hamilton and Vice President Aaron Burr during their famous duel in 1804 that claimed his life.
''It's fascinating when people come upstairs and see the exhibit and just become absorbed," said Elizabeth Craig-McCormack, the young adult librarian and author of the grant that brought the display to Hamilton. ''People immediately become enthralled in it. It's quite a long exhibit, and people are coming up and just taking it all in."
The exhibition, made up of paintings and reproductions of letters and artifacts, covers important relationships in Hamilton's life (including his close ties with George Washington, who became his most important ally) and traces his background and his careers as a soldier and economist, and how his vision for America has played out. Among the many ideas he championed was a strong central government, a central currency system, the modern system of credit, judicial review, the end of slavery, and racial equality. His view of the United States as a country with a diverse economy relying on manufacturing and commerce prevailed over that of sometime-rival Thomas Jefferson, who envisioned a more agrarian society.
Among Hamilton's admirers was Manasseh Cutler, pastor of the First Congregational Church in the southern parish of Ipswich, which in 1793 broke away to form Hamilton. Cutler was not just a community leader, he was also keenly interested in the actions of the First Continental Congress, said Arthur ''Butch" Crosbie, Hamilton Historical Society president.
''Back then, the leaders of the town were ministers -- very learned men," said Crosbie. ''Cutler was very much involved with the government, as well as with his own church."
It was Cutler who renamed the new town after Hamilton, whose support for manufacturing and commerce resonated in the port cities of the East. Hamilton Hall in Salem is also named for Hamilton.
While Hamilton's profile graces the town seal, many believe that its name is a reference to its early status as a hamlet, defined as a village without a church, even though that situation changed when the church was built in 1714, Crosbie said.
Among several events scheduled to coincide with the exhbition, the library is hosting a panel discussion at 7 p.m. Monday on ''The Age of Alexander Hamilton," featuring historians from Salem State College, Gordon College, and the Woods Hole Sea Education Association. It will be moderated by Kevin O'Reilly, head of the social studies department at Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School.
Hamilton was a controversial figure who built relationships that sometimes flourished (as with Washington) and sometimes floundered.
One exhibit illustrating the many antagonistic relationships he had with other leading figures in the country's formative years is a letter written by John Adams 11 years after Hamilton's death. In it, Adams referred to him as ''the most restless, impatient, artful, indefatigable, and unprincipled intriguer in the United States, if not the world."
Also among his chief antagonists was Aaron Burr, whose quest for the presidency Hamilton helped block when he lobbied instead for another longtime adversary, Jefferson, after they tied for Electoral College votes in the election of 1800.
''In a choice of evils . . . Jefferson is in every view less dangerous than Burr," Hamilton wrote before the House of Representatives broke the stalemate. Burr ended up as Jefferson's vice president, and the lingering bad blood eventually boiled over into the duel that killed Hamilton on July 11, 1804, in Weehawken, N.J.
As evidence of his combative nature, Hamilton had fought seven duels, which while against the law in many areas was seldom prosecuted in his day.
In part because he died so young, at 47, less is known about Hamilton than other Founding Fathers, but he was an important figure in the nation's history, O'Reilly noted. ''Hamilton set us on a course of financial stability, but not without controversy," the social studies teacher said.
''When a country is starting out, it can go in one direction or another. It was a crucial time and he had his opinions. What he started brought the country financial unity and stability. He's extremely important."
''Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America" is a national traveling exhibition organized by the New York Historical Society, the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History, and the American Library Association. For more information, call 978-468-5577 or visit the Hamilton-Wenham library's website, www.hwlibrary.org. 
