Fire Meet Gasoline: George Washington and Alexander Hamilton

The American Revolution left behind countless legacies. Among them, forging close interpersonal relationships that would fundamentally alter the course of this ambitious republican experiment. Alexander Hamilton and George Washington, both made icons by the passage of time, worked intricately together during The Revolutionary War and through the foundational early days of the American Republic.

 As a principal aide-de-camp to General Washington and the eventual first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton found in George Washington a man with the new world on his shoulders, a paradigm of the country he had learned to call his own. For his part, Washington needed, valued, and utilized Hamilton’s genius in shaping the new United States. Together, they served as powerful voices for centralized governance in an environment that had proven so hostile to it. Their relationship was as impactful for one another as it has been for our system of government.  

The country we see today is a byproduct of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton’s “fire meet gasoline” connection. Their relationship is best understood in eras, from the battlefields of the Revolution to the sun setting on Washington’s life.