he was sent to school at Elizabethtown, New Jersey; and in 1773 entered
King's College, in the city of New York, where he pursued his studies
with signal success. But events were happening that were to place him in
a very different school from that in which he was preparing to become a
physician. He was to be the physician of the State, and to that end he
was thrown among men, and appointed to do the work of men of the highest
intellect, at an age when most persons have not half completed the
ordinary training which is to fit them to begin the common routine of
common life.

Hamilton's connection with the history of his country, as one of those
who were making material for it, began at the age of seventeen. The
American Revolution was moving steadily onward when he arrived at New
York, and by the summer of 1774 it had assumed large proportions. He
first spoke at "the Great Meeting in the Fields," July 6th, and
astonished those who heard him by the fervor of his eloquence and the
closeness of his logic. His fame dates from that day. He sided with the
people of his new home from the time that he came among them, and never
had any doubt or hesitation as to the course which duty required him to
adopt and pursue. As a writer he was even more successful than as a
speaker. A pamphlet which he wrote in December, 1774, vindicating the
Continental Congress, attracted much attention, and that and another
from his pen were attributed to veteran Whigs, particularly to John Jay;
but the evidence of Hamilton's authorship is perfect, or we might well
agree with the Tories, and believe that works so able could not have
been written by a youth of eighteen. Other writings of his subsequently
appeared, and were most serviceable to the patriots. Young as he was, he
was already regarded by the country as one of its foremost champions
with the pen. The time was fast coming when it was to be made known that
the holder of the pen could also hold the sword, and hold it to
effective purpose.

He had joined a volunteer corps while in college, and was forward in all
its doings. The first time he was under fire was when this corps was
engaged in removing guns from the Battery. The fire of a man-of-war was
opened on it, doing some injury. This was the first act of war in New
York, and it is interesting to know that Hamilton had part in it. In the
commotion that followed, he was zealous in his efforts to prevent the
triumph of a mob, and not more z