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Alexander Hamilton Property and Debts

Alexander Hamilton Property and Debts/tiles/non-collection/c/c_043imgtile1.xml
Image courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration
Alexander Hamilton Property and Debts/tiles/non-collection/c/c_043imgtile2.xml
Image courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration
Alexander Hamilton Property and Debts/tiles/non-collection/c/c_043imgtile3.xml
Image courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration
Alexander Hamilton Property and Debts/tiles/non-collection/c/c_043imgtile4.xml
Image courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration
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Document Category

Communications

Date

ca. 1804

State or Territory

N/A

Committee or Office

Committee on Pensions and Revolutionary War Claims

Series

Committee Papers, 1789–2015

Congress

8th (1803–1805)

Member(s)

Alexander Hamilton

Description

Alexander Hamilton died on July 12, 1804, a day after his political opponent, Vice President Aaron Burr, shot him in a duel. His widow, Elizabeth, twice petitioned Congress to award her his military pension. Her petition included this statement of Hamilton’s property and debts, written in his own hand shortly before his death. He estimated his worth to be £10,000, yet he worried that the amount might not cover his debts “if an accident should happen to me.” Initially unsuccessful in 1810, Elizabeth Hamilton again petitioned Congress in 1816. She was granted five years’ pay—the amount of a full pension.

Related Subjects

Teaching Tip

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Historical Highlight

February 08, 1791

The First Bank of the United States

Related Links

Office of the Historian: history@mail.house.gov
Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk: art@mail.house.gov, archives@mail.house.gov