My dear mother, seated as was her wont at the head of the table with a napkin in her lap, cutting slices of bread and spreading them with butter for the younger boys...When the lessons were finished the father and the elder children were called to breakfast, after which the boys were packed off to school.

Along with his mother and siblings, James was present in the room, sitting at his father's bedside, when he died a few hours after the duel.

In March 1829, Hamilton served as acting Secretary of State to President Andrew Jackson, surrendering the office on the regular appointment of Martin Van Buren.

In the book's preface, he writes that he was "induced to undertake this work by a desire to do justice" to his father "against the aspersions of Mr. Jefferson, and more recently of Martin Van Buren."

Our self-denials were great, indeed, but our faith in the future was greater...Our poverty was so extreme that during our first year we boarded at four dollars per week for each.

Hamilton built a large home in the Ardsley-on-Hudson section of Irvington, New York, which he named "Nevis" in honor of his father's birthplace in the British West Indies.

It was originally "a simple Greek revival building with Doric columns", but in 1889 it was "extensively remodeled" by famed architect Stanford White.

In 1934, Mrs. T. Coleman DuPont gave Nevis to Columbia University for the "establishment of a horticultural and landscape architecture center.