In the earliest years of the U.S. government, the man whom many considered the second-most powerful man in the nation was neither a landowning Southern gentleman nor an experienced Northern statesman. Instead, the unofficial title belonged to Caribbean-born Alexander Hamilton. His career followed a steep trajectory as he progressed from George Washington’s trusted aide-de-camp to co-author of the Federalist Papers to the first Secretary of the Treasury. This ascent from obscurity to an intensive involvement in the formation of the new government provoked discord.