Sujet PAP Unit 7 : Mount Rushmore

Compréhension écrite Terminale

Alexander Hamilton was born on the Caribbean island of Nevis in either 1755 or 1757.
His father, the Scottish trader James Hamilton, and mother, Rachel Faucette Lavien,
weren’t married. Hamilton’s father abandoned the family in 1766 and his mother died two
years later. Hired as a clerk in a trading company on St. Croix when he was just 11,
Hamilton gained wider attention after he published an eloquent letter describing a
hurricane that had hit the island in 1772. Locals helped raise money to send him to
America to study, and he arrived in New York in late 1772, just as the colonies were
gearing up for a war for independence from Great Britain.

While studying at King’s College in New York (now Columbia University), Hamilton got
involved in the colonial cause, writing pamphlets like “A Full Vindication of the Measures
of Congress,” in which he defended the First Continental Congress’s proposal to
embargo trade with Britain.

When the Revolutionary War began, he was commissioned to lead an artillery company
in the Continental Army and fought bravely in the Battles of Trenton and Princeton,
among others. By 1777, he had captured the attention of the army’s commander-in-chief,
General George Washington, who gave him a position on his staff.

Appointed by Washington in 1781 to command a light infantry battalion in Marquis de

Lafayette’s Division, Hamilton helped lead the attack at the Battle of Yorktown in
Yorktown, Virginia, which would become the war’s last major land battle.

“In Hamilton's day, showing courage on the field of battle was one of just a few
ways for an unknown person to win fame,” says historian Michael E. Newton, author
of Alexander Hamilton: The Formative Years. “Hamilton had a genius and was hard-
working but did not come from an illustrious family like most of the Founding Fathers. He
knew that winning glory in battle would make him famous and help him further his
career.”

After the war, Hamilton studied law, passed the New York bar and set up a practice as
an attorney in New York City. In 1787, when the Constitutional Convention was held
in Philadelphia to overhaul the Articles of Confederation, Hamilton was chosen as one of
three delegates from New York.

Though Hamilton ended up having little influence on the Constitution itself, he played an
important role in its ratification. Along with James Madison and John Jay, Hamilton
published a series of 85 essays defending the new document to the American people.

A few years later, Hamilton had of ascending to the nation’s highest office himself had
been dashed by his involvement in America’s first prominent sex scandal. In the
infamous Reynolds Pamphlet, published in 1797, Hamilton went public with his affair with
a married woman, Maria Reynolds, in order to clear his name from any suspicion of
illegal financial speculation involving her husband, James.

The Life of Alexander Hamilton, History.com Editors, June 13 2023

I/ Basic information about Alexander Hamilton (no need to write sentences)

a- Birthdate and birthplace:

b- Situation of his parents:
c- Study place and field:

II/ Questions (in English)

a- What can you say about his childhood ?

b- How did he managed to travel to the United States to study ? Answer +
Quote the line from the text
c- What does the year 1777 refer to ? Answer + Quote the line from the text
d- What is the Reynold’s Pamphlet ? Answer + Quote the line from the text

III/ Translation and interpretation (in French)

Translate and interpret these sentences:

“In Hamilton's day, showing courage on the field of battle was one of just a few ways
for an unknown person to win fame,”

IV / Written expression (in English)

In your opinion, does Alexander Hamilton deserve to be in Mount Rushmore? (about

100 lines)