Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled a statue of Alexander Hamilton in White Springs near the Suwannee River as part of America’s upcoming 250th birthday during a press conference in Hamilton County this week.
Hamilton was a founding father and the first Secretary of the Treasury under President George Washington from 1789 to 1795. Hamilton also founded the Federalist Party, America's first political party, in 1791.
He is also on the $10 bill. While attending King's College (now Columbia University) around 1774, Hamilton became a vocal writer for the American cause against the British crown.
"He was someone that was very, very supportive of America fighting back against what they perceived to be really serious violations of their rights," DeSantis said.
Hamilton would later join the Revolutionary War against the British in 1775, participating in the battles of Trenton and Princeton as a Captain in the Continental Army.
George Washington, Commander of the Continental Army at the time, appointed Hamilton as his military assistant in 1777. Hamilton would later be a key commander in the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, which ultimately led to the British surrendering and the virtual end of the Revolutionary War.
With America's Independence secure, Hamilton wrote the Federalist Papers with James Madison and John Jay under the pseudonym "Publius" between 1787 and 1788 to promote the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, which included advocating for a strong federal government and checks and balances.
The U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1787.
"No one's been able to write a better explanation of the theory and structure of American government than Hamilton and Madison did under the pen name of Publius all those years ago," DeSantis said.
Hamilton wrote 51 of the essays, with Madison writing 29 and Jay writing 5.
"Hamilton is cited to this day in those essays on executive power, on judicial power, on how to amend the Constitution, on what the stakes of the debate were, all these things; many of his essays have been very, very famous," DeSantis added.
Hamilton also played a major role in Florida's eventual founding by negotiating the Pinckney's Treaty, which established a boundary between then-Spanish Florida and the United States at Florida's northern border with Georgia.
Florida became a U.S. state in 1845.
"He wanted Florida because he thought it was important to maintaining American independence," DeSantis said. "He had a kinship in the sense that Florida's climate was similar to what he grew up with out in the West Indies, and so that was something that he advocated for, and of course, later, that was something that was done."
Hamilton died after having a duel with rival Aaron Burr in 1804. The duel came after Hamilton critcized Burr during the lead-up to the 1804 New York gubernatorial election, including publicized smears describing Burr as a "dangerous man," leading to his landslide loss to Democratic-Republican Morgan Lewis.
His statue is the latest unveiling by Gov. DeSantis as part of America 250, which commemorates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, culminating on July 4, 2026.
DeSantis also unveiled a statue of former President James Monroe in February and of former President Thomas Jefferson in July 2025.
