ALEXANDER HAMILTON, FEDERALIST HUNK

Alexander Hamilton was a stud. Yes, he served as George Washington's aide-de-camp during the Revolutionary War, wrote a majority of the Federalist Papers, became the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and was the father of American finance-but he was also a quick-tempered, egotistical flirt who caused America's first political sex scandal and died tragically in a duel against Aaron Burr in 1804.

But it's not just his brilliant political mind that has seduced people. Hamilton was a slender, fair-skinned, auburn-haired man with a chiseled jaw and azure eyes so alluring that Massachusetts representative Fisher Ames once called them "eminently beautiful." Henry Cabot Lodge described him as "very attractive," while a flustered Abigail Adams once wrote to her husband that Hamilton represented "lasciviousness itself." Or, as a woman named Breanna Lynn more recently put it on Facebook, "I'd tap that."

Lynn posted this message on the Facebook group "Alexander Hamilton Was the Foxiest of the Federalists," just one of a string of Hamilton fan pages that have cropped up on the social network. Others have names such as: "I love Alexander Hamilton," "Alexander Hamilton?...?The Hotness Never Dies," "Are you Treasurer Sexy?" and "Alexander Hamilton: Too Hot For Your Wallet." There are Tumblrs, Twitter accounts, and fan fiction communities dedicated to the patron saint of Wall Street. A year ago, Rod Blagojevich admitted to having "a man crush" on him.

"Just Google 'Alexander Hamilton Is Hot' and you'll be surprised [by what] you get," says Caroline Hamilton (no relation), an English lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh who has written about Hamilton's modern-day popularity. "Interest in Hamilton has really come back."

A number of Hamilton appreciation groups are preoccupied with how dashing he looks on the $10 bill, which was redesigned in 2005. The oval around Hamilton's portrait was removed, his shoulders were broadened, his face given more prominence. "He looks like he's been Hollywoodized," says biographer Chernow. "The Treasury Department in all its wisdom has turned him into a real hunk."

Similar updates have been made to other denominations, but only Hamilton's has inspired lustful swoons. "The new bill uses the same portrait as before," says Douglas Mudd, curator of the American Numismatic Association's Money Museum in Colorado Springs. "But now it's a little bit more friendly-looking. Aside from his hairdo, you could easily imagine him being a modern person."

Hamilton's rags-to-riches story is a big part of his mystique. He was born on the Caribbean island of Nevis in either 1755 or 1757 to parents who never married. After his father left and his mother died, Hamilton worked as a clerk in Danish-controlled St. Croix. He was still a teenager in 1772 when he published a moving essay on St. Croix's near-destruction by a hurricane; it so impressed local leaders that they raised money to send Hamilton to school in New York. Within five years, the upstart was working alongside George Washington and operating in some of the most prestigious social and political circles in what was to become the United States. "He is the classic American success story. He comes out of nowhere, recreates himself, and sets the world on fire," says Chernow. "He was the Elvis Presley of his time."

To read the complete article, see: Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Hunk (mobile.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-31/alexander-hamilton-federalist-hunk)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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