Alexander Hamilton, whose portrait is on the $10 bill, became our country’s first Secretary of the Treasury in 1789.  According to the U.S. Treasury Department’s website:

“At the inauguration of the constitutional government in 1789 Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), George Washington's former military aide and a renowned financier, was appointed the first Secretary of the Treasury and thus he became the architect of the structure of the Department. Desirous of a strong, centrally controlled Treasury, Hamilton did constant battle with Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State, and Albert Gallatin, then a Congressman, over the amount of power the Department of the Treasury should be allowed to wield. He designed a Treasury Department for the collection and disbursing of public revenue, but also for the promotion of the economic development of the country.”

Hamilton resigned his position as Treasury Secretary in 1795, joining the New York bar to resume his practice of the law. Succumbing to injuries sustained nine years later in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr, a longtime political and personal adversary, Alexander Hamilton died on July 12, 1804.