CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE 
 
 MONAGHAN COLLECTION 
 
 The Gift of 
 
 Frank Monaghan 
 
 Cornell 1927 
 
Cornell University Library 
 E302 .H26 
 
 A few of Hamilton's letters including h 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 032 751 434 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924032751434 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 THE CONQUEROR 
 
 SENATOR NORTH 
 
 THE ARISTOCRATS 
 
 PATIENCE SPARHAWK AND HER TIMES 
 
 AMERICAN WIVES AND ENGLISH HUSBANDS 
 
 HIS FORTUNATE GRACE 
 
 CALIFORNIA SERIES 
 
 THE SPLENDID IDLE FORTIES 
 
 THE DOOMSWOMAN 
 
 THE VALIANT RUNAWAYS: A BOOK FOR BOYS 
 
 A DAUGHTER OF THE VINE 
 
 THE CALIFORNIANS 
 
 A WHIRL ASUNDER 
 
e-''^^'^^^:^^,^..^^. 
 
 From the Painting by John Trumbull 
 ozom-d by the Museum of Fine Arls, Boston 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S 
 LETTERS 
 
 INCLUDING HIS DESCRIPTION OF 
 
 THE GREAT WEST INDIAN 
 
 HURRICANE OF 1772 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 GERTRUDE ATHERTON 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE CONQUEROR," "THE SPLENDID IDLE FORTIES" 
 ETC., ETC. 
 
 WITIT PORTRAITS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
Copyright, 1903, 
 By the macmillan company. 
 
CAPTAIN WILLIAM RAMSING 
 
 OF DENMARK 
 
 antf 
 THE REVEREND W. C. WATSON 
 
 OF ST. CROIX, DANISH WEST INDIES 
 
 FROM WHOM I HAVE RECEIVED INVALUABLE HELP 
 IN MY RESEARCHES 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Hamilton's entire correspondence, exclusive of 
 his state papers, pamphlets, etc., fills three octavo 
 volumes. Much of it is uninteresting to-day to 
 any but a student of the past, and will never be 
 approached by the general reader. Taken as a 
 whole, the letters form almost a history of the times, 
 but that history has been written more than once 
 in a manner to require less effort on the part of 
 the temperately inquiring mind. This selection 
 has been made with a view to throw as much light 
 as possible on the man. They reveal him in many 
 of his moods, and although they have not, in every 
 case, the high literary quality peculiar to his great 
 reports and pamphlets, a few, the letter to Laurens, 
 describing the capture and death of Andre, for 
 instance, could hardly be improved upon. The 
 letter to Duane is the most remarkable ; and even 
 by those to whom at first glance it may appear very 
 long and very dry, it will well repay a careful study, 
 — not only because in it a young man of twenty- 
 three first hewed the foundation stones of a great 
 
viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 Republic, but because it throws many side-lights on 
 the workings of Hamilton's mind and character. 
 In it, indeed, are to be found indications of every 
 part of the immediate and future Hamilton, with 
 the sole exception of that not inconsiderable spot 
 which was more than responsive to the other sex. 
 
 Those who would fill in the spaces which exist 
 necessarily between the letters of this little collec- 
 tion, will find the missing links in the first, fifth, 
 and sixth volumes of " The Works of Alexander 
 Hamilton," J. C. Hamilton edition. They are in 
 every public library. Those so fortunate as to 
 possess the Lodge edition are not in need of 
 instructions. 
 
 The letters to the Provincial Congress are to be 
 found in the Journal of that body. 
 
 The letter to James Hamilton, Jr., and the cor- 
 respondence with Burr are contained in the last 
 pages of the " History of the Republic." The 
 correspondence of Washington with Hamilton and 
 Jefferson, regarding the battle in the Gazettes 
 between the Secretaries, is copied from the tenth 
 volume of Sparks' " Writings of George Wash- 
 ington." 
 
 The several letters to Hamilton, scattered through 
 
INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 this volume, are introduced for too obvious reasons 
 to require explanation. 
 
 If Hamilton kept his love-letters, some true 
 friend suppressed them after his death. But, rea- 
 soning from the well-known honour and wariness 
 of his character, it is more than likely that he 
 destroyed all such effusions promptly. But where 
 are those he himself wrote .'' Not one to a woman 
 but his wife has ever come to light. Had they out- 
 lasted him a generation they would have been bought 
 or stolen by his enemies, and flung to the public 
 long since. Perhaps he never wrote any. When 
 a man has the brain thoroughly to appreciate his 
 weakness for woman he is often very careful of 
 himself on paper. And Hamilton's short life was a 
 phenomenally busy one. It is a wonder he ever 
 found time to make love; the inditing of his sen- 
 timents must surely have seemed superfluous. But 
 his annual receipts must have been heavy. 
 
 The reviewers of " The Conqueror " have accused 
 me of too much enthusiasm, which, logically, they 
 decide has led to a violent partisanship and much 
 one-sidedness. Probably no reviewer living has 
 any enthusiasm left in him, — small blame to him, 
 — and it is one of the peculiar weaknesses of human 
 
X INTRODUCTION 
 
 nature to disapprove of what we do not possess. 
 Thus the poor disapprove of wealth, the timid of 
 audacity, the failures of success. A biography with- 
 out enthusiasm is a very poor thing. You may get 
 the bald facts, a calm dispassionate estimate, correct 
 if the writer be infallible ; but none of the glow and 
 rush ; and without those qualities you do not care 
 as much for the character and fate of the subject as 
 for the living and hitherto nameless hero of a news- 
 paper story. To remark that to do a thing thor- 
 oughly is better than to do it halfway, would seem a 
 lapse into flagrant platitude, yet it is a truism which 
 is oftenest forgot by critics. I wrote of Hamilton, 
 not because I was anxious to create a prodigy, but 
 because he was one and compelled my enthusiasm. 
 That he was the best brain that has given his 
 services to this country no profound and impartial 
 student of history pretends to deny. Even the 
 biographers of Jefferson pay their tribute. But 
 because the great majority of critics are unac- 
 quainted with American history, they accuse me 
 of wrongfully elevating Hamilton at the expense 
 of his contemporaries. If he was not greater, why, 
 pray, did the entire Federalist party — composed of 
 exceptionally brilliant, sensible, and patriotic men 
 
INTRODUCTION xi 
 
 — spontaneously follow his lead for a quarter of a 
 century ? Why did his rivals hate him as no man 
 has been hated in the history of this country? 
 The truth is that I did not exaggerate in a single 
 instance, and, what is more, I exhibited his faults 
 and weaknesses with considerable pleasure. No 
 man can be either great or lovable without them, 
 and had Hamilton been the dull perfection which 
 even the much misrepresented Washington was 
 not, he would have had to pass on and submit 
 once more to the biographer without enthusiasm. 
 
 G. A. 
 
 P.S. — Since writing the above, I have, through 
 the kind offices of a friend. Captain William Ram- 
 sing of the Danish Army, obtained a copy of Ham- 
 ilton's description of the hurricane of August; 1772. 
 It will be remembered that it was this piece of liter- 
 ary work, published in a West Indian newspaper, 
 which convinced his relatives and friends that he 
 deserved the education he craved, and incidentally 
 gave him to us. Until Captain Ramsing discovered 
 it, it is doubtful if it had been read for a century 
 and a quarter. All John Hamilton knew was the 
 bare fact that his father had written it and attributed 
 
xii INTRODUCTION 
 
 to its happy inspiration his real start in Ufe; he 
 made no effort to find a copy of the old newspaper, 
 and Hamilton evidently had not preserved one. 
 This curious document is interesting and valuable in 
 many ways : it is probably the only existing descrip- 
 tion of the greatest hurricane, with the exception of 
 the one of 1899, which ever visited the West In- 
 dies ; it is addressed to his father, which shows that 
 he was in affectionate correspondence with James 
 Hamilton at that time ; it is the production of a 
 youth of sixteen ; and above all it throws a new 
 light on both the workings of Hamilton's mind and 
 the development of his literary talent at that age. 
 Strange a mixture as it is of dramatic power, a 
 somewhat excessive piety, and literary self-con- 
 sciousness, it is a remarkable production, for it re- 
 veals an original mind striving to express itself 
 through the trammels of certain standards and 
 formulae which he had evidently accepted as the 
 correct models for the young man of literary aspi- 
 rations. Fortunately he was not long throwing off 
 trammels of all sorts, with the exception of the 
 temperate precision and clearness of the best eigh- 
 teenth-century literature. 
 
 It will be observed that the hurricane took place 
 
INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 at night. Mine, alas! began in the early morning 
 
 — and hailed from the southeast.^ But there was 
 absolutely no authority to consult, and I was obliged 
 to construct this almost forgotten phenomenon from 
 the abundant data of the equally tremendous hurri- 
 cane of 1899, Although I knew that lightning 
 and thunder sometimes accompany these great wind 
 storms, I omitted this manifestation from my de- 
 scription lest I strain the credulity of the Anglo- 
 Saxon reader, always prone to scent exaggeration. 
 It will now be seen that I did indeed " draw it 
 mild," for Hamilton's hurricane had falling me- 
 teors, the most terrific accompaniment of lightning 
 and thunder, and a prevailing smell of gunpowder, 
 
 — which must, in sooth, have added to the alarms 
 of the undevout. 
 
 The first two books of " The Conqueror," as 
 stated in the preface to that book, must always 
 stand as imaginative work based upon the discovery 
 of a few most important facts. But all details had 
 to be imagined or omitted. I was quite well aware 
 that if Hamilton's description of this hurricane ever 
 
 ^ Where West Indian hurricanes usually form. This hurricane of 
 1772, unless Hamilton was mistaken, probably formed in the Gulf 
 of Mexico. 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 came to light it would be in many respects different 
 from mine ; but the searcher I employed in Copen- 
 hagen while writing the book proves now to have 
 been worthless, and I had to go ahead or ignore the 
 subject. I was not in the least alarmed by the dan- 
 ger of eventually disproving any description of my 
 own ; for he who is afraid of making mistakes draws 
 only the small prizes of life. There was no possi- 
 bility of mistake after Hamilton came to this coun- 
 try, for the record of his life from 1772 on is as 
 open and full as could be wished ; but there is 
 undoubtedly more and more to learn in the archives 
 of Copenhagen concerning those early years on St. 
 Croix; and when the search is exhausted I shall 
 give the result to the world. 
 
 It will also be noticed that Hamilton's letter was 
 published on St. Croix. I had it sent to St. Kitts, 
 as I was given to understand that there was no 
 English newspaper on St. Croix at that time. I 
 read all the books ever written on these Islands (in 
 English), but found no mention of newspapers. 
 
 Almost immediately after sending off the above 
 postscript to the printer I received from Captain 
 Ramsing information of the most important nature. 
 
INTRODUCTION xv 
 
 It corroborates the scant data I found in the West 
 Indian records, and dispels conclusively any mys- 
 tery which may still be thought to surround Ham- 
 ilton's birth. The information is taken from The 
 Protocol of the Dealing Court in Christianstadt 
 for the year 1768. The date is the third of Au- 
 gust. (These records of the Dealing Court are 
 in the Provincial Archives of Iceland, — which are 
 nevertheless in Copenhagen.) Previous entries of 
 this year deal with debts of Rachael Lawien,^ de- 
 ceased ; also the following : " Daniel Barry claims 
 payment of 71 rixd. 4 reals, for furnishing linen 
 and black cloth, which he has supplied for the 
 funeral of the Deceased according to Peter Lytton's 
 orders, who, being of the family of the Deceased, 
 undertook to furnish same." 
 
 The entry which most concerns us, however, fur- 
 nishes the following facts : John Michael Lawien 
 had been, on St. Croix, by the " Ember " Court,* 
 granted a divorce from Rachael Lawien on the 
 25th of June, 1759. He was permitted to marry 
 again, but she, being the defendant, was not. At 
 
 1 For the orthographic vagaries of this name, see Appendix. 
 ^ A clerical court which met on the four Ember days. The Gov- 
 ernor-general of the Danish West Indies presided. 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 her death she possessed several slaves which she 
 left to her sons, Al/exander and James Hamilton. 
 John Michael Lawien made application for these 
 slaves in behalf of her " only lawfully begotten heir 
 Peter Lawien," Peter Lytton seems to have been 
 appointed guardian of the young Hamiltons. La- 
 wien subsequently won his suit. 
 
 One-half of Lawien's divorce complaint is here 
 quoted to have been that Rachael "absented her- 
 self," />. deserted him. This bears out Hamilton's 
 own statement that his mother left Lawien soon 
 after her marriage (because of ill-treatment). There 
 is no evidence that she was unfaithful to Lawien 
 while under his roof, or even that she deserted him 
 to live with Hamilton. It is certain that she was 
 living with her mother on St. Kitts in 1756. This 
 fact is established by the Common Records of 
 that island. As she was only thirty-two when she 
 died (see fac-simile of page from church register, 
 photographed for the present pastor, Mr. Watson), 
 she was at this time only twenty, and must have 
 been sixteen or less when she married Lawien. 
 We have Hamilton's statement that she was forced 
 into a hated marriage by her mother. I based my 
 story on Hamilton's own, and it is not likely that 
 
INTRODUCTION xvii 
 
 anything will be found to disprove it. Hamilton 
 appears to have been a man who told the truth 
 on a given subject or discreetly held his tongue. 
 Moreover, my own discoveries bear out all his 
 statements. 
 
 He and his brother James evidently bore their 
 father's name from the first. Rachael's alliance 
 with James Hamilton was, beyond all doubt, an 
 accepted social fact in the Islands. Alliances of 
 that sort continued to bask in the approval of tropi- 
 cal society during many years of the nineteenth 
 century. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 rAGK 
 
 To Edward Stevens. From St. Croix 3 
 
 To TiLEMAN Cruger. The same 4 
 
 To Captain William Newton. The same .... 7 
 
 To THE Provincial Congress 11 
 
 To THE Provincial Congress 14 
 
 From Hugh Knox. St. Croix 15 
 
 From Washington. Concerning the mission to Gates . . 17 
 
 To Washington. The same 20 
 
 To Gates. The same 25 
 
 To Washington. The same 27 
 
 To Washington. The same 32 
 
 To Washington. The same 35 
 
 From Washington. The same 37 
 
 From Hugh Knox. St. Croix 38 
 
 To Otho H. Williams 42 
 
 From Colonel Fleury 42 
 
 From John Laurens 43 
 
 From Laurens 46 
 
 From Laurens 48 
 
 To Laurens 49 
 
 To Laurens. The Andrd letter 52 
 
 - To Miss Schuyler 71 
 
 , To Miss ScHirvLER 73 
 
 ;?To Miss Schuyler 74 
 
 To the Hon. James Duane 77 
 
 To General Schuyler 112 
 
 ^ To Mrs. Hamilton 117 
 
 From Colonel Harrison . . , , . , .121 
 
 xix 
 
XX CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 To Meade '^5 
 
 To Laurens '^7 
 
 To Meade '^9 
 
 To Greene. Containing the allusion to Peter Lavine . • 132 
 
 To Lafayette '34 
 
 X To James Hamilton, Jr 13° . 
 
 , To Mrs. Hamilton . ^ '3^ 
 
 From Lafayette '39 
 
 From Washington '4° 
 
 To Washington '4-2 
 
 To Lafayette '47 
 
 From Gulian Verplanck '5° 
 
 To DUER 'S' 
 
 From Washington. Concerning the troubles in the Cabinet . 152 
 
 To Washington. The same ISS 
 
 Jefferson to Washington. The same 160 
 
 _.jProm-James_Hamilton 176 
 
 To 178 
 
 To Mrs. Greene i79 
 
 From M'Henry 185 
 
 To Theodore Sedgwick 186 
 
 To Rufus King 187 
 
 From Edward Stevens 189 
 
 From Greenleaf 190 
 
 To Greenleaf 192 
 
 To Oliver Wolcott 193 
 
 To Sedgwick 194 
 
 To Hamilton of Grange 196 
 
 From Washington 202 
 
 To Washington 203 
 
 To THE Secretary of the Navy. Concerning Alexander 
 
 Hamilton's cousin, Robert Hamilton 204 
 
 From Pickering. Concerning the command of the army in the 
 
 expected war with France 205 
 
CONTENTS xxi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 From Pickering. The same 207 
 
 To Washington 309 
 
 To King 210 
 
 From A. Hamilton 212 
 
 From Pickering 216 
 
 To PiNCKNEY. Concerning Washington's death . . .217 
 
 To Mrs. Washington. The same 218 
 
 To Bayard. Concerning Burr 219 
 
 s^Cg Mrs. Hamilton 229 
 
 From Gouverneur Morris 229 
 
 To Lafayette 231 
 
 To King 233 
 
 To Wolcott 238 
 
 To Morris 241 
 
 To C. C. Pinckney 242 
 
 From Lafayette 244 
 
 From Governor Walsterstorff. St. Croix .... 246 
 To Talleyrand. Regarding Hamilton's cousin, Alexander 
 
 Hamilton 247 
 
 From Burr. The correspondence before the duel . . . 251 
 
 To Burr. The same 251 
 
 From Burr. The same 255 
 
 To Burr. The same 256 
 
 To Sedgwick 257 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Photograph of page of Church Register of Christiansted, St. 
 
 Croix, D.W.I., containing Interment Notice of Rachael 
 
 Levine facing 260 
 
 Hamilton's Letter to his Father describing the Great Hurricane 
 
 of August, 1772 261 
 
 Deed of Separation between John and Mary Fawcett of Nevis, 
 
 B.W.I. ; maternal grandparents of Alexander Hamilton . 269 
 
 Doggerel Verses popular after Hamilton's death . . . 275 
 
I 
 
 ST. CROIX 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 To EDWARD STEVENS 
 
 St. Croix, November ii, 1769. 
 
 Dear Edward, — This serves to acknowledge 
 the receipt o£ yours per Captain Lowndes, which 
 was delivered me yesterday. The truth of Cap- 
 tain Lightbowen and Lowndes' information is 
 now verified by the presence of your father and 
 sister, for whose safe arrival I pray, and that they 
 may convey that satisfaction to your soul, that 
 must naturally flow from the sight of absent 
 friends in health; and shall for news this way 
 refer you to them. 
 
 As to what you say, respecting your soon hav- 
 ing the happiness of seeing us all, I wish for an 
 accomplishment of your hopes, provided they are 
 concomitant with your welfare, otherwise not; 
 though doubt whether I shall be present or not, 
 for to confess my weakness, Ned, my ambition is 
 prevalent, so that I contemn the grovelling con- 
 dition of a clerk, or the like, to which my fortune 
 
 3 
 
4 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 condemns me, and would willingly risk my life, 
 though not my character, to exalt my station. I 
 am confident, Ned, that my youth excludes me 
 from any hope of immediate preferment, nor do I 
 desire it; but I mean to prepare the way for 
 futurity. I'm no philosopher, you see, and may 
 be justly said to build castles in the air ; my folly 
 makes me ashamed, and beg you'll conceal it ; 
 yet, Neddy, we have seen such schemes success- 
 ful, when the projector is constant. I shall con- 
 clude by saying I wish there was a war. 
 I am, dear Edward, 
 Yours, 
 
 Alex. Hamilton. 
 
 P.S. I this moment received yours by William 
 Smith, and pleased to see you give such close 
 application to study. 
 
 To TILEMAN CRUGER 
 
 St. Croix, Nov. i6, 1771. 
 
 In behalf of Mr. Nicolas Cruger (who, by reason 
 of a very ill state of health, went from this to 
 New York the 15th ult.), I have the pleasure to 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 5 
 
 address you by the long expected sloop, Thunder- 
 bolt, Captain William Newton, owned by Messrs. 
 Jacob Walton, John Harris, and Nicolas Cruger, 
 the latter of whom has written you fully concern- 
 ing her destination, which I need not repeat. She 
 has on board besides a parcel of lumber for your- 
 self, sundry articles on account of her owners as 
 per enclosed bill of lading; and when you have 
 disposed of them you will please to credit each 
 partner with one third of the proceeds. 
 
 Mr. N. Cruger's proportion of this, and the bal- 
 ance of your account hitherto, will more than pay 
 for his one third cost of her first cargo up; and 
 for the other two, I shall endeavour to place value 
 in your hands betimes. I only wish for a line 
 from you to know what will best answer. 
 
 Reports here represent matters in a very dis- 
 agreeable light, with regard to the Guarda Costas, 
 which are said to swarm upon the coast; but as 
 you will be the best judge of what danger there 
 might be, all is submitted to your prudent direc- 
 tion. 
 
 Capt. Newton must arm with you, as he could 
 not so conveniently do it here. Give me leave 
 to hint to you that you cannot be too particular 
 
6 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 in your instructions to him. I think he seems to 
 want experience in such voyages. Messrs. Walton 
 and John H. Cruger are to furnish you themselves 
 with their respective proportion of the cost of the 
 several cargoes. 
 
 The staves on board, if by any means conven- 
 ient, I beg may be returned by the sloop; they 
 will command a good price here, and I suppose 
 little or nothing with you ; could they be got at 
 I would not send them down, but they are stowed 
 promiscuously among other things. 
 
 If convenient, please to deliver the hogsheads, 
 now containing the Indian meal, to the captain 
 as water casks, and others should he want them. 
 I supplied him with twenty here. I must beg 
 your reference to Mr. Cruger's last letter of the 
 2d ult. for other particulars. 
 
 Our crop will be very early, so that the utmost 
 dispatch is necessary to import three cargoes of 
 mules in due time. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 To CAPTAIN WILLIAM NEWTON 
 
 St. Croix, Nov. i6, 1771. 
 
 Herewith I give you all your dispatches, and 
 desire you will proceed immediately to Curracoa. 
 You are to deliver your cargo there to Tileman 
 Cruger, Esq., agreeably to your bill of lading, 
 whose directions you must follow in every respect 
 concerning the disposal of your vessel after your 
 arrival. 
 
 You know it is intended that you shall go from 
 thence to the main for a load of mules, and I 
 must beg if you do, you'll be very choice in the 
 quality of your mules, and bring as many as your 
 vessel can conveniently contain — by all means take 
 in a large supply of provender. Remember, you 
 are to make three trips this season, and unless 
 you are very diligent you will be too late, as our 
 crops will be early in. Take care to avoid the 
 Guarda Costas. I place an entire reliance upon 
 the prudence of your conduct. 
 
II 
 
 THE ARMY 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 To THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS 
 
 1776. 
 Gentlemen, — I take the liberty to request your 
 attention to a few particulars which will be of 
 considerable importance to the future progress of 
 the company under my command, and 1^ will be 
 much obliged to you for as speedy a determina- 
 tion concerning them as you can conveniently 
 give. The most material is respecting the pay. 
 Our company, by their articles, are to be subject 
 to the same regulations, and to receive the same 
 pay as the Continental artillery. Hitherto I have 
 conformed to the standard laid down in the 
 Journal of the Congress published the loth May, 
 1775, but I am well informed, that by some later 
 regulation, the pay of the artillery has been aug- 
 mented, and now stands according to the follow- 
 ing rates: captains ^10. 13. 4; captain-lieutenants 
 £% ; lieutenants each, £']. 6. 8 ; sergeants, £1. 6. 8 ; 
 corporals, £1. i. 4; bombardiers, ^3. i. 4; gun- 
 ners, £-ii ; matrosses, £2. 7. 4 ; drummers and 
 fifers, £2,. By comparing these with my pay 
 rolls, you will discover a considerable difference, 
 
12 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 and I doubt not you will be easily sensible that 
 such a difference should not exist. I am not 
 personally interested in having an augmentation 
 agreeable to the above rates, because my own 
 pay will remain the same that it now is; but I 
 make this application on behalf of the company, 
 as I am fully convinced such a disadvantageous 
 distinction will have a very pernicious effect on 
 the minds and behaviour of the men. They do 
 the same duty with the other companies, and 
 think themselves entitled to the same pay. They 
 have been already comparing accounts, and many 
 marks of discontent have lately appeared on this 
 score. As to the circumstance of our being con- 
 fined to the defence of the colony, it will have 
 little or no weight, for there are but few in the 
 company who would not as willingly leave the 
 colony on any necessary expedition as stay in it ; 
 and they will not therefore think it reasonable 
 to have their pay curtailed on such a considera- 
 tion. 
 
 Captain Beauman, I understand, enlists all his 
 men on the above terms, and this makes it very 
 difficult for me to get a single recruit, for men 
 will naturally go to those who pay them best. On 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 13 
 
 this account I should wish to be immediately 
 authorized to offer the same pay to all who may 
 be inclined to enlist. 
 
 The next thing I should wish to know is, 
 whether I might be allowed any actual expenses 
 that might attend the enlistment of men, should 
 I send into the country for that purpose ; the 
 expense would not be great and it would enable 
 me to complete my company at once, and bring 
 it the sooner into proper order and discipline. 
 Also, I should be glad to be informed if my 
 company is to be allowed the frock which is given 
 to the other troops as a bounty. This frock would 
 be extremely serviceable in summer while the men 
 are on fatigue, and would put it in their power to 
 save their uniform much longer. 
 
 I am, gentlemen, with the greatest respect, 
 Your most obedient servant 
 
 A. Hamilton, Captain. 
 
U A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 To THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS 
 
 July 26, 1776. 
 
 Gentlemen, — I am obliged to write you, to re- 
 move a difficulty which arises respecting the 
 quantity of subsistence which is to be allowed my 
 men. Enclosed you will have the rate of rations 
 which is the standard allowance of the whole 
 Continental and even the Provincial army, but it 
 seems Mr. Curtenius cannot afford to supply us 
 with more than his contract stipulates, which by 
 comparison, you will find is considerably less than 
 the forementioned rate. My men, you are sensi- 
 ble, are by their articles, entitled to the same sub- 
 sistence with the Continental troops ; and it would 
 be to them an insupportable discrimination, as well 
 as a breach of the terms of their enlistment, to give 
 them almost a third less provisions than the whole 
 army besides receives. I doubt not you will readily 
 put this matter upon a proper footing. Hitherto, 
 we have drawn our full allowance from Mr. Cur- 
 tenius, but he did it upon the supposition that he 
 should have a farther consideration for the extra- 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 15 
 
 ordinary supply. At present, however, he scruples 
 to proceed in the same way, until he can be put 
 upon a more certain foundation. 
 
 From HUGH KNOX 
 
 St. Croix, April 31, 1777. 
 
 My Dear Friend, — A pretty fair opportunity 
 just offering for Philadelphia, I could not omit 
 acknowledging the receipt of your very circum- 
 stantial and satisfactory letter of the 14th February. 
 The thing has happened which I wished for. We 
 have been amazed here by vague, imperfect, and 
 very false accounts of matters from the continent : 
 and I always told my friends, that if you survived 
 the campaign, and had an hour of leisure to write 
 to me, I expected a more true, circumstantial, and 
 satisfactory account of matters in your letter, than 
 by all the public papers and private intelligence 
 we have received here. I have but a moment to 
 command at present, and have not time to remark 
 upon your letter. I can only inform you, that it 
 has given high satisfaction to all friends here. We 
 rejoice in your good character and advancement^ 
 
i6 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 which is, indeed, only the just reward of merit. 
 May you still live to deserve more and more from 
 the friends of America, and to justify the choice, 
 and merit the approbation, of the Great and 
 Good General Washington — a name which will 
 shine with distinguished lustre in the annals of 
 history — a name dear to the friends of the 
 Liberties of Mankind! Mark this: You must 
 be the Annalist and Biographer, as well as the 
 Aide-de-camp, of General Washington — and the 
 Historiographer of the American War! I take 
 the liberty to insist on this. I hope you take 
 minutes and keep a Journal ! If you have not 
 hitherto, I pray do it henceforth. I seriously, and 
 with all my little influence, urge this upon you. 
 This may be a new and strange thought to you ; 
 but if you survive the present troubles, / aver — 
 few men will be as well qualified to write the his- 
 tory of the present glorious struggle. God only 
 knows how it may terminate. But however that 
 may be, it will be a most interesting story. 
 
 I congratulate you on your recovery from a long 
 and dangerous illness. It is my own case — I am 
 just convalescent, after the severest attack I ever 
 had in my life. I hope to write you more at large 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 17 
 
 soon, and remain, with the tender of every kind of 
 friendly wish. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 Your affectionate servant 
 
 Hugh Knox. 
 
 From WASHINGTON 
 (letter of instructions) 
 
 Headquarters, Philadelphia Co. 30th Oct. 1777. 
 
 Dear Sir, — It having been judged expedient by 
 a council of war held yesterday, that one of the 
 gentlemen of my family should be sent to General 
 Gates, in order to lay before him the state of this 
 army and the situation of the enemy, and to point 
 out to him the many happy consequences that will 
 accrue from an immediate reinforcement being sent 
 from the northern army, I have thought it proper to 
 appoint you to that duty, and desire that you will 
 immediately set out for Albany, at which place, or 
 in the neighbourhood, I imagine you will find Gen- 
 eral Gates. 
 
 You are so fully acquainted with the principal 
 points on which you are sent, namely, the state of 
 
i8 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 our army and the situation of the enemy, that I 
 shall not enlarge on those heads. What you are 
 chiefly to attend to, is to point out in the clearest 
 and fullest manner to General Gates, the absolute 
 necessity that there is for his detaching a very con- 
 siderable part of the army at present under his com- 
 mand to the reinforcement of this ; a measure that 
 will in all probability reduce General Howe to the 
 same situation in which General Burgoyne now is, 
 should he attempt to remain in Philadelphia with- 
 out being able to remove the obstructions in the 
 Delaware, and open a free communication with his 
 shipping. The force which the members of the 
 council of war judge it safe and expedient to draw 
 down at present, are the three New-Hampshire and 
 fifteen Massachusetts regiments, with Lee's and 
 Jackson's two of the sixteen, additional. But it is 
 more than probable that General Gates may have 
 detained part of those troops to the reduction of 
 Ticonderoga, should the enemy not have evacuated 
 it, or to the garrisoning of it. If they should, in 
 that case the reinforcement will be according to 
 circumstances ; but, if possible, let it be made up to 
 the same number out of other corps. If upon your 
 meeting with General Gates, you should find that 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 19 
 
 he intends, in consequence of his success, to employ 
 the troops under his command upon some expedi- 
 tion, by the prosecution of which the common 
 cause will be more benefited than by their being 
 sent down to reinforce this army, it is not my wish 
 to give any interruption to the plan. But if he 
 should have nothing more in contemplation than 
 those particular objects which I have mentioned to 
 you, and which it is unnecessary to commit to 
 paper, in that case you are to inform him that it is 
 my desire that the reinforcements before mentioned, 
 or such part of them as can be safely spared, be 
 immediately put in motion to join the army. 
 
 I have understood that General Gates has 
 already detached Nixon's and Glover's brigades to 
 join General Putnam, and General Dickinson 
 informs me. Sir Henry Clinton has come down the 
 river with his whole force ; if this be a fact, you are 
 to desire General Putnam to send the two brigades 
 forward with the greatest expedition, as there can 
 be no occasion for them there. 
 
 I expect you will meet Colonel Morgan's corps 
 upon their way down; if you do, let them know 
 how essential their services are to us, and desire 
 the Colonel or commanding officer to hasten their 
 
20 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 march as much as is consistent with the health of 
 
 the men after their late fatigues. 
 
 G. W. 
 
 P.S. I ordered the detachment belonging to 
 General McDougal's division to come forward. If 
 you meet them, direct those belonging to Greene's, 
 Angel's, Chandler's, and Duryee's regiments not to 
 cross Delaware, but to proceed to Red Bank. 
 
 To WASHINGTON 
 
 Albany, November, 1777. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I arrived here yesterday at noon, 
 and waited upon General Gates immediately, on 
 the business of my mission ; but was sorry to find 
 that his ideas did not correspond with yours, for 
 drawing off the number of troops you directed. I 
 used every argument in my power, to convince him 
 of the propriety of the measure ; but he was inflex- 
 ible in the opinion that two brigades at least, of 
 continental troops, should remain in and near this 
 place. His reasons were that the intelligence of 
 Sir Henry Clinton's having gone to join Howe, 
 was not sufficiently authenticated to put it out of 
 doubt; that there was, therefore, a possibility of 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 21 
 
 his returning up the river, which might expose the 
 finest arsenal in America (as he calls the one here) 
 to destruction, should this place be left so bare of 
 troops as I proposed; and that the want of con- 
 veniences, and the difficulties of the roads, would 
 make it impossible to remove artillery and stores 
 for a considerable time; that the New England 
 States would be left open to the depredations and 
 ravages of the enemy; that it would put it out of 
 his power to enterprise anything against Ticonde- 
 roga, which he thinks might be done in the winter, 
 and which he considers it of importance to under- 
 take. 
 
 The force of these reasons did by no means 
 strike me ; and I did everything in my power to 
 show they were unsubstantial : but all I could effect 
 was to have one brigade dispatched, in addition to 
 those already marched. I found myself infinitely 
 embarrassed, and was at a loss how to act. I felt 
 the importance of strengthening you as much as 
 possible: but on the other hand I found insuper- 
 able inconveniences, in acting diametrically opposite 
 to the opinion of a gentleman whose successes have 
 raised him to the highest importance. General 
 Gates has won the entire confidence of the Eastern 
 
I 
 
 22 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 States. If disposed to do it, by addressing himself 
 to the prejudices of the people, he would find no 
 difficulty to render a measure odious, which it might 
 be said, with plausibility enough to be believed, 
 was calculated to expose them to unnecessary dan- 
 gers, notwithstanding their exertions, during the 
 campaign, had given them the fullest title to repose 
 and security. General Gates has influence and 
 interest elsewhere: he might use it, if he pleased, 
 to discredit the measure there also. On the whole, 
 it appeared to me dangerous to insist on sending 
 more troops from hence, while General Gates ap- 
 peared so warmly opposed to it. Should any 
 accident or inconvenience happen in consequence 
 of it, there would be too fair a pretext for censure : 
 and many people are too well disposed to lay hold 
 of it. At any rate, it might be considered as using 
 him ill, to take a step so contrary to his judgment, 
 in a case of this nature. These considerations, and 
 others which I shall be more explicit in when I 
 have the pleasure of seeing you, determined me not 
 to insist upon sending either of the other brigades 
 remaining here. I am afraid that what I have done 
 may not meet with your approbation, as not being 
 perhaps fully warranted by your instructions ; but I 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 23 
 
 ventured to do what I thought right, hoping that, at 
 least, the goodness of my intention will excuse the 
 error of my judgment. 
 
 I was induced to this relaxation the more read- 
 ily, as I had directed to be sent to you two thou- 
 sand militia, which were not expected by you ; and 
 a thousand continental troops out of those proposed 
 to be left with General Putnam, which I have 
 written to him, since I found how matters were 
 circumstanced here, to forward to you with all dis- 
 patch. I did this for several reasons : because your 
 reinforcement would be more expeditious from that 
 place than from this : because two thousand conti- 
 nental troops at Peekskill will not be wanted in its 
 present circumstances ; especially as it was really 
 necessary to have a body of continental troops at 
 this place, for the security of the valuable stores 
 here ; and I should not, if I had my wish, think it 
 expedient to draw off more than two of the three 
 brigades now here. This being the case, one of 
 the ends you proposed to be answered, by leaving 
 the ten regiments with General Putnam, will be 
 equally answered by the troops here ; I mean that 
 of covering and fortifying the Eastern States ; and 
 one thousand continental troops in addition to the 
 
24 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 militia collected, — and that may be collected here, 
 — will be sufficient, in the Highlands, for covering 
 the country down that way, and carrying on the 
 works necessary to be raised for the defence of the 
 river. 
 
 The troops gone, and going, to reinforce you, are 
 near five thousand rank and file, continental troops ; 
 and two thousand five hundred Massachusetts and 
 New Hampshire militia. These, and the seven 
 hundred Jersey militia, will be a larger reinforce- 
 ment than you expected, though not quite an equal 
 number of continental troops ; nor exactly in the 
 way directed. General Lincoln tells me, the militia 
 are very excellent; and though their time will be 
 out by the last of this month, you will be able, if 
 you think proper, to order the troops still remaining 
 here to join you by the time their term of service 
 expires. 
 
 I cannot forbear being uneasy, lest my conduct 
 should prove displeasing to you ; but I have done 
 what, considering all circumstances, appeared to me 
 most eligible and prudent. 
 
 Vessels are preparing to carry the brigade to 
 New Windsor, which will embark this evening. I 
 shall, this afternoon, set out on my return to camp ; 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 25 
 
 and on my way, shall endeavour to hasten the 
 troops forward. 
 
 I have the honour to be, 
 
 With great esteem and respect, 
 
 Your Excellency's most ob't, 
 
 Alex. Hamilton. 
 
 To GATES 
 
 Albany, November 5, 1777. 
 
 Sir, — By inquiry, I have learned that General 
 Patterson's brigade, which is the one you propose 
 to send, is by far the weakest of the three now here, 
 and does not consist of more than about six hun- 
 dred rank and file fit for duty. It is true, that 
 there is a militia regiment with it of about two hun- 
 dred ; but the time of service for which this regi- 
 ment is engaged, is so near expiring, that it would 
 be past by the time the men could arrive at their 
 destination. 
 
 Under these circumstances, I cannot consider it 
 either as compatible with the good of the service, 
 or my instructions from His Excellency, General 
 Washington, to consent that that brigade be 
 selected from the three to go to him ; but I am 
 
36 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 under the necessity of desiring, by virtue of my 
 orders from him, that one of the others be substi- 
 tuted instead of this; either General Nixon's or 
 General Glover's; and that you will be pleased to 
 give immediate orders for its embarkation. 
 
 Knowing that General Washington wished me 
 to pay the greatest deference to your judgment, 
 I ventured so far to deviate from the instructions 
 he gave me, as to consent, in compliance with your 
 opinion, that two brigades should remain here, 
 instead of one. At the same time, permit me to 
 observe, that I am not myself sensible of the 
 expediency of keeping more than one, with the 
 detached regiments in the neighbourhood of this 
 place ; and that my ideas coincide with those gen- 
 tlemen whom I have consulted on the occasion, 
 whose judgment I have much more reliance upon 
 than on my own, and who must be supposed to have 
 a thorough knowledge of all the circumstances. 
 Their opinion is, that one brigade, and the regi- 
 ments before mentioned, would amply answer the 
 purposes of this post. When I preferred your 
 opinion to other considerations, I did not imagine 
 you would pitch upon a brigade little more than 
 half as large as the others: and finding this to be 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 27 
 
 the case, I indispensably owe it to my duty, to 
 desire, in His Excellency's name, that another may 
 go instead of the one intended, and without loss of 
 time. As it may be conducive to dispatch to send 
 Glover's brigade, if agreeable to you, you will give 
 orders accordingly. 
 
 I have the honour to be, 
 
 With respect and esteem. 
 
 Sir, your most obedient servant, 
 
 A. Hamilton. 
 
 To WASHINGTON 
 
 New Windsor, November loth, 1777. 
 
 Dear Sir., — I arrived here last night from 
 Albany. Having given General Gates a little 
 time to recollect himself, I renewed my remon- 
 strances on the necessity and propriety of send- 
 ing you more than one brigade of the three he 
 had detained with him ; and finally prevailed upon 
 him to give orders for Glover's in addition to 
 Patterson's brigade, to march this way. 
 
 As it was thought conducive to expedition, to send 
 the troops by water, as far as it could be done, I pro- 
 cured all the vessels that could be had at Albany, 
 
28 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 fit for the purpose ; but could not get more than 
 sufficient to take Patterson's brigade. It was 
 embarked the seventh instant; but the wind has 
 been contrary : they must probably be here to-day. 
 General Glover's brigade marched at the same 
 time, on the east side of the river, the roads being 
 much better than on this side. I am at this 
 moment informed, that one sloop, with a part of 
 Patterson's, has arrived, and that the others are in 
 sight. They will immediately proceed, by water, to 
 King's Ferry, and thence take the shortest route. 
 
 I am pained beyond expression to inform your 
 Excellency, that on my arrival here, I find every- 
 thing has been neglected and deranged by Gen- 
 eral Putnam; and that the two brigades, Poor's 
 and Learned's, still remain here and on the other 
 side of the river at Fishkill. Colonel Warner's 
 militia, I am told, have been withdrawn to Peekskill, 
 to aid in an expedition against New- York, which, 
 it seems, is, at this time, the hobby-horse with Gen- 
 eral Putnam. Not the least attention has been 
 paid to my order, in your name, for a detachment 
 of one thousand men from the troops hitherto 
 stationed at this post. Everything is sacrificed to 
 the whim of taking New- York. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 29 
 
 The two brigades of Poor and Learned, it 
 appears, would not march for want of money and 
 necessaries; several of the regiments having 
 received no pay for six or eight months past. 
 There has been a high mutiny among the former 
 on this account, in which a captain killed a man, 
 and was himself shot by his comrade. These 
 difficulties, for want of proper management, have 
 stopped the troops from proceeding. Governor 
 Clinton has been the only man who has done 
 anything toward removing them; but for want of 
 General Putnam's cobporation has not been able to 
 effect it. He has only been able to prevail with 
 Leamed's brigade, to agree to march to Goshen ; in 
 hopes, by getting them once on the go, to induce 
 them to continue their march. On coming here, 
 I immediately sent for Colonel Bailey, who now 
 commands Learned's brigade, and persuaded him 
 to engage to carry the brigade on to headquarters 
 as fast as possible. This he expects to effect by 
 means of five or six thousand dollars, which Gov- 
 ernor Clinton was kind enough to borrow for me, 
 and which Colonel Bailey thinks will keep the 
 men in good humour till they join you. They 
 marched this morning towards Goshen. 
 
30 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 I shall, as soon as possible, see General Poor, and 
 do everything in my power to get him along ; and 
 hope I shall be able to succeed. 
 
 The plan I before laid, having been totally 
 deranged, a new one has become necessary. It is 
 now too late to send Warner's militia; by the 
 time they reached you their term of service would 
 be out. The motive for sending them, which was 
 to give you a speedy reinforcement, has, by the 
 past delay, been superseded. 
 
 By Governor Clinton's advice, I have sent out 
 an order, in the most emphatical terms, to General 
 Putnam, immediately to dispatch all the continental 
 troops under him to your assistance ; and to detain 
 the militia instead of them. 
 
 My opinion is, that the only present use for 
 troops in this quarter, is to protect the country 
 from the depredations of little plundering parties ; 
 and for carrying on the works necessary for the 
 defence of the river. Nothing more ought to be 
 thought of. 'Tis only wasting time, and misapply- 
 ing men, to employ them in a suicidal parade against 
 New- York: for in this it will undoubtedly termi- 
 nate. New- York is no object, if it could be taken : 
 and to take it, would require more men than can be 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 31 
 
 spared from more substantial purposes. Governor 
 Clinton's ideas coincide with mine. He thinks 
 that there is no need of more continental troops 
 here, than a few to give a spur to the militia in 
 working upon the fortifications. In pursuance of 
 this, I have given the directions before mentioned. 
 If General Putnam attends to them, the troops 
 under him may be with you nearly as early as any 
 of the others (though he has, unluckily, marched 
 them down to Tarrytown); and General Glover's 
 brigade when it gets up, will be more than sufficient 
 to answer the true end of this post. 
 
 If your Excellency agrees with me in opinion, it 
 will be well to send instant directions to General 
 Putnam, to pursue the object I have mentioned : for 
 I doubt whether he will attend to anything I shall 
 say, notwithstanding it comes in the shape of a 
 positive order. I fear, unless you interpose, the 
 works here will go on so feebly, for want of men, 
 that they will not be completed in time : whereas, 
 it appears to me of the greatest importance they 
 should be pushed with the utmost vigour. Gov- 
 ernor Clinton will do everything in his power. I 
 wish General Putnam was recalled from the com- 
 mand of this post, and Governor Clinton would 
 
32 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 accept it : the blunders and caprices of the former 
 are endless. Believe me, Sir, nobody can be more 
 impressed with the importance of forwarding the 
 reinforcements coming to you, with all speed; nor 
 could anyone have endeavoured to promote it more 
 than I have done : but the ignorance of some and 
 the design of others, have been almost insuperable 
 obstacles. I am very unwell ; but I shall not spare 
 myself to get things immediately in a proper train ; 
 and for that purpose intend, unless I receive other 
 orders from you, to continue with the troops in the 
 progress of their march. As soon as I get General 
 Poor's brigade in march, I shall proceed to General 
 Putnam's at Peekskill. 
 
 To WASHINGTON 
 
 New Windsor, November 12, 1777. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I have been detained here these 
 two days by a fever, and violent rheumatic pains 
 throughout my body. This has prevented my 
 being active, in person, for promoting the purposes 
 of my errand ; but I have taken every other method 
 in my power, in which Governor Clinton has oblig- 
 ingly given me all the aid he could. In answer 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 33 
 
 to my pressing application to General Poor, for 
 the immediate marching of his brigade, I was told 
 they were under an operation for the itch; which 
 made it impossible for them to proceed till the 
 effects of it were over. By a letter, however, of 
 yesterday, General Poor informs me, he would cer- 
 tainly march this morning. I must do him the 
 justice to say, he appears solicitous to join you; 
 and that I believe the past delay is not owing 
 to any fault of his, but is wholly chargeable on 
 General Putnam. Indeed, Sir, I owe it to the 
 service to say, that every part of this gentleman's 
 conduct is marked with blunder and negligence, 
 and gives general disgust. 
 
 Parson's brigade will join you, I hope, in five 
 or six days from this. Learned's may do the same. 
 Poor's will, I am persuaded, make all the haste 
 they can for the future. And Glover's may be 
 expected at Fishkill to-night; whence they will 
 be pressed forward as fast as I can have any in- 
 fluence to make them go. But I am sorry to say, 
 the disposition for marching, in the officers and 
 men in general, of these troops, does not keep pace 
 with my wishes, or the exigency of the occasion. 
 They have, unfortunately, imbibed an idea, that 
 
34 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 they have done their part of the business of the 
 campaign, and are now entitled to repose. This, 
 and the want of pay, make them averse to a long 
 march at this advanced season. 
 
 In a letter from General Putnam, just now re- 
 ceived by Governor Clinton, he appears to have 
 been, the tenth instant, at King's Street, at the 
 White Plains. I have had no answer to my last 
 applications. The enemy appear to have stripped 
 New- York very bare. The people there, that is, 
 the Tories, are in a great fright: this adds to my 
 anxiety, that the reinforcements from this quarter 
 to you are not in greater forwardness and more 
 considerable. 
 
 I have written to General Gates, informing him 
 of the accounts of the situation of New- York with 
 respect to troops, and the probability of the force 
 gone to Howe being greater than was at first 
 expected ; to try if this will not extort from him 
 a further reinforcement. I don't, however, expect 
 much from him; as he pretends to have in view 
 an expedition against Ticonderoga, to be under- 
 taken in the winter : and he knows that, under the 
 sanction of this idea, he may, without censure, 
 retain the troops. And as I shall be under a 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 35 
 
 necessity of speaking plainly to your Excellency, 
 when I have the pleasure of seeing you, I shall not 
 hesitate to say, I doubt whether you would have 
 had a man from the northern army, if the whole 
 could have been kept at Albany with any decency. 
 Perhaps you will think me blamable in not having 
 exercised the powers you gave me, and given a 
 positive order. Perhaps I have been so: but, 
 deliberately weighing all circumstances, I did not, 
 and do not, think it advisable to do it. 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 To WASHINGTON 
 
 Peekskill, Nov. 15, 1777. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I arrived at this place last night, 
 and unfortunately find myself unable to proceed 
 any further. Imagining I had gotten the better 
 of my complaint, which confined me at Governor 
 Chnton's and anxious to be about attending to 
 the march of the troops, the day before yesterday 
 I crossed the ferry, in order to fall in with General 
 Glover's brigade, which was on its march from 
 Poughkeepsie to Fishkill. I did not, however, 
 see it myself, but received a letter from Colonel 
 Shepherd, who commands the frigate, informing me 
 
36 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 he would be last night at Fishkill, and this night 
 at King's Ferry. Wagons, &c., are provided on 
 the other side for his accommodation ; so that there 
 need be no delay but what is voluntary; and I 
 believe Colonel Shepherd is as well disposed as 
 could be wished to hasten his march. General 
 Poor's brigade crossed the ferry the day before 
 yesterday. Two York regiments, Courtland's and 
 Livingston's, are with them: they were unwilling 
 to be separated from the brigade, and the brigade 
 from them. General Putnam was unwilling to 
 keep them with him: and if he had consented to 
 do it, the regiments to displace them would not 
 join you six days as soon as these. The troops 
 now remaining with General Putnam will amount 
 to about the number you intended, though they are 
 not exactly the same. He has detached Colonel 
 Charles Webb's regiment to you. He says the 
 troops with him are not in a condition to march, 
 being destitute of shoes, stockings, and other nec- 
 essaries; but I believe the true reasons of his 
 being unwilling to pursue the mode pointed out 
 by you, were his aversion to the York troops, and 
 his desire to retain General Parsons with him. 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 37 
 
 From WASHINGTON 
 
 Head Quarters, November 15 th, 1777. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I have duly received your several 
 favours, from the time you left me to that of 
 the twelfth instant. I approve entirely of all the 
 steps you have taken ; and have only to wish 
 that the exertions of those you have had to deal 
 with, had kept pace with your zeal and good 
 intentions. I hope your health will, before this, 
 have permitted you to push on the rear of the 
 whole reinforcement beyond New Windsor. Some 
 of the enemy's ships have arrived in the Dela- 
 ware; but how many have troops on board I 
 cannot exactly ascertain. The enemy have lately 
 damaged Fort Mifflin considerably; but our peo- 
 ple keep possession, and seem determined to do 
 so to the last extremity. Our loss in men has 
 been but small. Captain Treat is unfortunately 
 among the killed. I wish you a safe return, 
 And I am, dear Sir, 
 
 Your most obedient servant, 
 
 G. Washington. 
 
38 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 From HUGH KNOX 
 
 St. Croix, December lo, 1777. 
 
 Dear Hamilton, — The fine, impartial, laconic, 
 and highly descriptive account you favoured me 
 with of the last year's campaign, in your letter of 
 March last, excited in me, and many of your 
 other friends here, an earnest desire of further 
 accounts from your pen, of the succeeding fortunes 
 of the Great American War: a war which will, 
 one day, shine more illustriously in the historic 
 page, than any which has happened since the 
 times of Nimrod and the Giants ; and deservedly, 
 on account of the goodness of the cause, the 
 grandeur of the object, the eclat of the generals, 
 the bravery of the troops, — and (alas ! that I 
 should be obliged to add) of the cruelty and 
 ferocity which has marked the route of your 
 enemies ; and the tons of brothers' blood which 
 has been shed on the unhappy occasion. 
 
 I wrote two answers to your obliging letter 
 both of which I hope have reached you ; and 
 in both of which I have urged it upon you, to 
 make and collect such memoirs as the urgency 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 39 
 
 of your affairs will permit you ; which may furnish 
 materials for an accurate history of the war, when 
 you shall have leisure to fill up and embellish 
 such a skeleton, with all that elegance and dignity 
 of which your fine pen is capable. 
 
 The honourable post you hold under the great 
 General Washington, and so near his person, will 
 give you a peculiar advantage in delineating his 
 character, both in his amiable private virtues and 
 military abilities. And depend upon it, the very 
 minutise of that incomparable man will be read 
 with avidity by posterity. You know me too 
 well, I hope, to suspect me of superstition ; yet 
 I feel myself, at times, under a strong impulse 
 to prophesy, that Washington was born for the 
 deUverance of America — and that Providence who 
 has raised and trained him up for that very pur- 
 pose, will watch over his sacred life with a pater- 
 nal and solicitous care; will shield his head in 
 every day of battle — will give him to see America 
 free, flourishing, and happy — and will adorn his 
 fame, among latest posterity, with a Garland of 
 Laurel, more verdant, blooming and enviable, than 
 ever adorned the brow of a Marlborough ! 
 
 The bearer of this line (if he should be indeed 
 
40 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 SO fortunate as to put it into your hand) is our 
 worthy friend, Mr. Cornelius Durant, who is pos- 
 sessed of an ardent desire of having the honour 
 of a short interview with General Washington ; 
 principally that he may have it to say, that he 
 has seen and spoken to the greatest man of this 
 age: and, indeed, considering Mr. Durant's per- 
 sonal worth ; his uncommon zeal for, and attach- 
 ment to the American cause ; the losses he has 
 sustained in attempting to assist her; and his 
 extraordinary admiration of, and love to the Gen- 
 eral's character and person, few men more richly 
 merit this indulgence. If you still exist, and 
 exist near the General's person (and I have not 
 yet seen your name among the list of the slain 
 or the disgraced), you can easily procure him 
 this honour — and I trust you will. 
 
 We are now blessed with, and certified of, the 
 glorious news of Burgoyne's surrender to the 
 immortal Gates; another bright star in the Con- 
 stellation of American Heroes ; and we are 
 momently expecting to hear that General Wash- 
 ington has done something like the same by 
 General Howe I But we yet tremble in suspense 
 — and it is indeed a painful one. Probably 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 41 
 
 before this letter goes we shall hear more of 
 the matter. Our general accounts are favour- 
 able ; and while the Chevaux de frize are defended 
 we have no fears about Philadelphia. May this 
 campaign decide the matter ! 
 
 By the time this reaches you, you will be (if 
 you are at all) in winter quarters ; and may 
 perhaps be at leisure to write me a half folio, 
 of which Mr. Durant will take care to write 
 me duplicates, or triplicates, for fear of miscar- 
 riage. 
 
 A piece of mine, entitled "An Address to 
 America, by a friend in a foreign government," 
 has been sent to the Congress for publication 
 (if approved). I know not yet its fate. It is, 
 at least, an honestly designed and animating 
 piece, but written incorrectly, and in a hurry. 
 If you have seen it pray give me your senti- 
 ments about it; but let it be on a loose paper 
 enclosed in your letter; for the knowledge of 
 my being the author must be a profound secret 
 here. 
 
 My wishes are, that the God of Armies may 
 defend and protect you, and to cause you happily 
 to survive, and to hand down to posterity the 
 
42 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 present important scenes. Numbers here esteem 
 you, and would join me in declaring themselves, 
 as I do. 
 
 Dear Hamilton, 
 Your ever affectionate friend and servant, 
 
 Hugh Knox. 
 
 To OTHO H. WILLIAMS 
 
 nth June, 1779. 
 
 Dear Williams, — The General sends you four 
 fresh horsemen to enable you to transmit him 
 intelligence. The General will take the road you 
 marched to your quarters. 
 
 Mind your eye, my dear boy, and if you have 
 an opportunity, fight hard. 
 
 Your friend and servant, 
 
 A. Hamilton. 
 
 From COLONEL FLEURY 
 
 L'Infantry Camp, i8th August, 1779. 
 
 Dear Colonel, — The officers of the two A Bat- 
 talions of rinfantery, which I actually command, 
 have applied to me for ceasing to run over these 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 43 
 
 craggy mountains barefooted, and beg that I would 
 write to headquarters to have an order from his 
 Excellency to get one pair of shoes for each; the 
 shoes they hint to are at New Windsor, and their 
 intention is to pay for. 
 
 Do not be so greedy for shoes as for my blanket, 
 and think that the most urgent necessity has deter- 
 mined their application ; they are quite barefoot. 
 I am very respectfully. Sir, 
 
 Your most obedient servant, 
 
 L. Fleury. 
 
 N.B. As his Excellency could form a very 
 advantageous idea of our being lucky in shoes by 
 the appearance of the officers who dined to-day at 
 headquarters, and were not quite without, I beg 
 you would observe to him, if necessary, that each 
 company had furnished a shoe for their dressing. 
 
 Si vous savez un mot de M. De La Luzerne 
 dites le moi. 
 
 From JOHN LAURENS 
 
 December 18, 1779. 
 My dear Hamilton, — On my arrival in town, I 
 was informed by the President, that congress had 
 
44 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 suspended the business of appointing a secretary 
 to their minister plenipotentiary at Versailles until 
 my return, in hopes that I might still be prevailed 
 upon to accept the office. I replied, that I 
 thought my letter upon the subject sufficiently 
 explicit, and assured him of my sincere desire to 
 be excused from serving in that capacity at the 
 present juncture of our affairs. 
 
 He urged the unanimity of the choice with 
 respect to me — the difficulty of uniting the suf- 
 frages of all parties, in case of a new nomination, 
 and the advantages of this union. Several dele- 
 gates of congress declared to me the embarrass- 
 ment of congress since I had declined. One, in 
 particular, suggested to me his apprehension of 
 interest being made for a late delegate of New- 
 York, who is candidate for the office, and to whom 
 the world in general allows greater credit for his 
 abilities than his integrity ; and said : " he was 
 determined to oppose him with all his influence." 
 When I quitted town the sixteenth, these matters 
 crowded into my mind. I fell into a train of 
 serious reflections and self-examination, — endeav- 
 oured to investigate whether I had fulffiled the 
 duties of a good citizen in the transaction. In 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 45 
 
 fine I agitated the grand question, whether a citi- 
 zen has a right to decline any office to which his 
 countrymen appoint him; upon what that right is 
 founded, and whether it existed in my case. 
 
 After undergoing the severest conflict I ever 
 experienced, sometimes reproaching, sometimes 
 justifying myself, pursuing my journey, or turning 
 retrograde, as the arguments on the one side or 
 the other appeared to prevail, I determined that 
 I had been deficient in the duties of a good 
 citizen. I returned to Philadelphia, communicated 
 my sentiments to the President and two other 
 members; declared to them that I thought it 
 incumbent on me, in the first place, to recommend 
 a person equally qualified in point of integrity, 
 and much better in point of ability. That if, 
 unhappily, they could not agree on Colonel Hamil- 
 ton, and that I was absolutely necessary to exclude 
 a dangerous person, or to prevent pernicious de- 
 lays, I should think it my duty to obey the orders 
 of congress. The persons now in nomination, are, 
 Colonel Hamilton, Mr. Lovell, Mr. G. Morris, 
 Major Stewart. Great stress is laid upon the 
 ability and integrity of the person to be employed 
 in this commission. I have given my testimony 
 
46 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 of you in this and the other equally essential 
 points. 
 
 My love, as usual. Adieu. 
 
 John Laurens. 
 
 From LAURENS 
 
 Charleston. 
 
 Ternant will relate to you how many violent 
 struggles I have had between duty and inclination 
 — how much my heart was with you, while I 
 appeared to be most actively employed here. But 
 it appears to me that I should be inexcusable in 
 the light of a citizen, if I did not continue my 
 utmost efforts for carrying the plan of the black 
 levies into execution, while there remains the small- 
 est hope of success. 
 
 Our army is reduced to nothing, almost, by the 
 departure of the Virginians. Scott's arrival will 
 scarcely restore us to our ancient number. If the 
 enemy destine the reinforcements from Great Brit- 
 ain to this quarter, as in policy they ought to do, 
 that number will be insufficient for the security of 
 our country. The Governor, among other matters 
 to be laid before the House of Assembly, intends 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 47 
 
 to propose the completing our continental battal- 
 ions by drafts from the militia. This measure, I 
 am told, is so unpopular that there is no hope of 
 succeeding in it. Either this must be adopted, or 
 the black levies, or the state will fall a victim to the 
 improvidence of its inhabitants. 
 
 The House of Representatives have had a longer 
 recess than usual, occasioned by the number of 
 members in the field. It will be convened, how- 
 ever, in a few days. I intend to qualify, and make 
 a final effort. Oh, that I were a Demosthenes! 
 The Athenians never deserved a more bitter repro- 
 bation than our countrymen. 
 
 General Clinton's movement, and your march in 
 consequence, made me wish to be with you. If 
 anything important should be doing in your quar- 
 ter, while I am doing daily penance here, and mak- 
 ing successless harangues, I shall execrate my stars, 
 and be out of humour with the world. I entreat 
 you, my dear friend, write me as frequently as cir- 
 cumstances will permit, and enlighten me upon 
 what is going forward. 
 
 Adieu. My love to our colleagues. I am afraid 
 I was so thoughtless as to omit my remembrances 
 to Gibbes. Tell him that I am his sincere well- 
 
48 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 wisher, and hope to laugh with him again ere 
 
 long. 
 
 Adieu again, 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 John Laurens. 
 
 From LAURENS 
 
 1778, December. 
 
 My dear Hamilton, — You have seen and by this 
 time considered, General Lee's infamous publica- 
 tion. I have collected some hints for an answer; 
 but I do not think, either that I can rely upon my 
 own knowledge of facts and style to answer him 
 fully, or that it would be prudent to undertake it 
 without counsel. An affair of this kind ought to 
 be passed over in total silence, or answered in a 
 masterly manner. 
 
 The ancient secretary is the Recueil of modern 
 history and anecdotes, and will give them to us 
 with candour, elegance, and perspicuity. The pen 
 of Junius is in your hand ; and I think you will, 
 without difficulty, expose in his defence, letters, and 
 last production, such a tissue of falsehood and 
 inconsistency, as will satisfy the world and put him 
 forever to silence. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 49 
 
 Adieu, my dear boy : — I shall set out for camp 
 to-morrow. 
 
 John Laurens. 
 
 To JOHN LAURENS 
 
 Cold in my professions — warm in my friendships 
 — I wish, my dear Laurens, it were in my power, 
 by actions, rather than words, to convince you that 
 I love you. I shall only tell you, that till you bade 
 us adieu, I hardly knew the value you had taught 
 my heart to set upon you. Indeed, my friend, it 
 was not well done. You know the opinion I enter- 
 tain of mankind ; and hov/ much it is my desire to 
 preserve myself from particular attachments, and 
 to keep my happiness independent of the caprices 
 of others. You should not have taken advantage 
 of my sensibility to steal into my affections without 
 my consent. But as you have done it, and as we 
 are generally indulgent to those we love, I shall 
 not scruple to pardon the fraud you have com- 
 mitted, on one condition ; that for my sake, if not 
 for your own, you will continue to merit the par- 
 tiality which you have so artfully instilled into me. 
 
 I have received your two letters ; one from Phila- 
 
so A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 delphia, the other from Chester. I am pleased 
 with your success so far; and I hope the favour- 
 able omens that precede your application to the 
 Assembly, may have as favourable an issue ; pro- 
 vided the situation of affairs should require it, 
 which I fear will be the case. But both for your 
 country's sake, and for my own, I wish the enemy 
 may be gone from Georgia before you arrive; 
 and that you may be obliged to return, and share 
 the fortunes of your old friends. In respect to 
 the commission which you received from Congress, 
 all the world must think your conduct perfectly 
 right. Indeed, your ideas upon this occasion seem 
 not to have their wonted accuracy; and you have 
 had scruples, in a great measure, without founda- 
 tion. By your appointment as aid-de-camp to the 
 commander-in-chief, you had as much the rank of 
 lieutenant-colonel as any officer in the line. Your 
 receiving a commission as lieutenant-colonel, from 
 the date of that appointment, does not in the least 
 injure or interfere with one of them ; unless, by 
 virtue of it you are introduced into a particular 
 regiment, in violation of the right of succession, 
 which is not the case at present; neither is it a 
 necessary consequence. As you were going to 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 51 
 
 command a battalion, it was proper you should 
 have a commission; and if this commission had 
 been dated posterior to your appointment as aid- 
 de-camp, I should have considered it derogatory 
 to your former rank, to mine, and to that of the 
 whole corps. The only thing I see wrong in the 
 affair is this: Congress by their conduct, both on 
 the former and present occasion, appear to have 
 intended to confer a privilege, an honour, a mark 
 of distinction, a something upon you, which they 
 withheld from other gentlemen of the family. 
 This carries with it an air of preference, which, 
 though we can all truly say we love your char- 
 acter and admire your military merit, cannot fail 
 to give some of us uneasy sensations. But in this, 
 my dear, I wish you to understand me well. The 
 blame, if there is any, falls wholly upon congress. 
 I repeat it, your conduct has been perfectly right, 
 and even laudable; — you rejected the offer when 
 you ought to have accepted it; and let me add, 
 with a degree of over-scrupulous delicacy. It was 
 necessary to your project. Your project was the 
 public good; and I should have done the same. 
 In hesitating, you have refined on the refinements 
 of generosity. 
 
52 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 There is a total stagnation of news here. Gates 
 has refused the Indian command. SulHvan is 
 come to take it. The former has lately given 
 fresh proofs of his impudence, his folly, and his 
 
 . 'Tis no great matter; but a peculiarity in 
 
 the case prevents my saying what. 
 
 Fleury shall be taken care of. All the family 
 send love. In this join the General and Mrs. 
 Washington; and what is best, it is not in the 
 style of ceremony, but sincerity. 
 
 To LAURENS 
 
 October, 1780. 
 
 Since my return from Hartford, my dear 
 Laurens, my mind has been too little at ease to 
 permit me to write to you sooner. It has been 
 wholly occupied by the affecting and tragic conse- 
 quences of Arnold's treason. My feelings were 
 never put to so severe a trial. You will no doubt 
 have heard the principal facts before this reaches 
 you ; but there are particulars to which my situa- 
 tion gave me access, that cannot have come to 
 your knowledge from public report, which I am 
 persuaded you will find interesting. 
 
 From several circumstances, the project seems 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 53 
 
 to have originated with Arnold himself, and to 
 have been long premeditated. The first overture 
 is traced back to some time in June last. It was 
 conveyed in a letter to Colonel Robinson, the sub- 
 stance of which was, that the ingratitude he had 
 experienced from his country, concurring with 
 other causes, had entirely changed his principles; 
 that he now only sought to restore himself to the 
 favour of his king, by some signal proof of his 
 repentance, and would be happy to open a corre- 
 spondence with Sir Henry Clinton for that purpose. 
 About this period he made a journey to Connecti- 
 cut; on his return from which to Philadelphia, he 
 solicited the command of West Point, alleging 
 that the effects of his wound had disqualified him 
 for the active duties of the field. The sacrifice 
 of this important post was the atonement he in- 
 tended to make. General Washington hesitated 
 the less to gratify an officer who had rendered 
 such eminent services, as he was convinced the 
 post might be safely intrusted to one who had 
 given so many distinguished proofs of his bravery. 
 In the beginning of August he joined the army, 
 and renewed his application. The enemy at this 
 juncture had embarked the greatest part of their 
 
S4 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 force on an expedition to Rhode- Island, and our 
 army was in motion to compel them to relinquish 
 the enterprise or to attack New- York in its weak- 
 ened state. The General offered Arnold the left 
 wing of the army, which he declined, on the pre- 
 text already mentioned, but not without visible 
 embarrassment. He certainly might have executed 
 the duties of such a temporary command, and it 
 was expected from his enterprising temper that 
 he would gladly have embraced so splendid an 
 opportunity. But he did not choose to be diverted 
 a moment from his favourite object; probably 
 from an apprehension that some different disposi- 
 tion might have taken place which would have 
 excluded him. The extreme solicitude he discov- 
 ered to get possession of the post would have led 
 to a suspicion of the treachery, had it been pos- 
 sible, from his past conduct, to have supposed him 
 capable of it. 
 
 The correspondence thus begun, was carried on 
 between Arnold and Major Andre, Adjutant Gen- 
 eral to the British army, in behalf of Sir Henry 
 Clinton, under feigned signatures, and in a mer- 
 cantile disguise. In an intercepted letter of 
 Arnold, which lately fell into our hands, he pro- 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 55 
 
 poses an interview "to settle the risks and prof- 
 its of the copartnership," and in the same style 
 of metaphor intimates an expected augmentation 
 of the garrison, and speaks of it as the means of 
 extending their traffic. It appears by another 
 letter, that Andre was to have met him on the 
 lines, under the sanction of a flag, in the char- 
 acter of Mr. John Anderson. But some cause or 
 other, not known, prevented this interview. 
 
 The twentieth of last month, Robinson and 
 Andre went up the river in the Vulture, sloop of 
 war. Robinson sent a flag to Arnold with two 
 letters, one to General Putnam, enclosed in another 
 to himself, proposing an interview with Putnam, or 
 in his absence with Arnold, to adjust some private 
 concerns. The one to General Putnam was evi- 
 dently meant as a cover to the other, in case, by 
 accident, the letter should have fallen under the 
 inspection of a third person. 
 
 General Washington crossed the river on his way 
 to Hartford, the day these dispatches arrived. 
 Arnold, conceiving he must have heard of the 
 flag, thought it necessary, for the sake of appear- 
 ances, to submit the letters to him, and asked his 
 opinion of the propriety of complying with the 
 
$6 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 request. The General, with his usual caution, 
 though without the least surmise of the design, 
 dissuaded him from it, and advised him to reply to 
 Robinson, that whatever related to his private affairs 
 must be of a civil nature, and could only properly be 
 addressed to the civil authority. This reference 
 fortunately deranged the plan, and was the first 
 link in the chain of events that led to the detection. 
 The interview could no longer take place in the 
 form of a flag, but was obliged to be managed in a 
 secret manner. 
 
 Arnold employed one Smith to go on board the 
 Vulture the night of the twenty-second, to bring 
 Andre on shore with a pass for Mr. John Anderson. 
 Andre came ashore accordingly, and was conducted 
 within a picket of ours to the house of Smith, 
 where Arnold and he remained together in close 
 conference all that night and the day following. 
 At daylight in the morning, the commanding 
 officer at King's Ferry, without the privity of 
 Arnold, moved a couple of pieces of cannon to a 
 point opposite to where the Vulture lay, and obliged 
 her to take a more remote station. This event, or 
 some lurking distrust, made the boatmen refuse to 
 convey the two passengers back, and disconcerted 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS S7 
 
 Arnold so much, that by one of those strokes of 
 infatuation which often confound the schemes of 
 men conscious of guilt, he insisted on Andre's 
 exchanging his uniform for a disguise, and return- 
 ing in a mode different from that in which he came. 
 Andre, who had been undesignedly brought within 
 our posts, in the first instance, remonstrated warmly 
 against this new and dangerous expedient. But 
 Arnold, persisting in declaring it impossible for 
 him to return as he came, he at length reluctantly 
 yielded to his direction, and consented to change 
 his dress, and take the route he recommended. 
 Smith furnished the disguise, and in the evening 
 passed King's Ferry with him, and proceeded to 
 Crompond, where they stopped the remainder of 
 the night (at the instance of a militia ofificer), 
 to avoid being suspected by him. The next morn- 
 ing they resumed their journey, Smith accompany- 
 ing Andre a little beyond Pine's Bridge, where he 
 left him. He had reached Tarrytown, when he 
 was taken up by three militiamen, who rushed out 
 of the woods, and seized his horse. At this criti- 
 cal moment, his presence of mind forsook him. 
 Instead of producing his pass, which would have 
 extricated him from our parties, and could have 
 
58 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 done him no harm with his own, he asked the 
 militiamen if they were of the upper or lower 
 party, distinctive appellations known among the 
 refugee corps. The militiamen replied, they were 
 of the lower party; upon which he told them he 
 was a British officer, and pressed them not to detain 
 him as he was upon urgent business. This con- 
 fession removed all doubt; and it was in vain he 
 afterwards produced his pass. He was instantly 
 forced off to a place of greater security; where 
 after a careful search, there were found concealed 
 in the feet of his stockings, several papers of 
 importance delivered to him by Arnold. Among 
 these there were a plan of the fortifications of West 
 Point, a memorial from the engineer on the attack 
 and defence of the place, returns of the garrison, 
 cannon, and stores, copies of the minutes of a 
 council of war held by General Washington a few 
 weeks before. The prisoner at first was inadver- 
 tently ordered to Arnold ; but on recollection, while 
 still on the way, he was countermanded and sent to 
 Old Salem. 
 
 The papers were enclosed in a letter to General 
 Washington, which having taken a route different 
 from that by which he returned, made a circuit, 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 59 
 
 that afforded leisure for another letter, through an 
 ill-judged delicacy, written to Arnold, with informa- 
 tion of Anderson's capture, to get to him an hour 
 before General Washington arrived at his quarters, 
 time enough to elude the fate that awaited him. 
 He went down the river in his barge to the Vul- 
 ture, with such precipitate confusion that he did 
 not take with him a single paper useful to the 
 enemy. On the first notice of the affair he was 
 pursued, but much too late to be overtaken. 
 
 There was some colour for imagining it was a 
 part of the plan to betray the General into the 
 hands of the enemy. Arnold was very anxious to 
 ascertain from him the precise day of his return, 
 and the enemy's movements seem to have corre- 
 sponded to this point. But if it was really the case 
 it was very injudicious. The success must have 
 depended on surprise, and as the ofificers at the 
 advanced posts were not in the secret, their meas- 
 ures might have given the alarm, and General 
 Washington, taking command of the post, might 
 have rendered the whole scheme abortive. Arnold, 
 it is true, had so dispersed the garrison as to have 
 made a defence difficult, but not impracticable ; and 
 the acquisition of West Point was of such magni- 
 
60 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 tude to the enemy, that it would have been unwise 
 to connect it with any other object, however great, 
 which might make the obtaining of it precarious, 
 Arnold, a moment before his setting out, went 
 into Mrs. Arnold's apartment, and informed her 
 that some transaction had just come to light, which 
 must forever banish him from his country. She fell 
 into a swoon at this declaration, and he left her 
 in it to consult his own safety, till the servants, 
 alarmed by her cries, came to her relief. She 
 remained frantic all day, accusing every one who 
 approached her with an intention to murder her 
 child (an infant in her arms), and exhibiting every 
 other mark of the most genuine and agonizing dis- 
 tress. Exhausted by the fatigue and tumult of her 
 spirits, her frenzy subsided towards evening, and 
 she sunk into all the sadness of affliction. It was 
 impossible not to have been touched with her situa- 
 tion ; every thing affecting in female tears, or in the 
 misfortunes of beauty, every thing pathetic in the 
 wounded tenderness of a wife, or in the apprehensive 
 fondness of a mother, and, till I have reason to 
 change the opinion, I will add, every thing amiable 
 in suffering innocence, conspired to make her an 
 object of sympathy to all who were present. She 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 6i 
 
 experienced the most delicate attentions, and every 
 friendly office, till her departure for Philadelphia. 
 
 Andre was, without loss of time, conducted to the 
 headquarters of the army, where he was immedi- 
 ately brought before a board of general officers, to 
 prevent all possibility of misrepresentation or cavil 
 on the part of the enemy. 
 
 The board reported that he ought to be con- 
 sidered as a spy, and according to the laws and 
 usages of nations, to suffer death, which was exe- 
 cuted two days after. 
 
 Never, perhaps, did any man suffer death with 
 more justice, or deserve it less. The first step he 
 took after his capture, was to write a letter to 
 General Washington, conceived in terms of dignity 
 without insolence, and apology without meanness. 
 The scope of it was to vindicate himself from the 
 imputation of having assumed a mean character, 
 for treacherous or interested purposes ; asserting 
 that he had been involuntarily an impostor; that 
 contrary to his intention, which was to meet a per- 
 son for intelligence on neutral ground, he had been 
 betrayed within our posts, and forced into the vile 
 condition of an enemy in disguise; soliciting only 
 that to whatever rigour policy might devote him, a 
 
62 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 decency of treatment might be observed to a per- 
 son who, though unfortunate, had been guilty of 
 nothing dishonourable. His request was granted 
 in its full extent ; for in the whole progress of the 
 affair, he was treated with the most scrupulous deli- 
 cacy. When brought before the board of officers 
 he met with every mark of indulgence, and was 
 required to answer no interrogatory which would 
 even embarrass his feelings. On his part, while he 
 carefully concealed everything that might impli- 
 cate others, he frankly confessed all the facts relat- 
 ing to himself, and upon his confession, without the 
 trouble of examining a witness, the board made their 
 report. The members were not more impressed 
 with the candour and firmness, mixed with a becom- 
 ing sensibility which he displayed, than he was 
 penetrated with their liberality and politeness. He 
 acknowledged the generosity of their behaviour 
 towards him in every respect, but particularly in 
 this, in the strongest terms of manly gratitude. In 
 a conversation with a gentleman who visited him 
 after his trial, he said he flattered himself he had 
 never been illiberal ; but if there were any remains 
 of prejudice in his mind, his present experience 
 must obliterate them. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 63 
 
 In one of the visits I made to him (and I saw 
 him several times during his confinement) he 
 begged me to be the bearer of a request to the 
 General, for permission to send an open letter to 
 Sir Henry Clinton. " I foresee my fate," said he, 
 " and though I pretend not to play the hero, or to be 
 indifferent about life, yet I am reconciled to what- 
 ever may happen, conscious that misfortune, not 
 guilt, has brought it upon me. There is only one 
 thing that disturbs my tranquillity. Sir Henry 
 Clinton has been too good to me ; he has been 
 lavish of his kindness ; I am bound to him by too 
 many obligations, and love him too well to bear the 
 thought that he should reproach himself, or others 
 should reproach him, on the supposition of my hav- 
 ing conceived myself obliged, by his instructions, to 
 run the risk I did. I would not, for the world, 
 leave a sting in his mind that should embitter his 
 future days." He could scarce finish the sentence ; 
 bursting into tears, in spite of his efforts to suppress 
 them, and with difficulty collected himself enough 
 afterwards to add, " I wish to be permitted to as- 
 sure him, I did not act under this impression, but 
 submitted to a necessity imposed upon me, as con- 
 trary to my own inclination, as to his orders." His 
 
64 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 request was readily complied with, and he wrote the 
 letter annexed, with which I dare say you will be 
 as much pleased as I am, both for the sentiment 
 and diction. 
 
 When' his sentence was announced to him, he 
 remarked, that since it was his lot to die, there was 
 still a choice in the mode, which would make a ma- 
 terial difference to his feelings; and he would be 
 happy, if possible, to be indulged with a professional 
 death. He made a second application by letter, 
 in concise but persuasive terms. It was thought 
 this indulgence, being incompatible with the cus- 
 toms of war, could not be granted ; and it was, 
 therefore, determined, in both cases, to evade an 
 answer, to spare him the sensations, which a certain 
 knowledge of the intended mode would inflict. 
 
 In going to the place of execution, he bowed 
 familiarly as he went along, to all those with whom 
 he had been acquainted in his confinement. A 
 smile of complacency expressed the supreme forti- 
 tude of his mind. Arrived at the fatal spot, he 
 asked with some emotion, " Must I then die in this 
 manner ? " He was told it had been unavoidable. 
 " I am reconciled to my fate," said he, " but not to 
 the mode." Soon, however, recollecting himself, he 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 65 
 
 added, " It will be but a momentary pang ; " and 
 springing upon the cart, performed the last offices 
 to himself with a composure that excited the ad- 
 miration and melted the hearts of the beholders. 
 Upon being told the final moment was at hand, and 
 asked if he had anything to say, he answered, 
 " Nothing but to request you will witness to the 
 world, that I die like a brave man." Among the 
 extraordinary circumstances that attended him, in 
 the midst of his enemies, he died universally regret- 
 ted and universally esteemed. 
 
 There was something singularly interesting in 
 the character and fortunes of Andre. To an excel- 
 lent understanding, well improved by education and 
 travel, he united a peculiar elegance of mind and 
 manners, and the advantage of a pleasing person. 
 It is said he possessed a pretty taste for the fine 
 arts, and had himself attained some proficiency in 
 poetry, music, and painting. His knowledge ap- 
 peared without ostentation, and embellished by a 
 diffidence that rarely accompanies so many talents 
 and accomplishments, which left you to suppose 
 more than appeared. 
 
 His sentiments were elevated, and inspired 
 esteem, — they had a softness that conciliated 
 
66 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 affection. His elocution was handsome ; his address 
 easy, polite, and insinuating. By his merit he had 
 acquired the unlimited confidence of his General, 
 and was making a rapid progress in military rank 
 and reputation. But in the height of his career, 
 flushed with new hopes from the execution of a 
 project the most beneficial to his party that could 
 be devised, he was at once precipitated from the 
 summit of prosperity, and saw all the expectations 
 of his ambition blasted, and himself ruined. 
 
 The character I have given of him, is drawn 
 partly from what I saw of him myself, and partly 
 from information. I am aware, that a man of real 
 merit is never seen in so favourable a light as 
 through the medium of adversity. The clouds 
 that surround him are shades that set off his good 
 qualities. Misfortune cuts down the little vanities, 
 that in prosperous times serve as so many spots in 
 his virtues, and gives a tone of humility that makes 
 his worth more amiable. His spectators, who 
 enjoy a happier lot, are less prone to detract from 
 it through envy; and are more disposed by com- 
 passion to give him the credit he deserves, and 
 perhaps even to magnify it. 
 
 I speak not of Andre's conduct in this affair as a 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 67 
 
 philosopher, but as a man of the world. The 
 authorized maxims and practices of war are the 
 satires of human nature. They countenance 
 almost every species of seduction, as well as 
 violence ; and the General who can make most 
 traitors in the army of his adversary is frequently 
 most applauded. On this scale we acquit Andre, 
 while we would not but condemn him if we were 
 to examine his conduct by the sober rules of phi- 
 losophy and moral rectitude. It is, however, a 
 blemish on his fame, that he once intended to 
 prostitute a flag, — about this, a man of nice 
 honour ought to have had a scruple; but the 
 temptation was great. Let his misfortunes cast 
 a veil over his error. 
 
 Several letters from Sir Henry Clinton, and 
 others, were received in the course of the affair, 
 feebly attempting to prove that Andre came out 
 under the protection of a flag, with a passport from 
 a general officer in actual service; and conse- 
 quently, could not be justly detained. Clinton 
 sent a deputation, composed of Lieutenant Gen- 
 eral Robinson, Mr. Elliot, and Mr. William Smith, 
 to represent, as he said, the true state of Major 
 Andre's case. General Greene met Robinson, and 
 
68 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 had a conversation with him, in which he reiterated 
 the pretence of a flag, urged Andre's release as a 
 personal favour to Sir Henry Clinton, and offered 
 any friend of ours in their power in exchange. 
 Nothing could have been more frivolous than the 
 plea which was used. The fact was, that besides 
 the time, manner, object, of the interview, change of 
 dress, and other circumstances, there was not a 
 single formality customary with flags ; and the pass- 
 port was not to Major Andre, but to Mr. Anderson. 
 But had there been, on the contrary, all the for- 
 malities, it would be an abuse of language to say, 
 that the sanction of a flag, for corrupting an officer 
 to betray his trust, ought to be respected. So 
 unjustifiable a purpose would not only destroy its 
 validity but make it an aggravation. 
 
 Andre himself has answered the argument by 
 ridiculing and exploding the idea, in his examina- 
 tion before the board of officers. It was a weak- 
 ness to urge it. 
 
 There was, in truth, no way of saving him. 
 Arnold or he must have been the victim ; the 
 former was out of our power. 
 
 It was by some suspected, Arnold had taken 
 his measures in such a manner, that if the inter- 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 69 
 
 view had been discovered in the act, it might have 
 been in his power to sacrifice Andre to his own 
 security. This surmise of double treachery made 
 them imagine Clinton would be induced to give 
 up Arnold for Andre; and a gentleman took 
 occasion to suggest the expedient to the latter, as 
 a thing that might be proposed by him. He 
 declined it. The moment he had been capable of 
 so much frailty I should have ceased to esteem him. 
 The infamy of Arnold's conduct, previous to his 
 desertion, is only equalled by his baseness since. 
 Besides the folly of writing to Sir Henry Clinton 
 that Andre had acted under a passport from him, 
 and according to his directions, while commanding 
 officer of a post, and that therefore he did not 
 doubt he would be immediately sent in, he had the 
 effrontery to write to General Washington in the 
 same spirit, with the addition of a menace of 
 retaliation, if the sentence should be carried into 
 execution. He has since acted the farce of send- 
 ing in his resignation. This man is, in every 
 sense, despicable. In addition to the scene of 
 knavery and prostitution during his command in 
 Philadelphia, which the late seizure of his papers 
 has unfolded, the history of his command at West 
 
70 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 Point is a history of little as well as great villanies. 
 He practised every art of peculation ; and even 
 stooped to connexion with the sutlers of the gar- 
 rison to defraud the public. 
 
 To his conduct, that of the captors of Andre 
 formed a striking contrast. He tempted them with 
 the offer of his watch, his horse, and any sum of 
 money they should name. They rejected his offers 
 with indignation ; and the gold that could seduce a 
 man high in the esteem and confidence of his coun- 
 try, who had the remembrance of past exploits, the 
 motives of present reputation and future glory, to 
 prop his integrity, had no charms for three simple 
 peasants, leaning only on their virtue and an honest 
 sense of their duty. While Arnold is handed down 
 with execration to future times, posterity will repeat 
 with reverence the names of Van Wart, Paulding, 
 and Williams. 
 
 I congratulate my friend on our happy escape 
 from the mischiefs with which this treason was 
 big. It is a new comment on the value of an 
 honest man, and, if it were possible, would endear 
 you to me more than ever. Adieu, 
 
 A. Hamilton. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 71 
 
 To MISS SCHUYLER 
 
 September 25th, 1780. 
 
 . . . Arnold, hearing of the plot being detected, 
 immediately fled to the enemy. I went in pursuit 
 of him, but was much too late ; and could hardly 
 regret the disappointment when, on my return, I 
 saw an amiable woman frantic with distress for 
 the loss of a husband she tenderly loved, — a traitor 
 to his country and his fame, — a disgrace to his 
 connexions ; it was the most affecting scene I ever 
 was witness to. She, for a considerable time, lost 
 herself. The General went up to see her, and she 
 upbraided him with being in a plot to murder her 
 child. One moment she raved, another she melted 
 into tears. Sometimes she pressed her infant to 
 her bosom, and lamented its fate, occasioned by 
 the imprudence of its father, in a manner that 
 would have pierced insensibility itself. All the 
 sweetness of beauty, all the loveliness of innocence, 
 all the tenderness of a wife, and all the fondness 
 of a mother, showed themselves in her appearance 
 and conduct. We have every reason to believe 
 that she was entirely unacquainted with the plan, 
 
72 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 and that the first knowledge of it was when Arnold 
 went to tell her he must banish himself from 
 his country and from her for ever. She instantly 
 fell into a convulsion, and he left: her in that situa- 
 tion. 
 
 This morning she is more composed. I paid 
 her a visit, and endeavoured to soothe her by every 
 method in my power; though you may imagine 
 she is not easily to be consoled. Added to her 
 other distresses, she is very apprehensive the re- 
 sentments of her country will fall upon her (who 
 is only unfortunate) for the guilt of her husband. 
 
 I have tried to persuade her that her fears are 
 ill-founded; but she will not be convinced. She 
 received us in bed, with every circumstance that 
 would interest our sympathy, and her sufferings 
 were so eloquent, that I wished myself her brother, 
 to have a right to become her defender, — as it is 
 I have entreated her to enable me to give her 
 proofs of my friendship. Could I forgive Arnold 
 for sacrificing his honour, reputation, and duty, I 
 could not forgive him for acting a part that must 
 have forfeited the esteem of so fine a woman. At 
 present she almost forgets his crime in his misfor- 
 tunes; and her horror at the guilt of the traitor, 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 73 
 
 is lost in her love of the man. But a virtuous 
 mind cannot long esteem a base one, and time 
 will make her despise, if it cannot make her hate. 
 
 To MISS SCHUYLER 
 
 Tappan, Oct. 2, 1780. 
 
 Poor Andre suffers to-day; everything that is 
 amiable in virtue, in fortitude, in delicate sentiment, 
 and accomplished manners pleads for him ; but 
 hard-hearted policy calls for a sacrifice. He must 
 die — I send you my account of Arnold's affair, 
 and to justify myself to your sentiments, I must 
 inform you, that I urged a compliance with Andre's 
 request to be shot, and I do not think it would 
 have had an ill effect, but some people are only 
 sensible to motives of policy, and sometimes, from 
 a narrow disposition, mistake it. 
 
 When Andre's tale comes to be told, and present 
 resentment is over, — the refusing him the privilege 
 of choosing the manner of his death will be 
 branded with too much obstinacy. 
 
 It was proposed to me to suggest to him the 
 idea of an exchange for Arnold; but I knew I 
 should have forfeited his esteem for doing it, and 
 
74 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 therefore declined it. As a man of honour, he could 
 not but reject it; and I would not for the world 
 have proposed to him a thing which must have 
 placed me in the unamiable light of supposing him 
 capable of a meanness, or of not feeling, myself, 
 the impropriety of the measure. I confess to you, 
 I had the weakness to value the esteem of a dying 
 man because I reverenced his merit. 
 
 To ELIZABETH SCHUYLER ^ 
 
 October 13th, 1780. 
 
 I would not have you imagine. Miss, that I write 
 you so often to gratify your wishes or please your 
 vanity ; but merely to indulge myself, and to com- 
 ply with that restless propensity of my mind which 
 will not be happy unless I am doing something in 
 which you are concerned. This may seem a very 
 idle disposition in a philosopher and a soldier, but 
 I can plead illustrious examples in my justification. 
 Achilles liked to have sacrificed Greece and his 
 glory to a female captive, and Anthony lost a 
 world for a woman. I am very sorry times are 
 
 * This letter was first published in Martha Lamb's " History of New 
 York." 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 75 
 
 SO changed as to oblige me to go to antiquity for 
 my apology, but I confess, to the disgrace of the 
 present time, that I have not been able to find as 
 many who are as far gone as myself in the laudable 
 Zeal of the fair sex. I suspect, however, if others 
 knew the charm of my sweetheart as I do, I could 
 haVe a great number of competitors. I wish I 
 could give an idea of her. You can have no 
 conception of how sweet a girl she is. It is only 
 in my heart that her image is truly drawn. She 
 has a lovely form and still more lovely mind. 
 She is all goodness, the gentlest, the dearest, the 
 tenderest of her sex. Ah, Betsey, how I love her! 
 
 Two days since I wrote to you, my dear girl, and 
 sent the letter to the care of Colonel Morris : there 
 was with it a bundle to your mamma, directed to your 
 father, containing a cloak which Miss Livingston sent 
 to my care. I enclosed you in that letter one to my 
 friend Laurens with an account of Arnold's affair. 
 I mention this for fear of a miscarriage as usual. 
 
 Well, my love, here is the middle of October ; a 
 few weeks more and you are mine ; a sweet reflec- 
 tion to me — is it so to my charmer? Do you 
 find yourself more or less anxious for the moment 
 to arrive as it approaches ? This is a good criterion 
 
76 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 to determine the degree of your affection by. You 
 have had an age for consideration, time enough 
 for even a viroman to know her mind in. Do you 
 begin to repent or not ? Remember you are going 
 to do a very serious thing. For though our sex 
 have generously given up a part of its prerogatives, 
 and husbands have no longer the power of life 
 and death, as the wiser husbands of former days 
 had, yet we still retain the power of happiness 
 and misery; and if you are prudent you will not 
 trust the felicity of your future life to one in 
 whom you have not good reason for implicit con- 
 fidence. I give you warning — don't blame me if 
 you make an injudicious choice — and if you should 
 be disposed to retract, don't give me the trouble 
 of a journey to Albany, and then do as did a cer- 
 tain lady I have mentioned to you, find out the 
 day before we are to be married that you ' can't 
 like the man ' ; but of all things I pray you don't 
 make the discovery afterwards — for this would 
 be worse than all. But I do not apprehend its 
 being the case. I think we know each other well 
 enough to understand each other's feelings, and 
 to be sure our affection will not only last but be 
 progressive. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 77 
 
 I stopped to read over my letter — it is a motley 
 mixture of fond extravagance and sprightly dull- 
 ness: the truth is I am too much in love to be 
 either reasonable or witty : I feel in the extreme ; 
 and when I attempt to speak of my feelings I rave. 
 I have remarked to you before that real tenderness 
 has also a tincture of sadness, and when I affect 
 the lively my melting heart rebels. It is separated 
 from you and it cannot be cheerful. Love is a 
 sort of insanity and everything I write savors 
 strongly of it ; that you return it is the best proof 
 of your madness also. I tell you, my Betsey, you 
 are negligent; you do not write me often enough. 
 Take more care of my happiness, for there is 
 nothing your Hamilton would not do to promote 
 yours. 
 
 To THE HON. JAMES DUANE 
 
 Liberty Pole, Sept. 3, 1780. 
 
 Dear Sir, — Agreeable to your request, and my 
 promise, I sit down to give you my ideas of the 
 defects of our present system, and the changes 
 necessary to save us from ruin. They may, per- 
 haps, be the reveries of a projector, rather than 
 
78 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 the sober views of a politician. You will judge 
 of them, and make what use you please of 
 them. 
 
 The fundamental defect is a want of power in 
 congress. It is hardly worth while to show in 
 what this consists, as it seems to be universally 
 acknowledged ; or to point out how it has happened, 
 as the only question is how to remedy it. It may, 
 however, be said, that it has originated from three 
 causes, — an excess of the spirit of liberty, which 
 has made the particular states show a jealousy of 
 all power not in their own hands ; and this jealousy 
 has led them to exercise a right of judging, in 
 the last resort, of the measures recommended by 
 congress, and of acting according to their own 
 opinions of their propriety or necessity ; — a diffi- 
 dence in congress of their own powers, by which 
 they have been timid and indecisive in their reso- 
 lutions ; constantly making concessions to the 
 states, till they have scarcely left themselves the 
 shadow of power; — a want of sufficient means at 
 their disposal to answer the public exigencies, and 
 of vigour to draw forth those means, which have 
 occasioned them to depend on the states, individu- 
 ally, to fulfil their engagements with the army; 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 79 
 
 the consequence of which has been to ruin their 
 influence and credit with the army, to establish 
 its dependence on each state, separately, rather 
 than on them; that is, than on the whole collec- 
 tively. 
 
 It may be pleaded that congress had never any 
 definitive powers granted them, and of course could 
 exercise none, — could do nothing more than rec- 
 ommend. The manner in which congress was 
 appointed would warrant, and the public good 
 required, that they should have considered them- 
 selves as vested with full power to preserve the 
 republic from. harm.. 
 
 They have done many of the highest acts of 
 sovereignty, which were always cheerfully sub- 
 mitted to; the declaration of independence, the 
 declaration of war, the levying an army, creating 
 a navy, emitting money, making alliances with 
 foreign powers, appointing a dictator, &c., &c. ; all 
 these were implications of a complete sovereignty, 
 were never disputed, and ought to have been a 
 standard for the whole conduct of administration. 
 Undefined powers are discretionary powers, limited 
 only by the object for which they were given ; in 
 the present case, the independence and freedom 
 
8o A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 of America. The confederation made no differ- 
 ence; for as it has not been generally adopted, it 
 had no operation. 
 
 But, from what I recollect of it, congress have 
 even descended from the authority which the spirit 
 of that act gives them; while the particular states 
 have no farther attended to it, than as it suited 
 their pretensions and convenience. It would take 
 too much time to enter into particular instances; 
 each of which, separately, might appear inconsider- 
 able, but united are of serious import. I only 
 mean to remark, not to censure. 
 
 But the confederation itself is defective, and 
 requires to be altered; it is neither fit for war, 
 nor peace. The idea of an uncontrollable sover- 
 eignty in each state, over its internal police, will 
 defeat the other powers given to congress, and 
 make our union feeble and precarious. There are 
 instances, without number, where acts necessary 
 for the general good, and which rise out of the 
 powers given to congress, must interfere with the 
 internal police of the states; and there are as 
 many instances in which the particular states, by 
 arrangements of internal police, can effectually, 
 though indirectly, counteract the arrangements of 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 8i 
 
 congress. You have already had examples of this, 
 for which I refer you to your own memory. 
 
 The confederation gives the states, individually, 
 too much influence in the affairs of the army ; they 
 should have nothing to do with it. 
 
 The entire formation and disposal of our mili- 
 tary forces ought to belong to congress. It is an 
 essential cement of the union ; and it ought to be 
 the policy of congress to destroy all ideas of state 
 attachments in the army, and make it look up 
 wholly to them. For this purpose all appoint- 
 ments, promotions, and provisions whatsoever, 
 ought to be made by them. It may be appre- 
 hended that this may be dangerous to liberty. 
 But nothing appears more evident to me, than that 
 we run much greater risk of having a weak and 
 disunited Federal government, than one which 
 will be able to usurp upon the rights of the 
 people. 
 
 Already some of the lines of the army would 
 obey their states in opposition to congress, notwith- 
 standing the pains we have taken to preserve the 
 unity of the army. If anything would hinder this, 
 it would be the personal influence of the General — 
 a melancholy and mortifying consideration. The 
 
82 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 forms of our state constitutions must always give 
 them great weight in our affairs, and will make it 
 too difficult to blind them to the pursuit of a com- 
 mon interest, too easy to oppose whatever they do 
 not like, and to form partial combinations, subver- 
 sive of the general one. There is a wide difference 
 between our situation and that of an empire under 
 one simple form of government, distributed into 
 counties, provinces, or districts, which have no 
 legislatures, but merely magistratical bodies to 
 execute the laws of a common sovereign. Here 
 the danger is that the sovereign will have too much 
 power, and oppress the parts of which it is com- 
 posed. In our case, that of an empire composed 
 of confederative states, each with a government 
 completely organized within itself, having all the 
 means to draw its subjects to a close dependence 
 on itself, the danger is directly the reverse. It is 
 that the common sovereign will not have power 
 sufficient to unite the different members together, 
 and direct the common forces to the interest and 
 happiness of the whole. 
 
 The leagues among the old Grecian republics 
 are a proof of this. They were continually at 
 war with each other, and for want of union fell 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 83 
 
 a prey to their neighbours. They frequently held 
 general councils, but their resolutions were no 
 farther observed, than as they suited the interests 
 and inclinations of all the parties, and, at length, 
 they sank entirely into contempt. 
 
 The Swiss cantons are another proof of the doc- 
 trine. They have had wars with each other, which 
 would have been fatal to them, had not the differ- 
 ent powers in their neighbourhood been too jealous 
 of one another, and too equally matched, to suffer 
 either to take advantage of their quarrels. That 
 they have remained so long united at all, is to be 
 attributed to their weakness, to their poverty, and 
 to the cause just mentioned. These ties will not 
 exist in America. A little time hence, some of 
 the states will be powerful empires ; and we are 
 so remote from other nations, that we shall have 
 all the leisure and opportunity we can wish to cut 
 each other's throats. 
 
 The Germanic corps might also be cited as an 
 example in favour of the position. 
 
 The United Provinces may be thought to be one 
 against it. But the family of the Stadtholders, 
 whose authority is interwoven with the whole gov- 
 ernment, has been a strong link of union between 
 
84 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 them. Their physical necessities, and the habits 
 founded upon them, have contributed to it. Each 
 province is too inconsiderable by itself to undertake 
 anything. An analysis of their present constitution 
 would show, that they have many ties which would 
 not exist in ours ; and that they are by no means a 
 proper model for us. 
 
 Our own experience should satisfy us. We have 
 felt the difficulty of drawing out the resources of 
 the country, and inducing the states to combine in 
 equal exertions for the common cause. The ill suc- 
 cess of our last attempt is striking. Some have 
 done a great deal ; others little, or scarcely any- 
 thing. The disputes about boundaries, &c., testify 
 how flattering a prospect we have of future tran- 
 quillity, if we do not frame in time a confederacy 
 capable of deciding the differences, and compelling 
 the obedience of the respective members. 
 
 The confederation, too, gives the power of the 
 purse too entirely to the state legislatures. It 
 should provide perpetual funds in the disposal of 
 congress, by a land tax, poll tax, or the like. All 
 imposts upon commerce ought to be laid by con- 
 gress, and appropriated to their use; for without 
 certain revenues, a government can have no power ; 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 85 
 
 that power which holds the purse strings absolutely, 
 must rule. This seems to be a medium, which, 
 without making congress altogether independent, 
 will tend to give reality to its authority. 
 
 Another defect in our system is, want of method 
 and energy in the administration. This has partly 
 resulted from the other defect; but in a great de- 
 gree from prejudice and the want of a proper execu- 
 tive. Congress have kept the power too much in 
 their own hands, and have meddled too much with 
 details of every sort. Congress is properly a delib- 
 erative corps, and it forgets itself when it attempts 
 to play the executive. It is impossible that a body, 
 numerous as it is, constantly fluctuating, can ever 
 act with sufficient decision, or with system. Two 
 thirds of the members, one-half the time cannot 
 know what has gone before them, or what con- 
 nexion the subject in hand has to what has been 
 transacted on former occasions. The members who 
 have been more permanent, will only give informa- 
 tion that promotes the side they espouse, in the 
 present case, and will as often mislead as enlighten. 
 The variety of business must distract, and the 
 proneness of every assembly to debate, must at all 
 times delay. 
 
86 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 Lately, congress, convinced of these inconven- 
 iences, have gone into the measure of appointing 
 boards. But this is, in my opinion, a bad plan. A 
 single man in each department of the administra- 
 tion, would be greatly preferable. It would give us 
 a chance of more knowledge, more activity, more 
 responsibility, and, of course, more zeal and atten- 
 tion. Boards partake of a part of the inconveniences 
 of larger assemblies; — their decisions are slower, 
 their energy less, their responsibilities more dif- 
 fused. They will not have the same abilities and 
 knowledge as an administration by single men. 
 Men of the first pretensions will not so readily 
 engage in them, because they will be less conspicu- 
 ous, of less importance, have less opportunity of 
 distinguishing themselves. The members of boards 
 will take less pains to inform themselves and arrive 
 at eminence, because they have fewer motives to do 
 it. All these reasons conspire to give a preference 
 to the plan of vesting the great executive depart- 
 ments of the state in the hands of individuals. As 
 these men will be, of course, at all times under the 
 direction of congress, we shall blend the advan- 
 tages of a monarchy and republic in one constitution. 
 
 A question has been made, whether single men 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 87 
 
 could be found to undertake these offices. I think 
 they could; because there would be then every 
 thing to excite the ambition of candidates. But in 
 order to this, congress, by their manner of appoint- 
 ing them, and the line of duty marked out, must 
 show that they are in earnest in making these 
 offices, offices of real trust and importance. 
 
 I fear a little vanity has stood in the way of these 
 arrangements, as though they would lessen the 
 importance of congress, and leave them nothing 
 to do. But they would have precisely the same 
 rights and powers as heretofore, happily disencum- 
 bered of the detail. They would have to inspect 
 the conduct of their ministers, deliberate upon their 
 plans, originate others for the public good, — only 
 observing this rule, that they ought to consult their 
 ministers, and get all the information and advice 
 they could from them, before they entered into any 
 new measures, or made changes in the old. 
 
 A third defect is, the fluctuating constitution of 
 our army. This has been a pregnant source of 
 evil; — all our military misfortunes, three-fourths 
 of our civil embarrassments, are to be ascribed to 
 it. The General has so fully enumerated the mis- 
 chiefs, in a late letter to congress, that I could only 
 
88 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 repeat what he has said, and will, therefore, refer 
 you to that letter. 
 
 The imperfect and unequal provision made for 
 the army, is a fourth defect, which you will find 
 delineated in the same letter. Without a speedy 
 change, the army must dissolve ; — it is now a mob 
 rather than an army, — without clothing, without 
 pay, without provision, without morals, without dis- 
 cipline. We begin to hate the country for its 
 neglect of us ; the country begins to hate us for our 
 oppressions of them. Congress have long been 
 jealous of us ; we have now lost all confidence in 
 them, and give the worst construction to all they 
 do. Held together by the slenderest ties, we are 
 ripening for a dissolution. 
 
 The present mode of supplying the army by 
 state purchases is not one of the least considerable 
 defects of our system. It is too precarious a depend- 
 ence, because the states will never be sufficiently 
 impressed with our necessities. Each will make its 
 own ease a primary object, the supply of the army 
 a secondary one. The variety of channels through 
 which the business is transacted, will multiply the 
 number of persons employed, and the opportunities 
 of embezzling public money. From the popular 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 89 
 
 spirit on which most of the governments turn, the 
 state agents will be men of less character and 
 ability; nor will there be so rigid a responsibility 
 among them as there might easily be among those 
 in the employ of the continent ; of course not so 
 much diligence, care, or economy. Very little of 
 the money raised in the several states will go into 
 the continental treasury, on pretence that it is 
 all exhausted in providing the quotas of supplies, 
 and the public will be without funds for the other 
 demands of government. The expense will be 
 ultimately much greater, and the advantage much 
 smaller. We actually feel the insufficiency of this 
 plan, and have reason to dread, under it, a ruinous 
 extremity of want. 
 
 These are the principal defects in the present 
 system that now occur to me. There are many 
 inferior ones in the organization of particular 
 departments, and many errors of administration, 
 which might be pointed out; but the task would 
 be troublesome and tedious, and if we had once 
 remedied those I have mentioned, the others would 
 not be attended with much difficulty. 
 
 I shall now propose the remedies which appear 
 to me applicable to our circumstances, and neces- 
 
90 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 sary to extricate our affairs from their present 
 deplorable situation. 
 
 The first step must be to give congress powers 
 competent to the public exigencies. This may 
 happen in two ways : one by resuming and exercis- 
 ing the discretionary powers I suppose to have 
 been originally vested in them for the safety of 
 the states, and resting their conduct on the can- 
 dour of their countrymen and the necessity of the 
 conjuncture; the other, by calling immediately a 
 convention of all the states, with full authority 
 to conclude finally upon a general confederation, 
 stating to them beforehand explicitly the evils 
 arising from a want of power in congress, and the 
 impossibility of supporting the contest on its pres- 
 ent footing, that the delegates may come possessed 
 of proper sentiments, as well as proper authority, 
 to give efficacy to the meeting. Their commission 
 should include a right of vesting congress with the 
 whole or a proportion of the unoccupied lands, to 
 be employed for the purpose of raising a revenue, 
 reserving the jurisdiction to the states by whom 
 they are granted. 
 
 The first plan, I expect, will be thought too bold 
 an expedient by the generality of congress; and, 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 91 
 
 indeed, their practice hitherto has so riveted the 
 opinion of their want of power, that the success of 
 this experiment may very well be doubted. 
 
 I see no objection to the other mode that has 
 any weight in competition with the reasons for it. 
 The convention should assemble the first of 
 November next; the sooner the better; our dis- 
 orders are too violent to admit of a common or 
 lingering remedy. The reasons for which I re- 
 quire them to be vested with plenipotentiary 
 authority are, that the business may suffer no 
 delay in the execution, and may in reality come to 
 effect. A convention may agree upon a confedera- 
 tion ; the states, individually, hardly ever will. We 
 must have one, at all events, and a vigorous one, if 
 we mean to succeed in the contest and be happy 
 hereafter. As I said before, to engage the states to 
 comply with this mode, congress ought to confess to 
 them, plainly and unanimously, the impracticability 
 of supporting our affairs on the present footing, and 
 without a solid coercive union. I ask that the con- 
 vention should have a power of vesting the whole 
 or a part of the unoccupied lands in congress, 
 because it is necessary that body should have 
 some property, as a fund for the arrangements of 
 
92 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 finance ; and I know of no other kind that can be 
 given them. 
 
 The confederation, in my opinion, should give 
 congress a complete sovereignty ; except as to that 
 part of internal police which relates to the rights 
 of property and life among individuals, and to 
 raising money by internal taxes. It is necessary 
 that everything belonging to this should be regu- 
 lated by the state legislatures. Congress should 
 have complete sovereignty in all that relates to 
 war, peace, trade, finance, and to the management 
 of foreign affairs; the right of declaring war, of 
 raising armies, officering, paying them, directing 
 their motions in every respect; of equipping fleets, 
 and doing the same with them; of building forti- 
 fications, arsenals, magazines, &c., &c. ; of making 
 peace on such conditions as they think proper; of 
 regulating trade, determining with what countries it 
 shall be carried on ; granting indulgences ; laying 
 prohibitions on all the articles of export or import; 
 imposing duties, granting bounties and premiums 
 for raising, exporting or importing; and applying 
 to their own use the product of these duties, only 
 gi-<ang credit to the states on whom they are raised 
 in the general account of revenues and expense; 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 93 
 
 instituting admiralty courts, &c. ; of coining money, 
 establishing banks on such terms, and with such 
 privileges, as they think proper; appropriating 
 funds, and doing whatever else relates to the 
 operations of finance ; transacting everything with 
 foreign nations ; making alliances, offensive and 
 defensive, treaties of commerce, &c., &c. 
 
 The confederation should provide certain per- 
 petual revenues, productive and easy of collection ; 
 a land tax, poll tax, or the like, which, together 
 with the duties on trade, and the unlocated lands, 
 would give congress a substantial existence, and 
 a stable foundation for their schemes of finance. 
 What more supplies were necessary, should be 
 occasionally demanded of the states, in the present 
 mode of quotas. 
 
 The second step I would recommend is, that con- 
 gress should instantly appoint the following great 
 officers of state : A Secretary for Foreign Affairs ; 
 a President of War; a President of Marine; A 
 Financier; a President of Trade; instead of this 
 last, a Board of Trade may be preferable, as the 
 regulations of trade are slow and guarded, and 
 require prudence and experience, (more than other 
 qualities,) for which boards are very well adapted. 
 
94 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 Congress should choose for these offices, men 
 of the first abilities, property, and character, in 
 the continent; and such as have had the best 
 opportunities of being acquainted with the several 
 branches. General Schuyler, whom you men- 
 tioned, would make an excellent President of 
 War; General McDougal a very good President 
 of Marine ; Mr. Robert Morris would have many 
 things in his favour for the department of Fi- 
 nance. He could, by his own personal influence, 
 give great weight to the measures he should 
 adopt. I dare say, men equally capable may be 
 found for the other departments. 
 
 I know not if it would not be a good plan to let 
 the Financier be President of the Board of Trade; 
 but he should only have a casting voice in deter- 
 mining questions there. There is a connexion 
 between trade and finance, which ought to make 
 the director of one acquainted with the other; 
 but the financier should not direct the affairs of 
 trade, because, for the sake of acquiring reputa- 
 tion by increasing the revenues, he might adopt 
 measures that would depress trade. In what re- 
 lates to finance he should be alone. 
 
 These officers should have nearly the same 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 95 
 
 powers and functions as those in France analogous 
 to them, and each should be chief in his depart- 
 ment, with subordinate boards, composed of assist- 
 ants, clerks, &c., execute his orders. 
 
 In my opinion, a plan of this kind would be of 
 inconceivable utility to our affairs; its benefits 
 would be very speedily felt. It would give new life 
 and energy to the operations of government. Busi- 
 ness would be conducted with despatch, method, 
 and system. A milHon of abuses now existing 
 would be corrected, and judicious plans would be 
 formed and executed for the public good. 
 
 Another step of immediate necessity is, to re- 
 cruit the army for the war, or at least for three 
 years. This must be done by a mode similar to 
 that which is practiced in Sweden. There the in- 
 habitants are thrown into classes of sixteen, and 
 when the sovereign wants men each of these classes 
 must furnish one. They raise a fixed sum of 
 money, and if one of the class is willing to become 
 a soldier, he receives the money and offers himself a 
 volunteer ; if none is found to do this, a draft is 
 made, and he on whom the lot falls receives the 
 money and is obliged to serve. The minds of 
 the people are prepared for a thing of this kind ; the 
 
96 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 heavy bounties they have been obliged to pay for 
 men to serve a few months must have disgusted 
 them with this mode, and made them desirous of 
 another, that will, once for all, answer the public 
 purposes, and obviate a repetition of the demand. 
 It ought by all means to be attempted; and con- 
 gress should frame a general plan, and press the 
 execution upon the states. When the confedera- 
 tion comes to be framed, it ought to provide for this, 
 by a fundamental law; and hereafter there would 
 be no doubt of the success. But we cannot now 
 wait for this : we want to replace the men whose 
 time of service will expire the first of January; for 
 then, without this, we shall have no army remain- 
 ing, and the enemy may do what they please. The 
 General, in his letter already quoted, has assigned 
 the most substantial reasons for paying immediate 
 attention to this point. 
 
 Congress should endeavour, both upon their 
 credit in Europe, and by every possible exertion in 
 this country, to provide clothing for their officers, 
 and should abolish the whole system of state sup- 
 plies. The making good the depreciation of the 
 currency, and all other compensations to the army, 
 should be immediately taken up by congress, 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 97 
 
 and not left to the states ; if they would have the 
 accounts of depreciation liquidated, and govern- 
 mental certificates given for what is due, in specie 
 or an equivalent to specie, it would give satis- 
 faction, appointing periodical settlements for future 
 depreciation. 
 
 The placing the oflficers upon half-pay, during life, 
 would be a great stroke of policy, and would give 
 congress a stronger tie upon them than anything 
 else they can do. No man, that reflects a moment, 
 but will prefer a permanent provision of this kind, 
 to any temporary compensation ; nor is it opposed 
 to economy; the difference between this, and what 
 has already been done, will be insignificant. The 
 benefit of it to the widows, should be confined to 
 those whose husbands die during the war. As to 
 the survivors, not more than one half, on the usual 
 calculation of men's lives, will exceed the seven 
 years for which the half-pay is already established. 
 Besides this, whatever may be the visionary specu- 
 lations of some men at this time, we shall find it 
 indispensable, after the war, to keep on foot a con- 
 siderable body of troops; and all the officers 
 retained for this purpose must be deducted out of 
 the half-pay list. If anyone will take the pains to 
 
98 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 calculate the expense on these principles, I am per- 
 suaded he will find the addition of expense from 
 the establishment proposed, by no means a national 
 object. 
 
 The advantages of securing the attachment of 
 the army to congress, and binding them to the 
 service, by substantial ties are immense. 
 
 We should then, have discipline ; an army, in 
 reality, as well as in name. Congress would then 
 have a solid basis of authority and consequence; 
 for with me it is an axiom, that in our constitution 
 an army is essential to the American union. 
 
 The providing of supplies is the pivot of every- 
 thing else ; (though a well constituted army would 
 not in a small degree conduce to this, by giving 
 consistency and weight to government,) there are 
 four ways, all of which must be united, — a foreign 
 loan, — heavy pecuniary taxes, — a tax in kind, — 
 a bank founded on public and private credit. 
 
 As to a foreign loan, Congress, I dare say, are doing 
 everything in their power to obtain it. The most 
 effectual way will be, to tell France that without it 
 we must make terms with Great Britain. This 
 must be done with plainness and firmness, but with 
 respect and without petulance; not as a menace, 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 99 
 
 but as a candid declaration of our circumstances. 
 We need not fear to be deserted by France; her 
 interest and honour are too deeply involved in our 
 fate ; and she can make no possible compromise. 
 She can assist us, if she is convinced it is absolutely 
 necessary, either by lending us, herself, or by be- 
 coming our surety, or by influencing Spain. It 
 has been to me astonishing, how any man could 
 have doubted, at any period of our affairs, of the 
 necessity of a foreign loan. It was self-evident 
 that we had not a fund of wealth in this country, 
 capable of affording revenues equal to the expenses. 
 We must, then, create artificial revenues, or bor- 
 row ; the first was done, but it ought to have 
 been foreseen that the expedient could not last, 
 and we should have provided in time for its failure. 
 Here was an error of congress. I have good 
 reason to believe that measures were not taken in 
 earnest early enough to procure a loan abroad : I 
 give you my honour, that from our first outset, I 
 thought as I do now ; and wished for a foreign loan, 
 not only because I foresaw that it would be essen- 
 tial, but because I considered it a tie upon the 
 nation from which it was derived, and as a mean to 
 prop our cause in Europe. 
 
lOO A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 Concerning the necessity of heavy pecuniary 
 taxes, I need say nothing, as it is a point in which 
 everybody is agreed ; nor is there any danger that 
 the product of any taxes raised in this way will 
 overburthen the people, or exceed the wants of 
 the public. Indeed, if all the paper in circulation 
 were drawn annually into the treasury, it would 
 neither do one nor the other. 
 
 As to a tax in kind, the necessity of it results 
 from this principle, — that the money in circula- 
 tion is not a sufficient representative of that part 
 of the products of the country, which it is bound 
 to contribute to the support of the public. The 
 public, therefore, to obtain its due, or to satisfy its 
 just demands and its wants, must call for a part of 
 these products themselves. This is done in all 
 those countries which are not commercial; in 
 Russia, Prussia, Denmark, Sweden, &c., and is 
 peculiarly necessary in our case. 
 
 Congress, in calling for specific supplies, seem to 
 have had this in view; but their intention has not 
 been answered. The states, in general, have under- 
 taken to furnish the supplies by purchase, — a 
 mode, as I have observed, attended with every 
 inconvenience, and subverting the principle on 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS loi 
 
 which the supplies were demanded, — the insuf- 
 ficiency of our circulating medium, as a representa- 
 tive for the labour and commodities of the country. 
 It is, therefore, necessary, that congress should be 
 more explicit ; should form the outlines of a plan 
 for a tax in kind, and recommend it to the states, 
 as a measure of absolute necessity. 
 
 The general idea I have of a plan is, that a 
 respectable man should be appointed by the state 
 in each county to collect the taxes, and form maga- 
 zines; that congress should have in each state an 
 officer to superintend the whole, and that the state 
 collectors should be subordinate and responsible 
 to them. This continental superintendent might 
 be subject to the general direction of the quarter- 
 master-general, or not, as might be deemed best ; 
 but if not subject to him, he should be obliged to 
 make monthly returns to the President at War, 
 who should instruct him what proportion to 
 deliver to the quarter-master-general. It may be 
 necessary that the superintendents should some- 
 times have power to dispose of the articles in 
 their possession, on public account; for it would 
 happen, that the contributions, in places remote 
 from the army, could not be transported to the 
 
I02 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 theatre of operations without too great expense; 
 in which case, it would be eUgible to dispose of 
 them, and purchase with the money so raised 
 in the counties near the immediate seat of 
 war. 
 
 I know the objections which may be raised to 
 this plan — its tendency to discourage industry and 
 the like ; but necessity calls for it ; we cannot pro- 
 ceed without, and less evils must give place to 
 greater. It is, besides, practiced with success in 
 other countries, and why not in this.? It may be 
 said, the examples cited are from nations under 
 despotic governments, and that the same would 
 not be practicable with us ; but I contend, where 
 the public good is evidently the object, more may 
 be effected in governments like ours than in any 
 other. It has been a constant remark, that free 
 countries have ever paid the heaviest taxes ; the 
 obedience of a free people to general laws, however 
 hard they bear, is ever more perfect than that of 
 slaves to the arbitrary will of a prince. To this, 
 it may be added, that Sweden was always a free 
 government, and is so now, in a great degree, 
 notwithstanding the late revolution. 
 
 How far it may be practicable to erect a bank 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 103 
 
 on the faint credit of the repubhc, and of indi- 
 viduals, can only be certainly determined by the 
 experiment ; but it is of so much importance that 
 the experiment ought to be fully tried. When I 
 saw the subscriptions going on to the bank estab- 
 lished for supplying the army, I was in hopes it 
 was only the embryo of a more permanent and 
 extensive establishment. But I have reason to 
 believe I shall be disappointed. It does not seem 
 to be at all conducted on the true principles of a 
 bank. The directors of it are purchasing with 
 their stock, instead of bank notes as I expected; 
 in consequence of which, it must turn out to be a 
 mere subscription of a particular sum of money, 
 for a particular purpose. 
 
 Paper credit never was long supported in any 
 country, on a national scale, where it was not 
 founded on the joint basis of public and private 
 credit. An attempt to establish it on public credit 
 alone, in France, under the auspices of Mr. Law, 
 nearly ruined the kingdom. We have seen the 
 effects of it in America; and every successive ex- 
 periment proves the futility of the attempt. Our 
 new money is depreciating almost as fast as the 
 old, though it has, in some states, as real funds as 
 
I04 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 paper money ever had. The reason is, that the 
 moneyed men have not an immediate interest to 
 uphold its credit. They may even, in many ways, 
 find it their interest to undermine it. The only 
 certain manner to obtain a permanent paper credit, 
 is to engage the moneyed interest immediately in 
 it, by making them contribute the whole or part 
 of the stock, and giving them the whole or part of 
 the profits. 
 
 The invention of banks, on the modern princi- 
 ple, originated in Venice. There, the public, and 
 a company of moneyed men, are mutually con- 
 cerned. The Bank of England unites public 
 authority and faith, with private credit ; and hence 
 we see what a vast fabric of paper credit is raised 
 on a visionary basis. Had it not been for this, 
 England would never have found sufificient funds 
 to carry on her wars; but with the help of this, 
 she has done, and is doing, wonders. The Bank 
 of Amsterdam is on a similar foundation. 
 
 And why cannot we have an American bank.? 
 Are our moneyed men less enlightened to their 
 own interest, or less enterprising in the pursuit? 
 I believe the fault is in government, which does 
 not exert itself to engage them in such a scheme- 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 105 
 
 It is true, the individuals in America are not 
 very rich; but this would not prevent their insti- 
 tuting a bank ; it would only prevent its being 
 done with such ample funds as in other countries. 
 Have they not sufficient confidence in the govern- 
 ment, and in the issue of the cause? Let the 
 government endeavour to inspire that confidence, 
 by adopting the measures I have recommended, 
 or others equivalent to them. Let it exert itself 
 to procure a solid confederation — to establish a 
 good plan of executive administration, — to form 
 a permanent military force, — to obtain, at all 
 events, a foreign loan. If these things were in a 
 train of vigorous execution, it would give a new 
 spring to our affairs ; government would recover 
 its respectability, and individuals would renounce 
 their diffidence. 
 
 The object I should propose to myself, in the 
 first instance, from a bank, would be an auxiliary 
 mode of supplies; for which purpose contracts 
 should be made between government and the 
 bank, on terms liberal and advantageous to the 
 latter. Everything should be done, in the first 
 instance, to encourage the bank; after it gets 
 well established it will take care of itself, and 
 
io6 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 government may make the best terms it can, for 
 itself. 
 
 The first step to estabhshing the bank, will be 
 to engage a number of moneyed men of influence 
 to relish the project, and make it a business. The 
 subscribers to that lately established, are the fittest 
 persons that can be found ; and their plan may be 
 interwoven. 
 
 The outlines of my plan would be to open sub- 
 scriptions, in all the states, for the stock, which we 
 will suppose to be one million of pounds. Real 
 property, of every kind, as well as specie, should 
 be deemed good stock; but at least a fourth part 
 of the subscription should be in specie or plate. 
 There should be one great company, in three divi- 
 sions ; in Virginia, Philadelphia, and Boston ; or 
 two at Philadelphia and Boston. The bank should 
 have a right to issue bank notes, bearing two per 
 cent, interest for the whole of their stock ; but not 
 to exceed it. These notes may be payable every 
 three months, or oftener ; and the faith of govern- 
 ment must be pledged for the support of the bank. 
 It must, therefore, have a right, from time to time, 
 to inspect its operations ; and must appoint inspec- 
 tors for the purpose. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 107 
 
 The advantages of the bank may consist in this: 
 in the profits of the contracts made with govern- 
 ment, which should bear interest, to be annually 
 paid in specie; in the loan of money at interest, 
 say six per cent, in purchasing lives by annuities, 
 as practiced in England, &c. The benefit result- 
 ing to the company is evident, from the considera- 
 tion, that they may employ in circulation a great 
 deal more money than they have specie in stock, 
 on the credit of the real property which they will 
 have in other use. This money will be employed, 
 either in fulfilling their contracts with the public, 
 by which, also, they will gain a profit, or in loans, 
 at an advantageous interest, or in annuities. 
 
 The bank may be allowed to purchase plate and 
 bullion, and coin money, allowing government a 
 part of the profit. 
 
 I make the bank notes bear interest, to obtain 
 a readier currency, and to induce the holders to 
 prefer them to specie, to prevent too great a run 
 upon the bank, at any time, beyond its ability to 
 pay. 
 
 If government can obtain a foreign loan, it 
 should lend to the bank, on easy terms, to extend 
 its influence, and facilitate a compliance with its 
 
io8 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 engagements. If government could engage the 
 states to raise a sum of money in specie, to be de- 
 posited in bank in the same manner, it would be of 
 the greatest consequence. If government could pre- 
 vail on the enthusiasm of the people, to make a con- 
 tribution in plate, for the same purpose, if would be 
 a master stroke. Things of this kind sometimes 
 succeed in popular contests ; and if undertaken 
 with address, I should not despair of its success; 
 but I should not be sanguine. 
 
 The bank may be instituted for a term of years, 
 by way of trial ; and the particular privilege of coin- 
 ing money may be for a term still shorter. 
 
 A temporary transfer of it to a particular com- 
 pany can have no inconvenience, as the govern- 
 ment are in no condition to improve this resource ; 
 nor could it, in our circumstances, be an object 
 to it, though with the industry of a knot of indi- 
 viduals, it might be a valuable one to them. 
 
 A bank of this kind, even in its commencement, 
 would answer the most valuable purposes to gov- 
 ernment, and to the proprietors; in its progress 
 the advantages will exceed calculation. It will 
 promote commerce, by furnishing a more extensive 
 medium, which we greatly want, in our circum- 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 109 
 
 stances. I mean a more extensive, valuable me- 
 dium. We have an enormous nominal one at this 
 time ; but it is only a name. 
 
 In the present unsettled state of things, in this 
 country, we can hardly draw inferences, from what 
 has happened in others ; otherwise I should be 
 certain of the success of this scheme ; but I think 
 it has enough in its favour to be worthy of trial. 
 
 I have only skimmed the surface of the different 
 subjects I have introduced. Should the plans 
 recommended come into contemplation in earnest, 
 and you desire my farther thoughts, I will endeav- 
 our to give them more form and particularity. 
 
 I am persuaded a solid confederation, a perma- 
 nent army, a reasonable prospect of subsisting it, 
 would give us treble consideration in Europe, and 
 produce a peace this winter. 
 
 If a convention is called, the minds of all the 
 states and the people ought to be prepared to 
 receive its determinations by sensible and popular 
 writings, which should conform to the views of 
 congress. There are epochs in human affairs, 
 when novelty even is useful. If a general opinion 
 prevails that the old way is bad, whether true or 
 false, and this obstructs or relaxes the operations 
 
no A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 of the public service, a change is necessary if it 
 be but for the sake of change. This is exactly 
 the case now. 'Tis an universal sentiment that 
 our present system is a bad one, and that things 
 do not go right on this account. The measure 
 of a convention would revive the hopes of 
 the people, and give a new direction to their 
 passions, which may be improved in carrying 
 points of substantial utility. The eastern states 
 have already pointed out this mode to congress: 
 they ought to take the hint and anticipate the 
 others. 
 
 And in future, my dear sir, two things let me 
 recommend, as fundamental rules for the conduct 
 of congress: to attach the army to them by every 
 motive, — to maintain an authority (not domineer- 
 ing) in all their measures with the states. The 
 manner in which a thing is done, has more in- 
 fluence than is commonly imagined. Men are 
 governed by opinion : this opinion is as much 
 influenced by appearances as by realities. If a 
 government appears to be confident of its own 
 powers, it is the surest way to inspire the same 
 confidence in others. If it is diffident, it may be 
 certain there will be a still greater diffidence in 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS iii 
 
 others, and that its authority will not only be 
 distrusted, controverted, but contemned. 
 
 I wish, too, congress would always consider, that 
 a kindness consists as much in the manner as 
 in the thing. The best things, done hesitatingly, 
 and with an ill grace, lose their effect, and pro- 
 duce disgust rather than satisfaction or gratitude. 
 In what congress have at any time done for the 
 army, they have commonly been too late. They 
 have seemed to yield to importunity, rather than 
 to sentiments of justice, or to a regard to the 
 accommodation of their troops. An attention to 
 this idea is of more importance than it may be 
 thought. I, who have seen all the workings and 
 progress of the present discontents, am convinced 
 that a want of this has not been among the most 
 inconsiderable causes. 
 
 You will perceive, my dear sir, this letter is 
 hastily written, and with a confidential freedom, 
 not as to a member of congress, whose feelings 
 may be sore at the prevailing clamour; but as 
 to a friend who is in a situation to remedy public 
 disorders, — who wishes for nothing so much as 
 truth, and who is desirous for information, even 
 from those less capable of judging than himself. 
 
112 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 I have not even time to correct and copy, and 
 only enough to add, that I am, very truly and 
 affectionately, dear sir. 
 
 Your most obedient servant, 
 
 A. Hamilton. 
 
 To GENERAL SCHUYLER 
 
 Head Quarters, New V^^indsor, 
 February i8th, 1781. 
 
 My dear Sir, — Since I had the pleasure of 
 writing you last, an unexpected change has taken 
 place in my situation. I am no longer a member 
 of the General's family. This information will 
 surprise you, and the manner of the change will 
 surprise you more. Two days ago, the General 
 and I passed each other on the stairs ; — he told 
 me he wanted to speak to me, — I answered that 
 I would wait upon him immediately. I went 
 below and delivered Mr. Tilghman a letter to 
 be sent to the commissary, containing an order 
 of a pressing and interesting nature. 
 
 Returning to the General, I was stopped on 
 the way by the Marquis de La Fayette and we 
 conversed together about a minute on a matter 
 
A FEW OP HAMILTON'S LETTERS 113 
 
 of business. He can testify how impatient I was 
 to get back, and that I left him in a manner which, 
 but for our intimacy, would have been more than 
 abrupt. Instead of finding the General, as is 
 usual, in his room, I met him at the head of 
 the stairs, where accosting me in an angry tone, 
 " Colonel Hamilton, (said he,) you have kept me 
 waiting at the head of the stairs these ten min- 
 utes ; — I must tell you, sir, you treat me with 
 disrespect." I replied without petulancy, but with 
 decision, " I am not conscious of it, sir, but since 
 you have thought it necessary to tell me so, we 
 part." " Very well, sir, (said he,) if it be your 
 choice," or something to this effect, and we sepa- 
 rated. I sincerely believe my absence, which 
 gave so much umbrage, did not last two min- 
 utes. 
 
 In less than an hour after, Tilghman came to me 
 in the General's name, assuring me of his great 
 confidence in my abilities, integrity, usefulness, &c., 
 and of his desire, in a candid conversation, to heal 
 a difference which could not have happened but in 
 a moment of passion. I requested Mr. Tilghman 
 to tell him, — i st. That I had taken my resolution 
 in a manner not to be revoked. 2d. That as a 
 
114 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 conversation could serve no other purpose than to 
 produce explanations, mutually disagreeable, though 
 I certainly would not refuse an interview, if he 
 desired it, yet I would be happy, if he would permit 
 me to decline it. 3d. That though determined to 
 leave the family, the same principles which had 
 kept me so long in it, would continue to direct my 
 conduct towards him when out of it. 4th. That, 
 however, I did not wish to distress him, or the pub- 
 lic business, by quitting him before he could derive 
 other assistance by the return of some of the gentle- 
 men who were absent. 5th. And that in the mean 
 time, it depended on him, to let our behaviour to 
 each other be the same as if nothing had happened. 
 He consented to decline the conversation, and 
 thanked me for my offer of continuing my aid in 
 the manner I had mentioned. 
 
 I have given you so particular a detail of our dif- 
 ference, from the desire I have to justify myself in 
 your opinion. Perhaps you may think I was pre- 
 cipitate in rejecting the overture made by the Gen- 
 eral to an accommodation. I assure you, my dear 
 sir, it was not the effect of resentment ; it was the 
 deliberate result of maxims I had long formed for 
 the government of my own conduct. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 115 
 
 I always disliked the office of an aid-de-camp, 
 as having in it a kind of personal dependence. I 
 refused to serve in this capacity with two Major 
 Generals, at an early period of the war. Infected, 
 however, with the enthusiasm of the times, an idea 
 of the General's character overcame my scruples, 
 and induced me to accept his invitation to enter 
 into his family. It has been often with great diffi- 
 culty that I have prevailed upon myself not to 
 renounce it; but while, from motives of public 
 utility, I was doing violence to my feelings, I was 
 always determined, if there should ever happen a 
 breach between us, never to consent to an accom- 
 modation. I was persuaded, that when once that 
 nice barrier, which marked the boundaries of what 
 we owed to each other, should be thrown down, 
 it might be propped again, but could never be 
 restored. 
 
 The General is a very honest man ; — his com- 
 petitors have slender abilities, and less integrity. 
 His popularity has often been essential to the safety 
 of America, and is still of great importance to it. 
 These considerations have influenced my past con- 
 duct respecting him, and will influence my future ; 
 — I think it is necessary he should be supported. 
 
ii6 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 His estimation in your mind, whatever may be 
 its amount, I am persuaded has been formed on 
 principles, which a circumstance Hke this cannot 
 materially affect ; but if I thought it could diminish 
 your friendship for him, I should almost forego the 
 motives that urge me to justify myself to you. I 
 wish what I have said to make no other impression, 
 than to satisfy you I have not been in the wrong. 
 It is also said in confidence, as a public knowledge 
 of the breach would, in many ways, have an ill 
 effect. It will, probably, be the policy of both sides 
 to conceal it, and cover the separation with some 
 plausible pretext. I am importuned by such of 
 my friends as are privy to the affair, to listen 
 to a reconciliation ; but my resolution is unalter- 
 able. 
 
 As I cannot think of quitting the army during 
 the war, I have a project of re-entering into the artil- 
 lery, by taking Lieutenant Colonel Forrest's place, 
 who is desirous of retiring on half pay. L have not, 
 however, made up my mind on this head, as I 
 should be obliged to come in the youngest lieuten- 
 ant colonel instead of the eldest, which I ought to 
 have been by natural succession, had I remained in 
 the corps ; and, at the same time, to resume studies 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS ti^ 
 
 relative to the profession, which to avoid inferiority, 
 must be laborious. 
 
 If a handsome command in the campaign in the 
 light infantry should offer itself, I shall balance 
 between this and the artillery. My situation in 
 the latter would be more solid and permanent; 
 but as I hope the war will not last long enough 
 to make it progressive, this consideration has the 
 less force. A command for the campaign would 
 leave me the winter to prosecute studies relative 
 to my future career in life. I have written to you 
 on this subject with all the freedom and confidence 
 to which you have a right, and with an assurance 
 of the interest you take in all that concerns me. 
 Very sincerely and affectionately, 
 I am, dear sir. 
 
 Your most obedient servant, 
 
 A. Hamilton. 
 
 To MRS. HAMILTON 
 
 August, 1 78 1. 
 
 In my last letter I informed you that there was 
 a greater prospect of activity now, than there had 
 been heretofore. I did this to prepare your mind 
 for an event, which, I am sure, will give you pain. 
 
ii8 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 I begged your father at the same time to intimate 
 to you by degrees the probabiHty of its taking 
 place. I used this method to prevent a surprise 
 which might be too severe to you. A part of 
 the army, my dear girl, is going to Virginia, and 
 I must of necessity be separated at a much greater 
 distance from my beloved wife. I cannot announce 
 the fatal necessity without feeling everything that 
 a fond husband can feel. I am unhappy ; — I am 
 unhappy beyond expression. I am unhappy be- 
 cause I am to be so remote from you ; because I 
 am to hear from you less frequently than I am 
 accustomed to do. I am miserable because I know 
 you will be so ; I am wretched at the idea of 
 flying so far from you, without a single hour's 
 interview, to tell you all my pains and all my 
 love. But I cannot ask permission to visit you. 
 It might be thought improper to leave my corps 
 at such a time and upon such an occasion. I 
 must go without seeing you, — I must go without 
 embracing you : — alas ! I must go. But let no 
 idea, other than of the distance we shall be asunder, 
 disquiet you. Though I said the prospects of 
 activity will be greater, I said it to give your ex- 
 pectations a different turn, and prepare you for 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 119 
 
 something disagreeable. It is ten to one that 
 our views will be disappointed, by Cornwallis 
 retiring to South Carolina by land. At all events, 
 our operations will be over by the latter end of 
 October, and I will fly to my home. Don't men- 
 tion I am going to Virginia. 
 
 And a few days later, from the head of the Elk, 
 he writes : — 
 
 Yesterday, my lovely wife, I wrote to you enclos- 
 ing you a letter in one to your father, to the care of 
 Mr. Morris. To-morrow the post sets out, and 
 to-morrow we embark for York Town. I cannot 
 refuse myself the pleasure of writing you a few 
 lines. Constantly uppermost in my thoughts and 
 affections, I am happy only when my moments are 
 devoted to some office that respects you. I would 
 give the world to be able to tell you all I feel, and 
 all I wish, but consult your own heart and then you 
 will know mine. What a world will soon be 
 between us! To support the idea all my forti- 
 tude is insufficient. What must be the case with 
 you who have the most female of female hearts? 
 I sink at the perspective of your distress, and I 
 look to heaven to be your guardian and supporter. 
 
I20 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 Circumstances which have just come to my know- 
 ledge, assure me that our operations will be expe- 
 ditious, as well as our success certain. Early in 
 November, as I promised you, we shall certainly 
 meet. Cheer yourself with this idea, and with 
 the assurance of never more being separated. 
 Every day confirms me in the intention of re- 
 nouncing public life, and devoting myself wholly 
 to you. Let others waste their time and their 
 tranquillity in a vain pursuit of power and glory ; — 
 be it my object to be happy in a quiet retreat, with 
 my better angel. 
 
 And from Annapolis : — 
 
 How checquered is human life ? — how precarious 
 is happiness ? — how easily do we often part with it 
 for a shadow.? These are the reflections that fre- 
 quently intrude themselves upon me, with a pain- 
 ful application. I am going to do my duty. Our 
 operations will be so conducted as to economize the 
 lives of men. Exert your fortitude and rely upon 
 heaven. 
 
ALEXANDI'lR HAMILTON. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 121 
 
 From COLONEL HARRISON 
 
 New Windsor, 1781. 
 
 I came here, my dear Hamilton, on Friday night 
 to bid adieu to the General, to you, and to my other 
 friends as a military man, and regretted much that 
 I had not the happiness of seeing you. To-morrow 
 I am obliged to depart, and it is possible our sepa- 
 ration may be for ever. But be this as it may, it 
 can only be with respect to our persons, for as to 
 affection, mine for you will continue to my latest 
 breath. This event will probably surprise you, but 
 from your knowledge of me, I rely you will con- 
 clude at the instant, that no light considerations 
 would have taken me from the army ; and, I think, 
 I might safely have rested the matter here. How- 
 ever, as the friendship between us gives you a claim 
 to something more, and as I am not indifferent 
 about character, and shall be anxious to have the 
 esteem of all who are good and virtuously great, I 
 shall detail to you, my friend, the more substantial 
 reasons which have led to my present conduct. I 
 go from the army, then, because I have found, on 
 examination, that my little fortune, earned by an 
 
122 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 honest and hard industry, was becoming embar- 
 rassed ; to attend to the education of my children ; 
 . . . and because the State of Maryland, in a flat- 
 tering manner, have been pleased to appoint me to 
 a place, very respectable in its nature, correspond- 
 ing to my former, and interesting to my whole fu- 
 ture life and support : — they have appointed me to 
 the chair of the Supreme Court. These, my friend, 
 are the motives to my present resolution. My own 
 feelings are satisfied on the occasion, though I can- 
 not but regret parting with the most valuable ac- 
 quaintances I have, and I hope they will justify me 
 most fully to you, my Hamilton, especially when 
 you consider the time I have been in the service, 
 and the compensation I have received. Adieu. 
 Yours, in haste, most affectionately, 
 
 RoBT. H. Harrison. 
 
J 
 
 III 
 
 LAW, POLITICS, AND DOMESTICITY 
 
To MEADE 
 
 Philadelphia, March, 1782. 
 
 A half hour since brought me the pleasure of 
 your letter of December last. It went to Albany 
 and came from thence to this place. I heartily 
 felicitate you on the birth of your daughter. I can 
 well conceive your happiness upon that occasion, by 
 that which I felt on a similar one. 
 
 Indeed, the sensations of a tender father of the 
 child of a beloved mother, can only be conceived by 
 those who have experienced them. 
 
 Your heart, my Meade, is peculiarly formed for 
 enjoyments of this kind. You have every right to 
 be a happy husband, a happy father. You have 
 every prospect of being so. I hope your felicity 
 may never be interrupted. 
 
 You cannot imagine how entirely domestic I am 
 growing. I lose all tastes for the pursuits of ambi- 
 tion. I sigh for nothing but for the company of 
 my wife and my baby. The ties of duty alone, or 
 imagined duty, keep me from renouncing public life 
 altogether. It is, however, probable I may not be 
 
 any longer actively engaged in it. 
 
 125 
 
126 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 I have explained to you the difficulties I met 
 with in obtaining a command last campaign. I 
 thought it incompatible with the delicacy due to 
 myself to make any application this campaign. I 
 have expressed this sentiment in a letter to the 
 General, and, retaining my rank only, have relin- 
 quished the emoluments of my commission, declar- 
 ing myself, notwithstanding, ready at all times to 
 obey the calls of the public. I do not expect to 
 hear any of these, unless the state of our affairs 
 should change for the worse ; and lest, by any un- 
 foreseen accident that should happen, I choose to 
 keep myself in a situation again to contribute my 
 aid. This prevents a total resignation. 
 
 You were right in supposing I neglected to 
 prepare what I promised you at Philadelphia. 
 The truth is, I was in such a hurry to get home, 
 that I could think of nothing else. As I set out 
 to-morrow morning for Albany, I cannot, from this 
 place, send you the matter you wish. 
 
 Imagine, my dear Meade, what pleasure it must 
 give Eliza and myself to know that Mrs. Meade 
 interests herself in us. Without a personal 
 acquaintance, we have been long attached to her. 
 My visit at Mr. Fitzhugh's confirmed my partiality. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 127 
 
 Betsey is so fond of your family, that she proposes 
 to form a match between her boy and your girl, 
 provided you will engage to make the latter as 
 amiable as her mother. 
 
 Truly, my dear Meade, I often regret that 
 fortune has cast our residence at such a distance 
 from each other. It would be a serious addition 
 to my happiness if we lived where I could see 
 you every day ; but fate has determined it other- 
 wise. I am a little hurried, and can only request, 
 in addition, that you will present me most affec- 
 tionately to Mrs. Meade, and believe me to be, 
 with the warmest and most unalterable friendship. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 A. Hamilton. 
 
 To LAURENS 
 
 August 15th, 1782. 
 
 I received with great pleasure, my dear Laurens, 
 
 the letter which you wrote me in last. Your 
 
 wishes in one respect are gratified. This State 
 has pretty unanimously elected me to Congress. 
 My time of service commences in November. It 
 is not probable it will result in what you mention. 
 I hope it is too late. We have great reason to 
 
128 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 flatter ourselves. Peace on our own terms is 
 upon the carpet The making it is in good 
 hands. It is said your father is exchanged for 
 Cornwallis, and gone to Paris to meet the other 
 commissioners, and that Granville, on the part of 
 England, has made a second trip there; in the 
 last instance vested with plenipotentiary powers. 
 
 I fear there may be obstacles, but I hope they 
 may be surmounted. 
 
 Peace made, my dear friend, a new scene opens. 
 The object then will be to make our independence 
 a blessing. To do this we must secure our Union 
 on solid foundations — a herculean task — and to 
 effect which mountains of prejudice must be lev- 
 elled ! It requires all the virtue and all the abili- 
 ties of the country. Quit your sword, my friend; 
 put on the toga. Come to Congress. We know 
 each other's sentiments; our views are the same. 
 We have fought side by side to make America 
 free ; let us hand in hand struggle to make her 
 happy. Remember me to General Greene with 
 all the warmth of a sincere attachment. 
 
 Yours for ever, 
 
 A. H.^ 
 
 ^ This was Hamilton's last letter to Laurens, who doubtless was 
 killed before it reached him. — Ed. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 129 
 
 To MEADE 
 
 Albany, August 27th, 1782. 
 
 I thank you, my dear Meade, for your letter of 
 the first of this month, which you will perceive 
 has travelled much faster than has been usual 
 with our letters. Our correspondence hitherto, 
 has been unfortunate, nor in fact can either of 
 us compliment himself on his punctuality; but 
 you were right in concluding, that however indo- 
 lence or accident may interrupt our intercourse, 
 nothing will interrupt our friendship. Mine for 
 you is built on the solid basis of a full convic- 
 tion that you deserve it, and that it is reciprocal, 
 and it is the more firmly fixed because you have few 
 competitors. Experience is a continued comment 
 on the worthlessness of the human race, and the 
 few exceptions we find have the greater right to 
 be valued in proportion as they are rare. I know 
 few men estimable, fewer amiable, and when I 
 meet with one of the last description it is not in 
 my power to withhold my affection. 
 
 You reproach me with not having said enough 
 about our little stranger. When I wrote last, I 
 
130 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 was not suflficiently acquainted with him to give 
 you his character. I may now assure you that 
 your daughter, when she sees him, will not con- 
 sult you about the choice, or will only do so in 
 respect to the rules of decorum. He is truly a 
 very fine young gentleman, the most agreeable in 
 his conversation and manners of any I ever knew, 
 nor less remarkable for his intelligence and sweet- 
 ness of temper. You are not to imagine, by my 
 beginning with his mental qualifications, that he 
 is defective in personal. It is agreed, on all 
 hands, that he is handsome; his features are good, 
 his eye is not only sprightly and expressive, but 
 it is full of benignity. His attitude, in sitting, is, 
 by connoisseurs, esteemed graceful, and he has a 
 method of waving his hand that announces the 
 future orator. He stands, however, rather awk- 
 wardly, and as his legs have not all the delicate 
 slimness of his father's, it is feared he may never 
 excel as much in dancing, which is probably the 
 only accomplishment in which he will not be a 
 model. If he has any fault in manners, he laughs 
 too much. He has now passed his seventh month. 
 I am glad to find your prospect of being set- 
 tled approaches. I am sure you will realize all 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 131 
 
 the happiness you promise yourself with your ami- 
 able partner. I wish fortune had not cast our 
 lots at such a distance. Mrs. Meade, you, Betsey, 
 and myself, would make a most affectionate and 
 most happy partie quarr'e. 
 
 As to myself I shall sit down in New York, 
 when it opens, and the period, we are told, ap- 
 proaches. No man looks forward to a peace with 
 more pleasure than I do, though no man would 
 sacrifice less to it than myself, if I were hot con- 
 vinced the people sigh for peace. I have been 
 studying the law for some months, and have lately 
 been licensed as an attorney. I wish to prepare my- 
 self by October for examination as a counsellor, but 
 some public avocations may possibly prevent me. 
 
 I had almost forgotten to tell you that I have 
 been pretty unanimously elected by the legislature 
 of this state, a member of congress, to begin to serve 
 in November. I do not hope to reform the state, 
 although I shall endeavour to do all the good I can. 
 
 Suffer Betsey and me to present our love to 
 Mrs. Meade. She has a sisterly affection for you. 
 
 My respects, if you choose, to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Fitzhugh. God bless you. 
 
 A. Hamilton. 
 
132 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 To GENERAL GREENE 
 
 Albany, October 12, 1782. 
 
 Dear General, — It is an age since I have either 
 written to you or received a line from you ; yet I 
 persuade myself you have not been the less con- 
 vinced of my affectionate attachment, and warm 
 participation in all those events which have given 
 you that place in your country's esteem and appro- 
 bation which I have known you to deserve, while 
 your enemies and rivals were most active in sully- 
 ing your reputation. 
 
 You will perhaps learn, before this reaches you, 
 that I have been appointed a member of Congress. 
 I expect to go to Philadelphia in the ensuing 
 month, where I shall be happy to correspond with 
 you with all our ancient confidence; and I shall 
 entreat you not to confine your observations to 
 military subjects, but to take in the whole scope 
 of national concerns. I am sure your ideas will 
 be useful to me and to the public. 
 
 I feel the deepest affliction at the news we have 
 just received of the loss of our dear and estimable 
 friend Laurens. His career of virtue is at an end. 
 
A TEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 133 
 
 How strangely are human affairs conducted, that 
 so many excellent qualities could not insure a 
 more happy fate ! The world will feel the loss of 
 a man who has left few like him behind, and 
 America of a citizen whose heart realized that 
 patriotism of which others only talk. I shall feel 
 the loss of a friend I most truly and tenderly loved, 
 and one of a very small number. 
 
 I take the liberty to enclose a letter to Mr. Kane, 
 executor to the estate of Mr. Lavine, a half-brother 
 of mine, who died some time since in South 
 Carolina. 
 
 I am, dear sir, truly your friend and servant, 
 
 A. Hamilton. 
 
 ^The last and most important paragraph of this letter is but indi- 
 cated by stars in the " Works of Alexander Hamilton," which contains 
 such a bulk of correspondence that more than one paragraph, believed 
 unimportant by J. C. Hamilton, was dropped. But the letter may be 
 found in its entirety in the second volume of the " Life," by his son, 
 page 7. — Ed. 
 
134 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 To LAFAYETTE 
 
 Albany, November 3, 1782. 
 
 Since we parted, my dear Marquis, at York-town, 
 I have received three letters from you ; one written 
 on your way to Boston, two from France. I 
 acknowledge that I have written to you only 
 once; but the reason has been, that I have been 
 taught daily to expect your return. This I should 
 not have done from my own calculations ; for I saw 
 no prospect but of an inactive campaign ; and you 
 had much better be intriguing for your hobbyhorse 
 at Paris, than loitering away your time here. Yet 
 they seem to be convinced, at head quarters, that 
 you were certainly coming out ; and by your letters 
 it appears to have been your own expectation. I 
 imagine you have relinquished it by this time. 
 
 I have been employed for the last ten months in 
 rocking the cradle and studying the art of fleecing 
 my neighbours. I am now a grave counsellor-at- 
 law, and shall soon be a grave member of Congress. 
 The Legislature, at their last session, took it into 
 their heads to name me, pretty unanimously, one of 
 their delegates. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 135 
 
 I am going to throw away a few more months in 
 public life, and then retire a simple citizen and good 
 paterfamilias. I set out for Philadelphia in a few 
 days. You see the disposition I am in. You are 
 condemned to run the race of ambition all your life. 
 I am already tired of the career, and dare to leave it. 
 
 But you would not give a pin for my letter 
 unless politics and war made a part of it. 
 
 Is there anything you wish on this side of the 
 water.? You know the warmth and sincerity of 
 my attachment. Command me. 
 
 I have not been so happy as to see M. De Segur. 
 The title of your friend would have been a title to 
 everything in my power to manifest. 
 
 Yours pour la vie, 
 
 A. Hamilton. 
 
 P.S. I wrote a long letter to the Viscount de 
 Noailles, whom I also love. Has he received it.? 
 Is the worthy Gouvion well ? Has he succeeded .'' 
 How is it with our friend Gimat } How is it 
 with General du Portail } 
 
 Poor Laurens ! He has fallen a sacrifice to his 
 ardour in a trifling skirmish in South Carolina. 
 
136 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 You know how truly I loved him, and will judge 
 how much I regret him. 
 
 I will write you again soon after my arrival at 
 Philadelphia. . „ 
 
 To JAMES HAMILTON, JR. 
 
 New- York, June 23, 1783. 
 
 My dear Brother, — I have received your letter 
 of the 31st of May last, which, and one other, are 
 the only letters I have received from you in many 
 years. I am a little surprised you did not receive one 
 which I wrote to you about six months ago. The 
 situation you describe yourself to be in gives me 
 much pain, and nothing will make me happier than, 
 as far as may be in my power, to contribute to 
 your relief. 
 
 I will cheerfully pay your draft upon me for 
 fifty pounds sterling, whenever it shall appear. 
 I wish it was in my power to desire you to enlarge 
 the sum; but though my future prospects are of 
 the most flattering kind, my present engagements 
 would render it inconvenient for me to advance 
 you a larger sum. 
 
 My affection for you, however, will not permit 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 137 
 
 me to be inattentive to your welfare, and I hope 
 time will prove to you that I feel all the sentiments 
 of a brother. Let me only request you to exert 
 your industry for a year or two more where you 
 are, and at the end of that time I promise myself 
 to be able to invite you to a more comfortable 
 settlement in this country. Allow me only to give 
 you one caution, which is, to avoid, if possible, 
 getting into debt. Are you married or single? 
 If the latter, it is my wish, for many reasons, that 
 you may continue in that state. 
 
 But what has become of our dear father ? It is 
 an age since I have heard from him, though I 
 have written him several letters. Perhaps, alas ! 
 he is no more, and I shall not have the pleasing 
 opportunity of contributing to render the close of 
 his life more happy than the progress of it. My 
 heart bleeds at the recollection of his misfortunes 
 and embarrassments. Sometimes I flatter myself 
 his brothers have extended their support to him, 
 and that now he is enjoying tranquillity and ease ; 
 at other times I fear he is suffering in indigence. 
 I entreat you, if you can, to relieve me from my 
 doubts, and let me know how or where he is, if 
 alive; if dead, how and where he died. Should 
 
T38 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 he be alive inform him of my inquiries, beg him 
 to write to me, and tell him how ready I shall be to 
 devote myself and all I have to his accommodation 
 and happiness. 
 
 I do not advise you coming to this country at 
 present, for the war has also put things out of 
 order here, and people in your business find a sub- 
 sistence difficult enough. My object will be, by 
 and by, to get you settled on a farm. 
 
 Believe me, always your affectionate friend and 
 
 brother, . ^ ^ 
 
 Alex. Hamilton. 
 
 To MRS. HAMILTON 
 
 Philadelphia, July 22, 1783. 
 I wrote you, my beloved Eliza, by the last post, 
 which I hope will not meet with the same fate that 
 many others of my letters must have met with. I 
 count upon setting out to see you in four days; but I 
 have been so frequently disappointed by unforeseen 
 events, that I shall not be without apprehensions of 
 being detained, till I have begun my journey. The 
 members of Congress are very pressing with me not 
 to go away at this time, as the House is thin, and as 
 the definitive treaty is momently expected. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 139 
 
 Tell your father that Mr. Rivington, in a letter 
 to the South Carolina delegates, has given informa- 
 tion, coming to him from Admiral Arbuthnot, that 
 the Mercury frigate is arrived at New- York with 
 the definitive treaty, and that the city was to be 
 evacuated yesterday, by the treaty. 
 
 I am strongly urged to stay a few days for the 
 ratification of the treaty; at all events, however, I 
 will not be long absent. 
 
 I give you joy of the happy conclusion of this 
 important work in which your country has been 
 engaged. Now, in a very short time, I hope we 
 shall be happily settled in New- York. 
 
 My love to your father. Kiss my boy a thousand 
 
 times. . T T 
 
 A. Hamilton. 
 
 From LAFAYETTE 
 
 Paris, April, 1785. 
 
 My dear Hamilton, — Although I have just now 
 written to M'Henry, requesting him to impart my 
 gazette to you, a very barren one indeed, I feel 
 within myself a want to tell you, I love you ten- 
 derly. Your brother Church has sailed for 
 America, since which I had a letter from his lady. 
 
I40 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 who is in very good health. By an old letter from 
 our friend Greene, I have been delighted to find he 
 consents to send his son to be educated with mine ; 
 the idea makes me very happy. I wish, dear 
 Hamilton, you would honour me with the same 
 mark of your friendship and confidence. As there 
 is no fear of a war, I intend visiting the Prussian 
 and Austrian troops. In one of your New- York 
 Gazettes I find an association against the slavery of 
 negroes, which seems to me worded in such a way 
 as to give no offence to the moderate men of the 
 southern States. As I have ever been partial to my 
 brethren of colour, I wish, if you are one in the 
 society, you would move, in your own name, for my 
 being admitted on the list. My best respects wait 
 on Mrs. Hamilton. 
 
 Adieu. 
 
 Your affectionate friend. 
 
 La Fayette. 
 
 From WASHINGTON 
 
 Mount Vernon, October i8, 1787. 
 
 Dear Sir, — Your favour, without date, came to 
 my hand by the last post It is with unfeigned 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 141 
 
 concern I perceive that a political dispute has 
 arisen between Gov. Clinton and yourself. For 
 both of you I have the highest esteem and regard. 
 But as you say it is insinuated by some of your 
 political adversaries, and may obtain credit, "that 
 you palmed yourself upon me and was dismissed 
 from my family," and call upon me to do you justice 
 by a recital of the facts ; I do, therefore, explicitly 
 declare, that both charges are entirely unfounded. 
 With respect to the first, I have no cause to believe 
 that you took a single step to accomplish, or had 
 the most distant idea of receiving an appointment 
 in my family until you were invited thereto. And 
 with respect to the second, that your quitting it was 
 altogether the effect of your own choice. 
 
 When the situation of this country calls for una- 
 nimity and vigour, it is to be lamented that gen- 
 tlemen of talent and character should disagree in 
 their sentiments for promoting the public weal ; but 
 unfortunately this ever has been, and more than 
 probable ever will be, the case in the affairs of 
 men. 
 
 Having scarcely been from home since my return 
 from Philadelphia, I can give but little information 
 with respect to the general reception of the new 
 
142 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 constitution in this State. In Alexandria, however, 
 and some of the adjacent counties, it has been 
 embraced with an enthusiastic warmth of which I 
 had no conception. I expect, notwithstanding, vio- 
 lent opposition will be given to it by some characters 
 of weight and influence in the State. 
 
 Mrs. Washington unites with me in sending her 
 best wishes for Mrs. Hamilton and yourself. 
 I am, dear Sir, 
 Your most obedient and affectionate friend, 
 
 G. Washington. 
 
 To WASHINGTON 
 
 October 30th, 1787. 
 
 I am much obliged to your Excellency for the 
 explicit manner in which you contradict the insinua- 
 tions mentioned in my last letter. The only use I 
 shall make of your answer will be to put it into the 
 hands of a few friends. 
 
 The constitution proposed has in this State warm 
 friends, and warm enemies. The first impressions 
 everywhere are in its favour; but the artillery of 
 its opponents makes some impression. The event 
 cannot yet be foreseen. The inclosed is the first 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 143 
 
 number of a series of papers to be written in its 
 defence. 
 
 I send you, .also, at the request of the Baron 
 De Steuben, a printed pamphlet, containing the 
 grounds of an application lately made to Congress. 
 He tells me there is some reference to you, the 
 object of which he does not seem clearly to under- 
 stand ; but imagines it may be in your power to be 
 of service to him. 
 
 There are public considerations that induce me 
 to be somewhat anxious for his success. He is 
 fortified with materials, which, in Europe, could 
 not fail to establish the belief of the contract he 
 alleges. The documents of service he possesses are 
 of a nature to convey an exalted idea of them. 
 The compensations he has received, though con- 
 siderable, if compared with those which have been 
 received by American officers, will, according to 
 European ideas, be very scanty in application to a 
 stranger who is acknowledged to have rendered 
 essential services. Our reputation abroad is not 
 at present too high. To dismiss an old soldier, 
 empty and hungry, to seek the bounty of those on 
 whom he has no claims, and to complain of unkind 
 returns and violated engagements, will certainly 
 
144 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 not tend to raise it. I confess, too, there is some- 
 thing in my feelings which would incline me in this 
 case to go farther than might be strictly necessary, 
 rather than drive a man, at the Baron's time of life, 
 who has been a faithful servant, to extremities. 
 And this is unavoidable if he does not succeed in 
 his present attempt. , What he asks would, all 
 calculations made, terminate in this, an allowance 
 of his five hundred and eighty guineas a year. He 
 only wishes a recognition of the contract. He 
 knows that until affairs mend no money can be 
 produced. I do not know how far it may be in 
 your power to do him any good ; but I shall be 
 mistaken if the considerations I have mentioned do 
 not appear to your Excellency to have some weight. 
 I remain, with great respect and esteem. 
 
 Your Excellency's obedient servant, 
 
 A. Hamilton. 
 
IV 
 THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY 
 
To LAFAYETTE 
 
 New York, October 6th, 1789. 
 
 My dear Marquis, — I have seen, with a mix- 
 ture of pleasure and apprehension, the progress 
 of the events which have lately taken place in 
 your country. As a friend to mankind and to 
 liberty, I rejoice in the efforts which you are 
 making to establish it, while I fear much for the 
 final success of the attempts, for the fate of those 
 I esteem who are engaged in it, and for the 
 danger, in case of success, of innovations greater 
 than will consist with the real felicity of your 
 nation. If your affairs still go well, when this 
 reaches you, you will ask why this foreboding of 
 evil, when all the appearances have been so much 
 in your favour. I will tell you: I dread disagree- 
 ments among those who are now united, (which 
 will be likely to be improved by the adverse party,) 
 about the nature of your constitution ; I dread the 
 vehement character of your people, whom I fear 
 you may find it more easy to bring on than to keep 
 
 147 
 
148 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 within proper bounds after you have put them in 
 motion. I dread the interested refractoriness of 
 your nobles, who cannot all be gratified, and who 
 may be unwilling to submit to the requisite sacri- 
 fices. And I dread the reveries of your philosophic 
 politicians, who appear in the moment to have great 
 influence, and who, being mere speculatists, may aim 
 at more refinement than suits either with human 
 nature or the composition of your nation. 
 
 These, my dear Marquis, are my apprehensions. 
 My wishes for your personal success, and that of 
 the cause of liberty are incessant. You are com- 
 bined with a great and good man ; you will antici- 
 pate the name of Necker. I trust you and he 
 will never cease to harmonize. 
 
 You will, I presume, have heard before this gets 
 to hand, that I have been appointed to the head 
 of the finances in this country. This event, I am 
 sure will . give you pleasure. In undertaking the 
 task I hazard much, but I thought it an occasion 
 that called upon me to hazard. I have no doubt 
 that the reasonable expectation of the public may 
 be satisfied, if I am properly supported by the 
 Legislature, and in this respect, I stand at present 
 on the most encouraging footing. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 149 
 
 The debt due to France, will be among the first 
 objects of my attention. Hitherto it has been 
 from necessity neglected. The session of Congress 
 is now over. It has been exhausted in the organi- 
 zation of the government, and in a few laws of 
 immediate urgency respecting navigation and com- 
 mercial imposts. The subject of the debt, foreign 
 and domestic, has been referred to the next session, 
 which will commence the first Monday in January 
 with an instruction to me to prepare and report a 
 plan comprehending an adequate provision for the 
 support of the public credit. There were many 
 good reasons for a temporary adjournment. 
 
 From this sketch you will perceive that I am 
 not in a situation to address anything officially to 
 your administration; but I venture to say to you, 
 as my friend, that if the instalments of the principal 
 of the debt could be suspended for a few years, 
 it would be a valuable accommodation to the 
 United States. In this suggestion, I contemplate 
 a speedy payment of the arrears of interest now 
 due, and effectual provision for the punctual pay- 
 ment of future interest as it arises. Could an 
 arrangement of this sort meet the approbation of 
 your government, it would be best on every ac- 
 
ISO A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 count that the offer should come unsolicited as a 
 fresh mark of good will. 
 
 I wrote you last by M. de Varville. I presume 
 you received my letter. As it touched some deli- 
 cate topics, I should be glad to know its fate. 
 Yours, with unalterable esteem and affection, 
 
 Alexander Hamilton. 
 
 From GULIAN VERPLANCK 
 
 New- York, 29th December, 1791. 
 
 Sir, — A number of your fellow-citizens, desirous 
 of expressing the sense they entertain of the im- 
 portant services you have rendered your country, 
 have raised by subscription a sum of money to 
 defray the expense of a portrait of you, to be exe- 
 cuted by Mr. Trumbull, and placed in one of our 
 public buildings. 
 
 We have therefore to request that you will be 
 so condescending as to allow Mr. Trumbull to 
 wait upon you for the above purpose, at such 
 time as will suit your conveniency; and will also 
 be pleased to permit the representation to exhibit 
 such part of your political life as may be most 
 agreeable to yourself. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 151 
 
 We have the honour to be, with perfect senti- 
 ments of esteem and respect, your most humble 
 servants, 
 
 GULIAN VeRPLANCK, 
 
 Roger Alden, 
 
 Brockholst Livingston, [ Committee. 
 
 J. Waddington, 
 
 Carlile Pollock, 
 
 To DUER 
 
 Philadelphia, March 14, 1792. 
 
 My dear Duer, — Your letter of the nth got 
 to hand this day. I am affected beyond measure 
 at its contents, especially as it was too late to have 
 any influence upon the event you were apprehen- 
 sive of, Mr. Wolcott's instructions having gone 
 off yesterday. 
 
 I trust, however, the alternative which they 
 present to the attorney of the and the dis- 
 
 cretion he will use in managing the aflFair, will 
 enable you to avoid any pernicious eclat, if your 
 affairs are otherwise retrievable. 
 
 Be this as it may, act with fortitude and honour. 
 If you cannot reasonably hope for a favourable 
 
152 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 extrication, do not plunge deeper. Have the cour- 
 age to make a full stop. Take all the care you can 
 in the first place of institutions of public utility, 
 and in the next of all fair creditors. 
 
 God bless you and take care of you and your 
 family. I have experienced all the bitterness of 
 soul on your account which a warm attachment 
 can inspire. I will not now pain you with any 
 wise remarks, though if you recover the present 
 stroke, I shall take great liberties with you. As- 
 sure yourself, in good and bad fortune, of my sin- 
 cere friendship and affection. 
 
 Adieu, 
 
 A. H. 
 
 From WASHINGTON 
 
 (Marked Private) 
 
 Mount Vernon, 26 August, 1792. 
 
 My dear Sir, — ... Differences in political opin- 
 ions are as unavoidable, as, to a certain point, 
 they may be necessary; but it is exceedingly to 
 be regretted that subjects cannot be discussed 
 with temper on the one hand, or decisions sub- 
 mitted to, without having the motives which led 
 to them improperly implicated on the pther; an4 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 153 
 
 this regret borders on chagrin, when we find that 
 men of abilities, zealous patriots, having the same 
 general objects in view, and the same upright 
 intentions to prosecute them, will not exercise 
 more charity in deciding on the opinions and 
 actions of one another. When matters get to "^ 
 such lengths, the natural inference is, that both 
 sides have strained the cords beyond their bearing, 
 and that the middle course would be found the 
 best, until experience shall have decided on the 
 right way, or (which is not to be expected, because 
 it is denied to mortals) there shall be some in- 
 fallible rule by which we could forejudge events. 
 Having premised these things, I would fain 
 hope that liberal allowances will be made for the 
 political opinions of each other; and instead of 
 those wounding suspicions, and irritating charges, 
 with which some of our gazettes are so strongly 
 impregnated, and cannot fail, if persisted in, of 
 pushing matters to extremity, and thereby to tear 
 the machine asunder, that there might be mutual 
 forbearances, and temporizing yieldings on all sides. 
 Without these I do not see how the reins of gov- 
 ernment are to be managed, or how the Union of 
 the States c^n be much longer preserved. 
 
154 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 How unfortunate would it be if a fabric so 
 goodly, erected under so many providential cir- 
 cumstances, and in its first stages having acquired 
 such respectability, should, from diversity of senti- 
 ments, or internal obstructions to some of the 
 acts of government (for I cannot prevail on my- 
 self to believe that these measures are as yet the 
 deliberate acts of a determined party), be harrowing 
 our vitals in such a manner as to have brought us 
 to the verge of dissolution. Melancholy thought! 
 But at the same time that it shows the conse- 
 quences of diversified opinions, when pushed with 
 too much tenacity, it exhibits evidence, also, of 
 the necessity of accommodation, and of the pro- 
 priety of adopting such healing measures as may 
 restore harmony to the discordant members of the 
 Union, and the governing powers of it. 
 
 I do not mean to apply this advice to any 
 measures which are passed, or to any particular 
 character. I have given it in the same general 
 terms to other officers of the government.^ My 
 
 ^ Washington had written a similar but sharper letter to Jefferson. 
 Hamilton, fearing for the permanence of his institutions, had for the 
 first time applied himself in print to the demolishment of Jefferson ; and 
 Jefferson and Freneau, in the National Gazette, were hitting back with 
 no inconsiderable venom. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 155 
 
 earnest wish is that balsam may be poured into 
 all the wounds, which have been given, to pre- 
 vent them from gangrening, and from those fatal 
 consequences which the community may sustain 
 if withheld. The friends of the Union must wish 
 this. Those who are not, but wish to see it 
 rended, will be disappointed, and all things, I hope 
 will go well. 
 
 We have learnt, through the medium of Mr. Har- 
 rison to Dr. Craik, that you have some thoughts 
 of taking a trip this way. I felt pleasure at 
 hearing it, and hope it is unnecessary to add, 
 that it would be considerably increased by seeing 
 you under this roof ; for you may be assured of 
 the sincere and affectionate regard &c. 
 
 To WASHINGTON 
 
 Philadelphia, 9 September, 1792. 
 
 Siy^ — I have the pleasure of your private letter 
 of the 26th of August. The feelings and views 
 which are manifested in that letter are such as 
 I expected would exist. And I most sincerely 
 regret the causes of the uneasy sensations you 
 experience. It is my most anxious wish, as far 
 
iS6 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 as you may depend upon me, to smooth the path 
 of your administration, and to render it prosperous 
 and happy. And, if any prospect shall open of 
 healing or terminating the differences which exist, 
 I shall most cheerfully embrace it; though I 
 consider myself as the deeply injured party. The 
 recommendation of such a spirit is worthy of the 
 moderation and wisdom which dictated it. And 
 if your endeavours should prove unsuccessful, I 
 do not hesitate to say, that in my opinion the 
 period is not remote when the public good will 
 require substitutes for the differing members of 
 your administration. The continuance of division 
 there must destroy the energy of government, which 
 will be little enough with the strictest union. On 
 my part there will be a most cheerful acquiescence 
 in such a result. 
 
 I trust. Sir, that the greatest frankness has always 
 marked, and will always mark, every step of my con- 
 duct toward you. In this disposition I cannot con- 
 ceal from you, that I have had some instrumentality 
 of late in the retaliations, which have fallen upon 
 certain characters, and that I find myself placed in 
 a situation not to be able to recede for the present. 
 
 I considered myself as compelled to this conduct 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 157 
 
 by reasons public as well as personal, of the most 
 cogent nature. I know, that I have been an object 
 of uniform opposition from Mr. Jefferson from the 
 moment of his coming to the city of New- York to 
 enter upon his present office. I htow, from the 
 most authentic sources, that I have been the frequent 
 subject of the most unkind whispers and insinua- 
 tions from the same quarter. I have long seen a 
 formed party in the legislature under his auspices, 
 bent upon my subversion. I cannot doubt, from 
 the evidence I possess, that the National Gazette 
 was instituted by him for political purposes, and 
 that one leading object of it has been to render 
 me and all the measures connected with my depart- 
 ment as odious as possible. 
 
 Nevertheless, I can truly say, that, except ex- 
 planations to confidential friends, I never directly 
 or indirectly retaliated till very lately. I can even 
 assure you that I was instrumental in preventing 
 a very severe and systematic attack upon Mr. 
 Jefferson by an association of two or three indi- 
 viduals in consequence of the persecution which 
 he brought upon the Vice President, by his indis- 
 creet and light letter to the printer, transmitting 
 Paine s pamphlet. 
 
158 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 As long as I saw no danger to the government 
 from the machinations which were going on, I 
 resolved to be a silent sufferer of the injuries which 
 were being done me. I determined to avoid giving 
 occasion to anything, which could manifest to the 
 world dissensions among the principal characters 
 of the government; a thing which can never 
 happen without weakening its hands, and in some 
 degree throwing a stigma upon it. 
 
 But when I no longer doubted, that there was 
 a formed party deliberately bent upon the sub- 
 version of measures, which in its consequences 
 would subvert the government; when I saw that 
 the undoing of the funding system in particular 
 (which, whatever may be the original merits of that 
 system, would prostrate the credit and the honour 
 of the nation, and bring the government into con- 
 tempt with that description of men, who are irj 
 every society the only firm supporters of govern- 
 ment), was an avowed object of the party; and 
 that all possible pains were taking to produce that 
 effect by rendering it odious to the body of the 
 people, I considered it as a duty to endeavour 
 to resist the torrent, and as an effectual means to 
 that end, to draw aside the veil from the principal 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 159 
 
 actors. To this strong impulse, to this decided 
 conviction, I have yielded. And I think events 
 will prove that I have judged rightly. 
 
 Nevertheless, I pledge my honour to you, Sir, 
 that, if you shall hereafter form a plan to reunite 
 the members of your administration upon some 
 steady principle of cooperation, I will faithfully 
 concur in executing it during my continuance in 
 office. And I will not directly or indirectly say 
 or do a thing, that shall endanger a feud. 
 
 I have had it very much at heart to make an 
 excursion to Mount Vernon by way of the Federal 
 City in the course of this month, and have been 
 more than once on the point of asking your per- 
 mission for it. But I now despair of being able 
 to effect it. I am nevertheless equally obliged for 
 your kind invitation. 
 
 With the most faithful and affectionate attach- 
 ment, 
 
 I have the honour to remain. Sir, yours, 
 
 Alexander Hamilton. 
 
i6o A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 JEFFERSON to WASHINGTON 
 
 MONTICELLO, 9 September, 1792. 
 
 Dear Sir, — . . . I now take the liberty of pro- 
 ceeding to that part of your letter wherein you 
 notice the internal dissensions, which have taken 
 place within our government, and their disagree- 
 able effect on its movements. That such dissen- 
 sions have taken place is certain, and even among 
 those who are nearest to you in the administra- 
 tion. To no one have they given deeper concern 
 than myself, to no one equal mortification at being 
 myself a part of them. Though I take to myself 
 no more than my share of the general observations 
 of your letter, yet I am so desirous that even you 
 should know the whole truth, that I am glad to 
 seize every occasion of developing to you whatever 
 I do or think relative to the government, and shall 
 therefore ask permission to be more lengthy now, 
 than the occasion particularly calls for, or would 
 otherwise perhaps justify. 
 
 When I embarked in the government, it was 
 with a determination to intermeddle not at all in 
 the legislature, and as little as possible with my 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS i6i 
 
 co-departments. The first and only instance of 
 variance from the former part of my resolution, 
 I was duped into by the Secretary of the Treasury, 
 and made a tool for forwarding his schemes, not 
 then suffi|Ciently understood by me; and of all 
 the errors of my political life, this has occasioned 
 me the deepest regret. It has ever been my 
 purpose to explain this to you, when from being 
 actors on the scene we shall have become unin- 
 terested spectators only. The second part of my 
 resolution has been religiously observed with the 
 war department; and, as to that of the treasury, 
 has never been farther swerved from than by the 
 mere enunciation of my sentiments in conversation, 
 and chiefly among those, who, expressing the same 
 sentiments, drew mine from me. 
 
 If it has been supposed that I have ever in- 
 trigued among the members of the legislature to 
 defeat the plans of the Secretary of the Treasury, 
 it is contrary to all truth. As I never had the 
 desire to influence the members, so neither had 
 I any other means than my friendships, which I 
 valued too highly to risk by usurpations on their 
 freedom of judgment and the conscientious pursuit 
 of their own sense of duty. That I have utterly, 
 
i62 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 in my private conversations, disapproved of the 
 system of the Secretary of the Treasury, I 
 acknowledge and avow; and this was not merely 
 a speculative difference. His system flowed from 
 principles adverse to liberty, and was calculated 
 to undermine and demolish the republic, by creat- 
 ing an influence of his department over members 
 of the legislature. I saw this influence actually 
 produced, and its first fruits to be the establish- 
 ment of the great outlines of his project by the 
 votes of the very persons, who, having swallowed 
 his bait, were laying themselves out to profit by 
 his plans; and that, had these persons withdrawn, 
 as those interested in a question ever should, the 
 vote of the disinterested majority was clearly the 
 reverse of what they made it. These were no 
 longer the votes then of the representatives of the 
 people; and it was impossible to consider their 
 decisions which had nothing in view but to enrich 
 themselves, as the measures of the fair majority, 
 which ought always to be respected. 
 
 If what was actually doing begat uneasiness in 
 those who wished for virtuous government, what 
 was further proposed was not less threatening to 
 the friends of the constitution. For, in a report 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 163 
 
 on the subject of manufactures (still to be acted 
 upon), it was expressly assumed, that the general 
 government has a right to exercise all powers, 
 which may be for the general welfare, that is to 
 say, all the legitimate powers of government ; since 
 no government has a legitimate right to do what 
 is not for the welfare of the governed. There was 
 indeed a sham limitation of the universality of this 
 power to cases where money is to be employed. But 
 about what is it that money cannot be employed? 
 Thus the object of these plans taken together is 
 to draw all the powers of government into the 
 hands of the general legislature, to establish means 
 for corrupting a sufficient corps in that legislature 
 to divide the honest votes, and preponderate by 
 their own the scale which suited, and to have 
 that corps under the command of the Secretary of 
 the Treasury for the purpose of subverting, step 
 by step, the principles of the constitution, which 
 he has so often declared to be a thing of nothing, 
 which must be changed. 
 
 Such views might have justified something more 
 than mere expressions of dissent, beyond which, 
 nevertheless, I never went. Has abstinence from 
 the department committed to me been equally 
 
i64 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 observed by him? To say nothing of other inter- 
 ferences equally known, in the case of the two 
 nations with which we have the most intimate 
 connexions, France and England, my system was 
 to give some satisfactory distinctions to the former, 
 of little cost to us, in return for the solid advan- 
 tages yielded us by them ; and to have met the 
 English with some restrictions, which might induce 
 them to abate their severities against our com- 
 merce. I have always supposed this coincided 
 with your sentiments; yet the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, by his cabals with members of the legis- 
 lature, and by high-toned declamation on other 
 occasions, has forced down his own system, which 
 was exactly the reverse. He undertook, of his own 
 authority, the conferences with the ministers of 
 these two nations, and was on every consultation, 
 provided with some report of a conversation with 
 the one or the other of them, adapted to his views. 
 These views, thus made to prevail, their execu- 
 tion of course fell to me ; and I can safely appeal 
 to you, who have seen all my letters and proceed- 
 ings, whether I have not carried them into exe- 
 cution as sincerely as if they had been my own, 
 though I ever considered them as inconsistent 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 165 
 
 with the honour and interest of our country. 
 That they have been inconsistent with our interest 
 is but too fatally proved by the stab to our navi- 
 gation given by the French. So that if the ques- 
 tion be, By whose fault is it that Colonel Hamilton 
 and myself have not drawn together? the answer 
 will depend on that to two other questions. 
 Whose principles of administration best justify, 
 by their purity, conscientious adherence.? And 
 which of us has, notwithstanding, stepped farthest 
 into the control of the department of the other.? 
 To the justification of opinions, expressed in the 
 way of conversation, against the views of Colonel 
 Hamilton, I beg leave to add some notice of his 
 late charges against me in Fennds Gazette; for 
 neither the style, matter, nor venom of the pieces 
 alluded to can leave a doubt of their author. 
 Spelling my name and character at full length to 
 the public, while he conceals his own under the 
 signature of " An American," he charges me first, 
 with having written letters from Europe to my 
 friends to oppose the present constitution while 
 depending; secondly with a desire of not paying 
 the public debt ; thirdly with setting up a paper to 
 decry and slander the government. 
 
1 66 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 The first charge is most false. No man in the 
 United States, I suppose, approved of every title 
 in the constitution ; no one, I believe, approved 
 more of it than I did ; and more of it was certainly- 
 disapproved by my accuser than by me, and of its 
 parts most vitally republican. Of this the few 
 letters I wrote on the subject (not half a dozen, I 
 believe) will be a proof; and for my own satisfac- 
 tion and justification, I must tax you with the 
 reading of them when I return to where they are. 
 You will there see, that my objection to the 
 constitution was, that it wanted a bill of rights, 
 securing freedom of religion, freedom of the press, 
 freedom from standing armies, trial by jury, and a 
 constant habeas corpus act. Colonel Hamilton's 
 was that he wanted a King and a House of Lords.^ 
 The sense of America has approved my objection, 
 and added the bill of rights, not the King and 
 Lords. I also thought a longer term of service, 
 insusceptible of renewal, would have made a Presi- 
 dent more independent. My country has thought 
 otherwise, and I have acquiesced implicitly. He 
 
 1 It is doubtful if Jefferson persuaded even himself of the truth of 
 this nonsensical charge, of which there has never been a suggestion of 
 proof. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 167 
 
 wished the general government should have power 
 to make laws binding the States in all cases what- 
 soever. Our country has thought otherwise. Has 
 he acquiesced ? Notwithstanding my wish for a 
 bill of rights, my letters strongly urged the adop- 
 tion of the constitution, by nine states at least, to 
 secure the good it contained. I at first thought, 
 that the best method of securing the bill of rights 
 would he for four states to hold off till such a bill 
 should be agreed to. But the moment I saw Mr. 
 Hancock's proposition to pass the constitution as 
 it stood, and give perpetual instructions to the 
 representatives of every State to insist upon a bill 
 of rights, I acknowledged the superiority of his 
 plan, and advocated universal adoption. 
 
 The second charge is equally untrue. My whole 
 correspondence while in France, and in every word, 
 letter, and act on the subject since my return, prove, 
 that no man is more ardently intent to see the 
 public debt soon and sacredly paid off than I am. 
 This exactly marks the difference between Colonel 
 Hamilton's views and mine, that I would wish the 
 debt paid to-morrow ; he wishes it never to be paid, 
 but always to be a thing wherewith to corrupt and 
 manage the legislature. 
 
1 68 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 Thirdly, I have never inquired what number of 
 sons, relations, and friends of senators, representa- 
 tives, printers, or other useful partisans Colonel 
 Hamilton has provided for among the hundred 
 clerks of his department, the thousand excisemen, 
 custom-house officers, loan-of-oflEicers, &c., &c., &c., 
 appointed by him, or at his nod, and spread over 
 the Union ; nor could ever have imagined, that the 
 man, who has the shuffling of millions backwards 
 and forwards from paper into money, and money 
 into paper, from Europe to America, and America 
 to Europe, the dealing out of Treasury secrets 
 among his friends in what time and measure 
 he pleases, and who never slips an occasion of 
 making friends with his means ; that such a one, I 
 say, would have brought forward a charge against 
 me for having appointed the poet Freneau trans- 
 lating clerk to my office with a salary of two hun- 
 dred and fifty dollars a year. 
 
 The fact stands thus. While the government 
 was at New- York, I was applied to on behalf of 
 Freneau to know if there was any place within my 
 department to which he could have been appointed. 
 I answered, there were but four clerkships, all of 
 which I found full, and continued without any 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 169 
 
 change. When we removed to Philadelphia, Mr. 
 Pintard, the translating clerk, did not choose to 
 remove with us. His office then became vacant. 
 I was again applied to there for Freneau, and had 
 no hesitation to promise the clerkship for him. I 
 cannot recollect whether it was the same time, or 
 afterwards, that I was told he had a thought of 
 setting up a newspaper there; but, whether then 
 or afterwards, I considered it a circumstance of 
 some value, as it might enable me to do what I had 
 long wished to have done, that is, to have the 
 material parts of the Leyden Gazette brought under 
 your eye and that of the public, in order to possess 
 yourself and them of a juster view of the affairs of 
 Europe, than could be obtained from any other 
 public source. This I had ineffectually attempted 
 through the press of Mr. Fenno while in New- York, 
 selecting and translating passages myself at first, 
 then having it done by Mr. Pintard and the trans- 
 lating clerk. But they found their way too slowly 
 into Mr. Fenno's papers. Mr. Bache essayed it 
 for me in Philadelphia ; but his, being a daily paper, 
 did not circulate sufficiently in the other States. 
 He even tried, at my request, the plan of a weekly 
 paper of recapitulation from his daily paper, in 
 
170 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 hopes that it might go into the other States ; but in 
 this too we failed. 
 
 Freneau, as translating clerk and the printer of a 
 periodical paper likely to circulate through the 
 States (uniting in one person the parts of Pintard 
 and Fenno), revived my hopes that the thing could 
 at length be effected. On the establishment of 
 his paper, therefore, I furnished him with the 
 Leyden Gazette with an expression of my wish that 
 he would always translate and publish the 
 material intelligence they contained; and have 
 continued to furnish them from time to time, as 
 regularly as I received them. But as to any other 
 direction or indication of my wish how his press 
 should be conducted, what sort of intelligence 
 he should give, what essays encourage, I can 
 protest in the presence of Heaven, that I never 
 did, by myself or any other, directly or indi- 
 rectly, write, dictate, or procure, any one sentence 
 or sentiment to be inserted in his or any other 
 gazette, to which my name was not affixed, or that 
 of my office. I surely need not except here a thing 
 so foreign to the present subject as a little para- 
 graph about our Algerine captives, which I put 
 once into Fenno's paper. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 171 
 
 Freneau's proposition to publish a paper having 
 been about the time that the writings of Publicola 
 and the Discourses on Davila had a good deal 
 excited the public attention, I took it for granted, 
 from Freneau's character, which had been marked 
 as that of a good whig, that he would give free 
 place to pieces written against the aristocratical and 
 monarchical principles these papers had inculcated. 
 This having been in my mind, it is likely enough I 
 may have expressed it in conversation with others, 
 though I do not recollect that I did. To Freneau 
 I think I could not, because I had still seen him but 
 once, and that was at a public table, at breakfast at 
 Mrs. Ellsworth's, as I passed through New York the 
 last year ; and I can safely declare, that ny expecta- 
 tions looked only to the chastisement of the aristo- 
 cratical and monarchical writings, and not to any 
 criticisms' on the proceedings of the government. 
 
 Colonel Hamilton can see no motive for any ap- 
 pointment, but that of making a convenient partisan. 
 But you. Sir, who have received from me recom- 
 mendations of a Rittenhouse, Barlow, Paine, will 
 believe, that talents and science are sufficient mo- 
 tives with me in appointments to which they are 
 fitted ; and that Freneau, as a man of genius, might 
 
172 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 find a preference in my eye to be a translating clerk, 
 and make good title moreover to the little aids I 
 could give him as the editor of a gazette, by procur- 
 ing subscriptions to his paper as I did, some time 
 before it appeared, and as I have with pleasure done 
 for the labours of other men of genius. I hold it 
 to be one of the distinguishing excellencies of an 
 elective over hereditary successions, that the talents, 
 which nature has provided in sufficient proportions, 
 should be selected by the society for the govern- 
 ment of their affairs, rather than that this should 
 be transmitted through the loins of knaves and 
 fools, passing from the debauchees of the table to 
 those of the bed. 
 
 Colonel Hamilton, alias ''Plain Fads" says that 
 Freneau's salary began before he resided in Phila- 
 delphia. I do not know what quibble he may have 
 in reserve on the word "residence." He may mean 
 to include under that idea the removal of his family; 
 for I believe he removed himself, before his family 
 did, to Philadelphia. But no act of mine gave com- 
 mencement to his salary before he so far took up his 
 abode in Philadelphia, as to be sufficiently in readi- 
 ness for the duties of the office. As to the merits 
 or demerits pf his p^per, they certainly concern 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 173 
 
 me not. He and Fenno are rivals for the public 
 favour; the one courts them by flattery, the other by 
 censure; and I believe it will be admitted that the 
 one has been as servile as the other severe. But 
 is not the dignity and even decency of government 
 committed, when one of its principal ministers 
 enlists himself as an anonymous writer or para- 
 graphist for either the one or the other of them ? 
 No government ought to be without censors; and, 
 where the press is free, no one ever will. If virtu- 
 ous, it need not. fear the fair operation of attack and 
 defence. Nature has given to man no other means 
 of sifting out the truth, either in religion, law, or 
 politics. I think it as honourable to the govern- 
 ment neither to know or notice its sycophants or 
 censors, as it would be undignified and criminal 
 to pamper the former and persecute the latter. So 
 much for the past; a word now of the future. 
 
 When I came into this office, it was with a reso- 
 lution to retire from it as soon as I could with 
 decency. It pretty nearly appeared to me, that 
 the proper moment would be the first of those 
 epochs at which the constitution seems to have 
 contemplated a periodical change or renewal of 
 the public servants. In this I was confirmed by 
 
174 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 your resolution respecting the same period, from 
 which, however, I am happy in hoping you have 
 departed. I look to that period with the longing 
 of a wave-worn mariner, who has at length the 
 land in view, and shall count the days and hours 
 which still lie between me and it. In the mean- 
 time my main object will be to wind up the business 
 of my office, avoiding as much as possible all new 
 enterprises. With the affairs of the legislature, as I 
 never did intermeddle, so I certainly shall not now 
 begin. I am more desirous to predispose everything 
 for the repose, to which I am withdrawing, than 
 expose it to be disturbed by newspaper contests. 
 
 If these, however, cannot be avoided altogether, 
 yet a regard for your quiet will be a sufficient 
 motive for deferring till I become merely a pri- 
 vate citizen, when the propriety or impropriety of 
 what I may say or do may fall on myself alone. 
 I may then, too, avoid the charge of misapply- 
 ing that time, which, now belonging to those 
 who employ me, should be wholly devoted to 
 their service. If my own justification or the 
 interests of the republic shall require it, I reserve 
 to myself the right of then appealing to my 
 country, subscribing my name to whatever I 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 175 
 
 write,^ and using with freedom and truth the facts 
 and names necessary to place the cause in its just 
 form before that tribunal. To a thorough disregard 
 of the honours and emoluments of office, I join as 
 great a value for the esteem of my countrymen; 
 and conscious of having merited it by an integ- 
 rity, which cannot be reproached, and by an en- 
 thusiastic devotion to their rights and liberty, I 
 will not suffer my retirement to be clouded by 
 the slanders of a man, whose history, from the 
 moment at which history can stoop to notice him, 
 is a tissue of machinations against the liberty of 
 the country, which has not only received and given 
 him bread, but heaped its honours on his head. 
 
 Still, however, I repeat the hope, that it will not 
 be necessary to make such an appeal. Though 
 little known to the people of America, I believe, 
 that, as far as I am known, it is not as an enemy 
 to the republic, nor an intriguer against it, nor a 
 
 ^This virtuous fling is pointless, for the anonymous political effu- 
 sion was the custom of the day. Hamilton's style was unmistak- 
 able, and he never disguised it, nor denied the authorship of anything 
 he wrote. On the contrary, he knew the additional weight such 
 knowledge must give to anything he published ; he merely followed 
 the fashion of the day in using a fancy signature, usually classical. 
 The Federalist papers were signed Publius, and even Jefferson would 
 hardly have accused him of being ashamed of them! — Ed. 
 
176 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 waster of its revenue, nor prostitutor of it to the 
 purposes of corruption, as the American repre- 
 sents me; and I confide, that yourself are satis- 
 fied, that, as to dissensions in the newspapers, not 
 a syllable of them has ever proceeded from me; 
 and that no cabals or intrigues of mine have pro- 
 duced those in the legislature; and I hope I may 
 promise, both to you and myself, that none will re- 
 ceive aliment from me during the short space I 
 have to remain in office, which will find ample em- 
 ployment in closing the business of the department. 
 ... In the mean time, and ever, with great and 
 sincere affection and respect, dear Sir, your most 
 obedient and humble servant, 
 
 Thomas Jefferson.^ 
 
 From JAMES HAMILTON 
 
 St. Vincent, June 12th, 1793. 
 
 Dear Alexander, — I wrote you a letter, inclosed 
 in one to Mr. Donald, of Virginia, since which I have 
 had no further accounts from you. My bad state of 
 
 ^ This is instructive reading in the light of the proven facts of his- 
 tory, and if Jefferson had chosen to rear a monument to his hypocrisy, 
 he could hardly have done better. — Ed. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 177 
 
 health has prevented my going to sea at this time 
 — being afflicted with a compUcation of disorders. 
 
 The war which has lately broken out between 
 France and England makes it very dangerous 
 going to sea at this time. However, we daily 
 expect news of a peace, and when that takes place, 
 provided it is not too late in the season, I will 
 embark in the first vessel that sails for Philadelphia. 
 
 I have now settled all my business in this part of 
 the world, with the assistance of my good friend, 
 Mr. Donald, who has been of every service to me 
 that lay in his power, in contributing to make my 
 life easy at this advanced period of life. The 
 bearer of this. Captain Sheriff, of the brig Dispatch, 
 sails direct for Philadelphia, and has promised to 
 deliver you this letter with his own hands ; and as 
 he returns to this island from Philadelphia, I beg 
 you will drop me a few lines, letting me know how 
 you and your family keep your health, as I am 
 uneasy at not having heard from you for some time 
 past. I beg my respectful compliments to Mrs. 
 Hamilton and your children, and wishing you health 
 and happiness, I remain, with esteem, dear Alexander, 
 Your very affectionate father, 
 
 James Hamilton. 
 
178 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 To 
 
 August, 1793. 
 
 Dear Sir, — Poor Duer has now had a long and 
 severe confinement, such as would be adequate 
 punishment for no trifling crime. I am well aware 
 of all the blame to which he is liable, and do not 
 mean to be his apologist, though I believe he has 
 been as much the dupe of his own imagination, as 
 others have been the victims of his projects. But 
 what then 1 He is a man — he is a man with 
 whom we have both been in habits of friendly 
 intimacy. He is a man, who, with a great deal of 
 good zeal, has in critical times rendered valuable 
 services to the country. He is a husband, who has 
 a worthy and most amiable wife, perishing with 
 chagrin at his situation ; — your relation by blood, , 
 mine by marriage — he is a father, who has a num- 
 ber of fine children, destitute of the means of educa- 
 tion and support, every way in need of his future 
 exertions. 
 
 These are titles to sympathy, which I shall be 
 mistaken if you do not feel. You are his creditor. 
 Your example may influence others. He wants 
 permission, through a letter of license, to breathe the 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 179 
 
 air for five years. Your signature to the enclosed 
 draft of one will give me much pleasure. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 A. H. 
 
 To MRS. NATHANAEL GREENE 
 
 Philadelphia, September 3rd, 1793. 
 
 It is not an uncommon thing for you women to 
 bring us poor men into scrapes. It seems you 
 have brought me into one. You will wonder how. 
 Hear the tale. 
 
 Shortly after I came into ofifice, Wadsworth 
 informed me that Baron Glaubeck was indebted to 
 General Greene (to whom he had behaved in a very 
 exceptionable manner), and that it was intended to 
 endeavour to purchase of Glaubeck some pay which 
 had just been granted to him by Congress, upon 
 the plan of advancing to him a certain sum of 
 money to satisfy his immediate necessities, and 
 the residue that was due to him to be applied 
 toward the indemnification of the General's estate, 
 for what Glaubeck owed to it. I afterwards under- 
 stood that the execution of this plan was com- 
 mitted to Flint or Duer, to one or both of them 
 
i8o A FEW Of HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 — and that a purchase of the claim was in fact 
 made — not indeed of Glaubeck, but of some 
 person to whom he had parted with it for some 
 trifling consideration — the object being through- 
 out to benefit you by way of indemnification as 
 above mentioned. 
 
 It likewise would appear from the Treasury 
 records, that you have in fact received the whole 
 benefit of the purchase. The conversations we had 
 together when you were last in Philadelphia, assure 
 me at least that the certificate for four-fifths of his 
 claim accrued immediately to your use. 
 
 Francis, late a clerk in my department (partly 
 from resentment at a disappointment he has met 
 with at the Treasury, and partly, I believe, from its 
 having been made worth his while by some political 
 enemies of mine), endeavours to have it believed 
 that this transaction was a speculation in which I 
 was engaged, and in proof of it — a draft of a power 
 of attorney, corrected by some interlineations in my 
 handwriting, as he asserts. 
 
 I do not recollect this part of the business, though 
 I think it is very possible that such a correction, in 
 such a draft, may have been made by me. 
 
 For Duer and Flint, it seems, employed Francis 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS i8i 
 
 to make the purchase ; and it is not unlikely that 
 a draft of the power for the purpose may have 
 been brought to me, to know from me whether 
 it would answer the purpose of the Treasury as 
 a competent instrument ; and that I (believing the 
 design to be such as I have represented, one not 
 only wholly unexceptional but laudable one in which 
 my friendship for you would naturally take part) 
 may have taken up my pen and made such cor- 
 rections as the draft might appear to stand in 
 need of. 
 
 I give you this detail to show you how I may 
 have been implicated. 
 
 What I wish of you is, that you will have the 
 goodness to state in writing what you know of 
 the affair; ascertaining that the purchase was for 
 your benefit, and the cause of it; and that you 
 will take the trouble to make affidavit to the state- 
 ment, and forward to me. 
 
 As it is an affair of delicacy, I will thank you 
 to request some gentleman of the law to give form 
 and precision to your narrative. 
 
 You perceive that it is not in one way only that 
 I am the object of unprincipled persecution; but 
 I console myself with the lines of the poet — 
 
i8» A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 He must needs be of optics keen, 
 Who sees what is not to be seen. 
 
 And with this belief, that in spite of calumny, 
 
 the friends I love and esteem will continue to love 
 
 and esteem me, 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 A. H. 
 
IV 
 THE POWER BEHIND THE THRONE 
 
From M'HENRY 
 
 New Baltimore, February 17, 1795. 
 
 My dear Hamilton^ — The tempest weathered 
 and landed on the same shore, I may now con- 
 gratulate you on having established a system of 
 credit, and having conducted the affairs of our 
 country upon principles and reasoning which 
 ought to insure its immortality, as it undoubtedly 
 will your fame. Few public men have been so 
 eminently fortunate as voluntarily to leave so 
 high a station with so unsullied a character, and 
 so well assured a reputation ; and still fewer have 
 so well deserved the gratitude of their country, 
 and the eulogiums of history. Let this console 
 you for past toils and pains, and reconcile you 
 to humbler pleasures and a private .life. What 
 remains for you, having insured fame, but to 
 insure felicity .'' Seek for it in the moderate pursuit 
 of your profession, or, if public life still flatters, 
 in that office most congenial to it ; and which will 
 
 18S 
 
i86 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 not withdraw you from those literary objects that 
 require no violent waste of spirits, and those little 
 plans that involve gentle exercise, and which you 
 can drop or indulge in without injury to your family. 
 I shall expect to hear from you as soon as you 
 get fairly settled. Not knowing whether I ought 
 to address to you at Albany or New York, I have 
 sent this to Mr. Murray, who will forward it, and 
 tvho, I suppose, knows. Adieu. 
 Sincerely and affectionately, 
 
 James M'Henry. 
 
 To THEODORE SEDGWICK 
 
 Bristol, February i8th, 1795. 
 
 My dear Sedgwick, — Every moment's reflection 
 increases my chagrin and disgust at the failure 
 of the propositions concerning the unsubscribed 
 debt. I am tortured by the idea that the coun- 
 try should be so completely and unnecessarily 
 dishonoured. A day of reckoning must come. 
 I pray you let the yeas and nays separate the 
 wheat from the chaff. I may otherwise have to 
 feel the distress of wounding a friend by a shaft 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 187 
 
 levelled at an enemy. The case is an extreme 
 one. Managements are every way improper. 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 A. Hamilton. 
 
 To RUFUS KING 
 
 Kingston, February 21st, 1795. 
 My dear King, — The unnecessary, and capri- 
 cious, and abominable assassination of the national 
 honour, by the rejection of the propositions re- 
 specting the unsubscribed debt, in the House 
 of Representatives, haunts me ever}"- step I take, 
 and afflicts me more than I can express. To see 
 the character of the country and the government 
 so sported with — exposed to so indelible a blot 
 
 — puts my heart to the torture. Am I, then, 
 more of an American than those who drew their 
 first breath on American ground? Or what is it 
 that thus torments me, at a circumstance so calmly 
 viewed by almost everybody else ? Am I a fool 
 
 — a romantic Quixote — or is there a constitu- 
 tional defect in the American mind? Were it 
 not for yourself and a few others, I could adopt 
 the reveries of De Paux as substantial truths. 
 
i88 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 and could say with him that there is something in 
 our climate which belittles every animal, human 
 or brute. 
 
 I conjure you, my friend, make a vigorous stand 
 for the honour of your country! Rouse all the 
 energies of your mind, and measure swords in the 
 Senate with the great slayer of public faith — 
 the hackneyed veteran in the violation of public 
 engagements. Prevent him, if possible, from tri- 
 umphing a second time over the prostrate credit 
 and injured interests of his country. Unmask his 
 false and horrid hypothesis. Display the immense 
 difference between an able statesman and the man 
 of subtleties. Root out the distempered and noi- 
 some weed which is attempted to be planted in our 
 political garden, to choke and wither, in its infancy, 
 the fair plant of public credit. 
 
 I disclose to you, without reserve, the state of 
 my mind. It is discontented and gloomy in the 
 extreme. I consider the cause of good government 
 as having been put to an issue, and the verdict 
 rendered against it. 
 
 Introduce, I pray you, into the Senate, when the 
 bill comes up, the clause which has been rejected, 
 freed from embarrassment by the bills of credit, 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 189 
 
 bearing interest on the nominal value. Press its 
 adoption in this, the most unexceptionable shape, 
 and let the yeas and nays witness the result. 
 
 Among the other reasons for this is my wish that 
 the true friends of public credit may be distin- 
 guished from its enemies. The question is too 
 great a one not to undergo a thorough examination 
 before the community. It would pain me not to be 
 able to distinguish. 
 
 Adieu ! God bless you. 
 
 P.S. Do me the favour to revise carefully the 
 course of the bill respecting the unsubscribed debt, 
 and let me know the particulars. I wish to be able 
 to judge more particularly of the underplot I suspect. 
 
 From EDWARD STEVENS 
 
 Philadelphia, May, 1796. 
 
 My dear Friend, — Almost ever since your 
 departure I have been confined to my chamber, 
 by a severe and obstinate catarrh. Though much 
 better, at present my health is so much deranged 
 that I dread encountering the warmth of the 
 summer months in this city. I have, therefore, 
 determined to take a voyage to sea, and I shall 
 
190 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 visit St. Croix before my return. Mrs. Stevens 
 has concluded to accompany me with our little 
 ones. Our absence will be but short. If no un- 
 expected event takes place, we shall certainly 
 return by the month of September. I could not, 
 however, leave America, without assuring you of 
 our best wishes for the health and prosperity of 
 yourself and family. May every blessing attend 
 you. Mrs. S. unites with me in affectionate re- 
 membrance to Mrs. Hamilton. 
 
 I remain, with unfeigned attachment, 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 Edward Stevens. 
 
 From MR. GREENLEAF 
 
 New- York, July 27th, 1796. 
 
 Dear Sir, — The indispensable necessity of an 
 immediate though short respite from business, 
 united with motives of interest, and an unbounded 
 attachment to reputation, induce me to make a 
 proposition to you of a pretty extraordinary nature, 
 but which after due reflection I flatter myself will 
 be deemed not unworthy of your attention. My 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 191 
 
 engagements of every possible nature do not exceed 
 twelve hundred thousand dollars, and my real and 
 personal estate may with ease be liquidated and 
 made to produce five millions of dollars ; say, 
 rather, a million of dollars annually for five con- 
 secutive years ; but in consequence of some impor- 
 tant and unexpected delinquencies on the part of 
 persons whose engagements have become due to 
 me, and must be paid from securities given, my 
 own engagements become due more rapidly than 
 my means (without having recourse to improper 
 operations) can be made to answer. If you will 
 now be induced to aid me with your name, respon- 
 sibility, and talents, in the liquidation of my con- 
 cerns and payment of my engagements, in such 
 wise that no undue sacrifice of property shall 
 result, and my name be borne through with the 
 credit and propriety it deserves, the one-third part 
 of the net residue of my whole estate, both real 
 and personal, after payment of my engagements, 
 shall become yours, provided you will consent that 
 the mass shall remain undivided for ten years, and 
 constitute the capital of a banking-house, to be 
 established either in this city or at Philadelphia, 
 in our joint names and under your sole guidance, 
 
192 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 and the profits divided between us in equal por- 
 tions. 
 
 I have reason to beheve that, with the aid of 
 your name and our joint responsibility, accom- 
 panied with the names of three other persons as 
 trustees for deposited property, it will, by a reputa- 
 ble mode of financing I shall communicate, be 
 practicable for me to obtain the use of a million of 
 dollars at legal interest for the average term of five 
 years, and with this sum I should calculate on being 
 able to pay off all my engagements with due credit 
 and advantage, as considerable amounts are due at 
 distant periods, and may be purchased in at a con- 
 siderable discount. 
 
 If these outlines so far meet your approbation as 
 to induce you to wish my entering into a particular 
 detail, it shall be done at such time as will best suit 
 your leisure and convenience. 
 
 To GREENLEAF 
 
 New- York, July 30th, 1796. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I have carefully reflected upon the 
 subject of the 27th instant. 
 
 Though the data ' which it presents authorize 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 193 
 
 an expectation of large pecuniary advantage, and 
 though I discern nothing in the affair which an 
 individual differently circumstanced might not with 
 propriety enter into ; yet, in my peculiar situation, 
 viewed in all its public as well as personal relations, 
 I think myself bound to decline the overture. 
 
 To OLIVER WOLCOTT 
 
 August 3rd, 1796. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I have received your letter of the 
 first. I deplore the picture it gives, and henceforth 
 wish to forget there is a Bank or a Treasury in the 
 United States, though I shall not forget my regard 
 to individuals. 
 
 I do not see one argument in any possible shape 
 of the thing, for the sale of bank stock or against 
 that of the other stock, which does not apply vice 
 versa, and I shall consider it one of the most infatu- 
 ated steps that ever was adopted. 
 
 God bless you, 
 
 A. Hamilton. 
 
194 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 To THEODORE SEDGWICK 
 
 February 26th, 1797. 
 
 My dear Sir, — The present inimitable course of 
 our public affairs proves me to be a very bad politi- 
 cian, so that I am afraid to suggest any affair that 
 may occur to me. Yet I will give over my timidity 
 and communicate for your consideration a reverie 
 which has struck me. 
 
 It is a fact that the resentment of the French 
 government is very much levelled at the actual 
 President. A change of the person (however unde- 
 sirable in other respects) may give a change to the 
 passion, and may also furnish a bridge to retreat 
 over. This is a great advantage to a new Presi- 
 dent, and the most ought to be made of it. For it 
 is much to our interest to preserve peace, if we 
 can with honour, and if we cannot, it will be very 
 important to prove that no endeavour to do it has 
 been omitted. 
 
 Were I Mr. Adams, then, I beUeve I should 
 begin my Presidency by naming an extraordinary 
 commission to the French Republic, and I think 
 it would consist of three persons: Mr. Madison, 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTEK.S 195 
 
 Mr. Pinckney, and Mr. Cabot. I should pursue this 
 course for several reasons ; because I would have a 
 man as influential with the French as Mr. Madi- 
 son ; yet I would not trust him alone, lest his Galli- 
 cism should work amiss, — because I would not 
 wound Mr. Pinckney, so recently sent in the same 
 spirit ; thirdly, I think Cabot would mix very useful 
 ingredients in the cup. 
 
 The commission should be changed to make 
 explanations — to remonstrate, to ask indemnifica- 
 tion, and they should be empowered to make a new 
 treaty of commerce not inconsistent with our other 
 treaties, and perhaps to abrogate or remodify the 
 treaty of alliance. 
 
 That treaty can only be inconvenient to us in 
 the future. The guarantee of our sovereignty and 
 independence henceforth is nominal. The guar- 
 antee of the West India Islands of France, as we 
 advance in strength, will be more and more real. 
 In future, and in a truly defensive war, I think we 
 shall be bound to comply efficaciously with our 
 guarantee. Nor have I been able to see that it 
 means less than obligation to take part in such a 
 war with our whole force. I have no ideas of 
 treaties which are not executed. 
 
196 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 Hence, I want to get rid of that treaty by mutual 
 consent, or to liquidate its meaning to a treaty of 
 definite succor — in a clearly defensive war; so 
 many men, so many ships, so much money, and to 
 be furnished by one ally to the other. This of 
 course must be so managed as to exclude unequivo- 
 cally the present war in all its mutations. 
 
 Such objects are important enough for three. In 
 executive matters, I am as little fond as most people 
 of plurality ;. but I think it pedantry to admit no ex- 
 ceptions to any general rule, and I believe, under 
 the present circumstances of the case, a commission 
 would be advisable. I give my dream of it as it has 
 occurred : you will do with it what you please. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 A. H. 
 
 To HAMILTON 1 
 
 Albany, State of New- York, May the 2d, 1797. 
 
 My dear Sir, — Some days since I received with 
 great pleasure your letter of the loth of March. 
 The mark it affords of your kind attention, and the 
 
 ^ In " The Works of Alexander Hamilton " this letter has a blank 
 in place of the first name, as here given. But this correspondent can 
 be none other than Alexander Hamilton, third son of Alexander Hamil- 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 197 
 
 particular account it gives me of so many relations 
 in Scotland, are extremely gratifying to me. You 
 no doubt have understood that my father's affairs 
 at a very early day went to wreck ; so as to have 
 rendered his situation during the greatest part 
 of his life ineligible. This state of things occa- 
 sioned a separation between him and me, when I 
 was very young, and threw me upon the bounty 
 of my mother's relatives, some of whom were then 
 
 ton of Grange and Elizabeth, his wife, parents of James Hamilton. 
 The two oldest sons, John and Robert, dying without issue, this Alex- 
 ander succeeded to the estates. He had a number of children, among 
 them a son Alexander, who also corresponded with Hamilton. Robert 
 was doubtless another son, but dying undistinguished in the United 
 States, was lost sight of by the genealogist. 
 
 In a letter to Robert Troup, dated July 25, 1795, in which Hamilton 
 tells this close friend that he has made him executor of his will, and 
 enumerates his obligations, &c., he makes the following remarks, re- 
 'garding his father : — 
 
 " I hesitated whether I would not also secure a preference to the 
 drafts of my father, but these, as far as I am concerned, being a volun- 
 tary engagement, I doubted the justice of the measure, and I have done 
 nothing. I regret it lest they should return upon him and increase his 
 distress. Though, as I am informed, a man of respectable connections 
 in Scotland, he became, as a merchant, bankrupt at an early day in the 
 West Indies and is now in indigence. I have pressed him to come to 
 me, but his great age and infirmity have deterred him from the change 
 of climate." It was probably in the letter to which the one of May 2, 
 1797, was the answer, that Hamilton learned the first definite news of 
 his Scotch relatives. — Ed. 
 
198 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 wealthy, though by vicissitudes to which human 
 affairs are so liable, they have been since much 
 reduced and broken up. Myself at about sixteen 
 came to this country. Having always had a strong 
 propensity to literary pursuits, by a course of steady 
 and laborious exertion, I was able, by the age of 
 nineteen, to qualify myself for the degree of 
 Bachelor of Arts in the College of New- York, and 
 to lay the foundation for preparatory study for the 
 future profession of the law. 
 
 The American Revolution supervened. My prin- 
 ciples led me to take part in it; at nineteen I entered 
 into the American army as Captain of Artillery. 
 Shortly after I became, by invitation, aid-de-camp 
 to General Washington, in which station I served 
 till the commencement of that campaign which 
 ended with the siege of York in Virginia, and 
 the capture of Cornwallis's army. The campaign 
 I made at the head of a corps of light infantry, 
 with which I was present at the siege of York, 
 and engaged in some interesting operations. 
 
 At the period of the peace of Great Britain, 
 I found myself a member of Congress by appoint- 
 ment of the Legislature of this State. 
 
 After the peace, I settled in the city of New- 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 199 
 
 York, in the practice of the law ; and was in a very 
 lucrative course of practice, when the arrangement 
 of our public affairs, by the feebleness of the gen- 
 eral confederation, drew me again reluctantly into 
 public life. I became a member of the Convention 
 which framed the present Constitution of the 
 United States ; and having taken part in this meas- 
 ure, I conceived myself to be under an obligation 
 to lend my aid towards putting the machine in 
 some regular motion. Hence I did not hesitate to 
 accept the offer of President Washington to under- 
 take the office of Secretary of the Treasury, 
 
 In that office I met with many intrinsic diffi- 
 culties, and many artificial ones proceeding from 
 passions, not very worthy, common to human 
 nature, and which act with peculiar force in repub- 
 lics. The object, however, was effected of estab- 
 lishing public credit, and introducing order in the 
 finances. 
 
 Public office in this country has few attractions. 
 The pecuniary emolument is so inconsiderable, as 
 to amount to a sacrifice to any man who can em- 
 ploy his time to advantage in any liberal profession. 
 The opportunity of doing good, from the jealousy 
 of power and the spirit of faction, is too small in 
 
200 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 any station, to warrant a long continuance of pri- 
 vate sacrifices. The enterprises of party had so 
 far succeeded, as materially to weaken the necessary 
 influence and energy of the Executive authority, 
 and so far diminish the power of doing good in 
 that department, as greatly to take away the 
 motives which a virtuous man might have for 
 making sacrifices. The prospect was even bad 
 for gratifying in future the love of fame, if that 
 passion was to be the spring of action. 
 
 The union of these motives, with the reflections 
 of prudence in relation to a growing family, deter- 
 mined me as soon as my plans had attained a 
 certain maturity, to withdraw from office. This 
 I did by a resignation about two years since, when 
 I resumed the profession of the law in the city of 
 New- York under every advantage I could desire. 
 
 It is a pleasant reflection to me, that since the 
 commencement of my connection with General 
 Washington to the present time, I have possessed 
 a flattering share of his confidence and friendship. 
 
 Having given you a brief sketch of my political 
 career, I proceed to some further family details. 
 
 In the year 1 780 I married the second daughter 
 of General Schuyler, a gentleman of one of the 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 201 
 
 best families of this country, of large fortune, and 
 no less personal and political consequence. It is 
 impossible to be happier than I am in a wife ; and 
 I have five children, four sons and a daughter, 
 the eldest a son somewhat past fifteen, who all 
 promise me as well as their years permit, and yield 
 me much satisfaction. Though I have been too 
 much in public life to be wealthy, my situation is 
 extremely comfortable, and leaves me nothing to 
 wish but a continuance of health. With this 
 blessing, the profits of my profession and other 
 prospects authorize an expectation of such addi- 
 tion to resources as will render the eve of life 
 easy and agreeable, so far as may depend on this 
 consideration. 
 
 It is now several months since I have heard 
 from my father, who continued at the island of 
 St. Vincent. My anxiety at this silence would 
 be greater than it is, were it not for the consider- 
 able interruption and precariousness of intercourse 
 which is produced by the war. 
 
 I have strongly pressed the old gentleman to 
 come and reside with me, which would afford 
 him every enjoyment of which his advanced age 
 is capable; but he has declined it on the ground 
 
202 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 that the advice of his physicians leads him to 
 fear that the change of climate would be fatal to 
 him. The next thing for me is, in proportion 
 to my means, to endeavour to increase his com- 
 forts where he is. 
 
 It will give me the greatest pleasure to receive 
 your son Robert at my house in New- York, and 
 still more to be of use to him ; to which end, my 
 recommendation and interest will not be wanting, 
 and I hope not unavailing. It is my intention to 
 embrace the opening which your letter affords me 
 to extend my intercourse with my relations in your 
 country, which will be a new source of satisfaction 
 to me. 
 
 From WASHINGTON ^ 
 
 Mount Vernon, August 21st, 1797. 
 
 My dear Sir, — Not for any intrinsic value the 
 thing possesses, but as a token of my sincere re- 
 
 1 This letter was written as soon as the scandal of the Reynolds 
 pamphlet reached Mount Vernon. Washington knew that every line 
 he wrote was more than likely eventually to find its way into print : he 
 was far too canny to condole frankly with his favourite upon the mis- 
 fortune of being found out. Nevertheless his sympathy and affection 
 prompted consolement, and he administered it in his own fashion. — Ed. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 203 
 
 gard and friendship for you, and as a remembrance 
 of me, I pray you to accept a wine cooler for four 
 bottles, which Colonel Biddle is directed to for- 
 ward from Philadelphia, (where with other articles 
 it was left,) together with this letter to your 
 address. It is one of four which I imported in 
 the early part of my late administration of the 
 government ; two only of which were ever used. 
 I pray you to present my best wishes, in which 
 Mrs. Washington joins me, to Mrs. Hamilton and 
 the family; and that you would be persuaded, 
 that with every sentiment of the highest regard, 
 I remain your sincere friend. 
 
 And affectionate humble servant, 
 Geo. Washington. 
 
 To WASHINGTON 
 
 New- York, August 28th, 1797. 
 
 My dear Sir, — The receipt two days since of 
 the 2 1 St inst. gave me sincere pleasure. The 
 token of regard which it announces, is very 
 precious to me, and will always be remembered 
 as it ought to be. 
 
204 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 Mrs. Hamilton has lately added another boy to 
 our stock; she and the child are both well. She 
 desires to be affectionately remembered to Mrs. 
 Washington and yourself. 
 
 We have nothing new here more than our 
 papers contain; but we are anxiously looking 
 forward to a further development of the negotia- 
 tions in Europe, with an ardent desire for general 
 accommodation. It is at the same time agreeable 
 to observe, that the public mind is adopting, more 
 and more, sentiments truly American, and free 
 from foreign tincture. 
 
 I beg my best respects to Mrs. Washington, 
 and that you will always be assured of the most 
 respectful and affectionate attachments, &c. 
 
 To THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY 
 
 New- York, August 7th, 1798. 
 
 Dear Sir, — Capt. Robert Hamilton, a first 
 cousin of mine, is desirous of employment in this 
 country, in the line of his profession. He is regu- 
 larly bred to the sea, which he has followed since 
 he was fourteen years old, and has had the best op- 
 portunities of improvement — among others that of 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 20S 
 
 voyages to the East Indies. He has also com- 
 manded a ship and has acted as supercargo. I 
 venture to recommend him with confidence as well 
 qualified, and every way worthy, adding to skill in 
 his profession, the sentiments of a gentleman, good 
 morals, intelligence, and prudence. I interest my- 
 self very much in his success, and shall esteem it 
 as a personal favour to myself whatever may be 
 done for his interest. 
 
 From PICKERING^ 
 
 August 22, 1798. 
 
 Dear Sir, — In writing freely as I have done 
 yesterday and to-day in the enclosed letter to you, 
 disclosing what is contemplated respecting your 
 military station,^ far from being apprehensive of 
 justly incurring blame, I consider myself as perform- 
 ing a hazardous duty ; but I am not conscious that 
 the risk of incurring the displeasure of any man 
 ever deterred me from doing what I conceived to be 
 my duty. My anxiety to see you fixed second in 
 command has arisen from the opinion which for 
 
 1 Secretary of State. 
 
 2 Second in command in the threatened war with France. 
 
2o6 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 twenty years I have entertained of your superior 
 genius and talents combined with integrity. The 
 integrity of your competitors, I trust, is also unim- 
 peachable. General Pinckney's character I believe 
 to be eminently pure, and were their other qualifica- 
 tions equal, my solicitude would cease. Nay, there 
 would be an evident propriety in their preceding you. 
 My proceeding has not proceeded from any claims 
 you have on my friendship ; for though we were 
 never, to my knowledge, for one moment at enmity, 
 our acquaintance was never so intimate as in the 
 proper strict sense of the word to make us friends. 
 My respect, esteem, and attachment have been 
 founded on the qualities of your head and heart, 
 as above suggested ; and all the return I expected 
 was, the regard due simply to an honest man. 
 Viewing me as entitled to this character, you will 
 not, nor would any one who knew as well as you my 
 frank downright disposition, ascribe to flattery the 
 sentiments I have expressed of you in our corre- 
 spondence. It was impossible to reason the subject 
 without expressing them. Thus much I have 
 thought proper to add in justification, and as an 
 apology for the enclosed, and for any similar senti- 
 ments in former letters. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 207 
 
 From PICKERING 
 (private and confidential) 
 
 Trenton, August 23rd, 1798. 
 
 Dear Sir, — Mr. M'Henry-' has just handed to 
 Mr. Wolcott^ and me his letter to the President^ 
 on the subject of calling you and General Knox * 
 into immediate service, together vdth General Knox's 
 letter to him in answer to the one enclosing his 
 commission. General Knox's letter claiming the 
 first rank, I see has been transmitted to you ; and I 
 was glad to see you, in your answer to the Secretary 
 at War, tenacious of the station to which the 
 Commander-in-Chief, the President and Senate, 
 and the public voice have placed you. I did 
 not know till now, that General Washington had 
 so explicitly written you respecting your taking 
 rank of General Knox, whom he loved, although I 
 had formed the same conclusion from his silence 
 concerning him in his letter to me, which I now 
 enclose, and which Mr. Wolcott, only, of my col- 
 
 1 Secretary ofWar. 2 Secretary of the Treasury. ^ John Adams. 
 
 * Henry Knox, of the Revolution. One of Hamilton's biographers 
 has confounded this character with Hugh Knox, but so far as one may 
 judge by the evidence, they were not even related. 
 
2o8 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 leagues has seen. The original letter from General 
 Washington to you, M'Henry now informs me, 
 was by him shown to the President ; notwithstanding 
 which you have seen where you would have been 
 placed. M'Henry said also, that General Washing- 
 ton made your appointment to be the sine qua non 
 of his accepting the chief command. The weight 
 of these facts seems to have escaped the President's 
 recollection, or he would not desire that General 
 Knox should take rank of you. It is plain that 
 General Knox has conversed with him, referred to 
 the rule of the former war to determine the relative 
 rank of officers of the same grade, appointed on the 
 same day, and the President has thence concluded 
 that Knox is " legally " entitled to the precedency. 
 But, as I yesterday informed you, the change pro- 
 posed to gratify General Knox and the President, 
 is by the latter put on General Washington's 
 "opinion and consent," and such consent, surely, 
 can never be given after the General's letter to you, 
 in which, as M'Henry says, he explicitly told 
 you, that he passed by Knox whom he loved, to give 
 you the priority of rank. Upon the principle men- 
 tioned by General Knox, Hand must clearly precede 
 you, as well as Knox and Pinckney. Lee, I presume, 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 209 
 
 must follow you, as he was only a captain of horse, 
 when you, as aid to the Commander-in-Chief, had 
 the rank of lieutenant colonel. I see in your letter 
 to M'Henry, you refer to the public voice in your 
 favour — and justly, as I yesterday mentioned. Yet 
 the President imagines that "theyfz^^ New England 
 States " would be offended at your preceding Knox. 
 He is most egregiously mistaken; it was among New 
 England members of Congress that I heard you, 
 and you only, mentioned as the Commander-in- 
 Chief, until General Washington was nominated; 
 and I dare to say, that if among the New England 
 delegates a vote were taken, nine in ten, if not the 
 whole, would place you before Knox. 
 
 To WASHINGTON 
 
 New- York, September 30th, 1798. 
 
 My dear Sir, — Your obliging favour of the 
 24th instant has duly come to hand. I see in it 
 a new proof of sentiments towards me which are 
 truly gratifying. But permit me to add my request 
 to the suggestions of your own prudence, that no 
 personal considerations for me may induce more on 
 your part than on mature reflection you may think 
 
2IO A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 due to public motives. It is extremely foreign to 
 my wish to create to you the least embarrassment, 
 especially in times like the present, when it is more 
 than ever necessary that the interests of the whole 
 should be paramountly consulted. 
 
 To KINQi 
 
 New York, October 2, 1798. 
 
 My dear Sir, — Mr. R. delivered me your letter 
 of the 31st of July. The opinion in that and other 
 of your letters concerning a very important point, 
 has been acted upon by me from the very moment 
 that it became unequivocal that we must have a 
 decisive rupture with France. In some things my 
 efforts succeeded, in others they were disappointed : 
 — in others I have had promises of conformity to 
 lay the foundation of future proceeding ; the per- 
 formance and effect of which promises are not 
 certainly known to me. 
 
 The public mind in this country continues to 
 progress in the right direction. That must influ- 
 ence favourably the present Congress at the ensu- 
 ing session. The next will be in all appearance 
 intrinsically better. 
 
 ' Rufiis King, minister to England. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 211 
 
 Of the executive I need say little ; you know its 
 excellent dispositions, its general character, and the 
 composition of its parts. You know also how 
 widely different the business of government is 
 from the speculation of it, and the energy of the 
 imagination dealing in general propositions from 
 that of execution in detail. 
 
 There are causes from which delay and feeble- 
 ness are experienced. But diflficulty will be sur- 
 mounted, and I anticipate with you that this 
 country will ere long assume an attitude corre- 
 spondent with its great destinies — majestic, efficient, 
 and operative of great things. A noble career lies 
 before it. 
 
 Why does not Gouverneur Morris come home? 
 His talents are wanted. Men Uke him do not 
 superabound. Indeed I wish that you were here 
 rather than where you are, though I think your 
 position an important one at the present juncture. 
 But we want to infuse more abilities into the 
 management of our national affairs. 
 
 Governor Jay is well. He and all your friends 
 continue to take a lively interest in all that con- 
 cerns you. 
 
 Adieu. Yours affectionately. 
 
212 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 From A. HAMILTON 
 
 Edinburgh, 29th Oct. 1798. 
 
 My dear Cousin, — I received a few days ago a 
 letter from my brother Robert, overflowing with the 
 warmest sensibiUty of the many important obUga- 
 tions for which he is indebted to both you and 
 Mrs. Hamilton. Since you take a pleasure in 
 conferring happiness, it will no doubt afford you 
 satisfaction to learn the joy which your friendly 
 reception, and endeavour to effect my brother's 
 appointment into the American Navy, has com- 
 municated to his family in this country. The 
 result of your application for the first-lieutenancy 
 of one of the new frigates was still uncertain when 
 he wrote; but without anticipating the event, I 
 may truly assure you that the endeavour has im- 
 pressed the most indelible gratitude on our minds, 
 and that we view with sensations of no common 
 kind the excellent portrait which ornaments our 
 chimney-piece. By the way, father has been in- 
 formed by an American gentleman who visited 
 Edinburgh lately, that it is a striking though not 
 a flattering likeness of the original. In addition 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 213 
 
 to the pleasure I received from a fair prospect of 
 a permanent provision for my brother, I was not 
 a little pleased that it removed him from the 
 mercantile line into one for which he is much better 
 qualified. A perfect knowledge of seamanship, 
 and the routine of the naval duty, he has acquired 
 both from long and various experience, and from 
 the natural bent of his disposition, which early 
 pointed to the sea. To amass a fortune by traffic 
 requires talents of a different kind. Without affect- 
 ing to undervalue these talents, it may be granted 
 that eminent success in the mercantile line fre- 
 quently depends on artful schemes and devices, 
 which certainly confer no claim to respect, how- 
 ever necessary to success ; and with these poor 
 Robert can boast but little acquaintance. In the 
 navy I consider him as in his element. Courage, 
 attention, and naval skill constitute the excellence 
 of a sea officer; and of these qualities (unless my 
 partiality deceive me) he is eminently possessed. 
 With these impressions, you will conceive of what 
 importance his admission into the American navy 
 as first lieutenant appears to me. To a mind like 
 yours the pleasure of doing good is, I am sensible, 
 a sufficient impulse; yet as my brother resides 
 
214 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 under your roof, I am willing to hope that the 
 unaffected simplicity, candour, and urbanity of his 
 manner will in time produce a still more cogent 
 motive in personal friendship. I hope you will for- 
 give my talking in this manner of my own brother, 
 yet I must add (even at the risk of having Mr. 
 Shandy's oddities imputed to myself) that except- 
 ing in the want of professional pedantry, Sterne's 
 character of Uncle Toby seems to me more appli- 
 cable to my brother than to any I have ever been 
 acquainted with. 
 
 In reply to your account of my acquaintance, 
 Mr. Thomas Law, I am almost tempted to exclaim 
 in the words of a statesman, to whom a manu- 
 script plan of the famous projector Law had been 
 submitted for his consideration. Oh la ! Oh la ! 
 I am seriously concerned, however, to learn the 
 embarrassed state of his affairs ; though what could 
 induce a man of his fortune to embark in such 
 extensive speculations is not easily imagined. 
 Your letter affords us some hope, though but a 
 distant one, of seeing some of our young cousins 
 in this country ; wherever they are they will 
 be followed by our kindest wishes for their pros- 
 perity. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 215 
 
 I do not pretend to transmit you information 
 on political subjects, yet they occupy at present 
 so considerable a portion of the thoughts and 
 conversation of the world, that they are not easily 
 avoided. I anticipate the pleasure of our late 
 glorious victories must have communicated to the 
 true friends of the present American Constitution. 
 The destruction nearly total of the Toulon and 
 Brest squadron, the former destined for Egypt, 
 and the latter for Ireland, must have given the 
 death-wound to the French navy. The rebellion, 
 too, which lately appeared so formidable in Ire- 
 land, utterly extinguished, and only revived occa- 
 sionally in predatory attacks on the lives and 
 properties of individuals, will enable the ministry 
 to open the parliament with unusual eclat. The 
 party of opposition has lately fallen into con- 
 siderable discredit from their conduct at the trial 
 of O'Connor, for whose principles they vouched 
 in the most unqualified manner. Yet, notwith- 
 standing these high attestations, O'Connor proves 
 to be a traitor, actually conspiring to introduce 
 a foreign enemy into his native country, at the 
 very time in which our patriots were so loud in 
 his praises. If it be admitted that they were 
 
2i6 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 unacquainted with O'Connor's insidious designs, 
 the vehemence of the protestations must show 
 how open they are to deception, and argues Ht- 
 tle in favour of their understandings. Whether 
 Buonaparte has reached his ultimate destination, 
 or intends to prosecute his expedition to India, 
 must soon appear ; as the change of monsoon, 
 which happens in the month of September, will 
 prevent his traversing the Indian Ocean — unless 
 he has previously effected his passage. There 
 are no authentic accounts of his having left Cairo. 
 I beg to offer my best compliments to Mrs. Hamil- 
 ton, and that you will ever believe me, my dear 
 
 cousin, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 A. Hamilton. 
 
 From PICKERING 
 
 Philadelphia, February 20, 1799. 
 
 Dear Sir, — Since I wrote you on the gth, 
 Dr. Stevens has been appointed Consul-General of 
 St. Domingo, and will probably embark before the 
 close of next week. If you have written fur- 
 ther to me in answer to my letter of the gth, the 
 letter has miscarried, for I have received nothing. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 217 
 
 I must frame Dr. Stevens's instructions in a few 
 days, and wish to inform him with ideas on the 
 point I stated. This cannot be done officially, 
 but he will know how to use it. 
 
 To GENERAL PINCKNEY 
 
 Philadelphia, Dec, 1799. 
 
 Sir, — The death of our beloved Commander- 
 in-Chief was known to you before it was to me. 
 I can be at no loss to anticipate what must have 
 been your feelings. I need not tell you what 
 have been mine. Perhaps no friend of his has 
 more cause to lament on personal account than 
 myself. The public misfortune is one which all 
 the friends of our government will view in the 
 same light. I will not dwell on the subject. My 
 imagination is gloomy — my heart is sad. 
 
 Inclosed is an order relative to the occasion 
 which speaks its own object. 
 
 With the sincerest esteem and most 
 
 Affectionate regard, I remain, sir, 
 Your very obedient servant. 
 
2i8 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 To MRS. WASHINGTON 
 
 January 12, 1800. 
 
 I did not think it proper, madam, to intrude 
 amidst the first efEusions of your grief; but I can 
 no longer restrain my sensibility from conveying 
 to you an imperfect impression of my affectionate 
 sympathy in the sorrows you experience. No one 
 better than myself knows the greatness of your 
 loss ; or how much your excellent heart is formed 
 to feel it in all its extent. Satisfied that you 
 cannot receive consolation, I will attempt to 
 offer none. Resignation to the will of heaven, 
 which the practice of your life insures, can alone 
 alleviate the sufferings of so heartrending an 
 affliction. 
 
 There can be few who equally with me partici- 
 pate in the loss you deplore. In expressing this 
 sentiment, I may, without impropriety, allude to the 
 numerous and distinguished marks of confidence 
 and friendship of which you have yourself been a 
 witness, but I cannot say in how many ways the 
 continuance of that confidence and friendship was 
 necessary to me in future relations. Vain, however. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 219 
 
 are regrets. From a calamity which is common to 
 a mourning nation, who can expect to be exempt ? 
 Perhaps it is even a privilege to have a claim to a 
 larger portion of it than others. 
 
 I will only add, madam, that I shall esteem it a 
 real and a great happiness if any future occurrence 
 shall enable me to give you proof of that respectful 
 and cordial attachment with which 
 
 I have the honour to be, 
 Your obliged and very obedient servant, 
 
 A. H. 
 
 To BAYARD 1 
 
 New- York, January 16, 1800. 
 
 I was glad to find, my dear sir, by your letter, 
 that you had not yet determined to go, with the 
 consent of the federal party, in support of Mr. Burr; 
 and that you were resolved to hold yourself dis- 
 engaged, till the moment of final decision. Your 
 resolution to separate yourself in this instance from 
 the federal party, if your conviction shall be strong 
 of the unfitness of Mr. Burr, is certainly laudable. 
 So much does it coincide with my ideas, that if the 
 
 1 James Asheton Bayard, M.C., of Delaware. 
 
220 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 party shall, by supporting Mr. Burr as President, 
 adopt him for their official chief, I shall be obliged 
 to consider myself as an isolated man. It will be 
 impossible for me to reconcile with my motives of 
 honour or policy, the continuing to be of a party 
 which, according to my apprehension, will have 
 degraded itself and the country. 
 
 I am sure, nevertheless, that the motives of many 
 will be good, and I shall never cease to esteem the 
 individuals, though I shall deplore a step which I 
 fear experience will show to be a very fatal one. 
 Among the letters which I receive, assigning the 
 reasons pro and con, for preferring Burr to J., I 
 observe no small exaggeration to the prejudice of 
 the latter, and some things taken for granted as to 
 the former, which are at least questionable. Per- 
 haps, myself the first, at some expense of popularity, 
 to unfold the true character of Jefferson, it is too 
 late for me to become his apologist. Nor can I 
 have any disposition to do it. 
 
 I admit that his politics are tinctured with fanati- 
 cism ; that he is too much in earnest in his democ- 
 racy ; that he has been a mischievous enemy to the 
 principal measures of our past administration ; that 
 he is crafty and persevering in his objects ; that he 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 221 
 
 is not scrupulous about the means of success, nor 
 very mindful of truth, and that he is a contemptible 
 hypocrite. But, it is not true, as is alleged, that he 
 is an enemy to the power of the Executive, or that 
 he is for confounding all the powers in the House 
 of Representatives. It is a fact, which I have fre- 
 quently mentioned, that, while we were in the ad- 
 ministration together, he was generally for a large 
 construction of the Executive authority, and not 
 backward to act upon it when it coincided with his 
 views. Let it be added, that in his theoretic ideas, 
 he has considered as improper the participations of 
 the Senate in the Executive authority. I have more 
 than once made the reflection, that, viewing himself 
 as the reversioner, he was solicitous to come into 
 the possession of a good estate. Nor is it true, that 
 Jefferson is zealot enough to do anything in pur- 
 suance of his principles which will contravene his 
 popularity or his interest. He is as likely as any 
 man I know, to temporize ; to calculate what will 
 be likely to promote his own reputation and advan- 
 tage, and the probable result of such a temper is 
 the preservation of systems, though originally op- 
 posed, which being once established, could not be 
 overturned without danger to the person who did 
 
222 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 it. To my mind, a true estimate of Mr. Jefferson's 
 character warrants the expectation of a temporizing, 
 rather than a violent system. That Jefferson has 
 manifested a culpable predilection for France, is 
 certainly true ; but I think it a question whether it 
 did not proceed quite as much from her popularity 
 among us as from sentiment ; and in proportion as 
 that popularity is diminished, his zeal will cool. 
 Add to this, that there is no fair reason to suppose 
 him capable of being corrupted, which is a security 
 that he will not go beyond certain limits. It is 
 not at all improbable, that in the change of cir- 
 cumstances, Jefferson's Gallicism has considerably 
 abated. 
 
 As to Burr, these things are admitted, and 
 indeed cannot be denied, that he is man of ex- 
 treme and irregular ambition ; that he is selfish 
 to a degree which excludes all social affections; 
 and that he is decidedly profligate. But it is 
 said, ist, that he is artful and dexterous to ac- 
 complish his ends ; 2d, that he holds no pernicious 
 theories, but is a mere matter of fact man ; 
 3d, that his very selfishness^ is a guard against mis- 
 chievous foreign predilections; 4th, that his local 
 ^ It is always dangerous to look at the vices of men for good. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 223 
 
 situation has enabled him to appreciate the utility 
 of our commercial and fiscal systems, and the 
 same quality of selfishness will lead him to sup- 
 port and invigorate them ; 5th, that he is now dis- 
 liked by the Jacobins ; that his elevation will be a 
 mortal stab to them, breed an invincible hatred to 
 him, and compel him to lean on the federalists ; 
 6th, that Burr's ambition will be checked by his good 
 sense, by the manifest impossibility of succeeding 
 in any scheme of usurpation, and that, if attempted, 
 there is nothing to fear from the attempt. These 
 topics are in my judgment more plausible than 
 solid. As to the first point the fact must be 
 admitted; but those qualities are objections rather 
 than recommendations, when they are under the 
 direction of bad principles. As to the second 
 point, too much is taken for granted. If Burr's 
 conversation is to be credited, he is not very far 
 from being a visionary. He has quoted to me Con- 
 necticut as an example of the success of the demo- 
 cratic theory, and as authority, seriously doubts 
 whether it was not a good one. It is ascertained, 
 in some instances, that he has talked perfect God- 
 winism. I have myself heard him speak with 
 applause of the French system, as unshackling the 
 
224 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 mind, and leaving it to its natural energies; and 
 I have been present when he has contended against 
 banking systems^ with earnestness, and with the 
 same arguments that Jefferson would use. 
 
 The truth is, that Burr is a man of a very 
 subtile imagination, and a mind of this make is 
 rarely free from ingenious whimsies. Yet I admit 
 that he has no fixed theory, and that his peculiar 
 notions will easily give way to his interest. But 
 is it a recommendation to have no theory? Can 
 that man be a systematic or able statesman who 
 has none ? I believe not. No general principles 
 will hardly work better than erroneous ones. 
 
 As to the third point, it is certain that Burr, 
 generally speaking, has been as warm a partisan 
 of France as Jefferson ; that he has, in some in- 
 stances, shown himself to be so with passion. 
 But if it was from calculation, who will say that 
 his calculations will not continue him so.? His 
 selfishness,^ so far from being an obstacle, may be 
 a prompter. If corrupt, as well as selfish, he may 
 
 ^ Yet he has lately by a trick established a bank — a monster in its 
 principles, but a very convenient instrument of profit and influence. 
 
 ^ Unprincipled selfishness is more apt to seek rapid gain in disorderly 
 practices than slow advantages from orderly systems. 
 
 [The footnotes to this letter are Hamilton's. — Ed.] 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 225 
 
 be a partisan for gain. If ambitious, as well as 
 selfish, he may be a partisan for the sake of aid 
 to his views. No man has trafificked more than 
 he in the floating passions of the multitude. 
 Hatred to Great Britain and attachment to France 
 in the public mind, will naturally lead a man of 
 his selfishness, attached to place and power, to 
 favour France and oppose Great Britain. The 
 Gallicism of many of our patriots is to be thus 
 resolved, and in my opinion, it is morally certain 
 that Burr will continue to be influenced by this 
 calculation. 
 
 As to the fourth point, the instance I have 
 cited with respect to banks, proves that the argu- 
 ment is not to be relied upon. If there was much 
 in it, why does Chancellor Livingston maintain 
 that we ought not to cultivate navigation, but 
 ought to let foreigners be our carriers.? France 
 is of this opinion too; and Burr, for some reason 
 or other, will be very apt to be of the opinion of 
 France. 
 
 As to the fifth point, nothing can be more 
 fallacious. It is demonstrated by recent facts ^ 
 that Burr is solicitous to keep upon anti-federal 
 
 1 He trusts to their prejudices and hopes for support. 
 
226 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 ground to avoid compromitting himself by any 
 engagements with the federaUsts. With or with- 
 out such engagements he will easily persuade his 
 former friends, that he does not stand on that 
 ground ; and after their first resentment they will 
 be glad to rally under him. In the meantime 
 he will take care not to disoblige them; and he 
 will always court those among them who are best 
 fitted for tools. He will never choose to lean on 
 good men, because he knows that they will never 
 support his bad projects, but instead of this he 
 will endeavour to disorganize both parties, and to 
 form out of them a third, composed of men fitted 
 by their characters to be conspirators and instru- 
 ments of such projects. 
 
 That this will be his future conduct may be 
 inferred by his past plan, and from the admitted 
 quality of irregular ambition. Let it be remem- 
 bered that Mr. Burr has never appeared solicitous 
 for fame, and that great ambition, unchecked by 
 principle, or the love of glory, is an unruly tyrant, 
 which never can keep long in a course which 
 good men will approve. As to the last point, the 
 proposition is against the experience of all times. 
 Ambition without principle never was long under 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 227 
 
 the guidance of good sense. Besides that, the 
 force of Mr. Burr's understanding is much over- 
 rated. He is far more cunning than wise, far 
 more dexterous than able. 
 
 (Very confidential) — In my opinion he is in- 
 ferior in real ability to Jefferson. There are also 
 facts against the supposition. It is past all doubt, 
 that he has blamed me for not having improved 
 the situation I once was in to charge the govern- 
 ment. That when answered that this could not 
 have been done without guilt, he replied, " Les 
 grands ames se soucient peu des petits moraux ; " 
 and when told the thing was never practicable, 
 from the genius and situation of the country, he 
 answered, " That depends on the estimate we 
 form of the human passions, and of the means of 
 influencing them." Does this prove that Mr. 
 Burr would consider a scheme of usurpation 
 visionary ? 
 
 The truth is, with great apparent coldness he 
 is the most sanguine man in the world. He 
 thinks everything possible to adventure and per- 
 severance; and though I believe he will fail, I 
 think it almost certain he will attempt usurpation, 
 and the attempt will involve great mischief. But 
 
228 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 there is one point of view which seems to me 
 decisive. If the anti-federaUsts, who prevailed in 
 the election, are left to take their own man, they 
 remain responsible, and the federalists remain 
 free^ united, and without stain, in a situation to 
 resist, with effect, pernicious measures. If the 
 federalists substitute Burr, they adopt him and 
 become answerable for him. Whatever may be 
 the theory of the case abroad and at home, (for 
 so from the beginning will be taught,) Mr. Burr 
 must become in fact the man of our party ; and 
 if he acts ill we must share in the blariie and dis- 
 grace. By adopting him, we do all we can to 
 reconcile the minds of the federalists to him, and 
 we prepare them for the effectual operation of 
 his arts. He will, doubtless, gain many of them; 
 and the federalists will become a disorganized and 
 contemptible party. Can there be any serious 
 question between the policy of leaving the anti- 
 federalists to be answerable for the elevation of an 
 objectionable man, and that of adopting, ourselves, 
 and becoming answerable for, a man, who on all 
 hands is acknowledged to be a complete Catiline ? 
 'Tis enough to state the question to indicate the an- 
 swer, if reason, not passion, presides in the decision. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 229 
 
 You may communicate this and my former 
 letter to discreet and confidential friends. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 A. H. 
 
 To MRS. HAMILTON 
 
 Portsmouth, June 21, 1800. 
 Saturday. 
 
 I am here, my beloved, and to-morrow shall 
 
 leave it for Boston, where I had hoped to arrive 
 
 on Monday evening. The next morning I intend 
 
 to proceed for Providence and New Port where 
 
 I shall take passage for New- York by water. If 
 
 I am fortunate in the passage I may hope to 
 
 embrace you in Eight days from this time. 
 
 Most tenderly yours, 
 
 A. H. 
 
 From GOUVERNEUR MORRIS 
 
 Washington, January 5th, i8oi. 
 
 My dear Sir, — I have received your favours of 
 the 24th and 25th of last month. I am much 
 obliged for both. 
 
 The convention with France will be ratified 
 sub modo. Such, at least, is my opinion. I wish 
 
230 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 first to strike out the 2d and 3d article; secondly 
 to fix a limitation of time. The 2d article, by 
 suspending the operation, admits the existence of 
 former treaties. The restitution of our trophies 
 stipulated by the third, may damp the spirit of 
 our country. That nation, which will permit profit 
 or convenience to stand in competition with hon- 
 our, is on the steep descent to ruin. If, with the 
 exception of those articles, and a limitation of time, 
 the convention be mutually ratified, I shall think 
 it no bad bargain. Will the French consul ratify 
 it when so curtailed and limited ? Perhaps, if his 
 affairs are prosperous, he will not. Some gentle- 
 men propose adding a clause, to declare that it 
 shall not prejudice former treaties. This appears 
 dangerous, because, if afterwards ratified without 
 that clause, such ratification may be construed as 
 an assent to the conclusion, which the declaration 
 was intended to obviate. 
 
 On the election between Mr. Jefferson and Mr. 
 Burr, there is much speculation. Some, indeed 
 most, of our Eastern friends are warm in support 
 of the latter, and their pride is so much up about 
 the charge of influence that it is dangerous to 
 quote an opinion, I trust they will change or be 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 231 
 
 disappointed, for they appear to be moved by pas- 
 sion only. I have, more at the request of others 
 than from my own mere motion, suggested certain 
 considerations not quite unworthy of attention; 
 but it is dangerous to be impartial in politics. 
 You, who are temperate in drinking, have never, 
 perhaps, noticed the awkward situation of a man 
 who continues sober after the company are drunk. 
 Adieu, my dear Hamilton. God bless you and 
 send you many happy years. 
 
 To LAFAYETTE 
 
 New-York, January 6th, 1801. 
 
 I have been made happy, my dear friend, by 
 the receipt of your letter of the 12th August 
 last. No explanation of your political principles 
 was necessary to satisfy me of the perfect consist- 
 ency and purity of your conduct. The interpre- 
 tation may always be left to my attachment to you. 
 Whatever difference of opinion may on any occa- 
 sion exist between us, can never lessen my con- 
 viction of the goodness both of your head and 
 heart. I expect from you a return of this senti- 
 ment as far as concerns the heart. It is needless 
 
232 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 to detail to you my political tenets. I shall only 
 say, that I hold, with Montesquieu, that a govern- 
 ment must be fitted to a nation as much as a 
 coat to an individual; and consequently, what 
 may be good at Philadelphia, may be bad at 
 Paris, and ridiculous at Petersburg. 
 
 I join with you in regretting the misunderstand- 
 ing between our two countries. You will have 
 seen by the President's speech, that a door is 
 again opened for terminating them amicably ; and 
 you may be assured that we are sincere, and that 
 it is in the power of France, by reparation to our 
 merchants for past injury, and the stipulation of 
 justice in future, to put an end to the controversy. 
 
 But I do not much like the idea of your being 
 in any way implicated in the affair, lest you should 
 be compromitted in the opinion of one or other of 
 the parties. 
 
 It is my opinion, that it is best for you to 
 stand aloof; neither have I abandoned the idea 
 that it is most advisable for you to remain in 
 Europe till the difference is adjusted. It would 
 be very difficult here for you to steer a course 
 which would not place you in a party, and remove 
 you from the broad ground which you now occupy 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 233 
 
 in the hearts of all. It is a favourite point with me, 
 that you shall find in the universal regard of this 
 country all the consolations which the loss of your 
 own (for so I consider it) may render requisite. 
 Believe me always, 
 Your very cordial and faithful friend, 
 
 A. H. 
 
 To KING 
 
 New- York, June 3, 1802. 
 
 My dear Sir, — I have long been very delin- 
 quent towards you as a correspondent, and am to 
 thank you that you have not cast me off altogether 
 as an irretrievable reprobate. But you know how 
 to appreciate the causes, and you have made a 
 construction equally just and indulgent. 
 
 In your last you ask my opinion about a mat- 
 ter delicate and important, both in a public and 
 in a personal view. I shall give it with the frank- 
 ness to which you have a right, and I may add 
 that the impressions of your other friends, so far as 
 they have fallen under my observation, do not dif- 
 fer from my own. While you were in the midst 
 of a negotiation interesting to your country, it 
 
234 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 was your duty to keep your post. You have now 
 accomplished the object, and with the good for- 
 tune, not very common, of having the universal 
 plaudit. This done, it seems to me most advis- 
 able that you return home. There is little prob- 
 ability that your continuance in your present 
 station will be productive of much positive good. 
 Nor are circumstances such as to give reason to 
 apprehend that the substitute for you, whoever he 
 may be, can do much harm. Your stay or return, 
 therefore, as it regards our transatlantic concerns, 
 is probably not material, while your presence at 
 home may be useful in ways which it is not nec- 
 essary to particularize. Besides, it is questionable 
 whether you can long continue in the service of 
 the present administration, consistently with what 
 is due as well to your own character as to the 
 common cause. I am far from thinking that a 
 man is bound to quit a public office, merely be- 
 cause the administration of the government may 
 have changed hands. But when those who have 
 come into power are undisguised persecutors of 
 the party to which he has been attached, and 
 study with ostentation to heap upon it every in- 
 dignity and injury — he ought not, in my opinion. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 235 
 
 to permit himself to be made an exception, or to 
 lend his talents to the support of such characters. 
 If, in addition to this, it be true that the principles 
 and plans of the men at the head of affairs tend 
 to the degradation of the government, and to 
 their own disgrace, it will hardly be possible to 
 be in any way connected with them without 
 sharing in the disrepute which they may be des- 
 tined to experience. 
 
 I wish I had time to give you a comprehensive 
 and particular map of our political situation ; but 
 more than a rude outline is beyond my leisure. 
 
 You have seen the course of the administration^ 
 hitherto, especially during the last session of Con- 
 gress ; and I am persuaded you will agree with me 
 in opinion, that it could hardly have been more 
 diligent in mischief. What, you will ask, has 
 been and is likely to be the effect on the public 
 mind? 
 
 Our friends are sanguine that a great change for 
 the better has been wrought and is progressive. I 
 suppose good has been done — that the federalists 
 have been reunited and cemented ; have been 
 awakened, alarmed. Perhaps, too, there may be 
 
 1 JefTerson's. — Ed. 
 
236 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 some sensible and moderate men of the opposite 
 party who are beginning to doubt. But las yet 
 discover no satisfactory symptoms of a revolution 
 of opinion in the mass — "informe ingens cui 
 lumen ademptum." Nor do I look with much 
 expectation to any serious alteration until incon- 
 veniences are extensively felt, or till time has pro- 
 duced a disposition to coquet it with new lovers. 
 Vibrations of power, you are aware, are of the 
 genius of our government. 
 
 There is, however, a circumstance which may accel- 
 erate the fall of the present party. There is certainly 
 a most serious schism between the chief and his heir- 
 apparent;^ a schism absolutely incurable, because 
 founded in the hearts of both, in the rivalship of an 
 insatiable ambition. The effects are already appar- 
 ent, and are ripening into a more bitter animosity 
 between the partisans of the two men, than ever 
 existed between the federalists and the anti- 
 federalists. 
 
 Unluckily we are not as neutral to this quarrel 
 as we ought to be. You saw, however, how far our 
 friends in Congress went in polluting themselves 
 with the support of the second personage for the 
 
 » Burr. — Ed. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 237 
 
 Presidency. The cabal did not terminate there. 
 Several men of no inconsiderable importance 
 among us, like the enterprising and adventurous 
 character of this man, and hope to soar with him to 
 power. Many more, through hatred to the chief, 
 and through an impatience to recover the reins, 
 are linking themselves to the new chief almost 
 without perceiving it, and professing to have no 
 other object than to make use of him; while he 
 knows that he is making use of them. What this 
 may end in, it is difficult to perceive. 
 
 Of one thing only I am sure, that in no event 
 will I be directly or indirectly implicated in a 
 responsibility for the elevation or support of either 
 of two men who, in different senses, are in my eyes 
 equally unworthy of the confidence of intelligent 
 or honest men. 
 
 Truly, my dear sir, the prospects of our country 
 are not brilliant. The mass is far from sound. At 
 head quarters a most visionary theory presides. 
 Depend upon it, this is the fact to a great extreme. 
 No army, no navy, no active commerce ; national 
 defence, not by arms, but by embargoes, prohibi- 
 tions of trade, &c. ; as little government as possible 
 within; these are the pernicious dreams, which, as 
 
238 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 far and as fast as possible, will be attempted to be 
 realized. Mr. Jefferson is distressed at the codfish 
 having latterly emigrated to the southern coast, lest 
 the people there should be tempted to catch them, 
 and commerce, of which we have already too much, 
 receive an accession. Be assured, this is no pleas- 
 antry, but a very sober anecdote. 
 
 Among federalists old terrors are not cured. 
 They also continue to dream, although not quite so 
 preposterously as their opponents. All will be very 
 well (say they) when the power once gets back into 
 federal hands. The people, convinced by experi- 
 ence of their error, will repose a permanent confi- 
 dence in good men. Risum teneatis ? Adieu. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 A. Hamilton. 
 
 To OLIVER WOLCOTT 
 
 Grange, August 14, 1802. 
 
 My dear Sir, — When you were last in town I 
 proposed to communicate to you the outline of a 
 project, by which I think you may enter upon a 
 career of business beneficial to yourself and your 
 friends. My almost constant attendance at court 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 239 
 
 ever since you were here, has retarded the com- 
 munication which I shall now make. 
 
 Let a commercial capital be found, to consist of 
 100,000 dollars, divided into shares of ^100 each. 
 A subscriber to pay in cash one-tenth of his sub- 
 scription, and for the residue 7 per centum per 
 annum. It will then be his interest to pay up as 
 soon as he can. 
 
 The subscribers to form a partnership, under the 
 firm of Oliver Wolcott and Co. ; Oliver Wolcott 
 alone to have the signature of the firm, and the active 
 management of the affairs of the company, with an 
 allowance of $1500 per annum out of the profits for 
 the trouble of management, besides his share of 
 profits as a partner. 
 
 Oliver Wolcott and two others of the partners to 
 form a board of direction, to plan, &c. 
 
 Clerks and all incidental expenses to be paid out 
 of the fund. 
 
 The objects of the company : 
 
 1. Agencies for purchase of lands, stocks, &c. 
 
 2. Factorage of cargoes, consigned on commis- 
 sion; purchases of goods on commission &c. ; 
 in brief, "the business of a commission mer- 
 chant merely." 
 
240 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 3. Purchases at auction, and sales of the articles 
 purchased. 
 
 4. Loans of money on deposit of goods, with 
 a right, if not redeemed in time, to sell on 
 commission, perhaps. 
 
 Speculation in navigation and commerce to be 
 excluded. 
 
 In a company thus formed under your manage- 
 ment, I should be willing to become a partner 
 for from five to ten thousand dollars, and I have no 
 doubt that the capital will be readily formed of 
 confidential and trustworthy characters, who would 
 insure great credit to the house. I am also confi- 
 dent, that when it should be known in Europe 
 that certain characters were of the company, it 
 would attract a good portion of profitable employ- 
 ment. 
 
 I will enter into no farther detail. If the project 
 impresses you favourably, come to New York, and 
 we will give it form and finish, and prepare for the 
 execution. Do not lightly reject it. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 241 
 
 To MORRIS 
 
 Grange, September 4th, 1802. 
 
 My dear Sir, — I fully intended to have dined 
 with you to-day, but, going to town the last two 
 days, and forgetting that I ought to observe a 
 regimen, I have brought back, in some degree, the 
 complaint which lately annoyed me, and which 
 requires to be well watched. This must deprive 
 me of the pleasure of seeing you. 
 
 I send schedules of the papers required of Tillier, 
 all which have been put into my hands; the bills 
 to remain till the close of the affair; the other 
 documents to be delivered to your order. 
 
 I also send a draught of the trust deed. It en- 
 deavours to comply with your suggestion, as far 
 as can be done without running foul of the danger 
 desired to be avoided. 
 
 Your guests are invited to dine with us Thurs- 
 day next. Will you make one ? 
 
242 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 To GENERAL C. C. PINCKNEY 
 
 Grange (New-York), December 29, 1802. 
 
 My dear Sir, — A garden, you know, is a very 
 usual refuge of a disappointed politician. Accord- 
 ingly I have purchased a few acres about nine 
 miles from town, have built a house, and am cul- 
 tivating a garden. The melons in your country 
 are very fine. Will you have the goodness to 
 send me some seed, both of the water and musk 
 melons t My daughter adds another request, which 
 is for three or four of your paroquets. She is very 
 fond of birds. If there be anything in this quarter, 
 the sending of which can give you pleasure, you 
 have only to name them. As farmers, a new 
 source of sympathy has arisen between us, and 
 I am pleased with everything in which our likings 
 and tastes can be approximated. Amidst the 
 triumphant reign of democracy, do you retain 
 sufficient interest in public affairs to feel any curi- 
 osity about what is going on ? In my opinion, the 
 follies and vices of the administration have as yet 
 made no material impression to their disadvantage. 
 On the contrary, I think the malady is rather 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 243 
 
 progressive than on the decline, in our northern 
 quarter. The last lullaby message, instead of 
 inspiring contempt, attracts praise. Mankind are 
 for ever destined to be the dupes of bold or 
 cunning imposture. But a difficult knot has been 
 twisted by the incidents of the cession of Louisiana, 
 and the interruption of the deposit of New Orleans. 
 You have seen the soft turn given to this in the 
 message. Yet we are told that the President, in 
 conversation, is very stout. The great embarrass- 
 ment must be how to carry on the war without 
 taxes. The pretty scheme of substituting economy 
 to taxation will not do here. And a war would 
 be a terrible comment upon the abandonment 
 of the internal revenue. Yet how is popularity 
 to be preserved with the western partisans, if their 
 interests are tamely sacrificed? Will the artifice 
 be for the chief to hold a bold language, and the 
 subalterns to act a feeble part? Time must ex- 
 plain. You know my general theory as to our 
 western affairs. I have always held that the unity 
 of our empire, and the best interests of our 
 nation, require that we shall annex to the United 
 States all the territory east of the Mississippi, 
 New Orleans included. Of course I infer that. 
 
244 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 on an emergency like the present, energy is wis- 
 dom. 
 
 Mrs, Hamilton joins me in affectionate compli- 
 ments to Mrs. Pinckney. 
 
 From LAFAYETTE 
 
 Paris, Germinal the loth, nth year. 
 
 My dear Hamilton, — I would like by this oppor- 
 tunity to write you a long letter, but have been 
 lying on my back for two months past, and being 
 three weeks to come doomed to the same situation, 
 I must confine myself to a few lines written near 
 my bed. The particulars of the accident and its 
 cure, will be given to you by General Bernadotte, 
 whom I must particularly introduce, and his lady, 
 to Mrs. Hamilton and you. Politics I will not 
 dwell upon. My sentiments are so well known to 
 you that it were superfluous to say what I think 
 of Senatus-Consulta at home, and settling colonies 
 in North America j yet I hope this late affair may 
 still be arranged to mutual satisfaction, and I am 
 sure nobody could have better personal dispositions 
 than my friend General Bernadotte, who, to those 
 high and brilliant abilities which have so much 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 245 
 
 contributed to the triumph of the French arms, 
 joins one of the most civic, candid, and generous 
 hearts it is possible to meet with. I know he 
 sets a great value by the approbation of the citi- 
 zens of America, and is particularly desirous of 
 your acquaintance, and properly sensible of its 
 advantages. I have seen in the papers a letter from 
 you relative to the transactions at our York Town 
 redoubt, in which I have found my friend Hamil- 
 ton's whole character; and the more pleased I have 
 been to receive it, as the attack had been some time 
 known to me, but on the proposal of some friends 
 to write to you, I had answered you were on the 
 spot, and would know better what was best for 
 me to be done. Adieu, my dear friend; my best 
 respects to Mrs. Hamilton. Remember me to our 
 friends. I know you are most friendly interested 
 in my private concerns, and have ever depended 
 upon it. 
 
 Most affectionately I am your constant friend. 
 
 La Fayette. 
 
246 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 From GOVERNOR WALSTERSTORFF 
 
 St. Croix, April 20th, 1803. 
 
 Dear General, — When I received your favour of 
 the 5th August, I certainly did not think I should 
 postpone so long answering it, and returning you 
 my thanks for this proof of your kind remembrance. 
 I shall offer you no apology for it, because there 
 is none that would be satisfactory to myself. I beg 
 you only to be assured, dear General, that there is 
 not a character in America for whom I feel a 
 greater regard and respect than that of General 
 Hamilton, whose talents will no doubt soon again 
 be called into action to the honour and advantage 
 of his country. 
 
 You would oblige me very much by sending our 
 friend. Dr. Stevens, a copy of Camillus' letters, and 
 of your later productions ; the only copy of Camil- 
 lus' letters which I had, I once lent to the late 
 Count Bernstorff, who begged of me to let him 
 keep it in his library as a classical work — these 
 were his expressions. 
 
 Accept my sincerest wishes for your happiness 
 and that of your family, and believe me to be, 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 247 
 
 with the greatest regard, and the sincerest attach- 
 ment &c. 
 
 To TALLEYRAND 
 
 New York, March 25th, 1804. 
 
 Sir, — Presuming on the acquaintance, from 
 which I derived much pleasure during your stay 
 in this country, I am going to take a very great 
 liberty. It concerns a near relation of mine, 
 Mr. Alexander Hamilton, now a prisoner of war 
 on parole at Paris. 
 
 His brother, from whom I have just received 
 a letter, informs me that on a visit to the con- 
 tinent, as a traveller, he was overtaken by the 
 war between France and Great Britain, and has 
 been since that time in the situation which I 
 have mentioned. He is a Scotch gentleman of 
 education and literary acquirement, who, having 
 amassed a pretty handsome fortune in the East 
 Indies, had returned to his own country to devote 
 himself to the pursuits of knowledge, and was 
 induced to pass over to the continent to indulge 
 his curiosity, with a particular eye to the very 
 interesting monuments of the arts, of which Paris 
 is now the depository. 
 
J48 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 I will ask nothing specific for him, because I 
 know not what could with propriety be done, con- 
 tenting myself with merely saying, that if your 
 interposition can procure for him any facility, 
 indulgence, or favour, it will confer a personal 
 obligation on one who has the honour &c. 
 
V 
 
 THE DUEL 
 
From BURR 
 
 New- York, June i8th, 1804. 
 
 Sir, — I send for your perusal a letter signed 
 Charles D. Cooper, which, though apparently pub- 
 lished some time ago, has but recently come to 
 my knowledge. Mr. Van Ness, who does me the 
 favour to deliver this, will point out to you that 
 clause of the letter to which I particularly call 
 your attention. 
 
 You must perceive, sir, the necessity of a prompt, 
 unqualified acknowledgment or denial of the use 
 of any expression which would warrant the asser- 
 tions of Dr. Cooper. ' 
 
 I have the honour to be your obedient servant, 
 
 A. Burr. 
 
 To BURR 
 
 June 20th, 1804. 
 
 Sir, — I have maturely reflected on the sub- 
 stance of your letter of the eighteenth inst., and 
 the more I have reflected the more I have become 
 
 251 
 
252 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 convinced that I could not, without manifest im- 
 propriety, make the avowal or disavowal which 
 you seem to think necessary. The clause pointed 
 out by Mr. Van Ness is in these terms : " I could 
 detail to you a still tnore despicable opinion which 
 Mr. Hamilton has expressed of Mr. Burr." To 
 endeavour to discover the meaning of this declara- 
 tion I was obliged to seek in the antecedent part 
 of the letter for the opinion to which it referred 
 as having been already disclosed. I found it in 
 these words : " General Hamilton and Judge Kent 
 have declared in substance that they looked upon 
 Mr. Burr as a dangerous man and one who ought 
 not to be trusted with the reins of government. 
 
 The language of Dr. Cooper plainly implies 
 that he considered this opinion of you, which he 
 attributes to me, as a despicable one ; but he 
 affirms that I have expressed some other, more 
 despicable, without, however, mentioning to whom, 
 when, or where. 'Tis evident that the phrase, 
 "still more despicable," admits of infinite shades, 
 from very light to very dark. How am I to 
 judge of the degree intended .? or how shall I 
 annex any precise idea to language so indefi- 
 nite .'' 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 253 
 
 Between gentlemen, despicable and more des- 
 picable are not worth the pains of distinction ; 
 when, therefore, you do not interrogate me as to 
 the opinion which is specifically ascribed to me, 
 I must conclude that you view it as within the 
 limits to which the animadversions of political 
 opponents upon each other may justifiably extend ; 
 and consequently as not warranting the idea of 
 it which Dr. Coopef appears to entertain. If so, 
 what precise inference could you draw, as a judge 
 for your conduct, were I to acknowledge that I 
 had expressed an opinion still more despicable than 
 the one which is particularized ? How could you 
 be sure that even this opinion had exceeded the 
 bounds which you yourself deem admissible be- 
 tween political opponents ? 
 
 But I forbear further comment on the embarrass- 
 ment to which the requisition you have made 
 naturally leads. The occasion forbids a more am- 
 ple illustration, though nothing could be more easy 
 than to pursue it. 
 
 Repeating that I cannot reconcile it with pro- 
 priety to make the acknowledgment or denial 
 you desire, I will add that I deem it inadmissible, 
 on principle, to consent to be interrogated as to 
 
254 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 the justness of the inferences which may be drawn 
 by others from whatever I may have said of a 
 political opponent of fifteen years' competition. 
 If there were no other objection to it, this is 
 sufficient, that it would tend to expose my sin- 
 cerity and delicacy to injurious imputations from 
 every person who may at any time have con- 
 ceived the import of my expressions differently 
 from what I may then have intended or may 
 afterwards recollect. I stand ready to avow or 
 disavow promptly and explicitly any precise or 
 definite opinion which I may be charged with 
 having declared of any gentleman. More than 
 this cannot fitly be expected from me; and 
 especially, it cannot reasonably be expected that 
 I shall enter into an explanation upon a basis 
 so vague as that which you have adopted. I 
 trust on more reflection you will see the matter 
 in the same light with me. If not I can only 
 regret the circumstance and must abide the con- 
 sequences. 
 
 The publication of Dr. Cooper was never seen by 
 me till after the receipt of your letter. 
 
 I have the honour to be, &c., 
 
 A. Hamilton. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 255 
 
 From BURR 
 
 New York, June 21, 1804. 
 
 Sir, — Your letter of the 20th inst. has been 
 this day received. Having considered it atten- 
 tively, I regret to find in it nothing of that sincerity 
 and delicacy which you profess to value. 
 
 Political opposition can never absolve gentlemen 
 from the necessity of a rigid adherence to the laws 
 of honour and the rules of decorum. I neither 
 claim such privilege nor indulge it in others. 
 The common sense of mankind affixes to the 
 epithet adopted by Dr. Cooper the idea of dis- 
 honour. It has been publicly applied to me under 
 the sanction of your name. The question is not, 
 whether he has understood the meaning of the 
 word, or has used it according to syntax and 
 with grammatical accuracy : but whether you have 
 authorized this declaration, either directly or by 
 uttering expressions derogatory to my honour.^ 
 
 1 One may imagine the grin with which Burr penned these high-flown 
 sentiments, for visionary and sanguine as he was, there is no reason to 
 believe that he had any delusions regarding his own honour. And he 
 had never been under any delusions regarding Hamilton's opinion of 
 him. Had he been sincere in seeking redress, from motives of outraged 
 honour, or even for purely political reasons, he would have challenged 
 Hamilton after his loss of the Presidency, four years before. — Ed. 
 
2s6 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 The time " when " is in your own knowledge, but 
 no way material to me, as the calumny has now 
 first been disclosed, so as to become the subject 
 of my notice, and as the effect is present and 
 palpable. 
 
 Your letter has furnished me with new reasons 
 for requiring a definite reply. 
 
 I have the honour to be, sir. Your obedient 
 
 A. Burr. 
 
 To BURR 
 
 New York, June 22, 1804. 
 
 Sir, — Your first letter, in a style too peremptory, 
 made a demand, in my opinion, unprecedented and 
 unwarrantable. My answer, pointing out the em- 
 barrassment, gave you an opportunity to take a 
 less exceptionable course. You have not chosen 
 to do it ; but, by your last letter, received this day, 
 containing expressions indecorous and improper, 
 you have increased the difficulties intrinsically 
 incident to the nature of your application. 
 
 If by a definite reply you mean the direct avowal 
 or disavowal required in your first letter, I have no 
 other answer to give, than that which has already 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 257 
 
 been given. If you mean anything different, 
 admitting of greater latitude, it is requisite you 
 should explain. 
 
 I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient 
 
 Alex. Hamilton. 
 
 To SEDGWICK 
 
 New York, July loth, 1804. 
 
 My dear Sir, — I have received two letters from 
 you since we last saw each other — that of the 
 latest date being the twenty-fourth of May. I 
 have had on hand for some time a long letter to 
 you, explaining the course and tendency of our 
 politics, and my intention as to my own future 
 conduct. But my plan embraced so large a range, 
 that, owing to much avocation, some indifferent 
 health, and a growing distaste for politics, the 
 letter is still considerably short of being finished. 
 I write this now to satisfy you that want of regard 
 for you has not been the cause of my silence. 
 
 I will express but one sentiment, which is, that 
 DISMEMBERMENT of our EMPIRE will be a clear sacri- 
 fice of great positive advantages, without any 
 counterbalancing good; administering no relief to 
 
2s8 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 our real disease, which is democracy; the poison 
 of which, by a subdivision, will only be the more 
 concentrated in each part, and consequently the 
 more virulent. King is on his way to Boston, 
 where you may chance to see him, and hear from 
 himself his sentiments. 
 
 God bless you. 
 
 A. H. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
Found in the Royal Library, Copenhagen, Denmark 
 
 "The Royal Danish-American Gazette," Vol. III., No. 234, 
 Saturday, October 3d, 1772. Edited by Thibou, Christianstadt, 
 St. Croix. 
 
 The following letter was written the week after the Hurricane, by a 
 Youth of this Island, to his Father ; the copy of it fell by accident into 
 the hands of a gentleman, who, being pleased with it himself, shewed 
 it to others to whom it gave equal satisfaction, and who all agreed 
 that it might not prove uninteresting to the Publick. The Author's 
 modesty in long refusing to submit it to the Publick view, is the reason 
 of its making its appearance so late as it now does. 
 
 St. Croix, Sept. 6, 1772. 
 
 Honoured Sir, — I take up my pen just to give 
 you an imperfect account of the most dreadful hur- 
 ricane that memory or any records whatever can 
 trace, which happened here on the 31st ultimo at 
 night. 
 
 It began about dusk, at North, and raged very 
 violently till ten o'clock. Then ensued a sudden 
 and unexpected interval, which lasted about an 
 hour. Meanwhile the wind was shifting round to 
 the South West point, from whence it returned 
 with redoubled fury and continued so till near three 
 o'clock in the morning. Good God! what horror 
 
 261 
 
262 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 and destruction — it's impossible for me to describe 
 
 — or you to form any idea of it. It seemed as if a 
 total dissolution of nature was taking place. The 
 roaring of the sea and wind — fiery meteors flying 
 about in the air — the prodigious glare of almost 
 perpetual lightning — the crash of the falling houses 
 
 — and the ear-piercing shrieks of the distressed, 
 were sufficient to strike astonishment into Angels. 
 A great part of the buildings throughout the Island 
 are levelled to the ground — almost all the rest very 
 much shattered — several persons killed and num- 
 bers utterly ruined — whole families running about 
 the streets unknowing where to find a place of shel- 
 ter — the sick exposed to the keenness of water and 
 air — without a bed to lie upon — or a dry covering 
 to their bodies — our harbour is entirely bare. In 
 a word, misery in all its most hideous shapes spread 
 over the whole face of the country. — A strong smell 
 of gunpowder added somewhat to the terrors of the 
 night; and it was observed that the rain was sur- 
 prisingly salt. Indeed, the water is so brackish and 
 full of sulphur that there is hardly any drinking it. 
 
 My reflections and feelings on this frightful and 
 melancholy occasion are set forth in following self- 
 discourse. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 263 
 
 Where now, Oh ! vile worm, is all thy boasted 
 fortitude and resolution? what is become of thy 
 arrogance and self-sufficiency? — why dost thou 
 tremble and stand aghast? how humble — how 
 helpless — how contemptible you now appear. And 
 for why ? the jarring of the elements — the discord 
 of clouds ? Oh, impotent presumptuous fool ! how 
 darest thou offend that omnipotence, whose nod 
 alone were sufficient to quell the destruction that 
 hovers over thee, or crush thee into atoms? See 
 thy wretched helpless state and learn to know 
 thyself. Learn to know thy best support. Despise 
 thyself and adore thy God. How sweet — how 
 unutterably sweet were now the voice of an ap- 
 proving conscience; — then couldst thou say — 
 hence ye idle alarms — why do I shrink? What 
 have I to fear ? A pleasing calm suspense ! a short 
 repose from calamity to end in eternal bliss ? — let 
 the earth rend, let the planets forsake their course 
 — let the sun be extinguished, and the heavens 
 burst asunder — yet what have I to dread? my staff 
 can never be broken — in omnipotence I trust. 
 
 He who gave the winds to blow and the light- 
 nings to rage — even him I have always loved 
 and served — his precepts have I observed — his 
 
264 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 commandments have I obeyed — and his perfections 
 have I adored. — He will snatch me from ruin — he 
 will exalt me to the fellowship of Angels and 
 Seraphs, and to the fulness of never ending joys. 
 
 But alas! how different, how deplorable — how 
 gloomy the prospect — death comes rushing on in 
 triumph veiled in a mantle of ten-fold darkness. 
 His unrelenting scythe, pointed and ready for the 
 stroke. — On his right hand sits destruction, hurling 
 the winds and belching forth flames ; — calamity on 
 his left threatening famine, disease, distress of all 
 kinds. — And Oh! thou wretch, look still a little 
 further; see the gulf of eternal mystery open — 
 there mayest thou shortly plunge — the just reward 
 of thy vileness. — Alas ! whither canst thou fly ? 
 where hide thyself? thou canst not call upon thy 
 God; — thy life has been a continual warfare with 
 him. 
 
 Hark! ruin and confusion on every side. — 'Tis 
 thy turn next: but one short moment — even now 
 — Oh Lord help — Jesus be merciful ! 
 
 Thus did I reflect, and thus at every gust of the 
 wind did I conclude, — till it pleased the Almighty 
 to allay it. — Nor did my emotions proceed either 
 from the suggestion of too much natural fear, or a 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 265 
 
 conscience overburdened with crimes of an uncom- 
 mon cast. — I thank God this was not the case. 
 The scenes of horror exhibited around us, naturally 
 awakened such ideas in every thinking breast, and 
 aggravated the deformity of every failing of our 
 lives. It were a lamentable insensibility indeed, 
 not to have had such feelings, — and I think incon- 
 sistent with human nature. 
 
 Our distressed helpless condition taught us hu- 
 mility and a contempt of ourselves. — The horrors 
 of the night — the prospect of an immediate cruel 
 death — or, as one may say, of being crushed by the 
 Almighty in his anger — filled us with terror. And 
 everything that had tended to weaken our interest 
 with Him, upbraided us, in the strongest colours, 
 with our baseness and folly. — That which, in a 
 calm unruffled temper, we call a natural cause, 
 seemed then like the correction of the Deity. — Our 
 imagination represented him as an incensed master, 
 executing vengeance on the crimes of his servants. 
 — The father and benefactor were forgot, and in 
 that view, a consciousness of our guilt filled us with 
 despair. 
 
 But see, the Lord relents — he hears our prayers 
 — the Lightning ceases — the winds are appeased 
 
266 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 — the warring elements are reconciled, and all 
 things promise peace. — The darkness is dispelled 
 
 — and drooping nature revives at the approaching 
 dawn. Look back, Oh, my soul — look back and 
 tremble. — Rejoice at thy deliverance, and humble 
 thyself in the presence of thy deliverer. 
 
 Yet hold, Oh, vain mortal! — check thy ill-timed 
 joy. Art thou so selfish as to exult because thy 
 lot is happy in a season of universal woe ? — Hast 
 thou no feelings for the miseries of thy fellow- 
 creatures, and art thou incapable of the soft pangs 
 of sympathetic sorrow ? — Look around thee and 
 shudder at the view. — See desolation and ruin 
 wherever thou turnest thine eye. See thy fellow- 
 creatures pale and lifeless ; their bodies mangled 
 
 — their souls snatched into eternity — unexpecting 
 
 — alas ! perhaps unprepared ! — Hark the bitter 
 groans of distress — see sickness and infirmities 
 exposed to the inclemencies of wind and water 
 
 — see tender infancy pinched with hunger and 
 hanging to the mother's knee for food! — see the 
 unhappy mother's anxiety — her poverty denies 
 relief — her breast heaves with pangs of mater- 
 nal pity — her heart is bursting — the tears gush 
 down her cheeks — Oh sights of woe ! Oh distress 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 267 
 
 unspeakable! — my heart bleeds — but I have no 
 power to solace ! — Oh ye, who revel in affluence, 
 see the afflictions of humanity, and bestow your 
 superfluity to ease them. — Say not, we have suf- 
 fered also, and with-hold your compassion. What 
 are your sufferings compared to these? Ye have 
 still more than enough left. — Act wisely. — Suc- 
 cour the miserable and lay up a treasure in 
 Heaven. 
 
 I am afraid, sir, you will think this description 
 more the effort of imagination, than a true picture 
 of realities. But I can affirm with the greatest 
 truth, that there is not a single circumstance 
 touched upon which I have not absolutely been 
 an eye-witness to. 
 
 Our General has several very salutary and hu- 
 man regulations, and both in his public and pri- 
 vate measures has shown himself the man. 
 
Extract from the Common Records of Nevis, 1725- 
 1746. Page 429 
 
 To all to whom these presents shall come John 
 Fawcett of the Island of Nevis Planter Sendeth 
 Greeting. 
 
270 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 Whereas diverse disputes and controversies have 
 arisen and been between the said John Fawcett and 
 Mary Fawcett his wife touching and concerning the 
 maintenance of the said Mary separate and apart 
 from her said husband And Whereas the said 
 Mary did lately apply herself unto His Excellency 
 William Matthew Esquire Chancellor and Ordinary 
 in Chief for the Leeward Charribbee Islands to be 
 relieved against the said John Fawcett and His 
 Excellency on the Petition of the said Mary did 
 issue out a writ of Supplicavit for making a Pro- 
 vision Maintenance for the said Mary And Whereas 
 since the issuing out of the said writ they the said 
 John Fawcett and Mary Fawcett have mutually 
 agreed to live separate and apart from each other 
 during the residue of their lives And Whereas she 
 the said Mary Fawcett hath joined with the said 
 John Fawcett in the absolute sale of divers pieces 
 or parcels of land and other tenements which he the 
 said John was in possession of some in right of the 
 said Mary and others in right of the said John in 
 which she could at the death of the said John have 
 claimed a dower or third part And Whereas the 
 said Mary in lieu of the said dower or third part 
 hath accepted of the Bond or Obligation of William 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 271 
 
 Maynard of Nevis aforesaid Esq"- for the payment 
 of the sum of Fifty and three pounds four shillings 
 current money annually during her life for her 
 separate maintenance and allowance as a full satis- 
 faction of all her Dower or third part of the Estates 
 of the said John Fawcett both real and personal 
 which he shall be possessed of at the time of his 
 death. Now Know Ye that the said John Fawcett 
 in consideration of the said Mary Fawcett's accept- 
 ance of the said yearly sum of Fifty and three 
 pounds four shillings and for diverse and other good 
 causes and considerations him thereunto moving 
 Hath remised released and for ever quitt claimed 
 and by these presents Doth for himself his heirs 
 exors. and admors. remise release and for ever quit 
 claim unto the said Mary Fawcett her heirs exors. 
 and admors. all his Right Tytle interest property 
 reversion claim and demand whatsoever which he 
 might could or may hereafter be intituled unto of 
 in and to all or any part or parcell of the Estates 
 either real or personal! which she the said Mary 
 Fawcett may be intituled unto or is in possession of 
 or which she shall or may at any time hereafter be 
 intitled unto or be in possession of either in her 
 lifetime or at the day of her death or any person or 
 
272 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 persons in trust for her the said Mary Fawcett. 
 And Further the said John Fawcett doth hereby 
 for himself his heirs executors and administrators 
 covenant and agree with the said Mary Fawcett her 
 heirs exors. and admors. that he the said John 
 Fawcett his heirs exors. and admors. shall not at any 
 time hereafter vex sue implead or cause or promise 
 to be sued vexed or impleaded the said Mary Fawcett 
 her heirs exors. or admors. for or on account of any 
 goods chattels lands or tenements which she the 
 said Mary Fawcett shall be possessed of in her life- 
 time or any person or persons in trust for her. In 
 Witness Whereof the said John Fawcett hath 
 hereunto set his hand and seal the fifth day of Feb' 
 ruary in the year of Our Lord one thousand seven 
 hundred and forty and in the fourteenth year of the 
 reign of King George the Second. 
 
 Sealed and delivered 
 in the presence of John Fawcett. 
 
 George Webbe senior. 
 
 James Dasent. 
 
 George Webbe jun. 
 
 Note. — Captain Ramsing, in searching the archives in Copen- 
 hagen for me, has found that Levine's name was spelt in the following 
 different ways, varying doubtless with the education of the clerks : 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 273 
 
 Johan Michael Lavien, Johan Michael Lawien, Johan Michael Lewien, 
 Johan Michael Levin, John Michael Lewin. Captain Ramsing tells me 
 that the oldest form, Lawien, is probably the correct one ; and it was 
 probably anglicised by Hamilton into Lavine, as the "w" would be 
 pronounced "v." On the Islands I found it spelt variously: Lavion, 
 Levine, Le Vine. "Johan" indicates Danish or German origin. 
 
 I am also informed that Levine or Lawien probably was a Jew by 
 birth, but must have changed his religion — perhaps when he married 
 Rachael ? — or he would have been written down in the records : 
 "Levine the Jew." 
 
 All the names to be found in the records vary quite as much in the 
 spelling as Levine's. — Ed. 
 
The Following are Specimens of the News- 
 paper Verse and Schoolboy Doggerel 
 WHICH the Death of Hamilton Inspired 
 
 ON THE DEATH OF HAMILTON 
 
 Oh ! woe betide ye, Aaron Burr ! 
 
 My mickle curse upo' ye sa' ! 
 Ye've kill'd as brave a gentleman 
 
 As e'er liv'd in America. 
 
 Wi' bloody mind ye ca'd him out, 
 Wi' practic'd e'e did on him draw, 
 
 And wi' deliberate, murderous aim, 
 Ye kill'd the flower o' America. 
 
 A nobler heart, an abler head. 
 Nor this, nor any nation saw ; 
 
 He was his Country's hope and pride. 
 The darling of America. 
 
 275 
 
2 76 A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 
 
 Wha now, like him, wi' temper'd fire. 
 
 His country's " sword will strongly draw " ; 
 
 And, 'mid the furious onset, spare 
 The vanquish 'd foes o' America ? 
 
 Wha now, like him, wi' honest zeal, 
 
 Will argue in the Senate ha', 
 And lighten wi' his genius rays, 
 
 The interests of America? 
 
 Mild, mild was he, o' tenderest heart, 
 Kind and sincere without a flaw ; 
 
 A loving husband, father, friend ; 
 And oh ! he lov'd America. 
 
 Torn by a murderer's desperate arm 
 Frae midst his friends and family a', 
 
 He's gone — the first of men is gone — 
 The glory of America ! 
 
 Where'er ye go, O Aaron Burr ! 
 
 The worm of conscience ay will gnaw ; 
 Your haunted fancy ay will paint 
 
 Your bloody deed in America. 
 
A FEW OF HAMILTON'S LETTERS 277 
 
 But though ye flee o'er land and sea, 
 And 'scape your injur'd country's law, 
 
 The red right hand of angry Heav'n 
 Will yet avenge America. 
 
 O save us, Heav'n ! frae faction's rage ; 
 
 Our headstrong passions keep in awe! 
 And frae ambition's hidden arts, 
 
 Good Lord ! preserve America. 
 
 Oh, Aaron Burr, what have you done ? 
 
 You've gone and killed great Hamilton. 
 You hid behind a great tall thistle. 
 
 And killed him with a big boss pistol. 
 
•IS 
 
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