George Washington, a Dramatic Tome: Volume 2

By Anthony Pistilli

December 13th, 1799, Mount Vernon, Virginia. A very ill George Washington is in bed dreaming. A light enters the room. Then a man, well dressed in the 18th century style, enters where the light is shining. George recognizes the man to be his dead brother Lawrence. “I’m a messenger, George, simply a messenger, sent here to show you your life. In your deeds, your words, in your spirit raised from the depths of your being. So let us start forth here where we will fetch your thoughts from your dreams. Right now in this one night we shall share your life’s memory. So dream, brother, dream a dream tonight. In your bed asleep, dream things so true. Dream of love, George, dream of desire, of loss, of gain, dream of sadness, of happiness, George, dream on the wonder of life, your life. And so George Washington is sleeping here. Dreaming

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jan 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781663216618

Anthony Pistilli

I am 71 years of age. I reside in Toms River, NJ. A devout American Historian. The longer I have lived the deeper my respect and even reverence has grown for Washington’s legacy as our first president. The least I feel I could do is try to present him as a vulnerable flawed human being, like all of us. This only makes his legacy more profound.

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GEORGE WASHINGTON A DRAMATIC TOME

VOLUME 2

Copyright © 2021 Anthony Pistilli.

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ISBN: 978-1-6632-1660-1 (sc)

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Act Three

Scene Ten

A short time later

The City Tavern

Jefferson’s rooms. They are cluttered. The floor holds several carved marble heads. The marble heads sit on unframed drawings. There is a bust of some ancient Roman. An Emperor, perhaps, but this Roman Emperor wears an Indian headdress. Large mahogany tables run through the rooms. Books overflow one table. Woven, wool, knitted linen and felt cotton bolts cover another table. Scattered about are building plans and maps. There are also parchment papers stacked. Ribbons tie most while some are wax sealed. Another table has many cups and bowls. There are also several pitchers. A smaller table has dishes holding raisins, almonds, and figs. Open crates cover the floor. One crate holds porcelain plates, while another crate holds what looks to be French wine. There are silver candlesticks. Candles thrust out everywhere. Tables hold them. Book stacks hold them. Every shelf, chest or unopened crate has a candlestick. There is a large spy glass. It points out an alcove window. Next to the spy glass there is a small wood stool. One stool leg of the spy glass holds down a large map. The walls boast many portraits. They are all famous people, some living, and some dead. Pictures, painted or engraved, fill every open space. One entire wall holds a full length gilt-framed oval mirror

There is knocking on the door

A black man dressed like an Asiatic prince opens it

Enter the General, Knox, and Hamilton

The General

Ah, Jupiter. (turning to Knox and Hamilton) Gentlemen, this is Jupiter. I know him. True, straight, Jupiter, Jefferson’s valet.

Jupiter greets them, then exits

The General

How good it must be to have such a strong, steady servant.

Hamilton

You mean a strong, steady slave.

The General

Now, Alex, you promised there would be no mention of slavery today. Jefferson is lucky to have Jupiter. I have found it impossible to find a servant here that stays sober.

Knox

You have Christopher.

The General

Yes, Christopher is not a drinker. But then Martha always gives him her special care.

Knox

looking around

A somewhat untidy place, no?

The General

Everything I see here just makes me wonder. Only Jefferson could gather such things.

The three men have to step aside to avoid knocking over the marble bust wearing the Indian headdress

Hamilton

Do you think a chance throw landed that headdress there? Or do you think Jefferson hung it that way to tamper with history?

The General

Look at all these tables.

Knox

This one looks like an apothecary’s bench. (his fingers go to his nose) What’s that smell?

Hamilton

It’s that rotten egg smell. It’s coming from that small vessel there. The one with the coil. A lit candlestick is heating the coil.

Knox

There is a slow fine clear drip coming from it.

The General

Jefferson is distilling something.

The General’s fingers run along the large spy glass

The General

Look at the beautiful grain threading this tube. I want to look through it, (smiling) but I know I shouldn’t. (he looks down at the large map being held open by the spy’s stool leg) Look at all the stars and planets studding this map. Between the planets and the stars are notes and calculations. (he looks closer) I recognize Jefferson’s handwriting.

Knox

standing in front of the full length gilt-framed oval mirror

Somehow this mirror fits its twisted frame. Look how it throws back curved crooked images.

The General, Knox and Hamilton look at themselves

Knox

turning sideways

To think, all this time, my corpulence could have been cured if I simply had the right mirror.

Hamilton

Yes, Harry, this mirror shows that you are simply just wasting away.

The three men laugh together facing the mirror

Enter Jefferson

They see the mirror reflect Jefferson’s image. The three men turn around together

The General

Why Thomas, the curved image in that glass made your lean body look even leaner.

Jefferson

looking in the mirror

Have I grown too lean, do you think?

The General

Nonsense, Thomas. And you stand as tall as I remember, as well.

Hamilton

looking up at both men

You are almost the General’s height.

Knox

addressing Jefferson

Your body still looks taut, Thomas, and you still carry yourself straight.

The General

addressing both Knox and Hamilton

Yes, I always thought that if he cared to, when Thomas stood he could show he had a musket barrel instead of a spine. (stepping back and taking in Jefferson with a showy and stagy manner) And now the way you are dressing follows some Parisian fashion doesn’t it, Thomas? Is that a light green coat with red silk breeches? And do I detect underneath you have on a pale-yellow shirt?

Jefferson

stepping back

And you will notice that my collar is open. In Paris no one wears lace anymore.

The General

You have become a French philosophe, Thomas, and I am not saying that just to please you.

Hamilton

The truth is I think he has become a South American parrot.

The General

Now Alex, let’s all shake hands and be friends.

Jefferson holds out his hand. Two large ruby rings cover his fingers. The four men shake hands

Knox

So here we are. New York.

Hamilton

Have you become familiar with your surroundings, Thomas?

Jefferson

Somewhat. I walked by the Almshouse this morning.

Knox

Ah, the Almshouse. Think of all the poor that place holds.

Hamilton

It cost ten cents a day to keep a person there.

Jefferson

Whatever the price, the poorhouse is not a good bargain.

Knox

But still, ten cents a day is a great expense.

The General

I gave the poorhouse money last year. I want to give some again. I am just waiting. An Upperneck neighbor owes me money. Once he repays me, the Almshouse will get that money.

Knox

What if the neighbor fails to pay?

The General

Then I will use some salt money Martha is saving. It is not much but it will help make things a little better in there.

Jefferson

And I have seen the Chatham Street Water Pump carts as they wander by. And then all the empty farm wagons coming from the Broadway market. And the sound of all those horse whips snapping.

The General

I have seen them snap their horse whips. I could not hear the whips but even I could hear the cobblestones rattling their wagon wheels.

Knox

Everything on these streets is hard to hear. I have never heard such babbling by so many people anywhere before. And they are not just speaking English, but they speak German, French, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, even Hebrew. It can be an Irish brogue or a Scot’s burr, or it can even be Dutch.

Hamilton

Yes, more of the old Dutch is still spoken here than anything else.

The General

And all those tobacco stalls. I walked by one the other day that had collected some well-dressed people. Long tobacco leaves were hanging there. A small smoky fire dried the leaves. The tobacco man was rolling one. It became a thin tube. A man took the tube, lit it, then sucked it.

Knox

I have seen them, too. They call them call them cigarros. Did you see them inhaling all the smoke?

The General

making a face

No, I chose to look away. If my mother’s pipe smoke used to make my head swim, this cigarro smoke will make me sick.

Jefferson

And you can’t help but notice all the black people walking the streets.

Hamilton

Free blacks.

The General

Yes, New York has many black people who are free, still others who are slaves. They are all mixed here.

Knox

And then there are the brothels. Whole streets of them.

Hamilton

sneering

The Holy Ground.

The General

Is that what you call those places?

Hamilton

Yes.

The General

All those houses are falling down.

Knox

to Jefferson, smiling

If an evening walk ever brings you there I suggest you walk by very fast.

Jefferson

Why?

Knox

Because when you come by there at night, the women all call out, their hands will touch you or they will even try to make your hands touch them.

Hamilton

And then we all know what will follow.

The General

looking at Hamilton

I can just picture you walking there, Alex.

What a waste.

Knox

Yes, what a foolish waste.

The General

And have you seen all the hogs in the street here, Thomas? The other day I saw four fat ones. They seemed angry. A small yellow coach and two came near. The horses began to pull the carriage away when a wheel snared a hog.

It squealed so loud that even I could hear.

Jefferson

I have noticed all the horses drawing all the carriages running down Broadway.

The General

And each carriage gives off thick dust covering your boots.

Knox

We are always stopping to wipe our boots. These streets are too dusty. They can make spoil the best shine.

Hamilton

Dust does no harm. It is the city mud that does the harm. Whenever it rains the streets first grow into streams then they become channels, then lakes. The lakes make mud.

The General

Yes, it is not the swampy Virginia mud that we know, Thomas, but city mud.

Knox

City mud stains everything it touches. It makes everything musty.

Jefferson

What I have seen since I’ve been here is that it is death to shoe leather. Even when you wipe the mud off, it still leaves your boot leather moldy.

The General

That is because city mud holds the city dregs. It makes the ground reek.

Knox

throwing back his head and screwing up his face

And all those men carrying those shallow tubs as they walk by on the streets. Those tubs hold human waste. It smells so bad that you have no choice but to run to the street’s other side.

Jefferson

How loathsome.

The General

I’ve seen tub waste that was nothing but a foul black pudding. Then I’ve seen the men dumping their tubs. The pudding fills the side gutters where some stray wild dog and the hogs fight to see who will get it.

Hamilton

But then there are those first old beautiful Dutch stone homes built on Broadway. The oldest in Manhattan.

Knox

Beautiful? Those house houses curl the way the crooked side streets do. They are all piled together.

Jefferson

I see that they have taken the shade trees away.

The General

Yes, I noticed that, too, Thomas. I wonder what was important enough to justify removing all those trees.

Hamilton

And then there are all new houses that sit on

Murray Hill’s peak. They are English brick.

Knox

addressing Hamilton

All that those new houses do is make your old Dutch homes look even older.

The General

Each English brick house has a high tiled roof.

Jefferson

Yes, I have seen them. The morning sun gives the tiled roofs a soft brown leather look.

Hamilton

Each roof casts its high shadow.

Knox

to Hamilton

Covering your old Dutch houses below.

The General

I am told these new brick houses all have drawing rooms. Though I have never visited one.

Hamilton

You are President now. And now that you are President you should not visit these people, but they can seek you out when you give your

Presidential levees.

The General

I suppose you are right, Alex.

Jefferson

I wonder. In Paris, there are no longer any levees or salons. People of every stripe and social position can now simply visit each other.

The General

We shall see how best I should meet with the people. But getting back to your travels through New York, Thomas, I warn you, watch out for wastewater buckets being thrown out windows.

Hamilton

Yes, I confess to having to be pushed more than once to dodge a wastewater bucket that someone threw.

Knox

But New York is not only smelly city streets. If you walk north you will pass fields that hold sheep. These open fields let your eyes stretch.

The General

And then there is the river where countless merchant ships make a bridge.

Hamilton

Did you know that each year a thousand ships and more dock here? They carry fancy foreign made goods.

Knox

The ship captains swap their cargo. They take wheat, flour, lumber or hides.

The General

These ships let you buy their goods. This year I got several things. Snuffboxes, a blue satin gown.

Jefferson

A blue satin gown? Will Martha wear it?

The General

No, I hope Nelly will someday.

Knox

I got some West Indian mahogany chairs, some vegetable face powder that Lucy wanted, even some bananas. It all cost us less than we would have paid if shop keepers sold them.

The General

I wonder what cargo those ships hold today.

Jefferson

Well, I have seen cowherds driving their cows down these streets. Their necks have bells hanging off.

The General

Yes, I’ve seen them and have stretched my ears to hear the bell’s clinking. All that reaches me is a pale echo.

Knox

And the chimney sweeps. All these chimney sweeps. They look so foul.

The General

I have looked at their faces. They are just boys.

Hamilton

Then there are the little paupers trying to sell some rough cut firewood.

Jefferson

Yes, in my walks around New York I have seen boys selling hot corn, then still other boys using a whetstone to sharpen scissor blades.

Knox

And then there are all the young kitchen girls.

Hamilton

It seems the boys are always competing to get the girl’s attention.

Jefferson

I saw a boy keep sharpening his scissors, flicking then flipping them. Some water squirted. It hit a girl. She made loud sound as she stepped back then pushed the cart the other boy was using to sell hot corn. All the boys began to quarrel while the girl just smiled.

Hamilton

That’s Broadway. It may have several carriage tracks. Broadway may be dusty, but still, it is a handsome road. It wraps the small hills that lead to the Trinity Church.

The General

You will see, Thomas that the tall church spire stands apart. The other buildings seem to surround it.

Knox

And then, there is the City Tavern.

The General

You know, every time I see this tavern I think the same thing. They built it the wrong way.

The front faces north. It should have faced south. It is not a small building. City Tavern stands high, three stories high, but each story is a different color plaster. I always thought it is a cake that has three different layers.

Hamilton

And then there is the main room downstairs. It always has a stale tobacco-smoke scent.

Knox

Yet that fierce scent fails to hide a strong rummy smell given off by the men drinking there.

Hamilton

And there were many there today.

The General

I knew more than a few of them. The new government is giving them work, or they are troubling the new government, seeking some special treatment.

Hamilton

Many looked wealthy. One end has a crude bar. A big man there was giving out the drinks. Some men were drinking rack punch, while others were having pumpkin flip.

Knox

Yet, still I could see that most were drinking their precious rum. (looking around, then addressing Jefferson) How do you like your rooms?

Jefferson

A simple Virginia farmer could never find rest here.

Hamilton

A simple farmer? How did a simple farmer create this storehouse of treasures? And this is, no doubt, just a small sampling. I know you have more treasure heaped up elsewhere. I know Monticello has much more. Much more. How can you call yourself a simple farmer?

Jefferson

When I say I am a simple farmer I mean that I enjoy simple pleasures. Quiet, simple and quiet is a pleasure that I miss very much. As we have just had so much conversation on the noise of New York, I tell you I still have heard, just outside there, every possible sound imaginable. There have also been some sounds I thought unimaginable. I tell you, gentlemen, all the loud noise this city makes, whips me and leaves me shattered.

Knox

And this is the town’s quiet side. (taking out a black silk handkerchief, he wraps his mangled hand. Just the thumb and forefinger are rising out) Downtown, the Congressmen complain they are unable to hear their own speeches because the street noise outside is so loud.

Hamilton

Being spared those speeches had to be a blessing.

The General

smiling

Does that include your speeches, Alex? (turning to Jefferson) Did you know, Thomas, that the Supreme Court and the Farmer’s Market occupy the same building?

Knox

It used to be the Royal Exchange Building.

The General

Once, when Hamilton here argued a case there, bleating sheep burst the whole session apart.

Hamilton

I am sure the sheep were offering their own very feeling dissenting opinion.

All four men laugh

Jefferson

Forgive me, Gentlemen. Please be seated.

Knox

as he sits

Damask chairs? Very nice.

Hamilton

looking into one of the open crates that line the floor Do I see narrow tubes of dough in there?

Jefferson

Yes, Italian macaroni. I fell in love with it in Paris and had to bring some back with me.

The General

And how was your trip here from Virginia?

Jefferson

Rough, very rough. It took me twenty days to get here, twenty days to travel three hundred miles. First dust hid the roads then rain swelled them. No posts or signs marked the way. Had to hire guides twice to recover the route.

Knox

You mean you got lost twice.

The General

Now Harry, you mustn’t fault Thomas. He is here finally, and we are all happy. (stares into Jefferson’s eyes) You know Thomas, I was always amazed how your eyes change color.

Jefferson

My eyes are clear.

The General

They are clear, but then they are not, right now they are more hazel or green. (looking around) These rooms seem to fit you.

Jefferson

For the first two weeks or so these rooms were all I saw. The pain shut me up here. My head throbbed. It grew worse before it got better. So I had to stay here. It’s only been these past few days that I was able to walk outside. But I can’t afford to stay here much longer. I think I am going to rent a house.

Knox

What do you pay here?

The General

Now, that is an unwelcome question, Harry. We don’t have to know what rent Thomas is paying here.

Jefferson

Seven dollars a week.

Knox

his eyes widening

That is a lot. (now he is habitually winding then unwinding his black handkerchief, each time showing then hiding his mangled hand) The money that it costs to live here is killing me, too.

The General

You live too well, Harry. I have told you before.

You must never spend more than you earn.

Knox

Yes, I know I spend too much. My Broadway house, my two horses and stable, my groom and servants, all cost much too much. Then there is my wife Lucy’s hair dressing, and then my own. Our hairdressing account alone is no small matter. Why yesterday, I had to pay the man twenty Shillings. Twenty Shillings! That just covered this month’s hairdressing.

Hamilton

Why must your wife wear her hair the way she does? It must be a foot high.

Knox

That is the fashion, Alex.

Hamilton

The extreme fashion if you ask me. If you could get her to cut her hair, you could probably reduce all your expenses a third.

What do your formal dinners cost?

Knox

They cost me quite enough, thank you. I always like to offer some modest hospitality.

Hamilton

looking at the General

Modest? Is it modest to have forty-five dinner guests? (now turning to Jefferson) Is it modest to give them such princely entertainment? (then turning to Knox) All your salary must go for the wine alone.

Knox

I will admit, my hospitality does cost me a lot.

The General

It costs you too much, Harry. The almshouse is where you will be holding your next dinner party.

Enter Jupiter carrying a tray that holds tea cups. He clears a space, then set the tray down. The table holds a metal urn with some kind of foreign writing on it. Jupiter drains the boiling water and fills the cups. He then gives each person a cup

The General

Where is James Hemmings?

Jefferson

Paris. I left him behind. He has become an artist. A culinary artist.

As the General is speaking to Jefferson, Hamilton begins inspecting the room, opening then closing a book, then finding another book, he starts reading it, then closes it.

Then Hamilton begins looking at three portraits that are hanging

Knox

watching Hamilton, then addressing the General and Jefferson with a small smile

Someone seems wound a little tight.

Hamilton

still staring at the portraits

These are three very distinguished men.

Jefferson

in a somewhat bothered tone

Yes. They are all distinguished. I admire all three. Do you know them?

Hamilton

I know them. (pointing to each portrait as he names it) Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, John

Locke.

Jefferson

They are history’s three greatest men.

Hamilton

They may be, but then they may not. Have you considered Julius Caesar? I think Caesar is history’s greatest man. Where is his bust? Do you have it somewhere? Is there a special place that you have put it?

Jefferson

There is no Caesar’s bust here, though I will grant you he was a hero. He was a military hero. But I am afraid he was an enemy to peace. When it came to peace and peaceful pursuits it was the way Bacon, Newton and Locke used their human reason that made them heroes.

Hamilton searches a bookshelf. He takes down a small wooden case

Jefferson

My writing desk.

Hamilton opens it. Jefferson jumps up, takes the case, then closes it

Hamilton

I wasn’t going to steal it.

Jefferson

Please excuse me. This traveling writer’s desk is very dear.

Jefferson places the case higher

Knox

Well, now Hammy’s, I mean Alex’s, short arms can never reach it.

Jefferson

I got it when I attended William and Mary. It has made all my journeys.

Hamilton

But isn’t that the desk you wrote the Declaration on?

The General

Alex, you make me doubt my good ear. A half hour ago you said you would not mention the Declaration of Independence. And here it is almost the first thing you bring up.

Jefferson

answering in a whisper

Yes it is.

The General

Did you say yes, Thomas? I didn’t hear you, but I saw your lips move.

Jefferson nods yes

Knox

Those words, Thomas. What words! Tell us. Where did they come from? Those self-evident words.

The General

Now you, too, Harry?

Knox

Me too, General?

The General

Yes, you too it seems have to appease this yearning everyone has to tear apart the Declaration of Independence. I don’t suppose it would mean anything if I told you to be quiet.

Knox

But I can’t be quiet. Not with the author of the much honored Declaration of Independence standing right here before us.

Hamilton

Yes, Thomas, let’s loosen up those self-evident truths. Let’s test them.

The General

Beware, Thomas. I know our Hammy here, I mean Alex, and I know when he is making ready to march on and fight on. (now addressing Hamilton) And Alex, I don’t suppose it would mean anything if I pointed out that self-evident truths are not to be tested but are to be accepted. That is why they are selfevident.

Knox

Gentlemen, unlike that most venerable but very violent man Caesar, I do believe our President is trying to keep the peace among his cabinet.

Hamilton

giving Jefferson a hard stare

Yes, Thomas, we all agree that the truth is selfevident, but please tell just what did those selfevident truths, those words, mean to you when you wrote them?

Jefferson

looking away, then sitting, folding his body back

I will tell you. Of, course, as you know, it was built on the noble philosophy of John Locke. I used his heavenly winged words when I penned the Declaration. The phrase life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, was an idea first considered by Locke in his Two Treatises on Government. But, stated simply, what those words mean, what is ‘self-evident’ in them, is that each person is supreme. That each one of us is important, more important than any king, however we are born or wherever we are born. Those words are all about the struggle to be free. And the momentous yet often missed word in that sentence is pursue. People must be free to pursue their life and live in freedom. As you know I stated in the Declaration it is a pursuit freely granted by the laws of Nature and Nature’s God. Those words clearly mean that all of us, each one of us, loves freedom. They mean that all of us, each one of us, needs

freedom. That all of us, each of us, must be free, and in the end, most importantly, that all of us, each one us, will be free.

Hamilton

speaking in an even tempered tone

And just how do we work to give everyone that freedom?

Knox

Well at least our Alex is remaining calm.

The General

Almost too calm.

Jefferson

We give everyone that freedom when we keep government away. Government, any government, if it is allowed to perform its full function and operate in its fullest power must ultimately deny a people their freedom.

Hamilton

Governments are unavoidable, Thomas. Because governments are unavoidable, we must use them to help the people.

Jefferson

Even if it means opposing the people’s will?

Hamilton

Yes, governments must be used to help the people even it means opposing the people’s will.

Jefferson

his chair rocks back

Anything that opposes the people’s will is a crime. (looking up) It is more, it is a sacrilege.

Hamilton

Is it a sacrilege to protect people?

Jefferson

Governments do not protect people, but they separate them. If a free people act together, if they agree together, then they will have no need to turn to a government. Free people find their own way, take their own road.

Hamilton

Take their own road?

Hamilton’s tiny feet are pacing the floor. Jefferson is still looking up

Jefferson

Yes. What is self-evident is that all must choose their own road.

Knox

The road leads where, Thomas?

Hamilton halts his pacing. Jefferson looks up

The General

turning to Knox

Why Harry, I had quite forgotten that you were even here.

Knox

smiling

How could you forget me, General. I am, as you so often remind me, such a huge man.

Jefferson

Freedom is where the road leads.

Hamilton

Those self-evident words may lead to freedom?

The General

Alex, you are losing your calm.

Hamilton

They could also lead to anarchy.

Jefferson

Freedom does not lead to anarchy, but freedom must lead to a life where there is little or no government.

Hamilton

If we tried to live that way the people would run amok.

Jefferson

I tell you people need no government. But even if they did, they do not need a strong vigorous government.

Hamilton

Have you given this deep thought, Thomas?

Jefferson

Given what deep thought?

Hamilton

Have you given governing any thought, deep or otherwise?

The General

I knew this was going to lead to trouble.

Hamilton

It’s clear that you have given it very little thought. (he faces Jefferson) Oh, your words have a shining art, Thomas. We can all see that. The Declaration, the words you wrote, they offer us a perfect world. A world we all want. Those words have touched us all. They fill us up. They force us to feel that our role is to love freedom. Your words do this while you appear withdrawn, standing back, a wise almost divine, yet distant ghost.

The General

Now you have upset Thomas, Alex.

Hamilton

Yes, I can see by his icy stare that I have.

Jefferson

keeping his icy stare on Hamilton

I tried to give the people the power to believe.

Knox

To believe what, Thomas? (addressing the General with a smile) I am trying to keep up.

The General

smiling back

I can see that.

Jefferson

I tried to give the people the power to believe that they are free.

Hamilton

All you did was spin a yarn, Thomas. Your self-evident words have changed nothing. The flock read your magic words, and what happened? They are still a flock, more or less. Oh, yes, they may be assembled by the bell of these words you wrote, this holy text of yours, but I still say, Thomas, nothing has changed.

Jefferson

springing up from his chair

Nothing may have changed, yet everything is always changing, changing to strengthen and support the most exact regard for the

Declaration’s universal truth. (looking down at Hamilton) That every person’s right is to be free.

Hamilton

Yes, it is a right that the government gives.

Jefferson

No, it is a right that nature gives.

Hamilton

All right, nature then. It is a natural right. (he comes nearer to Jefferson) It is a natural right that government must protect.

Jefferson

turning his back

Natural rights have nothing to do with governments.

The General

What was that, Thomas? I can just hear you.

Jefferson

I said natural rights have nothing to do with governments. A government, any government, which says it wants to protect our natural rights, must take away those very rights.

Knox

How does a government that wants to protect our rights take away our rights, Thomas?

Jefferson

It does so when it imposes itself.

Knox

How does it impose itself?

Jefferson

First, a government will impose its army. Then, it will impose taxation.

The General

Now, I feel I have to speak here. Thomas, do you know somewhere people can go to be free, where there is no government?

Jefferson turns again. He is beginning to speak

Hamilton

bursting forth

Then that place where there is no government will have to float above all the earth (arms twirling, he is speaking as if his words are aflame) That place will have to float above the very people who you say have this freedom. But remember this, Thomas, no people could live there.

Hamilton is standing so close that he is almost touching

Jefferson. They are both staring at each other

Hamilton

Wherever people are, that is where there must be government.

Knox

General, do something.

The General

stepping in

Alex, we are welcoming Thomas this morning. He is joining my cabinet. (his hands hold both men) Thomas, we called upon you this morning so you could get to know your fellow secretaries.

Hamilton steps away

The General

So Gentlemen, please, I want us not to come apart but to come together.

spinning around, Jefferson sits again, pouring himself back into his chair. Hamilton turns. His very small feet are rocking him

Hamilton

still rocking as he speaks

But please do not misunderstand me, Thomas. Your Declaration was good work. Very good work. It treats all our natural law ideas very well, all set down in a fine style. (lowering his tone) Take your opening. You wrote it short. It made your point. It starts reading the way a legal brief would, seeming to follow the facts.

Knox

Well, Jefferson here is a very good lawyer.

The General

Now I’m glad you are speaking up, Harry.

Makes the air less tense.

Hamilton

Yes, Jefferson is. He is a very good lawyer. Still, the Declaration is more than just a legal brief. (turning to Jefferson again) You wrote it the way a preacher might write a sermon. It is a sermon that uses a very high pulpit.

Jefferson looks away. He twists his body, turning his chair

Knox

A political pulpit.

Hamilton

Yes, it is a political sermon that uses a political pulpit. Your Declaration was built on more than just the philosophy of Locke, Thomas. I read it as a political sermon that uses Sir Edward Coke’s legal philosophy. It uses Coke’s words. More than just some legal brief or political pamphlet, the way you wrote those words makes me hear Milton, even

Shakespeare. (tilting his head up, he looks at the three portraits)

Jefferson

Craning his neck as if to better see the hanging portraits

You are correct, of course, I brought together not just Locke’s ideas, but Aristotle’s ideas, and Cicero’s ideas and all the other ancients. The Declaration owed a lot to ancient Rome and Ancient Athens and to all the ancients. The Declaration recovered all their ancient ideas of freedom. Yes, I suppose it is the influence of the greatest and noblest minds of the past upon which the Declaration stands.

Hamilton

So you first snatched Locke’s ideas, then you raided the ancients.

Jefferson

Someone else also.

Hamilton

Who else?

Jefferson

Me.

Hamilton laughs

The General

Now Alex, let’s have no mocking laughter.

Jefferson

I mean, I wrote those words myself. Before.

Hamilton

glaring

You mean you read those words before.

Jefferson

nostrils spreading

I meant what I said. The words that made the Declaration of Independence were my own words. They were not something I read or copied out, but they were my own words, quickened by my own thoughts. I wrote them myself.

Hamilton

laughing

Stop it, Thomas. We all know those words came from others, you just said so yourself.

Jefferson

his face taking on a biting, bitter look as he speaks in a much lower tone

When you say you want to test my words, what you mean is that you want test Coke’s words or

Locke’s words or even Aristotle’s or Cicero’s. That’s who you think wrote my Declaration. Not me, but these multifarious philosophers.

Then when you find the words you want, you

discuss them as if they wrote them. Not me, but these learned and better scholars than I. As if my mind was as great as just one of these philosophers. As great as Locke’s mind, let us say. But I submit with all humility, that my mind could never exceed the compass of

Locke’s wheel.

Hamilton

Well, sir, I see at least that you dress yourself properly in such humility. But as to wheels, sir, if we spin the philosophic wheel of the polymorphic Locke we will see he believed that what we read forms what we think. So perhaps the mind that writes the book one reads and the mind of the one who reads it become one and the same. That alas, this means that there is no longer any true writer left to be quoted.

Jefferson

You may find that so. But I don’t. The words I wrote to compose the Declaration of Independence were my own true words. They had nothing to do with Locke or any other philosopher.

Hamilton

Nevertheless, Thomas, those words do sound all very, shall we say, very Lockean.

Jefferson

standing, his head rises above Hamilton

Those words were mine. They are mine. Everything I saw happening around me at that time then made me write those words.

Knox

What did you see happening, Thomas?

Jefferson

I saw that people love freedom. Not something read or heard or studied as part of some philosophy, but freedom, freedom desired, freedom that we need to exist, or we cease to be.

Knox

Is that what you were thinking when you wrote your Declaration?

Jefferson

Yes, all I could think when I wrote those words was that people love freedom. They always will. I saw that the English, all Europe treated their own people the same way they treated their cattle. I knew that here, we had a chance to be different. That here, the people could be free. (Surprisingly, Jefferson here actually calls out these two words) Freedom! Liberty!

Washington, Hamilton, Knox all react by giving each other astonished amused looks. Jefferson, obviously embarrassed immediately re-assumes his usual self-controlled low-key demeanor

Jefferson

Well, honest freedom at the very least, and nothing else, that’s what my words in the Declaration were all about and that’s what we were fighting for. That’s what we may have had in common with the ancients, is that they may have loved freedom as much as we do. Freedom for every person. Unrestrained, unbounded freedom. The right to freedom, the right to keep that freedom, the right to fight for that freedom. Simple, honest freedom.

Hamilton

And that is why we needed this new constitution, Thomas, we all learned that if we were to stay free we had to find the right government to control the people, to keep order so that we, the people can keep their freedom.

Jefferson

No, I am afraid there you are wrong, sir, your new constitution is just another government taking that freedom away.

Hamilton

You flatter me, Thomas, but it is not my constitution, it is our constitution. It belongs to the people. There was a constitutional convention. I was just one delegate attending the Philadelphia meetings. We all gathered there to write it. When we wrote it, it was written to help the people, to protect them. You know your good friend James Madison worked very hard on it.

Jefferson

Nevertheless, just as my Declaration of Independence suggests Locke to you, your Constitution suggests the great thinkers to me. I hear Montesquieu, Groutius, Blackstone. I hear them all.

Hamilton

I will admit that we did look to anyone who could help us. And when we found something that worked, we took it. We took whatever we needed. We looked at everything. Not just the great thinkers but the great leaders, too. We looked at our colonial governments. Then we studied Charles XII and Peter the Great. We studied not just their reigns, but the way they fought their wars. Then we also used Harrington and Sidney. It was a very impressive band that helped us write the

Constitution.

Jefferson

You used Vattel, and Pufendorf. You even used Machiavelli.

Hamilton

We took what they all had to say. Yes, even Machiavelli.

Jefferson

And then there was Thomas Hobbes.

Hamilton

Yes, we looked at Hobbes.

Jefferson

The way Hobbes saw the people was very sad. He had no trust. Hobbes, that monster, he is the one who thought the people were monsters.

Hamilton

Yes, he saw the people, as one great sea monster. A Leviathan. And he was no monster, Thomas, he was a genius. He solved the problem when he gave the state all the power.

Jefferson

And that is how your new constitution attempts to solve the problem.

Hamilton

catching the General’s eye

So you oppose the new constitution?

Jefferson

I do not oppose it now. But if I had been there when you wrote it, I would have opposed it.

The General

Why?

Jefferson

It tries to do too much. In trying to do so much it will take away the people’s freedom.

Hamilton

It protects the people.

Jefferson

It protects those people who have money.

Jefferson turns away from Hamilton

Hamilton

The people who have no money, the poor, would destroy us all.

Jefferson

turning again to Hamilton

Most people are the ones who have no money. Most are poor. Those are the people, the poor people, they are ones who will save us.

Knox

They are going to save us? How?

Jefferson

They will never allow a king to rule.

Knox

Yes, yes, no one wants a king.

Hamilton

But our new government does have new president. (looking up at the General) Our new president is a leader who can be a king.

The General

Alex, I told you before, the president will never be a king. (turning to Jefferson) But Thomas, you mustn’t let Alex upset you. He is always praising the English monarchy. I wonder if you know that when we wrote the Constitution, Alex wanted a president who was to serve a life term.

Jefferson

I had heard that. I do not worry that you, our first president, will become a king. But it’s the next president, then the next one, and all to follow. This is what I worry about. It’s the rich scoundrels who will use the government to serve their own purposes that worry me.

Knox

I think it wise we stop discussing Presidents and Kings.

The General

smiling

I agree, Harry. (turning to Jefferson) So you are saying that the ideas your Declaration puts forth are yours alone.

Jefferson

I never said that. I said the words were mine. The Declaration’s source came from others.

Hamilton

You do agree that your main source was John Locke?

Jefferson

Yes, Locke taught me not just natural rights, but he gave me the idea that we have a right to rebel. It is called rightful revolution.

Hamilton

Rightful revolution. That is the right to fight your own government. It comes straight from that Second Treatise on Government that you mentioned earlier. Locke’s Second Treatise, it defends revolution, claiming that revolution is the people’s duty where rulers continue disregarding the people’s rights. There you and I share the same love, don’t we Thomas? As we are both true lovers of philosophy, how could we not help but love Locke’s Second Treatise on Government.

Knox

wearing a foolish grin on his flabby face

Oh, and I love it, too.

The General

letting out a light laugh, then clearing his throat

You see, Thomas, how this heavy man can lighten any mood when he is just himself.

Jefferson

smiling

Yes, I see. (turning to Hamilton and turning serious again) But his Second Treatise is not my favorite Lockean treatise. My favorite Locke is his Essay on Human Understanding.

Knox

Mine too. I mean that is, really, my favorite Lockean treatise.

The faces of Hamilton and Jefferson both wear a small smile

Hamilton

And Harry, just what does Locke’s Essay on Human Understanding say?

Eyes squinting, Knox’s cane thumps the floor

The General

Why Harry, your face looks like one of your cannons trying to fire.

All laugh

Jefferson

Please, gentlemen, let me answer. Locke said that the new born child had no memory, he said that the parent shaped the child, he said that . . .

Hamilton

breaking in

It is clear Thomas, that you know your Locke.

Jefferson

Yes, I do love his writings. Yet, however much I love Locke, I love the ancients more. The ancient philosophers were the first to think there could be a free republic. Look at Ancient Rome. We should try to be what earlier Rome was like. Early Rome’s first concern was the Roman citizen. The Roman people. That allowed the young Roman farmer to give his land his all.

Hamilton

Early Roman history shows they had no peace. There was always something threatening the Roman farmer’s land.

Jefferson

So the Roman fought to protect his land. He fought anything or anyone who tried to take his land. Anyone who tried to stop him tilling his fields or herding his flocks.

Hamilton

But it was not herding flocks or tilling fields that made Rome great. It was Rome’s dedication to service. The Roman’s understanding that he owed the state a duty.

Jefferson

Yet, later, they were never able to shape their government to fit their needs. It was ruinous government that brought Rome down.

Knox

How did that come about?

Jefferson

Tyrants. Corrupt men who corrupted the government. They were the men