The Essential Hamilton: Letters & Other Writings: A Library of America Special Publication

By Alexander Hamilton

Go beyond Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton and get to know the real Alexander Hamilton in this Library of America collection of the Founding Father’s own public and private writings.

A brash immigrant who rose to become George Washington’s right-hand man. A fierce partisan whose nationalist vision made him Thomas Jefferson’s bitter rival. An unfaithful husband whose commitment to personal honor brought his life to a tragic early end. The amazing success of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical Hamilton has stoked an extraordinary resurgence of interest in Alexander Hamilton, the brilliant and divisive founder who profoundly shaped the American republic. Now, Library of America presents an unrivaled portrait of Hamilton in his own words, charting his meteoric rise, his controversial tenure as treasury secretary, and his scandalous final years—all culminating in his infamous duel with Aaron Burr.

Selected and introduced by acclaimed historian Joanne B. Freeman, The Essential Hamilton is a reader’s edition of the Founding Father's public writings and private letters, plus the correspondence between Burr and Hamilton that led to their duel and two conflicting eyewitness accounts of their fatal encounter.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Library of America
• Release date: May 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781598535488

Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton (1755 or 1757–1804) was an American statesman, politician, legal scholar, military commander, lawyer, banker, economist, and Founding Father of the United States. He was an influential interpreter and promoter of the US Constitution, as well as the founder of the nation’s financial system, the Federalist Party, the US Coast Guard, and the New York Post newspaper. As the first secretary of the treasury, Hamilton was the primary author of the economic policies of George Washington’s administration. He took the lead in the federal government’s funding of the states’ debts, as well as establishing a national bank, a system of tariffs, and friendly trade relations with Britain. His vision included a strong central government led by a vigorous executive branch, a strong commercial economy, a national bank and support for manufacturing, and a strong military. Thomas Jefferson was Hamilton’s leading opponent, arguing for agrarianism and smaller government.  

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THE ESSENTIAL

HAMILTON

LETTERS & OTHER WRITINGS

AMERICA’S MOST CONTROVERSIAL FOUNDER —

IN HIS OWN WORDS

EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTARY BY

JOANNE B. FREEMAN

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THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA

Introduction copyright © 2017 by Joanne B. Freeman.

Volume compilation, notes, and chronology copyright © 2017 by

Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., New York, N.Y.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without

the permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief

quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Library of America also publishes Alexander Hamilton: Writings (hc: 1,108 pages), edited by Joanne B. Freeman, volume #129 in the LOA series. For a full table of contents and more information visit our website at www.loa.org.

Distributed to the trade in the United States

by Penguin Random House Inc.

and in Canada by Penguin Random House Canada Ltd.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016960141

ISBN 978–1–59853–536–5 (print)

ISBN 978–1–59853–454–8 (ebook)

First Printing

The Essential Hamilton: Letters & Other Writings

is published with support from

THE BODMAN FOUNDATION

Contents

Introduction

THE WEST INDIES, THE REVOLUTION, AND THE CONFEDERATION, 1769–1786

To Edward Stevens, November 11, 1769

My Ambition Is Prevalent

To The Royal Danish American Gazette, September 6, 1772

Account of a Hurricane

A Full Vindication of the Measures of the Congress, December 15, 1774

To John Jay, November 26, 1775

The Danger of Trusting in Virtue

To John Jay, March 14, 1779

Enlisting Slaves as Soldiers

To John Laurens, c. April 1779

Hope for a Wife

To John Laurens, January 8, 1780

I Am Not Fit for This Terrestreal Country

To Elizabeth Schuyler, August 1780

Examine Well Your Heart

To James Duane, September 3, 1780

The Defects of Our Present System

To Elizabeth Schuyler, September 25, 1780

The Plight of Mrs. Arnold

To Elizabeth Schuyler, October 2, 1780

The Fate of Major André

To Margarita Schuyler, January 21, 1781

Advice About Marriage

To Philip Schuyler, February 18, 1781

A Break with Washington

To James McHenry, February 18, 1781

Washington Will Repent His Ill-Humour

The Continentalist No. III, August 9, 1781

To George Washington, February 13, 1783

The Prospect of a Mutiny

To James Hamilton, June 22, 1785

I Feel All the Sentiment of a Brother

FRAMING AND RATIFYING THE CONSTITUTION, 1787–1789

Plan of Government, c. June 18, 1787

Speech in the Constitutional Convention on a Plan of Government, June 18, 1787

To George Washington, July 3, 1787

The Critical Opportunity

Conjectures About the New Constitution, c. late September 1787

The Federalist No. 1, October 27, 1787

The Federalist No. 15, December 1, 1787

The Federalist No. 35, January 5, 1788

The Federalist No. 70, March 15, 1788

To James Madison, May 19, 1788

Coordinating a Campaign

The Federalist No. 78, May 28, 1788

The Federalist No. 84, May 28, 1788

Speech in the New York Ratifying Convention on Interests and Corruption, June 21, 1788

To George Washington, September 1788

Convincing Washington to Serve

To George Washington, May 5, 1789

Presidential Etiquette

SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, 1789–1795

To Lafayette, October 6, 1789

I Hazard Much

To Henry Lee, December 1, 1789

Suspicion Is Ever Eagle Eyed

FROM Report on Public Credit, January 9, 1790

Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank, February 23, 1791

To Philip A. Hamilton, December 5, 1791

A Promise Must Never Be Broken

To Edward Carrington, May 26, 1792

A Faction Decidedly Hostile to Me

An American No. I, August 4, 1792

To George Washington, September 9, 1792

Responding to a Plea for Peace

To an Unknown Correspondent, September 26, 1792

An Embryo-Cæsar

Draft of a Defense of the Neutrality Proclamation, c. May 1793

Pacificus No. I, June 29, 1793

To Andrew G. Fraunces, October 1, 1793

Contemptible As You Are

To Angelica Hamilton, c. November 1793

Advice to a Daughter

Tully No. III, August 28, 1794

To Angelica Church, October 23, 1794

Wicked Insurgents of the West

To Angelica Church, December 8, 1794

A Politician, and Good for Nothing

Memorandum on the French Revolution, 1794

To George Washington, February 3, 1795

Resigning from Office

FEDERALIST LEADER AND ATTORNEY, 1795–1804

To Rufus King, February 21, 1795

A Threat to the Public Credit

To Robert Troup, April 13, 1795

Public Fools

Memorandum on the Design for Seal of the United States, c. May 1796

To George Washington, July 30, 1796

A Draft of the Farewell Address

To William Hamilton, May 2, 1797

Introduction to an Uncle

The Reynolds Pamphlet, August 25, 1797

To Elizabeth Hamilton, November 19, 1798

My Good Genius

To Theodore Sedgwick, February 2, 1799

The Problem of Virginia

To James McHenry, March 18, 1799

Displaying Strength Like a Hercules

To Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, December 22, 1799

The Death of Washington

To Martha Washington, January 12, 1800

So Heart-Rending an Affliction

To John Jay, May 7, 1800

An Electoral Stratagem

To Theodore Sedgwick, May 10, 1800

Withdrawing Support from Adams

To John Adams, August 1, 1800

Response to an Accusation

To William Jackson, August 26, 1800

The Most Humiliating Criticism

Rules for Philip Hamilton, 1800

To Gouverneur Morris, December 26, 1800

Jefferson over Burr

To John Rutledge Jr., January 4, 1801

Anxiety About the Election

To James A. Bayard, January 16, 1801

Burr Has No Fixed Theory

To Gouverneur Morris, February 29, 1802

Mine Is an Odd Destiny

To Benjamin Rush, March 29, 1802

The Death of Philip Hamilton

To James A. Bayard, April 1802

The Christian Constitutional Society

To Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, December 29, 1802

Refuge of a Disappointed Politician

To Elizabeth Hamilton, March 17, 1803

A World Full of Evil

To Timothy Pickering, September 16, 1803

Explaining a Plan of Government

THE DUEL, 1804

From Aaron Burr, June 18, 1804

Origins of a Dispute

To Aaron Burr, June 20, 1804

Declining to Avow or Disavow

From Aaron Burr, June 21, 1804

New Reasons for a Definite Reply

To Aaron Burr, June 22, 1804

Expressions Indecorous and Improper

From Aaron Burr, June 22, 1804

The Course I Am About to Pursue

Response to a Letter from William P. Van Ness, June 28, 1804

Statement Regarding Financial Situation, July 1, 1804

To Elizabeth Hamilton, July 4, 1804

Fly to the Bosom of Your God

Statement Regarding the Duel with Burr, c. July 10, 1804

To Theodore Sedgwick, July 10, 1804

Our Real Disease; Which Is Democracy

To Elizabeth Hamilton, July 10, 1804

An Obligation Owed

Joint Statement by William P. Van Ness and Nathaniel Pendleton, July 17, 1804

Statement by Nathaniel Pendleton, July 19, 1804

Statement by William P. Van Ness, July 21, 1804

Chronology

Note on the Texts

Notes

Index

Introduction

BY JOANNE B. FREEMAN

Alexander Hamilton had a lot to say. Always. Although not yet fifty when he died, he left behind more than ten thousand letters, newspaper essays, reports, and pamphlets. As published by Columbia University Press from 1961 to 1987, his writings fill twenty-seven hefty volumes.

The Essential Hamilton offers a carefully chosen selection of his writings, including an abundance of personal letters from throughout Hamilton’s life, along with a few of his pamphlets, some newspaper essays, and a representative sampling of his major papers as Secretary of the Treasury. Taken together, they are a window into Hamilton’s brief and crowded life.

That life is worth exploring for many reasons. One of the nation’s leading Founders, Hamilton profoundly shaped the new republic. It’s impossible to understand the nation’s founding without considering his policies and politics—though it’s important to note that he was one voice among many, a reminder that the United States was born of debate and compromise, core components of a democratic politics. Given his flaws and excesses, studying Hamilton is also a reminder that the Founders were all too human, and therefore fallible; there was no guarantee that their experiment in government would succeed. And of course, Hamilton’s dramatic life makes for good reading. Born in obscurity in the Caribbean, battling seemingly unbeatable odds, a one-man army of game-changing policies with a risqué love life who fell meteorically from power and died in a duel: Hamilton’s trajectory of highs and lows seems like the stuff of fiction.

The best way to get to know this complex character is through his writings, though the portrait that emerges isn’t always favorable: Hamilton was a notoriously difficult man. His politics and policies alone earned him a lifetime of controversy; in many ways, he was an unapologetic extremist. In a nation that had just broken away from a monarchy and was wary of centralized power, Hamilton was an unfailingly ardent advocate of a strong national government. Some considered him a monarchist aiming to subvert the newborn republic. Others distrusted his dealings with moneyed men and his obvious interest in courting the wealthy and powerful to support the new government. And many disapproved of his habit of seeking military solutions to political problems; he was sometimes far too eager to stifle political protest with armed force. For these reasons and more, Hamilton was the lightning rod of Washington’s administration.

His politicking was no less abrasive. Hamilton practiced a hard-edged style of politics, savaging his foes in newspapers and pamphlets while aggressively advancing his plans behind the scenes. His relentless promotion of his financial program as Secretary of the Treasury inspired an organized and angry opposition in the national government and beyond. Alarmed at Hamilton’s focus on centralizing power and attracting moneyed men, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Representative James Madison actively opposed him, inviting newspaper editor Philip Freneau to move to the nation’s capital to start the anti-Hamiltonian National Gazette. Congressional opponents also took a strong stand, combatting Hamilton’s proposals and accusing him of financial malfeasance. By 1792, Hamiltonian Federalists and Jeffersonian Republicans were at war—a war that would worsen as the escalating French Revolution tangled domestic politics on American shores.

It’s tempting to sum up the period’s politics as a dramatic clash of titans: Hamilton versus Jefferson, the brash attack dog versus the congenial Virginia gentleman. But the divide between the two men was more than personal. They represented opposing views of the nation’s future that extended far beyond them. Many—like Jefferson—desired a limited national government and a largely agrarian nation, and trusted a more democratic politics. Others—like Hamilton—envisioned a manufacturing nation headed by a powerful national government, and distrusted the tides of democracy. Convinced that Hamilton’s policies would create a New World polity as corrupt as its Old World predecessors, Jeffersonian Republicans never wavered in their opposition. Hamiltonian Federalists didn’t waver in fighting back. Hamilton’s fist-clenched belligerence throughout this conflict and beyond is amply apparent in his writings.

Combine Hamilton’s policies and politicking with his strong personality—impulsive, touchy, arrogant, ambition-driven, and rarely heeding (or even asking for) advice—and you begin to see why he lived a life of conflict. When restrained and channeled, these qualities fueled his remarkably rapid rise to power. But taken too far, they were self-destructive. It’s for good reason that over the course of his life, Hamilton was involved in ten affairs of honor (near-duels) before his fatal duel with Aaron Burr, probably an all-time record for a first-rank Founder.

Elizabeth Hamilton was by his side through it all. The second daughter of wealthy New York landholder Philip Schuyler, she was a calming presence and a pillar of strength in Hamilton’s all too harried life. His letters to her in this edition show the highs and lows of their relationship, from their flirtatious courtship to their close companionship of later years. Hamilton’s notorious Reynolds Pamphlet also appears in these pages. An attempt to refute charges of illicit financial speculation by confessing to adultery, it did his reputation no favors. Brash, defensive, stunningly frank, and argued with lawyerly precision, it puts many of Hamilton’s strengths and weaknesses on display.

As a friend, Hamilton could be equally trying, though he could be warm and charming when he chose. This was particularly true in his wartime friendship with his fellow aide-de-camp John Laurens. A newcomer to North America with few connections and little money or influence, Hamilton poured his fears and frustrations into letters to Laurens; these letters—many of them included in this edition—are among Hamilton’s most open and emotional. Hamilton’s letters to Elizabeth’s older sister Angelica are equally revealing. Accomplished and savvy with a razor-sharp wit, Angelica was Hamilton’s match in many ways. His playful letters to her give a taste of their flirtatious friendship.

Hamilton’s complex relationship with George Washington also unfolds in these pages. The two men got to know each other during the Revolution, with Hamilton working by Washington’s side as an aide-de-camp. Over time, they grew to trust and respect each other, each man discovering the other’s strengths and weaknesses. They were allies more than friends, with a shared sense of the urgent need to bolster what they believed to be the nation’s weak foundations. During his first term as president, Washington struggled mightily to remain neutral in the war between his Secretary of the Treasury and his Secretary of State. But in the end, Washington’s preference for Hamilton’s views was clear.

This isn’t to say that their relationship was always sunny. Hamilton was never comfortable with authority figures, and he sometimes chafed at his dependence on Washington, as in 1781, when he quit his post as Washington’s aide after a petty argument; Hamilton’s defensive account of that dispute is in these pages. And during Washington’s presidency, Hamilton sometimes pushed beyond where Washington was willing to go. But overall, their political partnership was firm and long-standing, profoundly shaping the nation’s first decade under the Constitution.

There’s more in these pages. We see Hamilton as the affectionate father of eight children (though Elizabeth did most of the work in raising the Hamilton brood). We see the decline of his political career, and the sadness that infused his later life. And finally, we see the unfolding of his fatal duel with Aaron Burr; their letters of negotiation, along with their seconds’ accounts of the duel, bring Hamilton’s life—and this collection—to a close.

A Brief and Crowded Life

To fully understand Hamilton’s writings, you have to read them in the context of his life, because his life course was shaped by his origins. Hamilton was an ambitious striver in a world of rigid social rankings. Although this hierarchy was beginning to crumble in late eighteenth-century America, for a poor and illegitimate orphan from the Caribbean, gaining status and position took work.

That work started early. When Hamilton was seventeen, working as a trading company clerk on the island of St. Croix, his obvious intelligence and writerly skill inspired locals to collect a charitable fund to send him to North America for an education. As luck would have it, he arrived in New York City just as the American Revolution was getting under way. Plunging into the struggle while still a student at King’s College (now Columbia University), he championed the colonial cause in pamphlets. One of them—A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress—is included in this collection.

But although Hamilton’s greatest strength was the power of his prose, it was military glory that inspired his passions in these early years. As a fourteen-year-old living on St. Croix, he confessed as much to his friend Edward Stevens, noting: I wish there was a war. To Hamilton, an officer’s commission would be his gateway to the world, getting him out of the Caribbean and giving him a chance to make a name for himself.

In 1776, the New York Provincial Congress opened that door by granting him command of an artillery company, which fought at the battles of Trenton and Princeton. But one year later, it was his writing—not his fighting—that brought him to the attention of Commander-in-Chief George Washington. Washington was in desperate need of skilled aides-de-camp—men who could write, act, and occasionally think for him as the occasion demanded. Hamilton was an ideal fit. A swift and powerful writer whose intelligence enabled him to anticipate Washington’s thoughts and needs, he was invaluable at headquarters. Although they parted in anger in 1781, Hamilton briefly returned to army life later that year, when Washington gave him a field command at the battle of Yorktown.

Throughout this period, Hamilton was writing letters to political movers and shakers, filled with his ideas for reforming the new nation’s government and finances. Never shy about promoting himself and his abilities, Hamilton was his own best advocate during these years, impressing the wealthy and powerful, and facilitating his rapid rise in the process. His private life also blossomed during the war. In 1780, he met Elizabeth Schuyler (whom he called Betsey in their younger years). They married in 1781. Not long after leaving the army, he took up a new profession, studying law, passing the bar, and beginning a practice in New York City. The Hamiltons had their first child—Philip—in 1782.

The 1780s was a busy and worrying decade for Hamilton. In addition to lawyering, he served in a number of public posts, including some time as a New York delegate to the Confederation Congress. Time and again, Hamilton concluded that the nation needed a far more powerful government; he was not only one of the nation’s most ardent nationalists, but also one of its earliest.

The debate over creating a new constitution was the high point of Hamilton’s public career in this decade. At the Constitutional Convention, he consistently pushed to centralize the government, with his campaign coming to a head on June 18, 1787, when he delivered a reportedly six-hour-long speech detailing his own plan for a new constitution. Far too centralized to be adopted (it included both a national executive and senators who served for life during good behavior), it earned Hamilton enduring fame of a sort that he didn’t desire. For the rest of his life, enemies deemed this speech the ultimate proof that Hamilton was bent on converting the young republic into a monarchy.

Hamilton left the Convention with serious doubts about the stability of republican governance. Even so, he plunged into the ratification debate, joining with John Jay and James Madison to write a series of eighty-five newspaper essays explaining and defending the new Constitution. Dashed off in a hurry, sometimes with the printer standing by, Hamilton’s fifty-one Federalist essays were an impressive accomplishment; even today, they are his best known writings.

With the launching of the new government in 1789, newly inaugurated President George Washington made Hamilton the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury, confronting him with an enormous task. There was no national financial system in place. Rather, there were disorganized war debts from thirteen states, and each state had handled its debts differently—or not handled them much at all. In addition, the new United States had no national credit, a staggering war debt of its own, and a desperate need to gain a reputation as a trustworthy partner in finance, trade, and politics. Establishing America’s public credit became one of Hamilton’s main goals during his time in office.

In many ways, creating a national financial system from scratch was a Hamiltonian dream come true. Crafting enormous plans, shepherding them through, minding the details without sacrificing his vision: these were some of Hamilton’s fortes. His financial plan had three main pieces: the national assumption of state debts incurred during the Revolution, so debtors would look to the national government rather than state governments for payment; the establishment of a national bank to ease the government’s handling of money and invite the wealthy and powerful to invest in the new nation; and the encouragement of manufacturing. In many ways, Hamilton looked to Great Britain as a model, considering it a bastion of stability and centralized power.

In 1795, he reached a stopping point. With the nation’s finances in order and his family’s finances suffering, Hamilton resigned his office and went back to practicing law in New York. But he kept a hand in the political game. Eager to steer national policy under Washington’s successor, John Adams, he secretly advised Adams’s cabinet from behind the scenes. When Adams found out, he flew into a rage and forced out Hamilton’s supporters, denouncing Hamilton as a Creole Bastard leading a British faction. Hamilton responded with a pamphlet savaging Adams’s character, probably hoping to replace Adams with a more pliable Federalist candidate in the pending presidential election of 1800. Instead, Hamilton divided his party and helped the Jeffersonian Republicans secure a victory. Condemned as radically deficient in discretion by fellow Federalists, Hamilton fell from power.

His later years were filled with sadness. With the nation moving toward Jefferson’s more democratic vision for the republic, Hamilton began to refer to himself as a disappointed politician. Then, in 1801, tragedy struck; his oldest son Philip was killed in a duel defending his father’s name. The Hamiltons never fully recovered.

Three years later, in 1804, Hamilton’s fifteen-year rivalry with Aaron Burr came to a head. The two men had been political opponents since the launching of the national government in 1789. Convinced that Burr was a dangerous opportunist, Hamilton considered it his religious duty to oppose Burr’s political career. When Hamilton opposed Burr’s election as Governor of New York in 1804, Burr could take no more. Armed with a newspaper clipping detailing some harsh claims made by Hamilton at a dinner party, Burr sent Hamilton a letter of inquiry opening an affair of honor. They met in Weehawken, New Jersey, on July 11. Fatally wounded, Hamilton died the next day.

His writings are a testament to a gifted man who was his own worst enemy—a man of extreme politics and impulsive choices who left his enduring stamp on the new nation.

A User’s Guide to Reading Hamilton’s Mail

The documents in this book offer a window into Hamilton’s life and world. But it can be tricky to pull history from letters that are centuries old. Sometimes the wording is difficult. Often the immediate context is missing. It may seem impossible to read between the lines.

But there’s plenty to see if you know where to look. Each letter represents a moment in time when someone sat down with a pen in hand and a purpose in mind and recorded their thoughts on paper. To understand a personal letter, you need to try to see that moment through the writer’s eyes. The following questions will show you where to look.

1. Start with the basics. What is the date of the letter? What was happening in Hamilton’s life when he wrote it? What recent personal or political events may have shaped what he was writing?

2. Where was Hamilton when he wrote the letter? On the road? At home? In his Treasury office in Philadelphia? How might that have shaped his letter’s contents or style?

3. How does the letter open and close? Dear Sir was a standard opening. My dear friend is a lot of emotion for an eighteenth-century letter. Your humble and obedient servant was a standard closing. Affectionately yours suggests a lot of affection.

4. What was Hamilton’s relationship with the recipient? Was he or she a friend? A political ally? A political enemy? (The letter’s opening and closing might offer clues.) Bear that in mind when considering what Hamilton does—and doesn’t—say.

5. How was the letter delivered? Was it dropped in the mail? Delivered by a messenger? Eighteenth-century letters sometimes state this, and for good reason. The mail was notoriously leaky; letters were often stolen and read by political enemies. So hand-delivered letters were assumed to be safer bets for secure information and the reader needed to know as much—and so do you.

6. What is the tone of the letter? Does it sound angry? Impatient? Rushed? (None of these would be surprising coming from Hamilton.) Is it playful? Gossipy? Urgent? Gut feelings count when decoding correspondence.

7. What does Hamilton want? What prompted his letter? Was he trying to convince someone of something? To refute or spread an accusation? To hatch a political plot? To contact friends and family? To flirt? To rant?

Take a few minutes to consider these questions, and you’ll be surprised what you can see between the lines.

THE WEST INDIES, THE REVOLUTION, AND THE CONFEDERATION 1769–1786

The earliest letter that we have in Hamilton’s hand (To Edward Stevens, November 11, 1769), written when he was fourteen years old, maps his character. His soaring ambition, his love of the military, his tendency to frame his world in plans, his constant concern with his reputation, his willingness to risk his life to better his station: they’re all there.

Poor, illegitimate, and orphaned at a young age, Hamilton had to climb his way out of disadvantage. The letters in this section show how he managed it. His account of a hurricane that swept through St. Croix (To The Royal Danish American Gazette, September 6, 1772) helped inspire locals to contribute to a charitable fund to send him to North America for an education. Arriving at the dawning of the American Revolution, he pushed his way to prominence, first as a political pamphleteer and then as a soldier, serving as the captain of a New York artillery company. Hamilton’s blend of writing skills and military know-how made him an ideal aide-de-camp; thus his appointment to join Commander-in-Chief George Washington’s staff as an aide in 1777. Throughout this period, Hamilton forged his reputation with his pen, a good deal of aggressive self-promotion, and a laser-like focus on the realities of governance, finance, and power.

As young as he was, Hamilton already had formed many of his core political ideals. His 1774 pamphlet A Full Vindication of the Measures of the Congress shows the concerns for rights of property and person that swept him into the Revolution; the British Parliament was arbitrarily depriving American colonists of their rights and refusing to hear their protests, Hamilton argued, a situation that demanded action. That same concern for order is apparent in his letters to John Jay (November 26, 1775) and to James Duane (September 3, 1780). Both letters show Hamilton’s unshakeable belief in the need for a strong national government capable of channeling popular passions, his distrust of the masses, and his interest in finance as a tool to shape society. All told, Hamilton was a law-and-order revolutionary who would become a conservative extremist in years to come.

But Hamilton had more than politics on his mind. In 1780, he married Elizabeth Schuyler, a daughter of powerful New York landholder Philip Schuyler. The three letters to Elizabeth in this section (August 1780; September 25, 1780; October 2, 1780) offer a glimpse of Hamilton in courtship; he’s alternately charming and insecure, flirtatious and mindful of how marriages go wrong.

Hamilton’s correspondence from this period also shows something of his life at headquarters. We see his close friendship with fellow aide John Laurens; his letters to Laurens (c. April 1779; January 8, 1780) are intimate and confessional, full of highs and lows. A letter to John Jay (March 14, 1779) shows Hamilton’s full support for Laurens’s plan to enlist enslaved men as soldiers. In Hamilton’s letters to Elizabeth, we see him grappling with the unfolding of General Benedict Arnold’s treason and mourning the death of British Major John André, hanged for his involvement in Arnold’s plot, but much admired by Hamilton as a model of the kind of officer and gentleman that he longed to be.

We also see the dynamics of Hamilton’s complex relationship with Washington. In 1781, the two men quarreled and parted; Hamilton’s nervous letter of explanation to his father-in-law Philip Schuyler (February 18, 1781) reveals Washington’s affection for his young aide on the one hand, and Hamilton’s discomfort with Washington’s favoritism toward him on the other. The rough edges of that relationship are apparent in Hamilton’s letter to his friend and fellow aide James McHenry (February 18, 1781). Washington shall for once at least repent his ill-humour, Hamilton vowed. But their estrangement was short-lived. By 1783, the two men were allies once again, worried about the new nation’s survival and making plans for its preservation.

MY AMBITION IS PREVALENT

 To

Edward Stevens

Dear Edward St Croix Novemr. 11th 1769

This just serves to acknowledge receipt of yours per Cap Lowndes which was delivered me Yesterday. The truth of Cap Lightbourn & Lowndes information is now verifyd 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 having soon the happiness of seeing us all, I wish, for an accomplishment of your hopes provided they are Concomitant with your welfare, otherwise not, tho doubt whether I shall be Present or not for to confess my weakness, Ned, my Ambition is prevalent that I contemn the grov’ling and condition of a Clerk or the like, to which my Fortune &c. condemns me and would willingly risk my life tho’ not my Character to exalt my Station. Im confident, Ned that my Youth excludes me from any hopes of immediate Preferment nor do I desire it, but I mean to prepare the way for futurity. Im no Philosopher you see and may be jusly said to Build Castles in the Air. My Folly makes me ashamd and beg youll Conceal it, yet Neddy we have seen such Schemes successfull when the Projector is Constant I shall Conclude saying I wish there was a War.

I am Dr Edward Yours Alex Hamilton

PS I this moment receivd yours by William Smith and am pleasd to see you Give such Close Application to Study.

ACCOUNT OF A HURRICANE

To The Royal Danish American Gazette

Honoured Sir, St. Croix, Sept. 6, 1772

I take up my pen just to give you an imperfect account of one of the most dreadful Hurricanes 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 and destruction. Its 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 it 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 numbers utterly ruined; whole families running about the streets, unknowing where to find a place of shelter; the sick exposed to the keeness of water and air without a bed to lie upon, or a dry covering to their bodies; and our harbours 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 surprizingly 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 the following self-discourse.

Where now, oh! vile worm, is all thy boasted fortitude and resolution? What is become of thine 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 elements—the discord of clouds? Oh! impotent presumptuous fool! how durst 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 approving 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 trusted.

He who gave the winds to blow, and the lightnings to rage—even him have I always loved and served. His precepts have I observed. His 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 fullness 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 tenfold 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 and distress of all kinds. And Oh! thou wretch, look still a little further; see the gulph of eternal misery 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 suggestions of too much natural fear, or a conscience over-burthened with crimes of an uncommon 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 inconsistent with human nature.

Our distressed, helpless condition taught us humility and 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 every thing 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 prayer. The Lightning ceases. The winds are appeased. The warring elements are reconciled and all things promise peace. The darkness is dispell’d 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 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 where’er 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 on the mothers knee for food! See the unhappy mothers anxiety. Her poverty denies relief, her breast heaves with pangs of maternal pity, her heart is bursting, the tears gush down her cheeks. Oh sights of woe! Oh distress unspeakable! My heart bleeds, but I have no power to solace! O ye, who revel in affluence, see the afflictions of humanity and bestow your superfluity to ease them. Say not, we have suffered also, and thence withold your compassion. What are your sufferings compared to those? Ye have still more than enough left. Act wisely. Succour 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 issued several very salutary and humane regulations, and both in his publick and private measures, has shewn himself the Man.

A Full Vindication of the Measures of the Congress,

from the Calumnies of their Enemies;

In Answer to A Letter, Under the Signature of A. W. Farmer.

Whereby His Sophistry is exposed, his Cavils confuted, his

Artifices detected, and his Wit ridiculed; in a General Address

To the Inhabitants of America, And A Particular Address

To the Farmers of the Province of New-York.

Veritas magna est & prœvalebit.

Truth is powerful, and will prevail.

FRIENDS AND COUNTRYMEN, New-York 1774

It was hardly to be expected that any man could be so presumptuous, as openly to controvert the equity, wisdom, and authority of the measures, adopted by the congress: an assembly truly respectable on every account! Whether we consider the characters of the men, who composed it; the number, and dignity of their constituents, or the important ends for which they were appointed. But, however improbable such a degree of presumption might have seemed, we find there are some, in whom it exists. Attempts are daily making to diminish the influence of their decisions, and prevent the salutary effects, intended by them. The impotence of such insidious efforts is evident from the general indignation they are treated with; so that no material ill-consequences can be dreaded from them. But lest they should have a tendency to mislead, and prejudice the minds of a few; it cannot be deemed altogether useless to bestow some notice upon them.

And first, let me ask these restless spirits, whence arises that violent antipathy they seem to entertain, not only to the natural rights of mankind; but to common sense and common modesty. That they are enemies to the natural rights of mankind is manifest, because they wish to see one part of their species enslaved by another. That they have an invincible aversion to common sense is apparent in many respects: They endeavour to persuade us, that the absolute sovereignty of parliament does not imply our absolute slavery; that it is a Christian duty to submit to be plundered of all we have, merely because some of our fellow-subjects are wicked enough to require it of us, that slavery, so far from being a great evil, is a great blessing; and even, that our contest with Britain is founded entirely upon the petty duty of 3 pence per pound on East India tea; whereas the whole world knows, it is built upon this interesting question, whether the inhabitants of Great-Britain have a right to dispose of the lives and properties of the inhabitants of America, or not? And lastly, that these men have discarded all pretension to common modesty, is clear from hence, first, because they, in the plainest terms, call an august body of men, famed for their patriotism and abilities, fools or knaves, and of course the people whom they represented cannot be exempt from the same opprobrious appellations; and secondly, because they set themselves up as standards of wisdom and probity, by contradicting and censuring the public voice in favour of those men.

A little consideration will convince us, that the congress instead of having ignorantly misunderstood, carelessly neglected, or basely betrayed the interests of the colonies, have, on the contrary, devised and recommended the only effectual means to secure the freedom, and establish the future prosperity of America upon a solid basis. If we are not free and happy hereafter, it must proceed from the want of integrity and resolution, in executing what they have concerted; not from the temerity or impolicy of their determinations.

Before I proceed to confirm this assertion by the most obvious arguments, I will premise a few brief remarks. The only distinction between freedom and slavery consists in this: In the former state, a man is governed by the laws to which he has given his consent, either in person, or by his representative: In the latter, he is governed by the will of another. In the one case his life and property are his own, in the other, they depend upon the pleasure of a master. It is easy to discern which of these two states is preferable. No man in his senses can hesitate in choosing to be free, rather than a slave.

That Americans are intitled to freedom, is incontestible upon every rational principle. All men have one common original: they participate in one common nature, and consequently have one common right. No reason can be assigned why one man should exercise any power, or pre-eminence over his fellow creatures more than another; unless they have voluntarily vested him with it. Since then, Americans have not by any act of their’s impowered the British Parliament to make laws for them, it follows they can have no just authority to do it.

Besides the clear voice of natural justice in this respect, the fundamental principles of the English constitution are in our favour. It has been repeatedly demonstrated, that the idea of legislation, or taxation, when the subject is not represented, is inconsistent with that. Nor is this all, our charters, the express conditions on which our progenitors relinquished their native countries, and came to settle in this, preclude every claim of ruling and taxing us without our assent.

Every subterfuge that sophistry has been able to invent, to evade or obscure this truth, has been refuted by the most conclusive reasonings; so that we may pronounce it a matter of undeniable certainty, that the pretensions of Parliament are contradictory to the law of nature, subversive of the British constitution, and destructive of the faith of the most solemn compacts.

What then is the subject of our controversy with the mother country? It is this, whether we shall preserve that security to our lives and properties, which the law of nature, the genius of the British constitution, and our charters afford us; or whether we shall resign them into the hands of the British House of Commons, which is no more privileged to dispose of them than the Grand Mogul? What can actuate those men, who labour to delude any of us into an opinion, that the object of contention between the parent state and the colonies is only three pence duty upon tea? or that the commotions in America originate in a plan, formed by some turbulent men to erect it into a republican government? The parliament claims a right to tax us in all cases whatsoever: Its late acts are in virtue of that claim. How ridiculous then is it to affirm, that we are quarrelling for the trifling sum of three pence a pound on tea; when it is evidently the principle against which we contend.

The design of electing members to represent us in general congress, was, that the wisdom of America might be collected in devising the most proper and expedient means to repel this atrocious invasion of our rights. It has been accordingly done. Their decrees are binding upon all, and demand a religious observance.

We did not, especially in this province, circumscribe them by any fixed boundary, and therefore as they cannot be said to have exceeded the limits of their authority, their act must be esteemed the act of their constituents. If it should be objected, that they have not answered the end of their election; but have fallen upon an improper and ruinous mode of proceeding: I reply, by asking, Who shall be the judge? Shall any individual oppose his private sentiment to the united counsels of men, in whom America has reposed so high a confidence? The attempt must argue no small degree of arrogance and self-sufficiency.

Yet this attempt has been made, and it is become in some measure necessary to vindicate the conduct of this venerable assembly from the aspersions of men, who are their adversaries, only because they are foes to America.

When the political salvation of any community is depending, it is incumbent upon those who are set up as its guardians, to embrace such measures, as have justice, vigour, and a probability of success to recommend them: If instead of this, they take those methods which are in themselves feeble, and little likely to succeed; and may, through a defect in vigour, involve the community in still greater danger; they may be justly considered as its betrayers. It is not enough in times of eminent peril to use only possible means of preservation: Justice and sound policy dictate the use of probable means.

The only scheme of opposition, suggested by those, who have been, and are averse from a non-importation and non-exportation agreement, is, by REMONSTRANCE and PETITION. The authors and abettors of this scheme, have never been able to invent a single argument to prove the likelihood of its succeeding. On the other hand, there are many standing facts, and valid considerations against it.

In the infancy of the present dispute, we had recourse to this method only. We addressed the throne in the most loyal and respectful manner, in a legislative capacity; but what was the consequence? Our address was treated with contempt and neglect. The first American congress did the same, and met with similar treatment. The total repeal of the stamp act, and the partial repeal of the revenue acts took place, not because the complaints of America were deemed just and reasonable; but because these acts were found to militate against the commercial interests of Great Britain: This was the declared motive of the repeal.

These instances are sufficient for our purpose; but they derive greater validity and force from the following:

The legal assembly of Massachusetts Bay, presented, not long since, a most humble, dutiful, and earnest petition to his Majesty, requesting the dismission of a governor, highly odious to the people, and whose misrepresentations they regarded as one chief source of all their calamities. Did they succeed in their request? No, it was treated with the greatest indignity, and stigmatized as a seditious, vexatious, and scandalous libel.

I know the men I have to deal with will acquiesce in this stigma. Will they also dare to calumniate the noble and spirited petition that came from the Mayor and Aldermen of the city of London? Will they venture to justify that unparalelled stride of power, by which popery and arbitrary dominion were established in Canada? The citizens of London remonstrated against it; they signified its repugnancy to the principles of the revolution; but like ours, their complaints were unattended to. From thence we may learn how little dependence ought to be placed on this method of obtaining the redress of grievances.

There is less reason now than ever to expect deliverance, in this way, from the hand of oppression. The system of slavery, fabricated against America, cannot at this time be considered as the effect of inconsideration and rashness. It is the offspring of mature deliberation. It has been fostered by time, and strengthened by every artifice human subtilty is capable of. After the claims of parliament had lain dormant for awhile, they are again resumed and prosecuted with more than common ardour. The Premier has advanced too far to recede with safety: He is deeply interested to execute his purpose, if possible: we know he has declared, that he will never desist, till he has brought America to his feet; and we may conclude, nothing but necessity will induce him to abandon his aims. In common life, to retract an error even in the beginning, is no easy task. Perseverance confirms us in it, and rivets the difficulty; but in a public station, to have been in an error, and to have persisted in it, when it is detected, ruins both reputation and fortune. To this we may add, that disappointment and opposition inflame the minds of men, and attach them, still more, to their mistakes.

What can we represent which has not already been represented? what petitions can we offer, that have not already been offered? The rights of America, and the injustice of parliamentary pretensions have been clearly and repeatedly stated, both in and out of