Palaces Out Of Paragraphs

English 1102: Hamilton and Writing

Eliza + Hamilton + History: A Historical Annotation Project

by

By: Adair Garrett

[Camp near Dobbs Ferry, New York]
[July 10, 1781][1]
The day before yesterday, my angel[2], I arrived here, but for the want of an opportunity could not write you sooner. Indeed, I know of none now, but shall send this to the Quarter Master General[3] to be forwarded by the first conveyance to the care of Col. Hughes.[4] Finding when I came here that nothing was said on the subject of a command, I wrote the General a letter[5] and enclosed him my commission. This morning Tilghman[6] came to me in his name, pressed me to retain my commission, with an assurance that he would endeavor by all means to give me a command[7] nearly such as I could have desired in the present circumstances of the army. Though I know my Betsy[8] would be happy to hear I had rejected this proposal, it is a pleasure my reputation[9] would not permit me to afford her. I consented to retain my commission and accept my command.[10]
I hope my beloved Betsy will dismiss all apprehensions for my safety; unhappily for public affairs, there seems to be little prospect of activity, and if there should be Heaven will certainly be propitious to any attachment so tender, so genuine as ours.[11] Heaven will restore me to the bosom of my love[12] and permit me to enjoy with new relish the delights which are centred there. It costs me a great deal to be absent from them, but the privation is certainly only temporary.[13] I impatiently long to hear from you the state of your mind since our painful separation.[14] Be as happy as you can, I entreat you, my amiable, my beloved wife. But let not absence deprive me of the least particle of your affection.[15] Always remember those tender proofs I have so frequently given you of mine and preserve for me unabated the only blessing which can make life of any value to me.[16]
I write your father all the military news.[17] I have barely seen Mr. Carter[18] and delivered him the letters which your amiable father committed to my care. You are of a charming family my Betsy.[19] I shall not easily forget the marks of parting regret which appeared in both your sisters.[20] Assure them of everything my heart is capable of feeling for the lovely sisters of a lovely wife.[21]
I quarter at present by a very polite and very warm invitation with General Lincoln.[22] I experience every mark of esteem from the officers of both armies.[23] As soon as possible, I shall begin housekeeping myself. Mr. Carter and I are four miles asunder. Tomorrow morning I shall see him again.[24] He is in good health and the principal French officers[25] express great satisfaction at his conduct.[26]
My good, my tender, my fond, my excellent Betsy, Adieu. You know not how much it must ever cost me to pronounce this word. God bless and preserve you.[25]
A Hamilton

[New York]
[July 10, 1804][28]
My beloved Eliza
Mrs. Mitchel is the person in the world to whom as a friend I am under the greatest Obligations.[29] I have ⟨not⟩ hitherto done my ⟨duty⟩ to her.[30] But ⟨resolved⟩ to repair my omission as much as ⟨possible,⟩ I have encouraged her to come to ⟨this Country⟩ and intend, if it shall be ⟨in my po⟩wer to render the Evening of her days ⟨c⟩omfortable. But if it shall please God to put this out of my power and to inable you hereafter to be of ⟨s⟩ervice to her, I entreat you to d⟨o⟩ it and to treat ⟨h⟩er with the tenderness of a Sister.[31]
This is my second letter.[32]
The Scrup⟨les of a Christian[33] have deter⟩mined me to expose my own li⟨fe to any⟩ extent rather than subject my s⟨elf to the⟩ guilt of taking the life of ⟨another.⟩[34] This must increase my hazards & redoubles my pangs for you. But you had rather I should die inno⟨c⟩ent than live guilty.[35] Heaven can pre⟨se⟩rve me ⟨and I humbly⟩ hope will ⟨b⟩ut in the contrary ⟨e⟩vent,[36] I charge you to remember that you are a Christian.[37] God’s Will be done.[38] The will of a merciful God must be good.[39]
Once more Adieu[40] My Darling darling Wife[41]
A H

  1. In the summer of 1781, Alexander Hamilton is given control of a New York light infantry division by George Washington.  This infantry took part in the Siege of Yorktown in October of 1781 and later successfully attacked Redoubt Number 10, which contributed to the British surrender. 
  2. Here, Alexander Hamilton speaks to his wife, Elizabeth Schuyler, who had met Hamilton when he was delivering a message to her father.  They met a second time at an officer’s ball during the American Revolution, and were married by 1780. This is one of the earliest letters they sent to each other after marriage and was written almost exactly 23 years before Alexander Hamilton’s duel with Aaron Burr. 
  3. The Quartermaster General at this time was Nathanael Greene, who had gained George Washington’s deep trust by 1778 with his logistical talents and technical understanding of military tactics.  Greene, however, was reluctant to accept the post as Quartermaster general in February of 1778 because he felt that his previous career as a small businessman did not prepare him for what he referred to as the “large field of Business” of war.
  4. Col. Hugh Hughes knew Nathanael Greene personally and congratulated him upon his initial acceptance of his position as Quartermaster General, even though Greene himself was unenthusiastic about the new position. As Quartermaster General, Greene mostly dealt with challenges faced by the army during the Revolutionary War, the greatest of which included the shortage of tools to help the soldiers transport their artillery and their wounded.
  5. Alexander Hamilton had travelled to the camp, where George Washington was stationed, to attempt to obtain some sort of command for the approaching campaign.  He asked Colonel Hugh Hughes to forward his letter to his wife along with a collection of letters to George Washington about attaining a better position. 
  6. Hamilton and Colonel Tench Tilghman kept in contact through letter-writing as well.  In letters to Hamilton, Tilghman expressed deep friendship and love for Hamilton, stating “Between me and thee there is a Gulph, or I should not have been thus long without seeing you” and “…I am not yet weaned from you nor do I desire to be”.  Tilghman also communicated mixed feelings about Hamilton’s wife, Eliza, “I will not present so cold Words as Compliments to Mrs. Hamilton.” His tone, combined with his extremely kind and attached words to Hamilton, led me to speculate that TIlghman may have been gay.  This would account for Tilghman’s desire to “endeavor by all means” to help Hamilton gain the position in the army that he wanted.
  7. Although Hamilton repeatedly tells his wife that he regrets feeling the responsibility to accept this position, his actions show that his ambition often overpowers this regret.  Ever more determined, Hamilton demanded that Washington give him field command because he was not satisfied with his position as staff officer. He hungered for glory and action, a desire that directly conflicted with a settled down life with Eliza. 
  8. Betsy, a childhood nickname for Elizabeth Hamilton, was at her father’s house in Albany.  On August 7, 1781, a group of Tories (who were American colonists who supported the British during the American Revolution) attempted to kidnap Philip Schuyler from this house while Eliza was still staying there. Schuyler at the time was already retired from the Continental Army.  This plan was proposed by Sir John Johnson, who was a prominent Loyalist leader at the time, and another Loyalist suggested that the group plan a kidnapping of a number of patriots. The task of kidnapping Schuyler was to be carried out by Captain John Walden Meyers, but two soldiers and a slave attacked the pursuers, which caused a change in their plans.  Schuyler himself began to shot at the Loyalists from his window, and eventually the kidnappers withdrew. Much of this story was communicated in letters between Philip Schuyler, George Clinton, and George Washington. 
  9. At George Washington’s insistence, Alexander Hamilton became second-in-command of the military even though the president at the time, John Adams, did not want to promote Hamilton in such a way.  Relations between John Adams and Alexander Hamilton were strained, and Adams much preferred contained Burr to opinionated Hamilton. Although Burr outranked Hamilton in many ways, Washington did not promote Burr to become a general, and Burr’s oppositional feelings to Hamilton grew more hostile as a result. 
  10. Hamilton had a passion to fight in the war.  On March 12, 1776, he received authority to raise a company of artillery for the defense of New York City.  This company fought in battles around New York City, eventually going on to fight at the Battles of Trenton and Princeton.  These battles allowed Hamilton’s reputation as an army commander to win him his position as George Washington’s secretary and Aide-de-camp.  
  11. The “Reynolds Pamphlet” of 1797, published by Hamilton himself, exposed that Hamilton had an affair with Maria Reynolds, starting in 1791.  The affair apparently began after Maria told Hamilton that her husband had left her, and Hamilton gave her some money to appease her situation.  Her brought the money to her house, and there they discussed how she would repay him. The affair began in this way, and James Reynolds returned to Maria within the year to demand money from Hamilton for both his silence and access to his wife’s sexuality.  Hamilton ended the affair for good in August of 1792 and made his final payment to her husband. Unfortunately for Hamilton, James Monroe, Frederick Muhlenberg, and Abraham Venable heard that he had paid James Reynolds on multiple occasions, and soon found out about the affair.  The Jeffersonians used this affair to deem Hamilton unfit for public office because of his willingness to both ruin Maria’s feminine virtue and to ignore his marital duty to Eliza because of his belief that it was his privilege to keep a mistress.
  12. Although Hamilton didn’t attend church very frequently, he provided his local church with free legal services.  His wife, Eliza Hamilton, was much more devout and encouraged his family to practice religion seriously. All of their children were baptized, and the family rented pews at Trinity Episcopalian Church.  Hamilton would vary between more devout and less throughout his life, but he always viewed religion as an important aspect of society.
  13. In many documents written by the Jeffersonians after the Reynolds Pamphlet, James Reynolds and Eliza Hamilton were ignored.  The affair was written about as the predator, Hamilton, and the prey, Maria, with Eliza only being occasionally mentioned as evidence for Hamilton’s immodesty.  The tale of a male seducer and female victim was popular during the eighteenth century, and unfortunately for Eliza Hamilton’s reputation, the Reynolds Pamphlet led to a huge public scandal that would test her patience with Alexander Hamilton for years.
  14. Since their early courtship, Alexander Hamilton had always used poetic language in his letters to Eliza.  In a letter dated October 5, 1780, Hamilton begins a letter to Eliza, “I have told you, and I told you truly that I love you too much. You engross my thoughts too intirely to allow me to think of any thing else… I meet you in every dream… Though the period of our reunion in reality approaches it seems further off.” Alexander Hamilton wrote well, a fact established as early as his document describing the West Indies hurricane.  He finishes the letter to Eliza, saying, “May I only be as successful in pleasing you, and may you be as happy as I shall ever wish to make you.”
  15. The Reynolds Pamphlet included information that deeply humiliated Eliza, such as the fact that Alexander brought Maria Reynolds into their home and bed while Eliza was vacationing with their family.  He even included the fact that he had encouraged his wife to stay in Albany on vacation so that he could continue the affair more easily, an intimate detail that exposes Eliza’s misplaced trust in the adulterer.  Newspapers released after the Reynolds Pamphlet implied that Eliza must have been just as wicked as her husband to have married a man who would take part in such an affair. Eliza kept her grudge against the men who originally published Hamilton’s affair until the men died.  Eliza, although upset and shamed by the affair for years, forgave her husband.
  16. Hamilton and his wife lived in a mansion in Harlem.  In “The Grange”, the mansion where they lived, they raised multiple children, including their own and a little girl whose parents had died in the revolutionary war.  This estate is now open to the public as a New York State museum since Eliza Hamilton saved it from public auction in 1804.
  17. General Philip Schuyler, Hamilton’s father-in-law, had been one of New York’s first U.S. Senators.  In 1791, Aaron Burr switched parties and ran for Schuyler’s position and replaced him as senator, deepening Hamilton’s resentment for the politician.  Six years later, Hamilton’s political allies, the Federalists, controlled the legislature. This political climate allowed the prominent Schuyler to replace Burr.
  18. Mr. Carter, also known as John B. Church, was married to Eliza Hamilton’s sister, Angelica.  Hamilton and Carter kept up a correspondence to share information about the army and their shared family depending upon which position each kept at the time.  In a letter to Hamilton in May of 1781, Carter acknowledges some awareness of Hamilton’s impulsivity: “I perceive our amiable Sister has great confidence in your Virtue or the Force of her own Charms.”
  19. Alexander Hamilton was also very close to Eliza’s sister, Angelica, and wrote frequently to her.  He chose words carefully in his letters; for example, in a letter sent to Angelica on December 6, 1787, he says, “Betsey sends her love. I do not choose to say joins in mine… Despairing of seeing you here my only hope is that the jumble of events bring us together in Europe. I speak not from any immediate project of the sort but from a combination of possible circumstances.”  He carefully manages to convey flirtation and flattery in a subtle manner while acknowledging both her husband, Mr. John Church, as well as her sister. He also ventures to tease her for flirting with him: “You ladies despise the pedantry of punctuation. There was a most critical comma in your last letter.  It is my interest that it should have been designed; but I presume it was accidental.” This kind of writings implies a sort of line that Alexander and Angelica both enjoyed toeing through careful correspondence.
  20. In letters from Angelica to Eliza, Angelica often times alluded to her close relationship with Hamilton but encouraged for Eliza not to be jealous.  Instead, Angelica expressed some jealousy for Eliza’s marriage with “so clever and so good a companion”. No matter how close both Angelica and Hamilton acknowledged their friendship to be, there has not been an indication of a sexual affair between the two.
  21. Alexander Hamilton met all three of Major General Philip Schuyler’s daughters during the winter of 1779-1780.  He described his feelings for Eliza in a letter to her sister, Angelica: “She is most unmercifully handsome… She has good nature, affability and vivacity unembellished with that charming frivolousness which is justly deemed one of the principal accomplishments of belle. In short she is so strange a creature, that she possesses all the beauties, virtues, and graces of her sex without any of those amiable defects which from their general prevalence are esteemed by connoisseurs necessary shades in the character of a fine woman.”  Eliza accepted his courtship, and they were married on December 14, 1780.
  22. General Lincoln refers to Benjamin Lincoln, who rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1772.  Within four years, Lincoln was appointed to many leadership posts within the militia, including major general.  He joined the Continental forces to reinforce George Washington’s troops in October of 1776. Lincoln was sent to other parts of the country to fight and negotiate before returning to Washington’s army once again in June of 1781.  Lincoln and Hamilton corresponded for years after this, and many of these letters include the detailed procedures that Hamilton used to manage public funds.
  23. Hamilton, while more well known for his accomplishments as Secretary of the Treasury, preferred to gain success in the armed forces.  Hamilton received his marks from George Washington in his role as aide-de-camp, but after this letter was written, he was never promoted to a higher rank than colonel.  His courage and bravery in the Battle of Yorktown (occurring in October, 1781) was praised by George Washington. This attack on British defenses was Hamilton’s last offensive decision in the American army during the Revolutionary War.
  24. There is mild indication in a letters between Hamilton and Carter that they were not as close as Hamilton and Carter’s wife, Angelica.  Carter, in a letter addressed to Hamilton in May of 1781, states “I wish to be much informed, as indepent of myself a certain Lady… is very anxious for your Happiness and Glory.”
  25. French officers were an important resource for many prominent American military leaders at this time.  French officer Villemanzy was commissary of war with the French army at this time, and Francois Jean, who Carter and Hamilton knew personally, was the major general for the French forces in America at this time.  Carter informed Hamilton that many French ships were sailing into America to bring items and resources for the army. These French soldiers also carried the letters that allowed Carter and Hamilton to continue their correspondence.
  26. During the Revolutionary War, Lafayette’s men often fought with American soldiers.  Throughout 1781, Hamilton almost exclusively worked with the commander of Lafayette’s Division, and the collaborative relationship between Lafayette and Hamilton is conveyed in the first act of Hamilton: An American Musical.  In the Siege of Yorktown, Lafayette’s Division fought with American men under Hamilton’s leadership to attack Redoubt 10.
  27. The ending of this letter contrasts the ending to Hamilton’s letters to Angelica.  Hamilton’s letters to Eliza tend to be full of directly stated affection and straightforward declarations of love and admiration, while his letters to Angelica are full of references to previously discussed topics, inside jokes, and even manipulated meanings affected by carefully placed punctuation.  In letters to Angelica, he also discloses many more details about his position, role, and work than he does to Eliza, possibly because he saw Angelica more as his intellectual equal.
  28. On July 11, 1804, Hamilton duels Aaron Burr on the banks of the Hudson River, and is shot in the abdomen. The following day, on July 12, 1804, Hamilton meets his untimely death. His death left Eliza to struggle to feed their seven children (and one adopted child) while keeping up their family’s philanthropy.  Eliza faced tragedies for years, including the death of her eldest son, husband, father, and the nervous breakdown of her eldest daughter.  Even with all of this opposition, she managed to publicize Hamilton’s life and legacy within the 50 years that she lived after Hamilton’s death.
  29. After his death, Hamilton left a short list to Nathaniel Pendleton of items to deliver or do after his death.  The eighth item on this list included a letter to Mrs. Mitchell for $400. Ann Mitchell, Hamilton’s cousin, sent Hamilton money from the estate of her father (James Lytton).  This money enabled Hamilton to migrate to North American and attend college, which Hamilton is probably referencing as the reason that he is under the “greatest Obligations” to her. 
  30. Ann Lytton Venton, Ann Mitchell’s name after her first marriage, was most likely Alexander Hamilton’s sole benefactor for his education.  She sent Hamilton gifts of both money and food, and sent him money to travel to America before his famous account of the West Indian hurricane of 1772 was even published.  Her gifts to him were more than enough to cover grammar school, and she continued to donate money to his education as he entered King’s College. Hamilton worked to reduce the cost of his education by attempting to complete his requirements as quickly as he was allowed to, and he was rejected from certain colleges before of these demands.  He graduated in two and a half years, using the remainder of his educational fund to work on his own company in 1776. 
  31. After Hamilton’s death, Ann Mitchell moved in to live with Hamilton’s widow, Eliza.  Mrs. Mitchell was the first daughter of Mary Uppington and John Faucette, Hamilton’s maternal grandparents.  Ann and Rachel (Hamilton’s mother) were the only two of the seven Faucette children who survived childhood due to malaria, dysentery, yellow fever, and other dangers.  Ann Faucette married the plantor James Lytton and left the Nevis hills, leaving Rachel Faucette and their two parents behind. 
  32. Here, Alexander Hamilton reference a letter dated July 4, 1804, which was not to be delivered unless he was killed in the duel with Aaron Burr.  The letter he references may have been a part of the list he left to Nathaniel Pendleton to give in case of his death in the duel with Burr. Hamilton expresses desire to not take part in the duel because of his wife and children, but also expresses the feeling that he has no choice but to battle Burr.  This letter encourages Eliza to take solace in her Christian faith, which she does wholeheartedly, and Hamilton seems to find relief in the knowledge that Eliza’s faith will help her overcome the grief of his own death. This letter is also that where he calls Eliza “best of wives and best of Women”, one of his most popular and memorable phrases. 
  33. Hamilton’s relationship with religion had involved significantly up to this point.  Hamilton may have been affected by his study of Plutarch’s Parallel Lives.  Reading this author was common among different influential leaders at this time, including Benjamin Franklin and John Adams.  Earlier in his political career, Hamilton wrote of the political use of religion described in Parallel Lives.  This study may have encouraged Hamilton to emulate the practice in his own political plan in America, keeping cordial relations with the church even when he did not feel a personal pull toward religion.  This also may explain some of his contradicting ideas between his statements about religion from various times of his life. 
  34. Hamilton and Burr had seconds who had been in communication about this duel since June 23rd, 1804.  Hamilton’s second, attorney Nathaniel Pendleton, discussed arrangements with Burr’s second up to the last moment before the duel.  Burr’s second, William P. Van Ness, was a good friend of Aaron Burr’s. Both Van Ness and Pendleton had been attempting, in vain, to settle the dispute before the men came to dueling.  Van Ness and Pendleton were the only other people at the duel who openly witnessed the duel, while the boatmen and doctor present stayed out of sight to maintain deniability. This fact is referenced in the song “The World Was Wide Enough” in the musical Hamilton.
  35. Hamilton had already explained to his second, Pendleton, that he was planning on firing into the air because he did not believe in dueling but also thought that he could not return to American society as a public figure if he declined Burr’s challenge.  Hamilton had no intention of killing Aaron Burr in this moment, and he hoped that Burr would miss, and he would survive.
  36. Hamilton was very aware that he was quickly approaching death.  The duel had been looming over Hamilton since a dinner party earlier in the year, where Hamilton had stated an oppositional comment about Burr and a colleague of his wrote of this view in a letter.  This letter, unfortunately, was stolen from the mail and published, eventually coming to Burr’s attention. Burr, angered by this, demanded answers from Hamilton, but did not receive any. In his fury, Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel, and Hamilton accepted.
  37. Eliza, inspired by her Christian faith and Hamilton’s past, took particular interest in helping a boy named Henry McKavit.  McKavit was an orphan, and like Hamilton, needed a caring donor to pay for his education. Almost mirroring the role of Ann Mitchell in Hamilton’s life, Eliza personally funded McKavit’s schooling at West Point.  Tragedy struck Eliza’s life once again when the young man was killed in the Mexican-American war, but Eliza’s efforts inspired him to leave his estate to the orphanage she helped found. 
  38. Although she had nine children to take care of herself, Eliza threw herself into helping more children after Hamilton’s death.  She founded the first private orphanage in New York City (the New York Orphan Asylum Society) in 1806 and became its director in 1821.  Eliza continued to be involved in the society and other social welfare efforts until her 90’s. The organization that she helped found (Graham Windham) exists today and continues to act as a non-profit and non-sectarian child welfare agency. 
  39. Hamilton writes to his wife who is anxious when Hamilton leaves their house, not only because of her love for her husband but also because of the nine children she was taking care of at home, the youngest of which was two-years-old.  Hamilton’s family was large, and many of them depended entirely on Hamilton for survival. Hamilton supported much of this large family through his proceeds from his political work, so the duel put Hamilton’s family in danger of becoming widowed and orphaned. 
  40. Burr’s shot at Hamilton during the duel proved fatal.  When commanded to fire, Burr’s bullet hit Hamilton in his right side, passing through his liver and shattering his spine.  Hamilton was paralyzed, and immediately Burr moved forward to assist him. Van Ness, however, rushed Burr away from the scene and left in a boat soon after.  He was allowed to see his wife and children in the few moments leading up to his death, and Eliza was extremely upset upon seeing the fatal wounds. 
  41. After Hamilton’s death, Eliza was left impoverished but was able to remain living at “The Grange”, which is now open to the public as a museum in New York.  Eliza and Hamilton’s affection for each other arises in other historical artifacts, including other written accounts of projects that the couple would take on together, such as their elaborately-planned garden and apple orchard. Their affection is even more evident in the ferocity with which Eliza verified Hamilton’s writings and in the grudge that she held against former president James Monroe for his part in the publication of the Reynolds Pamphlet. 

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