Complete Works. Hamilton Alexander
Читать онлайн книгу.
intention to remain with us, the case will be altered. There will be no rule against their coming out, and they will be an acquisition. But this is subject to two provisos—1st that they are not found guilty of treason or any misdemeanor punishable by the laws of the State, in which case the General can have no power to protect them; and 2dly, that the ladies on our side do not apprehend any inconvenience from increasing their number. Trifling apart, there is nothing could give me greater pleasure than to have been able to serve Miss Livingston and her friends on this occasion, but circumstances really did not permit it. I am persuaded she has too just an opinion of the General's politeness not to be convinced that he would be happy to do anything which his public character would justify in an affair so interesting to the tender feelings of so many ladies. The delicacy of her own ideas will easily comprehend the delicacy of his situation;—she knows the esteem of her friend.
A. Hamilton.
The General and Mrs. Washington present their compliments.
Hamilton was a busy letter writer, and many of the products of his pen remain as examples of the lost art of correspondence. His chirography was artistic, graceful, and quite characteristic of the man, while his pithy and well-turned phrases remind one of the perfect English of Addison. Hawthorne thus commented upon one of his letters in his analysis of a book of autographs:
We turn another leaf, and find a memorial of Hamilton. It is but a letter of introduction, addressed to Governor Jay in favor of Mr. Davies, of Kentucky; but it gives an impression of high breeding and courtesy, as little to be mistaken as if we could see the writer's manner and hear his cultivated accents, while personally making one gentleman known to another. There is likewise a rare vigor of expression and pregnancy of meaning, such as only a man of habitual energy of thought could have conveyed into so commonplace a thing as an introductory letter.
His autograph is a graceful one, with an easy and picturesque flourish beneath the signature, symbolical of a courteous bow at the conclusion of the social ceremony so admirably performed.
Hamilton might well be the leader and idol of the Federalists; for he was pre-eminent in all the high qualities that characterized the great men of that party, and which should make even a Democrat feel proud that his country had produced such a noble old band of aristocrats; and he shared all the distrust of the people, which so inevitably and so righteously brought about dieir ruin.
It is almost superfluous to say that Hamilton's greatest literary work was done in writing the major part of The Federalist, and as years have rolled by the full credit has been accorded him. "It has," says one of his biographers, "long since been acknowledged to be the ablest treatise on our Constitution which has ever been or is ever likely to be written; and no person interested in such topics fails to become familiar with it or admire it." Hamilton's contributions were made at a trying time, when he was giving himself body and soul to the formation for, and adoption of, a Constitution by discontented patriots. Incidentally he went hither and thither to try his cases. These productions were composed under the most uncomfortable circumstances—in the cabin of a small Hudson River sloop; by the light of a dim candle in a country inn; in fact, they were regarded by their author only as essays for suggestive and contemporary use. That there existed with Hamilton and his associates Madison and Jay some degree of uncertainty as to how far they should go is shown by the introduction.
It is said that Hamilton, with Jay and others, at this very time suppressed the Doctor's Mob, which took place on April 13, 1787, on the occasion of the exposure of a part of a human body in one of the windows of the New York Hospital by young medical students who were engaged in dissection, and this riot was the culmination of great popular indignation that had been caused by body snatching. It is related by Lossing that Hamilton had already been engaged on The Federalist and had written the fifth essay, but was so badly injured by the rioters that he was laid up for a long period. Though some of the Madison papers which he contributed to The Federalist were published in the New York Packet and Daily Advertiser, the bulk of them appeared, eventually, in the Independent Journal and afterward in the other papers.
The Independent Journal was published by J. and A. McLean of Hanover Square who, in 1788, collected the essays and printed the book as a whole.
The original edition was in two volumes, sometimes bound together, but there is nothing in it to indicate the authorship of the many essays.
Despite the evident importance of the work it did not at first have a large sale, although published at the moderate price of six shillings; yet since its appearance it has gone through many editions, has been translated into many languages, and a copy of the original first edition within a year or two has brought at auction the sum of one hundred and twenty dollars.
In this connection the following letter from the printers, who, apparently, found the venture anything but profitable, may be reproduced:
From Arch. McLean to Robert Troup
New York, Oct. 11th, 1788.
Sir: The inclosed Account is my charge for printing and binding The Federalist. When Coll. Hamilton, or the Gentlemen of the Committee examine the Work, they will find the charge exceeding low, considering the bulk of it.
When I engaged to do the work, it was to consist of twenty Numbers, or at the utmost twenty-five, which I agreed to print for thirty pounds, five hundred copies. I made my calculations accordingly and issued proposals, each Subscriber to pay six shillings.
The Work increased from 25 numbers to 85, so that instead of giving the subscribers one VoUume containing 200 pages for six shillings, I was obliged to give them two voUumes containing upwards of 600 pages.
The money expended for Printing, Paper, Journeyman's Wages and Binding was upwards of two hundred and twenty Pounds; of which sum I have charged Coll. Hamilton with 144 pounds, which is not three shillings per Vol; I have several hundred copies remaining on hand, and even allowing they were all sold at the low price I am obliged to sell them at, I would not clear five pounds on the whole impression. However I must abide by the consequances, nor could I expect the Grentlemen would make up a loss, which was sustained, in a great measure, by my own voluntary aid.
The many obligations. Sir, I lay under to you and Coll. Hamilton will ever be remembered, and I hope the amount will meet with the approbation of that Honorable Gentlemen.
I am. Sir, with the utmost respect your obliged, humble servant
Arch. McLean,
Robert Troup.
There is no doubt that its influence in the affairs of other nations and our own has been far-reaching and of the greatest importance. The Baron Kaneko, one of the most learned and advanced Japanese, who has had much to do with the renaissance of his native land, told me that when the Japanese Constitution was framed, reference was frequently made to The Federalist; which was considered by them to be the greatest authority upon constitutional subjects extant. It was of the greatest use to those who recently brought about the unification of the South African Colonies, and I am in receipt of a letter from Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson, who had always had so much to do with the reconciliation of Boor and Britain. Certainly with us to-day, especially in the United States Courts, it is of valuable assistance to many jurists. The opinions of competent critics are all in accord, and Oliver speaks of this book as "one of the most remarkable of human documents. . . . The crowning merit of these papers, which were produced under great pressure—often while the printer's boy was waiting in the office—is that they succeeded in accomplishing what they set out to accomplish. They were the greatest forces that worked on men's minds to make them consent to the adoption of the Constitution."
Despite the assertion that Hamilton was lukewarm in regard to this instrument, Oliver' very properly says: "When he signed it he became its champion, and afterward labored to perfect it and make it possible, and to teach his fellow citizens what he really meant."
Much controversial discussion has arisen as to the authorship of the different articles in this great work, and this has often been acrimonious.
Henry B. Dawson, one of the greatest and most exact students of American history, in his edition