Complete Works. Hamilton Alexander
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last, I presume you will embrace this opportunity of writing; one thing more and I will excuse you; Will you if you have any conveyance to Mr. Lottos, send my Compliments to Mrs. Lott and let her know the above important intelligence?
Fare Well dear Bess, believe me most affectionately
your
Friend
Kitty Livingston.
Valley of Lebanon, 13th of May, 1779.
Present my love to Mrs. and Dr. Cochran.
Kitty Livingston to Elizabeth Hamilton, then at Headquarters at New Windsor
RHINEBECK, February 7, 1781.
My DEAR Betsy: Willing to avail myself of an opportunity I this moment heard of, I take my pen with pleasure to assure my dear Girl, no one can be more sincere than her Friend Kitty, in every Kind and tender wish for her felicity. I should not have thus long delayed answering your agreeable Favor, had a safe conveyance been in my power, tho' if I were inclined to plead a bad example, or an excuse yours would naturally occur.
I have just returned from a most delightful ride, the weather was divine, the season seems to have lost its usual vigor, and Winter wears no frowns. I believe in my heart, the world, tiring of revolving the same course since the Creation, and seeing all things changing but itself, has by some extraordinary effort taken a leap nearer the Sun, and we are now where Maryland should be. Lady Kitty declares she has not yet got thoroughly cooled, since August last, and one would from motives of benevolence wish to prepare her to endure the heats of Summer, which appears to be fast approaching. She and Miss Brown are at Clermont whither I repair tomorrow.
Present my compliments to Colonel Hamilton and assure him of my best wishes, though I feel myself much hurt at an assertion he made some time since at Mr. D. 's—that I was soon to be connected to Mr. C.—
I have lately received (tho' the date was not a very early one) a long letter from my friend Angelica,' and she continues to love, and to tell me so in terms so tender, so well adapted to the constancy and purity of her affection, that I do not at all fear absence will lessen our Friendship, or time render it less interesting and sincere. She is in short the most amiable of women, and when I cease to think her so, my nature or hers must change.
I have purchased your apron and will if possible send it on by the person who takes this. I enclose my measures for a pair of shoes. Putman makes them at Phi—as Boston. If I did not know an apology made a bad thing worse, I would endeavor to say something in behalf of this poor letter, pray do not let Colonel Hamilton see it: His forte is writing I too well know, to submit anything I can say tonight to his inspection—from your Friendship I know I have nothing to dread—
Farewell, my dear Eliza
believe your affectionate
Friend
Cath. Livingston.
Disappointed in the conveyance mentioned I send this per post and with Miss Brown's love to you, and Family will present my most respectful compliments to Mrs. & Gen'l W.—My love to Mrs. Cochran—Pray do you talk of a Jaunt to New York? I have heard such a rumor, if you do say everything from me to Ann that you Know I would myself repeat,—How is Col. Tilghman? Miss Brown says very ill. I hope he is recovering—Farewell once more, I wish I could tell you so in person
Ever yours
Kitty Livingston.
Clermont, February 11th.
Miss Kitty appears to have been a belle, and something of a coquette. She certainly was not as sedate as her sister Susan who married John Jay, and it may be inferred from her father's letters and that sent to Hamilton and printed elsewhere, that she was somewhat spoiled and generally, if possible, had her own way. During a visit to Philadelphia in August, 1779, her father wrote: "I know there are a number of flirts in Philadelphia equally famed for their want of modesty as want of patriotism who will triumph in our complaisance to the red-coat prisoners lately arrived in diat Metropolis. I hope none of my connexions; will either in the dress of their heads or the still more tory feelings of their hearts."
Mrs. Morgan Lewis to Elizabeth Hamilton
My dear Friend: It is not my intention by writing this to engage you in a settled Correspondence with a person so useless to you, and in a situation so eventless as I am here tho' such a commerce would be highly agreeable to me, I am not so selfish as to make the request, yet I Flatter myself that notwithstanding these disadvantages this testimony of my love and regard will not be received with indifference by you for whom I feel the warmest sentiments that the most perfect esteem and Friendship can inspire.
Tho' I have long loved you My Dear Eliza yet I think you was never so Dear to me as now that we are about to be separated without a prospect of meeting soon. Sure I owe it to some Evil Genius that I am thus deprived of the pleasure of being more with one to whose Company and conversation I owe many of the happiest hours of my life. I know of nothing that will make up the loss of your Society to me but as I have a Mind naturally disposed to be Cheerful I will turn my thoughts to that which will give me most Comfort, and will cherish the hope that you will sometimes think of your absent Friend with affection forgetting her faults and remembering her Chief merit which is that she Knows how to love and value you. I have also a peculiar pleasure in reflecting that our Friendship has been Constant, uninterrupted by suspicion or envy, tho I am very conscious that you excel me in all that has any claim to applause yet I take a pride in hearing you commended for Virtues I imitate very imperfectly.
I had some faint hope of seeing you at N. Y. but was disappointed by Mr. Lewis being obliged to attend the Court at Albany this I regret very much tho tis a sad Consolation to take leave. I did not hear you was at Albany till I heard you was about to leave it or I should have endeavored to have seen you there. Mr. Lewis has this Day set out for that place and has left my little Peggy and me alone, she is now asleep and I with neither Talents nor Topics to entertain you cannot quit scribbling because it cheers my solitude as I seem to be talking to you And forget that you are perhaps two hundred miles from me but wherever you are my Heart is with you I wish it was in my power to serve you that I might shew you how much my actions would exceed my profession.
Have the goodness to commend me to Col. Hamilton and the Dear Children in whose Welfare I take a lively interest tell the Renowned Philip" I have been told that he has out-stript all his Competitors in the race of Knowledge and that he dayly gains new Victorys by Surpassing himself but that with all his acquirements he can not decline his lesson. Excuse this Folly.
With your usual Friendship and goodnature excuse what is wrong in this letter, I never could write.
Farewell to you whom I love for all that can create affection and esteem accept of every good wish that an Heart alive to the tenderest sensation can breathe from
Yours G. Lewis,
October 17, 1800.
The surroundings and circumstances of Elizabeth Schuyler's life had all tended to prepare her for her future as Hamilton's wife. Had she been any other than what she was, despite all his genius and force of character, Hamilton could never have attained the place he did. His letters show deference to her judgment and opinion, so we may conclude that he confided all his thoughts and plans, and made her a party to much that he did, yet his tender concern for her must have spared her many worries, and the knowledge of much that was harrassing in his career. There is a general solicitude in his letters and especially in the last two he ever wrote, which are the saddest of all. From many short letters and notes that remain it is evident that he apprised her of all his movements both in the field and afterward, and the conditions of his affairs.
She was remarkable for her piety, benevolence, and sympathy for every form of distress. She and Hamilton seem to have been agreed on that point all through their married life. When Philadelphia was filled with French émigrés, they both were among the first to give, and many widows and orphans were assisted with money and clothing. I have found an old subscription paper of this kind containing many interesting names of prominent persons connected with the early history of America, which is worthy