Complete Works. Hamilton Alexander
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is in Hamilton's handwriting. The "Mary Morris" who heads the list was the wife of Robert Morris, the financier:
List of French Distressed Persons
1. Madame le Grand with two Children lives near the litde Market at the house of Mr. Peter French, Hatter, in the greatest Indigence.
2. Madame Demarie blind with a daughter who Is a widow, and a little Child, No. 19 Cedar Street in dreadful distress.
3. Madame Noel 7 Children and an orphan of whom she takes charge, Mulbery Street No 223—has not yet experienced so great extremity as the former, but is at present without money and owes 26 Dollars.
4. Madame Robard with 4 Children.
5. Madame Benoit with two both in the greatest indigence. Their residence at present unknown—
Subscriptions for the Relief of the foregoing persons (viz)
Mary Morris ........... 10 dollars Eliza Hamilton ........ 20 dollars M. Cazenove ........... Ten dollars Susan Kean ............ 5 dollars Cash .................. 10 Dollars Dr. Huger ............. 5 Dollars.50 Ann H. Livingston ..... 3 Dollars O. Stewart ............ Five dollars paid L. Knox .......... Ten Dollars pd. D. M. Smith ....... five Dollars pd. Dalton ............ five Dollars pd. I. Williams........ five Dollars pd Cash ............... 5 Dollars pd. H. Breck .......... ten Dollars pd. R. Izard .......... Five Dollars.50 pd. E. Lageremme ...... Five Dollars pd. Y. Z. ............. Fifteen dollars Paid—Capt ............. 5 Dollars paid—Eliz Powel ....... 10 Dollars paid—T. L. ............ 8 dollars paid—Eliz Cabot ....... 5 Dollars. R. K. 46. R. King— .............. 5 Dollars paid R. K. O. Ellsworth .......... 5 Dollars paid R. K. P. Butler ............. 5 Dollars paid R. K. M. Coxe ............... 3 Dollars paid. Nohitosidos ........... 5 Drs. John Guest gives ...... 10 Doll.
As one who knew Elizabeth Hamilton said: "Hers was a strong character with its depth and warmth, whether of feeling or temper controlled, but glowing underneath, bursting through at times in some emphatic expression. Hers as a stem ordeal; within a few years she experienced the shock of two violent deaths by duels—those of her eldest son and husband, the death of her sister and mother and father; her eldest daughter's insanity, and with this, little or no means with which to support and educate her family of seven children, five growing sons, her invalid daughter and a younger daughter. No wonder the light of youth had vanished from her face when the widow's cap replaced the Marie Antoinette coiffure." From the rapidity with which her children came she must have had little or no time for social pleasures, although much of her early married life was spent in Philadelphia and New York, where her husband was either taking part in the affairs of the government or practising law. Her sister writes to die former place from London: " Do you live as pleasantly at Philadelphia as you did at New York? or are you obliged to bear the formalizes of female circles, and their trifling chit chat? To you who have at home the most agreeable Society in the World, how you must smile at their manner of losing [their?] time—"
She was, undoubtedly, most energetic, and possessed a great deal of the Dutch tenacity, for she lived to the great age of ninety-seven with apparently no diminution of intelligence, still continuing to take interest in public affairs and the careers of her children, and writing letters even after her ninetieth year, which, despite a little tremulousness, were all they should be so far as intelligent expression was concerned. It cannot be denied that Hamilton made money easily, and that he had very grand ideas which it took a long purse to materialize. That he was something of a spendthrift is shown in his purchase of much real estate, and the preparation of a somewhat magnificent scheme for his country place in the upper part of Manhattan. It was probably his wife who made him more conservative than he would have been without such a check. McHenry, in a letter to Hamilton, said of her: " She has as much merit as your Treasurer as you have as Treasurer of the wealth of the United States." Still, when Hamilton was prosperous after he had become fairly launched in the practice of law they lived comfortably but evidently quite up to their income, which, in those days, was large.
Angelica Church, in writing from Putney, October 5, 1796, to her sister says: "Colonel Nobel is returned very much pleased by his reception in New York, and has assured me that you republican Ladys live with as much splendour and expense as her slaves. I do not mean this for you dear Eliza who have a better taste."
Other letters of Mrs. Church indicate the affectionate relations of the two sisters.
Angelica Church to Elizabeth Hamilton.
Paris, Jan. 27, 1784.
Dear Sister: I have written to you twice since I have been at Paris but have not received a line from you or Col. Hamilton. I intended to have called my little girl Eliza after Mr. Church's mother, but she thinks Angelica a much prettier name. Mr. Church is also of that opinion, but I promise that the next girl I make shall be called Betsey.
I should like Paris exceedingly if it was nearer to America, for I have a very agreeable sett of acquaintance, particularly a Madame de Ture who is a great admirer of our dear papa. She says he is the most amiable man in the Continent. Mr. Franklin has the gravel, and he desires to return to America; they talk of Papa or Col. Hamilton as his successor, how would you like to cross the Atlantic, is your lord a Knight of Cincinnati. It has made a most wonderful noise here, but it is remarked that the order will probably exist in France when it will be neglected in America.
Adieu, my dear Betsy, I embrace you with all my heart, give my Compliments to Col. & Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Montgomery, and do me the favor to write to me very often.
administrations were opposed to Hamilton and his political faith, she did not meet with the encouragement that she deserved, and there seems to have been a reluctance even upon the part of some of Hamilton's closest friends—Rufus King, for example—to give her certain letters and papers which they wrongly thought it might be impolitic to publish. Among these were documents relating to Washington's Farewell Address, which disclosed the part taken by Hamilton in its preparation. She always maintained that her husband was its author, and insisted that this fact should be known. She and her son James were constantly at work to effect this end. James was then a grown man and a lawyer, and at his instance a suit in Chancery was brought to obtain certain parts of the correspondence that had passed between Washington and Hamilton, which was successful, and they were used by the younger Hamilton in his "Reminiscences." The discussion of how much Hamilton had to do with this memorable address has been ever active, and even bitter, as has been shown elsewhere, and is by no means now fully settled. The venerable vridow, when she was eighty-two, reiterated her belief in her husband's responsibility for most of it, and the following paper was executed, probably at a time when she was more disturbed than usual, by the insistent claims of those who sought to belittle him, and gives her impressions of Hamilton's share of the work:
Elizabeth Hamilton's Statement as to Washington's Farewell Address
Desirous that my children should be fully acquainted with the services rendered by their Father to our country, and the assistance given by him to General Washington during his administration, for the one great object, the Independence and Stability of the Government of the United States, there is one thing in addition to the numerous proofs which I leave them and which I feel myself in duty bound to State; which is: that a short time previous to General Washington's retiring from the Presidency in the year 1796 General Hamilton suggested to him the idea of delivering a farewell address to the people on his withdrawal from public life, with which idea General Washington was well pleased, and in his answer to General Hamilton's suggestion gave him the heads of the subjects on which he would wish to remark, with a request that Mr. Hamilton would prepare an address for him; Mr. Hamilton did so, and the address was written, principally at such times as his office was seldom frequented by his clients and visitors, and during the absence of his students to avoid interruption; at which times he was in the habit of calling me to sit with him, that he might read to me as he wrote, in order, as he said, to discover how it sounded upon the ear, and making the remark, "My dear Eliza, you must be to me what Moliere's old nurse was to him."
The whole or nearly all the "Address" was read to me by him as he wrote it and a greater part if not all was written by him in my presence. The original was forwarded to Gen. Washington