Complete Works. Hamilton Alexander
Читать онлайн книгу.
to the ease with which he made enemies, this can be explained by the statement of one of his historians that "his love for his country was always greater than his love for his countrymen," and it can be easily conceived how a man with so critical a sense, and with such strong ideas regarding unselfish requirements for the public weal, must not only fail to exert himself for the mere shallow fascination of his fellow men, as did Burr, for instance, but must antagonize many men with less lofty aims.
His attachments were strangely assorted, but, as a rule, were very deep, very affectionate, and very lasting; and, as is usually the case, the less brilliant and more sober-minded friends were those that remained loyal and unselfishly devoted to him until the end, and did more for his family after his death than any of the others. It may be said that they were divided into two categories: those that were drawn to him by his humorous and almost feminine traits, which were coupled with a fascinating culture and a flow of spirits that almost bubbled over; and others, who had been engaged with him in the war, and in his legal practice, and the many public affairs which were so vital at the time. These really loved him for his great intellectual gifts and his absolute sense of justice. Although Lodge has gravely declared that he had no imagination, it does, on the contrary, appear that he had a lively sense of humor, and was at times exceedingly witty.
This is shown in his letters to John Laurens, to La Fayette, and a few of his early friends, and in the rather short and unsatisfactory remaining correspondence with his wife and sister-in-law. In 1780, at a time when the condition of affairs was certainly not conducive to high spirits, we find that he wrote, in the field, to General Anthony Wayne in regard to a Rev. Dr. Mendey, "who is exceedingly anxious to be in the service, and I believe has been forced out of it not altogether by fair play. He is just what I should like for a military parson, except that he does not drink, and he will not insist upon your going to heaven whether you will or not."
There is the jauntiness of the gay soldier in his few words to one of his warmest army friends, Otho Williams (1779): "Mind your eye, my dear boy, and if you have an opportunity, fight hard," but a tenderer note in his long letter to John Laurens, which is not so well known as to lose its charm by abridged repetition; probably none of his com-
Page Blank
assistance were pitiable indeed, for he appears to have been always in financial distress.
It has been stated by several historians that he often spoke of Hamilton not only as his friend, but as his banker and it would seem as if the latter was much more than this, if we may infer from the number of unpaid promissory notes from the baron to Hamilton which are found among the latter's papers, among them judgments in favor of Hector St. Jean de Crevecœur for various large sums. On November 23, 1785, Hamilton wrote to Washington as follows: "The poor Baron is still soliciting Congress and has every prospect of indigence before him. He has his imprudences, but on the whole he has rendered valuable services, and his merits and the reputation of the country alike demand that he should not be left to suffer want. If there could be any mode by which your influence could be employed in his favor by writing to your friends in Congress or otherwise, the Baron and his friends would be under great obligations to you."
Chancellor Livingston wrote to Hamilton in regard to Steuben's affairs as follows, in a letter dated March 3, 1787:
I received your favor with the Baron's papers inclosed by the post. The letter you mention I have sent by a private hand now under me. I enclose a letter to the Baron containing my opinion tho' I confess to you that I do think that in publishing it (as he told me he purposed) he will show more resentment than prudence. He will provoke replies, he will be called upon to show what he has lost, the payments to him will be compared with what other officers have received. It will be said that Congress have failled in all their engagements from necessity, that there is nothing singular in his solicitation. In short, he will hear many things that will vex and disturb him and he will exclude himself from all hopes of a further provision. When a more liberal sperit, or a heavier purse may incline Congress to make it. If you think with me, you will use your influence with him to drop the idea of a publication that can do him no good, but may injure him.
It would appear that this brave old soldier was ultimately cared for, and the trite saying that nations are ungrateful was disproved, for through the influence of Schuyler, Livingston, and Hamilton, he was finally given a large tract of land, amounting to sixteen thousand acres, in the upper part of New York State, a portion of which he gave to Captain Ben Walker and to Generals North and Popham, and there he lived for the rest of his life, dying November 20, 1794. The State of New Jersey also gave him land, and the National Government an annuity of twenty-five hundred dollars.
The gay trio to which Hamilton and Laurens belonged was made complete by La Fayette. On the whole, there was something about them rather suggestive of the three famous heroes of Dumas, although the period of the American Revolution was less romantic than that of the Musketeers. It is true that Hamilton was urged to kidnap the English General Clinton, who insecurely held New York, but refused upon the score that the latter, because of his incompetence, could do more harm if he were suffered to remain where he was than if captured.
There is a note of romance in their friendship, quite unusual even in those days, and La Fayette, especially during his early sojourn in this country, was on the closest terms with Hamilton. He touchingly writes from Paris, April 12, 1782, as follows:
Dear Hamilton: However silent you may please to be, I will nevertheless remind you of a friend who loves you tenderly, and who, by his attachment, deserves a great share in your affection.
This letter, my dear Sir, will be delivered or sent by Count de Segur, an intimate friend of mine, a man of wit and of abilities, and whose society you will certainly be pleased with.
I warmly recommend him to you, and hope he will meet from you with more than civilities.
At this late day La Fayette certainly seems, to some extent, a disappointing figure in history, if his behavior at home during and after the French Revolution is considered. While his aid to the American cause, prior to his return to France and shortly before the above letter was written, entitles him to the deep gratitude of all Americans, and his career while in America was that of an unselfish and brave soldier, who gave all his energy and much of his fortune to the cause of patriots, his remarkable weakness at a time when his sovereign was in the gravest danger is almost incredible, and cannot even be explained by the fact that he had taken part in our own struggle for freedom, and had been influenced by his sympathy with the colonists, who were themselves fighting for liberty.
Hamilton certainly must have lost much of his respect and no little of his affection for his old friend for the manner in which he had acted, for in a later letter he criticised Burr's conduct in making disloyal toasts, among them one to La Fayette. He refers to this as an evidence of Burr's misconduct and sympathy with 'the daring scoundrels of every party' and his tendency "to avail himself of their assistance, and of all the bad passions of society.
But Hamilton's friendship for La Fayette was shown in late years, even after he had disappointed him by his conduct during the French Revolution, and in his connection with the Garde Nationale. When captured by the Austrians after his conflict with the extreme Jacobins, he escaped across the frontier, was imprisoned in Olmütz, and treated with great brutality, owing to a desire for retaliation for the treatment by the French of the unfortunate Marie Antoinette. Here he remained secluded and unheard of until he was later joined by his wife and daughter. Through the exertions of Fox, Wilberforce, and Sheridan, as well as Washington and Hamilton, strong representations were made to the Prussian Government, though in so doing serious complications with the French were narrowly escaped. Young George Washington La Fayette, the son, who had been sent here during the Reign of Terror, was, for a time, an inmate of Hamilton's house, and was treated like a son by the latter, and acted in conjunction with others in his father's behalf. In 1794 a Dr. Bollman, and Francis Kinloch Huger, of South Carolina, by a brilliant stroke, effected La Fayette's escape, but he was recaptured and taken, in chains, back to his dungeon. It was not until 1797 that he was liberated by Napoleon.
To her sister