Complete Works. Hamilton Alexander
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and his predecessors in office, the head of the former must be abominably wicked and weak. I feel for the reputation of my Country which must suffer, when its citizens can be brought to elevate such a character to the first office of the republic. May indulgent heaven avert the evil with which we are threatened from such a ruler and the miscreants who guide his councils. Adieu My Dear Sir. May you enjoy health and happiness and that peace of mind which results from a rectitude of conduct."
John Adams, on one occasion, spoke of Hamilton as "die bastard brat of a Scotch pedlar," and accused him of any amount of vile things. Callendar even intimated that Hamilton regretted that the insurgents (during the Whiskey Rebellion) did not bum Pittsburg in 1794, and called him Caligula and Alva, and spread the often-repeated story that seemed to have been the chief stock in trade of his many calumniators that he was constantly attempting the establishment of a monarchy.
One of Hamilton's most venomous opponents was William Maclay, who was a United States senator from Pennsylvania between 1789-1791. At an early stage of his political career he broke with the Federalists, and never ceased, thereafter, to speak of them all in a contemptuous manner. None were free from his shafts, and his unexpurgated journal has no equal as a vituperative masterpiece. His only friend for a time seems to have been Robert Morris, but later he turned upon him. He spoke of Hamilton and others at a dinner he attended, as follows: "I could not help making some remarks on our three Secretaries—Hamilton has a very boyish giddy manner, and Scotch-Irish people would call him a 'skite', JefFerson transgresses on the extreme of stifF gentility or lofty gravity. Knox is the easiest man, and has the most dignity of presence. They retired at a decent time, one after another. Knox stayed longest, as indeed suited his aspect best, being more of a Bacchanalian figure."
Hamilton is accused, by him, of all manner of corruption, and even of knowingly issuing Treasury certificates which were counterfeit. He referred constantly to Hamilton's "tools," whom he also calls "Senatorial Gladiators," and of his use of Washington as " scapegoat." The "Cincinnati" was one of his machines. Much of his enmity is of the usual kind, so characteristic of the day, as, in referring to his own efforts to get the Senate to repudiate the indebtedness of the country to foreign officers who had fought in the Revolution, "I set myself to defeat it, and happily succeeded," he said. " The consequence is, that I have all the Secretary's [Hamilton's] gladiators upon me. I have already offended Knox and all his military arrangements; I have drowned Jefferson's regards in the Potomac. Hamilton, with his host of speculators, is upon me, and they are not idle; the City hates me, and I have offended Morris, and my place must go. My peace of mind, however, shall not go, and, like a dying man, I will endeavor that my last moments be well spent." The reference to the "host of speculators" is an assumption that Hamilton's friends had bought up the claims of the French officers who had fought during the Revolution.
In 1776 General Charles Lee was guilty of treacherous disobedience in refusing to re-enforce Washington, who had ordered him to make a junction with him at Hackensack. His idea was clearly to embarrass and put Washington in a false position, and to profit by his failure to prevent the British from taking Philadelphia. Not only was Lee guilty of rank insubordination, but he wrote to the Commander-in Chief two disrespectful and insolent letters. This led to his arrest and court-martial, and he was sentenced to suspension from the army for one year. Hamilton and the other supporters of Washington were, naturally, highly indignant, and the former gave very damaging testimony at the trial. Major J. S. Eustace, one of Lee's strong friends and supporters, and a vulgar and hot-headed officer, emptied his vials of abuse in various letters to his discredited friend, and did his best to provoke Hamilton to fight a duel. Extracts from two of his letters may be produced which show the hatred felt not only by this man, but by others. Writing from Philadelphia, November 29, to Lee he says:
I met Hambleton [sic] the other day in Company with the favorite Green the Drunkard Stirling' and their class of attendants. He advanced toward me on my entering the room with presented hand. I took no notice of his polite intention, but sat down without bowing to him or any of the class (it happened at the Q'. M'. General's office at Morris-town) he then asked me if I was come from Camp—I say'd shortly Not without the usual application of sir, rose from my chair—left the room, and him standing before the chair, I could not treat him much more rudely—I've repeated my suspicions of his veracity on the tryall so often that I expect the s---- of a b---- will challenge me when he comes. If he does he will find me as unconcerned as he can possibly be anxious.
And again he wrote to Lee:
I speak of you here openly and loyally, and I give my sentiments of your affairs, with all the warmth of a young man—tho' without the prudence of an old one. I said 'tother night I thought Colonel Hamilton was perjured—that I could convince himself of IT, by reading over the Tryall to him—and if that was not sufficient evidently it might rest on matter of opinion, and he decided as he chose, there were several officers present but they said nothing in reply—tho' I am confident they'll tell him & I've no objections.
The involuntary praise of some of his most important antagonists was the greatest tribute. Jefferson called him the "Colossus of the Federalists," and upon one occasion, when Hamilton had written articles for Fenno's paper signed Marcellus, he wrote to Madison, informing him by whom they were produced, with the remark that they promised "much mischief Madison was urged to exert himself against" this champion. You know the ingenuity of his talents, and there is not a person but yourself who can foil him. For Heaven's sake then, take up your pen and do not desert the public cause altogether."
Much criticism has been indulged in, by those inimical to Hamilton, regarding a letter written by Hamilton to Gouverneur Morris on July 27, 1802, shortly after the movement had been started to impeach several of the circuit judges by the anti-Federalists. This was at a time when the scurrilous sheets were filled with abuse of the opponents of Burr and Jefferson, and when Hamilton was well-nigh distracted by the machinations of the Democrats in his own State. "Mine is an odd destiny," he said; "perhaps no man in the United-States has sacrificed or done more for the present constitution than myself; and contrary to all my anticipations of its fate, as you know from the very beginning, I am still laboring to prop the frail and worthless fabric, yet I have the murmurs of its friends no less than the curses of its foes for my reward. What can I do better than withdraw from the scene? Every day proves to me more and more diat this American world was not made for me. As a rule his enemies ignore and neglect to quote a later paragraph which is as follows: "The time may ere long arrive when the minds of men will be prepared to make an effort to recover the Constitution, but the many cannot now be brought to make a stand for its preservation. We must wait a while." This is almost prophetic when we consider the re-establishment of national faith in this great instrument which followed the disorderly reign of Jefferson and his followers, down to a time when civil strife led to a new order of dignity and unswerving devotion to the original laws of our national organization.
Chapter X
The Years from 1790 to 1800
In the fall of 1790, as has been said, Hamilton went to Philadelphia with his family, and applied himself assiduously to his financial work which had been commenced in New York. The obligations of the nation were great indeed, and consisted not only of its original indebtedness to France, but of debts incurred in the campaign of St. Clair against the Indians in the North-west, and for various other purposes. Much of his official labor was connected with two prospective foreign loans which entailed great trouble and worry, and met with unlooked-for opposition from Giles, a Virginian, whom Hamilton, however, had often befriended in the past. This man, acting upon instructions from Jefferson and his friends, did all he could in Congress to hamper Hamilton in his continued efforts to prevent the nation from becoming bankrupt, accusing him of irregular practices, and among other things, of favoritism to certain banks.
Hamilton, as usual, had no trouble in thoroughly vindicating himself and presenting ample documentary evidence of the perfect order of all his transactions. So that his enemies were again discomfited.
About this time a new and very serious condition of affairs had to be met, for the international complications