Complete Works. Hamilton Alexander
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Mr. B begs to present his respects, which concludes Sir.
Your very Humble St.
for N—C
A—H
When fifteen years old, having shown his cleverness in many ways, he was sent to the United States, and landed in Boston; subsequently reaching New York, where he met Elias Boudinot, who helped him in the matter of obtaining his education.
At an early age Hamilton developed a facility in expression that widened with succeeding years, and he accumulated a remarkably extended vocabulary which is apparent in everything that he wrote and said, and if the power of thought is measured, as is generally admitted, by the extent and accumulation of symbols and ideas, he certainly possessed a rich store of both. This seems strange, for it does not appear that he had access to many books, or received more than the childish education at the knee of his mother to the time of her death, when he was but eleven years old, although it has been stated that in his earliest infancy he was able to read the Hebrew Decalogue. It is certain that he understood French as well as English, and his early literary productions, among them the famous account of the tornado, show much precocity and fertility of composition. He certainly was able, not only to express himself well, but to make a selection of terse terms and vigorous English.
When Hamilton reached America in 1772 he brought letters which he delivered to the Rev. Hugh Knox and to William Livingston, afterward governor of New Jersey, and stayed with the latter at his house, which was known as "Liberty Hall," while he attended the school of which Dr. Barber was the head master, at Elizabethtown. In the winter of 1773-4 he was ready for college and would have entered Princeton, but he went to President Witherspoon with a proposition that he should be allowed to pass from one class to another when so qualified, instead of following the usual routine of the university. This proposal was not acceded to, so he turned his steps to King's College in New York, which was then situated between the streets that are now Church, Greenwich, Barclay, and Murray. The president was the Rev. Dr. Myles Cooper, a stanch loyal Englishman, who had succeeded Samuel Johnson, the first president of the college, and with him were associated Dr. Samuel Clossey, who taught medicine, and Dr. Peter Middleton. Dr. Clossey was a clever Irish surgeon and a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, and came to America in 1764, when he was fony-nine years old. He left an active medical practice to emigrate, and a year after his arrival was appointed to King's College as Professor of Natural Philosophy, but subsequently was selected for the Chair of Anatomy, which he filled until 1774. He was a loyalist and did not at all sympathize with the colonists, so finding the atmosphere of New York uncongenial, returned to England, resigning his professorial position, and giving up his American practice. Dr. Peter Middleton lectured upon Chemistry.
The faculty seems to have been limited to these three men, to Dr. Cooper being assigned Latin, Greek, English, mathematics, and philosophy. Hamilton followed the rules which he afterward laid down for the guidance of his son Philip, and from morning till night led an abstemious life and devoted himself to his work, taking the literary course, and also studying medicine.
Here he had no trouble in advancing as rapidly as he chose; but his college course was brought to a close by the famous meeting in the "Fields," and his sudden entrance into public life. New York was tardy in following the example of the other colonies in open and effective rebellion, and in uniting to form the first Congress. Alexander McDougall, Isaac Sears and others who belonged to the "Sons of Liberty," who later showed their patriotism in a number of riotous acts, were the prime movers in organizing a public meeting in what is now the City Hall Park. It was their object to stir the half-hearted Assembly to some action, and to urge upon it the meaning of heeding the voice of the patriots who were daily increasing in numbers. This was the occasion for Hamilton, a mere stripling, to force his way through the crowd to the front, and make a stirring address which seems to have aroused the assemblage more than the speeches of older men. This was really the opening of his career, and the impression he made as an orator was all the more profound because of his very physical immaturity. It does not appear from the records of the college that he graduated, but that his career as a soldier and patriot really began in the midst of the curriculum.
He was then but seventeen, and he had already begun to command attention by his eloquence and by his contributions to the Age and Holt's Gazette, where he became engaged in controversies with his own college president, who would not believe that the boy he had taught could produce such "well-reasoned and cogent political disquisitions."
It was at this time that Hamilton organized his students' corps, who adopted the name "Hearts of Oak" and who promptly performed a number of rebellious acts, such as removing the cannon from the Battery under fire of the British ship-of-war Asia, at anchor in the bay.
Trevelyan refers to the outbreak of these young patriots, and alludes to the fact that "there was very little bloodshed, but some profanation, for later young Alexander Hamilton at the battle of Princeton, with the irreverence of a student fresh from a rival place of education, planted his guns on the sacred green of the academical campus, and fired a six-pound shot, which is said to have passed through the head of King George the Second's portrait in the chapel."
The later extreme violence of some of the patriots was distasteful to Hamilton, and he resented the idea of the incursions of patriots from other colonies. When Isaac Sears came down with the mounted horse and destroyed Riving-ton's press, Hamilton protested and wrote to John Jay:
Alexander Hamilton to John Jay
New York, November. 26, 1775.
Dear Sir: I take the liberty to trouble you with some remarks on a matter which to me appears of not a little importance; doubting not that you will use your influence in congress to procure a remedy for the evil I shall mention, if you think the considerations I shall urge are of that weight they seem in my judgent to possess.
You will probably ere this reaches you have heard of the late incursion made into this city by a number of horsemen from New England under the command of Capt. Sears, who took away Mr. Rivington's types and a Couteau or two.—Though I am fully sensible how dangerous and pernicuous Rivington's press has been, and how detestable the character of the man is in every respect, yet I cannot help disapproving and condemning this step.
In times of such commotion as the present, while the passions of men worked up to an uncommon pitch there is great danger of fatal extreme. The same state of the passions which fits the multitude, who have not a sufficient stock of reason and knowledge to guide them, for opposition to tyranny and oppression, very naturally leads them to a contempt and disregard of all authority. The due medium is hardly to be found among the more intelligent, it is almost possible among the unthinking populace. When the minds of these are loosened from their attachment to ancient establishments and courses, they seem to grow giddy and are apt more or less to run into anarchy. These principles, too true in themselves, and confirmed to me both by reading and my own experience, deserve extremely the attention of those, who have the direction of public affairs. In such tempestuous times, it requires the greatest skill in the political pilots to keep men steady and within proper bounds, on which account I am always more or less alarmed at every thing which is done of mere will and pleasure without any proper authority. Irregularities I know are to be expected, but they are nevertheless dangerous and ought to be checked, by every prudent and moderate mean. From these general maxims, I disapprove of the irruption in question, as serving to cherish a spirit of disorder at a season when men are too prone to it of themselves.
Moreover, New England is very populous and powerful. It is not safe to trust to the virtue of any people. Such proceedings will serve to produce and encourage a spirit of encroachment and arrogance in them. I like not to see potent neighbours indulged in the practice of making inroads at pleasure into this or any other province.
You well know too. Sir, that antipathies and prejudices have long subsisted between this province and New England. To this may be attributed a principal part of the disaffection now prevalent among us. Measures of the present nature, however they may serve to intimidate, will secretly revive and increase those ancient animosities,