Complete Works. Hamilton Alexander

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СКАЧАТЬ the west side of that thoroughfare below Trinity Church was, with one exception, built up and occupied by well-to-do and prominent persons. This exception was a small gun-shop on the south-west corner of Morris Street. On the east side all were private dwellings except two, one a shoemaker's shop at 28, and the other a small wooden house below that of Governor Jay. According to my uncle, James A. Hamilton, this was owned and occupied by Slidell, a German candle maker, the grandfather of John Slidell, who figured in the Civil War. This little man was often seen in the afternoon sitting on his wooden stoop, in apron and cap, smoking his pipe, with drip candles hanging in the window.

      New York, in 1786, was a city containing 24,000 white males, almost three times as many as there were in 1756; and in 1796, 50,000. The Dutch element preponderated up to the commencement of the eighteenth century, and this was especially the case during the early years of Hamilton's practice. Brissot de Warville made many pungent comments upon the manners of the community, and in 1794 said: "Colonel Lamb, who was at the head of the Custom matters, envelopes all his operations in the most profound mystery, it is the effect of the Dutch spirit which still governs this City. The Dutchman conceals his gains and commerce; he lives but for himself." And again: "If there is a town on the American Continent where the English luxury displays its follies, it is New York. You will find there the English fashions. In the dress of the women you will see the most brilliant silks, gauzes, hats, and borrowed hair. Equipages are rare but they are elegant. The men have more simplicity in dress. They disdain gewgaws, but they take their revenge in the luxury of the table. Luxury forms already in this town a class very dangerous to society, I mean, bachelors. The expense of women causes matrimony to be dreaded by men."

      Angelica Church wrote from London, March 4, in this connection, to her sister: "I would write you an account of fashion,'but I hear American ladies are at the head of everything that is elegant; give my love to Alexander, and tell him that some day when I am in very gay and witty humour I will write to him."

      When in Philadelphia Hamilton lived, for a part of the time, outside of the city at the Hills, where Robert Morris had his magnificent country estate, but before this at the south-west corner of Walnut and Third Streets. Although the Hamiltons did not stay very long at one place, the Schuyler homestead at Albany was always open to them, as well as to the various children of the General, and it seems to have been a refuge in time of trouble and illness. Chastellux described his meeting with Alexander Hamilton and the wife at the father-in-law's house, probably at the time when he was preparing himself for his profession. Among the other French travellers who visited the Schuylers during the Revolution, he thus speaks of the family: "It consisted of Mr. Schuyler, his second daughter, whose face is gentle and pleasing; a Miss Peggy Schuyler, whose features were animated and interesting; and another charming daughter only eight years old, and of three boys, the oldest of whom is fifteen, and who are the finest children possible, and then he is himself a man of about fifty, but already ailing and subject to gout. He has a considerable fortune, which will increase for he owns an immense extent of territory, but his talents and acquirements gain him greater respect than his wealth." General Schuyler always suffered from this disease, which seems to have been the curse of his adult life, and there is scarcely one of the later letters written by him that does not contain some allusion to his sufferings and incapacity. It seriously interfered with his various military campaigns, and more than one of his malignant enemies had intimated that he made it an excuse for his reluctance to meet the enemy! It certainly led to his being carried upon the shoulders of men, or by more comfortable conveyances, to the scene of his active operations in the northeastern part of the State during the border operations. He gloomily writes to his daughter, July 28, 1795: "I have not drank any champagne since I experienced Its pernicious effects upon me—and shall not venture on It again." He also announces his intention of going to the Lebanon Springs for a cure.

       WALL STREET IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

      The children referred to by Chastellux and others grew up and married and went their various ways, none of them, however, achieving any great distinction. The daughters, especially Angelica, as has been said, were witty and attractive. Between Elizabeth Schuyler, her husband, and her brothers and sisters, there always existed a pleasant relation, but none of them entered into the intimate life of the Hamiltons except General Schuyler, Angelica Church, his daughter, and Philip, son of John Bradstreet Schuyler, who spent most of his early life with them.

      The children of Elizabeth and Alexander Hamilton were eight in number, the first Philip being born January 22, 1782, while a second Philip came June 2, 1802, and was named after his elder brother, who had been killed in a duel the year before. Between these two were,

Angelica,	born	September 25,1784.
Alexander,	"	May 16,1786.
James Alexander,	"	April 14, 1788.
John Church,	"	August 22, 1792.
William Stephen,	"	August 4, 1797.
Eliza,	"	November 20, 1799.

      Philip, the first child, seems to have been the most beloved and the most written and spoken about of all, for he was evidently the flower of the family. In a letter to General Meade, from Philadelphia, dated March, 1782, when Hamilton had left the army and was preparing to take up his professional work, an amusing allusion is made to the birth of this child.

       PHILIP HAMILTON (THE FIRST): AGE 20

       Alexander Hamilton to Richard K. Meade

      Philadelphia, March, 1782.

      A half hour since brought me the pleasure of your letter of December 1st. It went to Albany, and came from thence to this place. I heartily felicitate you on the birth of your daughter, I can well conceive your happiness on that occasion, by that which I felt on a similar occasion. Indeed, the sensations of a tender father of the child of a beloved mother, can only be conceived by those who have experienced them.

      Your heart, my Meade, is peculiarly formed for engagements of this Kind. You have every right to be a happy husband—a happy father. You have every prospect of being so. I hope your felicity may never be interrupted. You cannot imagine how entirely domestic I am growing. I lose all taste for the pursuits of ambition. I sigh for nothing but the Company of my wife and my baby. The ties of duty alone, or imagined duty, Keep me from renouncing public life altogether. It is, however, probable I may not any longer be engaged in it. . . .

      Imagine, my dear Meade, what pleasure it must give Eliza and myself to Know that Mrs. Meade interests herself in us. Without a personal acquaintance, we have been long attached to her. My visit at Mr. Fitzhugh's confirmed my partiality.

      Betsy is so fond of your family that she proposes to form a match between her boy and your girl, provided you will engage to make the latter as amiable as her mother.

      Truly, my dear Meade, I often regret that fortune has cast our residence at Such a distance from each other. It would be a serious addition to my happiness if we lived where I Could see you every day; but fate has determined it otherwise.

      I am a little hurried, and can only request, in addition, that you will present me most affectionately to Mrs. Meade, and believe me to be, With the warmest

      And most unalterable friendship

      Yours СКАЧАТЬ