Complete Works. Hamilton Alexander
the assistance of my good friend, Mr. Donald, who has been of every service to me that lay in his power, in contributing to make my life easy at this advanced period of life. The bearer of this. Captain Sheriff, of the brig Dispatchy sails direct for Philadelphia, and has promised to deliver you this letter with his own hands; and as he returns to this island from Philadelphia, I beg you will drop me a few lines, letting me know how you and your family keep your health, as 1 am uneasy at not having hegrd from you for some time past. I beg my respectful compliments to Mrs. Hamilton and your children, and wishing you health and happiness, I remain, with esteem, dear Alexander,
Your very affectionate father,
James Hamilton.
Alexander Hamilton to his brother James Hamilton, Jr.
New York, June 23, 1783.
My dear Brother: I have received your letter of the 31st of May last, which, and one other, are the only letters I have received from you in many years. I am a little surprised you did not receive one which I wrote to you about six months ago. The situation you describe yourself to be in gives me much pain, and nothing will make me happier than, as far as may be in my power, to contribute to your relief.
I will cheerfully pay your draft upon me for fifty pounds sterling, whenever it shall appear. I wish it was in my power to desire you to enlarge the sum; but though my future prospects are of the most flattering kind, my present engagements would render it inconvenient for me to advance you a larger sum.
My affection for you, however, will not permit me to be inattentive to your welfare, and I hope time will prove to you that I feel all the sentiments of a brother. Let me only request of you to exert your industry for a year or two more where you are, and at the end of that time I promise myself to be able to invite you to a more comfortable settlement in this country. Allow me only to give you one caution, which is, to avoid if possible, getting into debt. Are you married or single ? If the latter, it is my wish, for many reasons, that you may continue in that state.
But what has become of our dear father ? It is an age since I have heard from him, or of him though I have written him several letters. Perhaps, alas! he is no more, and I shall not have the pleasing opportunity of contributing to render the close of his life more happy than the progress of it. My heart bleeds at the recollection of his misfortunes and embarrassments. Sometimes I flatter myself his brothers have extended their support to him, and that now he is enjoying tranquillity and ease; at other times I fear he is suffering in indigence. I entreat you, if you can, to relieve me from my doubts, and let me know how or where he is, if alive; if dead, how and where he died. Should he be alive inform him of my inquiries, beg him to write to me, and tell him how ready I shall be to devote myself and all I have to his accommodation and happiness.
I do not advise your coming to this country at present, for the war has also put things out of order here, and people in your business find a subsistence difficult enough. My object will be, by and by, to get you settled on a farm.
Believe me, always your affectionate friend and brother,
Alex. Hamilton.
Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Schuyler
(written prior to 1780)
I wrote you, my dear, in one of my letters that I had written to our father, but had not heard of him since, that the operations in the islands hitherto cannot affect him, that I had pressed him to come to America after the peace. A gentleman going to the island where he is, will in a few days afford me a safe opportunity to write again. I shall again present him with his black-eyed daughter, and tell him how much her attention deserves his affection and will make the blessing of his gray hairs. . . .
The general ignorance that exists regarding Hamilton's origin and intimate life has prompted me to publish fully all I know about him, and in doing this I must express my indebtedness to Gertrude Atherton, who has made a conscientious hunt for material, with remarkable success. The conclusions are that Alexander Hamilton was the son of James Hamilton, who was the fourth son of Alexander Hamilton, Laird of the Grange, in the Parish of Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland, and his wife, Elizabeth (eldest daughter of Sir Robert Pollock), who were married in the year 1730. The Hamiltons of Grange belonged to the Cambuskeith branch of the house of Hamilton, and the founder of this branch, in the fourteenth century, was Walter de Hamilton, who was the common ancestor of the Dukes of Hamilton, the Dukes of Abercom, Earls of Haddington, Viscounts Boyne, Barons Belhaven, several extinct peerages, and of all the Scotch and Irish Hamilton families. He was fifth in descent from Robert, Earl of Mellent, created by Henry I of France and His Queen, who was a daughter of Jeroslaus, Czar of Russia.
His mother, Rachel Fawcett, was born in the island of Nevis, and when a girl of barely sixteen was forced into marriage with a rich Danish Jew, one John Michael Levine (or Lawein), who treated her cruelly. The marriage was evidently one of very great unhappiness from the beginning, so that she was forced to leave him and return to her mother's roof.
This was in 1755 or 1756. Her mother, from all accounts, although a woman of great loveliness and charm, was ambitious and masterful, and had very decided ideas of her own regarding her daughter's future. She herself had had matrimonial troubles, and had separated from her husband late in life, after having had several children, but the mother of Hamilton came a long time after the others, and was brought up in unrestful surroundings, later witnessing the family quarrels. Doubtless the influence of much of this, coupled with the persuasion of her mother, led to the alliance with a man much older than herself, who finally made life insupportable. She appears to have been a brilliant and clever girl, who had been given every educational advantage and accomplishment, and had profited by her opportunities. By Levine she had had one son, who was taken from her by his father, and for a time lived with him, first at St. Croix, and afterward in Denmark, and it was not until several years afterward that she met James Hamilton, an attractive Scotchman, of much charm of manner, in the West Indies, with whom she quickly fell in love. Although, as has been said, her mother had parted from her own husband, it was impossible, owing to the disorderly condition of legal affairs in the provinces, for the daughter to formally get her freedom from the person who had so ruined her life, and although every attempt was apparently made, both by Hamilton and herself, they seemed unable to obtain any relief from the local courts, and lived together until her death, which occurred February 25, 1768, when she was thirty-two years old. It is quite true that the courts of St. Croix were available, but this was a Danish island, and Levine was a Dane, and a man of great local influence, which was used against them, so that their efforts were thwarted.
The social life of England and the colonies during the eighteenth century was, to say the least, unsettled, and this is especially true so far as the morals of the better class were concerned. According to Lodge, "divorce was extremely rare in any of the colonies, and even in England, and in the crown provinces it involved long, difficult, and expensive proceedings of the greatest publicity." In fact, if we may be guided by the existing reports, annulment was resorted to much pore often than divorce, and it is impossible to find any account of the existence of divorce laws on the islands of St. Kitts or Nevis; according to well-informed persons, there was even no act providing for separate maintenance.
Marriage rites were informal and elopements common, both in Great Britain and her dependencies; in fact, it was not until the passage of Lord Hardwick's marriage bill, and the energetic labors of Wilberforce, that the solemn nature of the marriage rite was established. Even then Hardwick's bill was opposed by Heniy Fox, who had married a daughter of the Duke of Richmond, and with the subsequent ascendancy of the gay Walpoles and Pelhams there was more tolerance with irregular marriages than ever.
Lecky and, later. Sir George Russell,' referred to the casual nature of the marriage customs, and the easy manner in which unions were made and broken, and at this time the pilgrimages to Gretna Green of those who were impatient of the law's delays or the objections of discriminating parents, were frequent.
In referring to the easily solemnized marriages which did not endure. Swift said: "The art of making nets is very different from the art of making cages," and very litde, if any, odium was attached to those who took matters into their own hands. In this country elopement was so common as to be a popular proceeding among the higher classes, and many of our forefathers