Complete Works. Hamilton Alexander
chose this romantic and unconventional, but in those times perfectly innocent manner of mating. Four of General Philip Schuyler's daughters "arranged and took charge of their own marriages," that of his daughter who married Hamilton being an exception. Her beautiful sister, Angelica Church, ran off with an Englishman who came to the colonies, it is said, after a duel, and who changed his name to Carter, but subsequently resumed his own cognomen of John Barker Church, and was afterward the Commissary for Rochambeau.
Many other young women did the same thing, among them a daughter of Heniy Cruger, who eloped with Peter van Schaak, and "Peggy" White, who ran away with Peter Jay. Other young women of romantic inclinations were Susannah Reid and Harriet Van Rensselaer.
Hamilton's father and mother had much in extenuation of the bold step they took, and their subsequent mode of life does not appear to have been followed by any loss of caste; possibly because of the local sympathy, and the knowledge of the true facts of their unconventional relationship; and again, because there was no doubt of the sincerity and depth of their love for each other. From perfectly reliable sources it appears, and may be believed, that his mother's first husband was a coarse man of repulsive personality, many years older than herself. After Rachel left her mother's house and went to James Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton was born a year later. Levine then divorced her. In the records of the Ember Court of St. Croix it appears that "John Michael Levine (Lawein) was granted a divorce for abandonment and Levine was permitted to many again ; but she, being the defendant, was not."
It is said that Levine was not above depriving his wife's children by her union with Hamilton of the inheritance from their mother. At her death in 1768 she possessed several slaves which she left to her sons, Alexander and James Hamilton. John Michael Levine subsequently made application for these in "behalf of her lawfully begotten heir, Peter Levine." It is here distinctly stated that the grounds for divorce were that she had "absented herself." Mrs. Atherton who, in her collection of letters, refers to these facts, has made painstaking and careful examination of the records of the courts, not only in the West Indies but in Copenhagen, and states positively that there was no evidence that she deserted her husband to live with Hamilton, but was living with her mother in St. Kitts in 1756, when the latter appeared upon the scene. In a letter written by Alexander Hamilton the fact of his mother's unhappy marriage, which was brought about by her mother, is mentioned, and there seems to be no reason to doubt its truth. Whether Levine's failure to apply for a divorce on more serious grounds was due to a belief in his wife's innocence, or to the realization that he had driven her, by his cruel, to the arms of another man whom she truly loved, or whether the local court refused to take a severe view of her action because of its own knowledge of Levine, and the marriage itself, is a matter of speculation. Possibly he may have felt some of the magnanimity which, in more recent years, actuated Ruskin and Wagner. Certainly the best proof that no prejudice existed in after life in regard to Hamilton because of his birth are the facts, not only that General Washington invited him to become a member of his military family, but that General Schuyler heartily approved of the marriage with his daughter.
Hamilton's father does not appear to have been successful in any pursuit, but in many ways was a great deal of a dreamer, and something of a student, whose chief happiness seemed to be in the society of his beautiful and talented wife, who was in every way intellectually his superior. After her death he apparently lost all incentive he had before to continue any mercantile occupation, and left the island, going to St. Vincent, where he lived until a time shortly before his son's death.
It is not evident that Hamilton knew much of his Scotch relatives until after the War of the Revolution, although in a letter to his brother in 1783 he casually alludes to his uncles. In 1797 he wrote a long letter to Alexander Hamilton, the Laird of the Grange at the time, which tells very simply the story of his career in America and may be here used in an introductory way to what is to follow.
Alexander Hamilton from Alexander Hamilton.
Albany, State of New York, May the 2d, 1797.
My dear Sir: Some days since I received with great pleasure your letter of the 10th of March. The mark it affords of your kind attention, and the particular account it gives me of so many relations in Scotland, are extremely gratifying to me. You no doubt have understood that my father's affairs at a very early day went to wreck; so as to have rendered his situation during the greatest part of his life far from eligible. This state of things occasioned a separation between him and me, when I was very young, and threw me upon the bounty of my mother's relatives, some of whom were then wealthy, though by vicissitudes to which human affairs are so liable they have been since much reduced and broken up. Myself at about sixteen came to this country. Having always had a strong propensity to literary pursuits, by a course of steady and laborious exertion I was able, by the age of nineteen, to qualify myself for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in the College of New-York, and to lay the foundation for preparatory study for the future profession of the law.
The American Revolution supervened. My principles led me to take part in it; at nineteen I entered into the American army as Captain of Artillery. Shortly after I became, by invitation, aid-de-camp to General Washington, in which station I served till the commencement of that campaign which ended with the siege of York in Virginia, and the capture of Comwallis's army. The campaign I made at the head of a corps of light infantry, with which I was present at the siege of York, and engaged in some interesting operations.
At the period of the peace of Great Britain, I found myself a member of Congress by appointment of the Legislature of this State.
After the peace, I settled in the city of New-York, in the practice of the law; and was in a very lucrative course of practice, when the derangement of our public affairs, by the feebleness of the general confederation, drew me again reluctantly into public life. I became a member of the Convention which framed the present Constitution of the United States; and having taken part in this measure, I conceived myself to be under an obligation to lend my aid towards putting the machine in some regular motion. Hence I did not hesitate to accept the offer of President Washington to undertake the office of Secretary of the Treasury.
In that office I met with many intrinsic difficulties, and many artificial ones proceding from passions, not very worthy, common to human nature, and which act with peculiar force in republics. The object, however, was effected of establishing public credit, and introducing order in the finances.
Public office in this country has few attractions. The pecuniary emolument is so inconsiderable, as to amount to a sacrifice to any man who can employ his time to advantage in any liberal profession. The opportunity of doing good, from the jealousy of power and the spirit of faction, is too small in any station, to warrant a long continuance of private sacrifices. The enterprises of party had so far succeeded, as materially to weaken the necessary influence and energy of the Executive authority, and so far diminish the power of doing good in that department, as greatly to take away the motives which a virtuous man might have for making sacrifices. The prospect was even bad for gratifying in future the love of fame, if that passion was to be the spring of action.
The union of these motives, with the reflections of prudence in relation to a growing family, determined me as soon as my plan had reached a certain maturity, to withdraw from office. This I did by a resignation about two years since, when I resumed the profession of the law in the city of New-York under every advantage I could desire.
It is a pleasant reflection to me, that since the commencement of my connection with General Washington to the present time, I have possessed a flattering share of his confidence and friendship.
Having given you a brief sketch of my political career, I proceed to some further family details.
In the year 1780 I married the second daughter of General Schuyler, a gentleman of one of the best families of this country, of large fortune, and no less personal and political consequence. It is impossible to be happier than I am in a wife; and I have five children, four sons and a daughter, the eldest a son somewhat past fifteen, who all promise as well as their years permit, and yield me much satisfaction. . Though I have been too much in public life to be wealthy, my situation is extremely comfortable, and leaves me nothing to wish but a continuance of health. With this blessing, the profits of my profession and other prospects authorize