#alexander hamilton biography

[almaprincess66]

So I'm planning on doing my English homework about Hamilton and the American Financial System. My source is Ron Chernow's biography. There is one problem.

I have like 4 days to put the thing together and this book is massive! I can't read 800 pages!

And the tabels of content do not help AT ALL! Like what are these titles?

If somebody read it please help?!

#amrev #american revolutionary war #amrev fandom #hamilton #historical hamilton #alexander hamilton #historical alexander hamilton #alexander hamilton biography #ron chernow #help #I need serious help

[ironmandeficiency]

my mom just gave back what was my most prized possession for most of my high school career. all 232 tabs are labeled and in as good condition as they were when i last saw the book

#i was OBSESSED with hamilton in high school #i carried this book everywhere with me #the tabs feel so soft to run your hands over #jj’s on the dumb bitch juice #hamilton #alexander hamilton #ron chernow #lin manuel miranda #alexander hamilton biography

[scoops-stevie-archive]

both steve and eddie weren't very good at history in school. they're grades were abysmal and they have no idea how the managed to pass in the end.

so when 2015 comes around and their theater kid gets obsessed with hamilton, they're both furiously scribbling down notes because where the fuck was this when they were in school??????

#im so sorry for this #i'm man enough to admit i had a hamilton phase #i bought the alexander hamilton biography lmm read for inspo #almost bought the hamiltome #i was on a waitlist for tickets before they started selling in the thousands #mine #steddie

[kingofthescene]

I wouldn't really call myself a Hamilton fan, more of a history (amrev) enthusiast, if anything. However, I will admit that I was very big/involved in the fandom years ago during its peak but even back then, the biggest thing that bothered then and still bothers me to this day was the historical inaccuracies in the musical (as well as fans of the musical taking it as fact, then spreading misinformation rather than doing actual research on a subject), as well as the fact that so many people seemed to miss the point of the entire musical. I'm a huge history nerd, that's why I had originally gotten into the musical to begin with. As a theater kid, I can say that from a musical standpoint, it’s good, there’s no denying that (musically, anyway). But from a more historical standpoint? Ehhh. A lot could have been done/could have been handled differently. Though with the musical being based off of Ron Chernow’s biography on Hamilton (which is not the most credible source due to how biased Chernow is), it’s not that much of a surprise. Something that irks me about Hamilton fans is that they take everything that comes out of that man’s mouth as fact when a lot of the time he’s unable to back up a lot of his random “facts”. It’s frustrating because it’s the same people who believe that the musical is historically accurate (because they refuse to do their own research) when that couldn’t be any further from the truth. No offense, but a huge chunk of Hamilton fans are genuinely ignorant and uneducated. One of my biggest problems with this musical is how it, as well as its fandom, treats Aaron Burr. I’ll be making a separate post about Burr specifically because there really is a lot to say about him in general.

#hamilton musical #alexander hamilton #aaron burr #amrev history #hamilton is not historically accurate #the fact that some people genuinely take the musical or even chernow's biography as one hundred percent accurate is insane #i see a lot of fans of hamilton defending slavery of all things. there is a lot to go over that i won't cram all into my first post

[5arcasmw]

the more i learn about the american revolution the more hamilton: the musical infuriates me

(read tags for context pls i go off on a mega tangent)

#no offense to lmm at ALL i know that he had to keep the musical entertaining and that it wasnt meant to be a complete biography but GOOD GOD #wh-why is stay alive (set the winter of valley forge to a bit after the battle of monmouth) like 6 SONGS AFTER “a winter's ball” LIKE- #THAT SONG TAKES PLACE IN 1980 WHILE THE EVENTS IN “stay alive” TAKE PLACE IN 17781?1??11??!?2?+?1 #ALEX AND ELIZA HAD ONLY LIKE VERY BRIEFLY MET LIKE ONCE BEFORE IF I REMEMBER CORRECTLY #AND AND AND #THAT WOULD BE ENOUGH TAKING PLACE RIGHT AFTER THE LAURENS LEE DUEL AND MEET HIM INSIDE?? WHAT???? #DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THE PLACEMENT OF MEET ME INSIDE #HAMILTON DIDN'T EVEN LEAVE HIS POST AS AIDE-DE-CAMP TIL LIKE EARLY 1781???? YEARS AFTER THE DUEL???? WHILE HE WAS ALREADY WED TO ELIZA???? #AND WASHINGTON DIDNT EVEN KICK HIM OUT BC OF THE DUEL LIKE??? #ALSO THIS IS KIND OF MINOR BUT #SAYING THAT LAURENS WAS IN SC DURING THE BATTLE OF YORKTOWN WHEN IN REALITY HE WAS IN THE BATTLE LITERALLY *WITH* ALEXANDER JUST FISKDNQMDNA #also i stand by the fact that “satisfied” should've 100% been sung by laurens instead of angelica #as far as i'm aware there is a lot more evidence to suggest laurens and hamilton being a thing than angelica and alex being a thing lmao #ALSO #wher the fuck were meade tilghman harrison reed mchenry and fitzgerald???? (idk if there were more aides i forget lmao) #and why include hercules mulligan in the main war group when LAFAYETTE AND LAURENS LITERALLY NEVER MET HIM??? #WHY NOT REPLACE HIM WITH ONE OF THE OTHER AIDE-DE-CAMPS I PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED???? #I AM AT A LOSS FOR WORDS LIN WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME #lin buddy i love you and the musical *LITERALLY* saved my life but #good god man the inaccuracies in the 1st act give me fucking heart burn....got me prematurely balding over here jfc #amrev #amrev fandom #i guess? #alexander hamilton #hamilton the musical #john laurens #lams #these tags are an entire seperate post jfc #lin manuel miranda #shit i accidentally said 1980 instead of 1780 pls ignore i typed fast and angrily

[snoopylovessoup]

Modern musicals love to take the most un-musical theatre books and make it into a smash Broadway hit. Oh, you want to make a musical about a reimagining of Oz that explores human/animal rights, terrorism and evil as nurture/nature? A graphic novel memoir about a lesbian’s relationship with her closeted dad who possibly kills himself and her coming of age while exhibiting OCD behaviours? A non-fiction BIOGRAPHY on one of the FOUNDING FATHERS?! All right, ALL THE TONYS!

#wicked #fun home #Hamilton #I haven’t read the biography of Alexander Hamilton but both wicked and fun home are really good books #but lemme tell you I was surprised as a teen reading a book about a little witch child of rape and sectarian and terrorism and wondering how #they got songs like popular out of the material #I eventually saw wicked in uni #I like to think i was one of the few people in the audience that understood the second act but that was only cuz i read the source material #that I could follow it #musical theatre #broadway

[46ten]

Alexander Hamilton, policy wonk (Richard T. Green)

A lot of [the Founders] did not really understand the mechanics of how one runs a government and makes policy come to reality. Hamilton thought more about that than virtually any other founder. He was focused on how do we actually put together an administration and run it.

Hamilton was a man of many different talents. He is known principally, to most people, as a founding father and one of the authors and expounders of the Constitution in the Federalist papers. Many also mistakenly think he was president. Though an able politician in his own right, he chose instead to take the position of Secretary of the Treasury because he knew that the new government had to build and stabilize an American financial system before almost anything else could be done effectively. Through treasury operations he could monitor and influence developments in all other departments. In the process, he became President Washington’s most trusted administrator.

He also was a leading lawyer of the period. His jurisprudence played a vital role in fashioning his theory and practice of public administration.

...Much of the new government’s administration reflected Hamilton’s genius. He helped establish and run the first great departments: the Department of War, the Department of State and, of course, the Treasury Department, which was the biggest institution of the new national government. It employed some 500 people spread among the 13 states. By contrast, the departments of state and war initially employed fewer than five people.

By the time Hamilton left the treasury in 1795, it had tripled in size and then by the end of the decade, in the 1800s, it employed some 3,000 people. From there on, the administrative state by necessity grew due to wars, depressions and economic development of the country. Hamilton’s vision and plans for the new republic were, of course, very controversial and a threat to many founders who wanted mainly to preserve the status quo of a patrician-led, states-oriented republic. 

...The founding of most nations and cultures is “normative” in the sense that people treat them as authoritative sources of insight and believe their founders were great people who deserve our admiration. This is fine to a point, I share that admiration, but it is also important to understand that they were subject to the same human foibles as “normal” people and that much of that history reveals a much grimmer reality than we might want to admit. I like helping people get beyond the worship and develop a more sober understanding of what these people actually said and did, what they failed to do, as well as what they succeeded in achieving. Then we might be able to better appreciate the nature of their successes, disagreements and failings, and that many of these remain in play today.

-Richard T. Green, interview for his book Alexander Hamilton’s Public Administration

#Alexander Hamilton #biography #Richard T. Green #historiography

[ash-the-prince]

The absolute DRAMA of early American politics

I'm sitting here absolutely emoting over this shit

Holy fuck these people are unhinged

#listening to the Ron Chernow biography on Alexander Hamilton #I - #I don't even know what to say #I am lowkey still baffled by the fact I act like this man and I do not like it

[pub-lius]

Which Hamilton biography is the most accurate to you (doesnt overpraise him but doesnt over demonize him either)

unfortunately i cannot answer this bc i haven’t fully read any hamilton biography or any at all besides Ron Chernow’s (i do most of my research about hamilton through primary source documents like his letters, contemporary accounts, and also finding bits and pieces from other books and sources)

i will say chernow appears to give the most detailed account of him because of just how much is in his book, idk if anyone else has reached that level lol. also i haven’t even really found one biography of anyone or any other kind of history book that doesn’t lean more to one side than the other. if they don’t, it’s because they’re very fact oriented and don’t go into detail on what is disputed about by historians, like they just say what can be confirmed for sure or is widely accepted

im actually not very far into my reading of my personal library, but i am working on it, slowly but surely. but yeah tl;dr, most of my knowledge of hamilton comes from picking up details one by one over a very long period of time, and i haven’t really read books 🥲

if anyone else has hamilton biography recommendations, pls reblog with them bc i do need more once i get through all the other shit i have to read lol

#alexander hamilton #history #chernow is a bitch tho #most books about hamilton or that discuss hamilton after he published his biography use chernow as their main source #so if you’re looking for something that isn’t pro-hamilton find something pre-chernow #but those will probably be less detailed #online archives and museums like mount vernon are my favorites to use for him #also i literally just read through all his papers on founders online soooo #im mentally ill its fine

[gloalnie]

Someone say “Praise!” Ron Chernow existed, wrote “Alexander Hamilton” and “Praise the Lord” it fell into Lin Manuel Miranda’s bedside table…To that we owe the best musical of our generation 🙌🏼

#Lin Manuel Miranda #lin manuel appreciation post #my baby genius #top notched brain #alexander hamilton #hamilton musical #hamilton #ron chernow #biography #history has its eyes on you

[almaprincess66]

So I got into a kinda wierd episode and to get out of it I started reading Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton. (We all have different coping mechanisms!)

I am on page 8 and have already underlined 11 things. This book is massive and I will enjoy this way too much

#alexander hamilton #historical hamilton #historical alexander hamilton #alexander hamilton biography #amrev #american revolutionary war #american history

[aaronburrsbignaturals]

who is poorlittlehammy and what'd they do??? i keep seeing posts and i have no idea what's going on

why would you ask me such a haunting question on this most important of days, International NFT Day???

look, i don't want to start drama with all of the shit that i know due to the thankless efforts of my beloved mutuals, so i won't spread all of that juicy gossip. unfortunately for you anon, i will not be able to explain just how strange she really is, but i don't want to share the gossip without receipts, and those receipts aren't mine to share.

but what i will say is that she has the world's biggest victim complex paired with the world's biggest alexander hamilton fetish. she has a self-made vendetta against all the "hamilton haters" which includes anyone who jokes about him or doesn't live under the alarmingly false belief that he was the biggest hero of early america and that the country would have floundered without his input. she doesn't vibe with anyone who holds the mutual beliefs that he was an interesting dude who made some important contributions while simultaneously being an overly aggressive dick with a paranoia problem. she lashes out about the "hamilton haters" and posts screenshots of other people's posts to "call them out" without actually doing it to their faces. she also seems to believe that she's the only one interested in intellectual pursuits of history while gushing over hamilton biographies that aren't exactly the highest quality with an abysmal ability for thinking critically about them.

she deleted the PLH blog a day after a new blog suspiciously popped up and reblogged all of her posts. so like, not saying that it's her but..... it's definitely her.

she's overall just a really weird person which would be fine if she wasn't so aggressively weird towards other people in the fandom.

#anon #asks

[fromkenari]

A mass of fools and knaves

The full email exchange between Alex Claremont Diaz and Prince Henry Fox Mountchristen Windsor from Chapter Nine of Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. Put here for my best friend to read.

A mass of fools and knaves A [email protected]                8/10/20 1:04 AM to Henry H, Have you ever read any of Alexander Hamilton’s letters to John Laurens? What am I saying? Of course you haven’t. You’d probably be disinherited for revolutionary sympathies. Well, since I got the boot from the campaign, there is literally nothing for me to do but watch cable news (diligently chipping away at my brain cells by the day) and sort through all my old shit from college. Just looking at papers, thinking: Excellent, yes, I’m so glad I stayed up all night writing this for a 98 in the class, only to get summarily fired from the first job I ever had and exiled to my bedroom! Great job, Alex! Is this how you feel in the palace all the time? It fucking sucks, man. So anyway, I’m going through my college stuff, and I find this analysis I did of Hamilton’s wartime correspondence, and hear me out: I think Hamilton could have been bi. His letters to Laurens are almost as romantic as his letters to his wife. Half of them are signed “Yours” or “Affectionately yrs,” and the last one before Laurens died is signed “Yrs for ever.” I can’t figure out why nobody talks about the possibility of a Founding Father being not straight (outside of Chernow’s biography, which is great btw, see attached bibliography). I mean, I know why, but. Anyway, I found this part of a letter he wrote to Laurens, and it made me think of you. And me, I guess: The truth is I am an unlucky honest man, that speak my sentiments to all and with emphasis. I say this to you because you know it and will not charge me with vanity. I hate Congress—I hate the army—I hate the world—I hate myself. The whole is a mass of fools and knaves; I could almost except you … Thinking about history makes me wonder how I’ll fit into it one day, I guess. And you too. I kinda wish people still wrote like that. History, huh? Bet we could make some. Affectionately yrs, slowly going insane, Alex, First Son of Founding Father Sacrilege

McQuiston, Casey. Red, White & Royal Blue: A Novel (pp. 239-241). St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Re: A mass of fools and knaves Henry [email protected]                8/10/20 4:18 AM to A Alex, First Son of Masturbatory Historical Readings: The phrase “see attached bibliography” is the single sexiest thing you have ever written to me. Every time you mention your slow decay inside the White House, I can’t help but feel it’s my fault, and I feel absolutely shit about it. I’m sorry. I should have known better than to turn up at a thing like that. I got carried away; I didn’t think. I know how much that job meant to you. I just want to … you know. Extend the option. If you wanted less of me, and more of that—the work, the uncomplicated things—I would understand. Truly. In any event … Believe it or not, I have actually done a bit of reading on Hamilton, for a number of reasons. First, he was a brilliant writer. Second, I knew you were named after him (the pair of you share an alarming number of traits, by the by: passionate determination, never knowing when to shut up, &c &c). And third, some saucy tart once tried to impugn my virtue against an oil painting of him, and in the halls of memory, some things demand context. Are you angling for a revolutionary soldier role-play scenario? I must inform you, any trace of King George III blood I have would curdle in my very veins and render me useless to you. Or are you suggesting you’d rather exchange passionate letters by candlelight? Should I tell you that when we’re apart, your body comes back to me in dreams? That when I sleep, I see you, the dip of your waist, the freckle above your hip, and when I wake up in the morning, it feels like I’ve just been with you, the phantom touch of your hand on the back of my neck fresh and not imagined? That I can feel your skin against mine, and it makes every bone in my body ache? That, for a few moments, I can hold my breath and be back there with you, in a dream, in a thousand rooms, nowhere at all? I think perhaps Hamilton said it better in a letter to Eliza: You engross my thoughts too intirely to allow me to think of any thing else—you not only employ my mind all day; but you intrude upon my sleep. I meet you in every dream—and when I wake I cannot close my eyes again for ruminating on your sweetness. If you did decide to take the option mentioned at the start of this email, I do hope you haven’t read the rest of this rubbish. Regards, Haplessly Romantic Heretic Prince Henry the Utterly Daft

McQuiston, Casey. Red, White & Royal Blue: A Novel (pp. 241-243). St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Re: A mass of fools and knaves A [email protected]                8/10/20 5:36 AM to Henry H, Please don’t be stupid. No part of any of this will ever be uncomplicated. Anyway, you should be a writer. You are a writer. Even after all this, I still always feel like I want to know more of you. Does that sound crazy? I just sit here and wonder, who is this person who knows stuff about Hamilton and writes like this? Where does someone like that even come from? How was I so wrong? It’s weird because I always know things about people, gut feelings that usually lead me in more or less the right direction. I do think I got a gut feeling with you, I just didn’t have what I needed in my head to understand it. But I kind of kept chasing it anyway, like I was just going blindly in a certain direction and hoping for the best. I guess that makes you the North Star? I wanna see you again and soon. I keep reading that one paragraph over and over again. You know which one. I want you back here with me. I want your body and I want the rest of you too. And I want to get the fuck out of this house. Watching June and Nora on TV doing appearances without me is torture. We have this annual thing at my dad’s lake house in Texas. Whole long weekend off the grid. There’s a lake with a pier, and my dad always cooks something fucking amazing. You wanna come? I kind of can’t stop thinking about you all sunburned and pretty sitting out there in the country. It’s the weekend after next. If Shaan can talk to Zahra or somebody about flying you into Austin, we can pick you up from there. Say yes? Yrs, Alex P.S. Allen Ginsberg to Peter Orlovsky—1958: Tho I long for the actual sunlight contact between us I miss you like a home. Shine back honey & think of me.

McQuiston, Casey. Red, White & Royal Blue: A Novel (pp. 243-245). St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Re: A mass of fools and knaves Henry [email protected]                8/10/20 8:22 PM to A Alex, If I’m north, I shudder to think where in God’s name we’re going. I’m ruminating on identity and your question about where a person like me comes from, and as best as I can explain it, here’s a story: Once, there was a young prince who was born in a castle. His mother was a princess scholar, and his father was the most handsome, feared knight in all the land. As a boy, people would bring him everything he could ever dream of wanting. The most beautiful silk clothes, ripe fruit from the orangery. At times, he was so happy, he felt he would never grow tired of being a prince. He came from a long, long line of princes, but never before had there been a prince quite like him: born with his heart on the outside of his body. When he was small, his family would smile and laugh and say he would grow out of it one day. But as he grew, it stayed where it was, red and visible and alive. He didn’t mind it very much, but every day, the family’s fear grew that the people of the kingdom would soon notice and turn their backs on the prince. His grandmother, the queen, lived in a high tower, where she spoke only of the other princes, past and present, who were born whole. Then, the prince’s father, the knight, was struck down in battle. The lance tore open his armor and his body and left him bleeding in the dust. And so, when the queen sent new clothes, armor for the prince to parcel his heart away safe, the prince’s mother did not stop her. For she was afraid, now: afraid of her son’s heart torn open too. So the prince wore it, and for many years, he believed it was right. Until he met the most devastatingly gorgeous peasant boy from a nearby village who said absolutely ghastly things to him that made him feel alive for the first time in years and who turned out to be the most mad sort of sorcerer, one who could conjure up things like gold and vodka shots and apricot tarts out of absolutely nothing, and the prince’s whole life went up in a puff of dazzling purple smoke, and the kingdom said, “I can’t believe we’re all so surprised.” I’m in for the lake house. I must admit, I’m glad you’re getting out of the house. I worry you may burn the thing down. Does this mean I’ll be meeting your father? I miss you. x Henry P.S. This is mortifying and maudlin and, honestly, I hope you forget it as soon as you’ve read it. P.P.S. From Henry James to Hendrik C. Andersen, 1899: May the terrific U.S.A. be meanwhile not a brute to you. I feel in you a confidence, dear Boy–which to show is a joy to me. My hopes and desires and sympathies right heartily and most firmly, go with you. So keep up your heart, and tell me, as it shapes itself, your (inevitably, I imagine, more or less weird) American story. May, at any rate, tutta quella gente be good to you.

McQuiston, Casey. Red, White & Royal Blue: A Novel (pp. 245-247). St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

#leigh #a mass of fools and knaves #alex claremont diaz #henry fox mountchristen windsor #red white and royal blue #casey mcquiston #out of credits

[charmantevamp]

Hamilton + historical fiction

So... I saw Hamilton: an american musical for the 2nd time live and 4th time if you count the proshot, here’s a list of things I noticed as someone whose back to hyper fixating on the American revolution. 

1. Mostly accurate but simplified timeline. The timeline of events in Hamilton is mostly accurate (via the Ron Chernow biography) it is of course, historical fiction and historical fiction and should be taken as such, for example: Hamilton/Eliza courted for months and met when Eliza was aiding injured soldiers with her father Phillip Schuyler. Also Angelica was if anything a platonic relationship with mild flirting (and sometimes comma sexting) act 1 is actually more “simplified” then act 2.

2. The Culper ring gets one mention in the song Right Hand Man. “Spies on the inside / king’s men who might let some things slide.” Also I understand the line, “British Admiral Howe's got troops on the water, Thirty-two thousand troops in New York Harbor.” Now.

3. I’m just assuming now Washington was a father figure to his aides to camp cause Alexander and Benjamin.

4. Parallels between Eliza, Angelica, Maria, Laurens & Phillip Hamilton.

5. One last time - it is historically a huge deal that George Washington stepped down.

6. Say no to this / helpless - repetition of “look” / “helpless” - motif.

7. Choreography, costumes, set & music… some very clever people put that show together.

8. Despite the underlying subtext of revolution and the revolutionaries being played by people of global majority (colour) it’s like Turn - on brand pro American dream/experiment. - an essay for later.

9. King George iii as a foppish unwell man - also an essay for later. Further watching.

10. This article I wrote a year ago holds up, surprisingly well. It’s fun, you’re allowed to enjoy things, just don’t assume historical fiction is historical fact.

me realizing Benjamin Tallmadge outlived Alexander Hamilton & George Washington:

Tagging: @honorhearted, @rhogeminid, @randomhistoryandmemes, @mxtallmadge, @pagetreader, @amrevgeekworld, @theworldneedsocean, @the-brat-prince-1760, @alexander-the-ham-man & @ofjupiterandmoons this seems there realm of collective knowledge.

Reblogs are allowed and you can meta analyze my meta & overthinking, if you like. I’ll probably make this a blog post of some kind later.

#ooc / the poet #hamilton musical #hamilton the musical #meta #history #historical references #historical fiction #amc turn #turn amc #turn washington's spies #alexander hamilton #benjamin tallmadge #ben tallmadge #amrev history #amrev fandom #amrev culture #american revolution #18th century #i just think they're neat #long post #eliza hamilton #eliza schuyler #maria reynolds #phillip hamilton #angelica schuyler #john laurens #musical theatre #musicals

[yr-obedt-cicero]

The fascination with busts of Hamilton

After @essentialaegis pointed this out in the notes of this post, I started to look back and realize there were quite a few times people had some alluring interest or comments towards busts of Hamilton. These particular recollections being from Elizabeth Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and none other than Aaron Burr.

I remember nothing more distinctly than a sofa and chairs with spindle tracting legs, upholstered in black broadcloth, embroidered in flowery wreaths by Mrs. [Elizabeth] Hamilton herself, and a marble bust of [Alexander] Hamilton standing on its pedestal in a draped corner. That bust I can never forget, for centuries the old lady always paused before it in her tour of the rooms, and, leaning on her cane, gazed and gazed, as if she could never be satisfied.

The Atlantic Monthly. United States, Atlantic Monthly Company, 1896.

After gazing a moment at these objects, the eye settled with a deeper interest on busts of [Thomas] Jefferson and [Alexander] Hamilton, by Ceracchi, placed on massive pedestals on each side of the main entrance—“opposed in death as in life,” as the surviving original sometimes remarked, with a pensive smile, as he observed the notice they attracted.

Randall, Henry Stephens. The Life of Thomas Jefferson. United States, Derby & Jackson, 1858.

Soon after his return Burr visited Boston. Phillips called on him at the Tremont Hotel, and offered to act the part of a cicerone. Among other places they went to the Athenæum, then on Pearl Street, to see the pictures and look at the library. As they walked down the hall, between the alcoves, Phillips caught sight of a bust of Hamilton, one of the ornaments of the library, which he had forgotten was there. He tried on some pretext to draw Burr in another direction; but he, too, had seen the bust and marched straight up to it. He stood facing it for a moment, then turned and said: “A remarkable man—a very remarkable man.” Upon this he wheeled on both heels in military style and moved on again with great composure.

Martyn, William Carlos. Wendell Phillips: the Agitator: With an Appendix Containing Three of the Orator's Masterpieces, Never Before Published in Book Form, Viz.: "The Lost Arts", "Daniel O'Connell", "The Scholar in a Republic".. United Kingdom, Funk & Wagnalls, 1890.

[Original source Recollections of Wendell Phillips, by F. B. Sanborn]

Take an anecdote in point. Mr. John Ant—n, a brother lawyer, had a bust of Hamilton in his office, and, from a trick or habit, A., when in earnest thought or talk, would fix his eye upon the bust. Burr had a consultation with him; and A., unconsciously, fixed his eye upon the pale Hamilton; but, instantly remembering, withdrew his sight from it, still not before Burr divined his thoughts. The Colonel quietly, slowly poked out his long fingers, pointed to the bust very deliberately, and said: “He may thank me—I made him a great man.”

PARTON, James. The Life and Times of Aaron Burr ... Vice-President of the United States, Etc. Fourteenth Edition. United States, n.p, 1864.

He had occasion to pay some attentions to Aaron Burr during a visit Burr made to Boston after the death of Hamilton. He took him to the Athenæum, and while walking through the sculpture gallery, seeing the bust of Hamilton near him, turned off, naturally thinking it would be disagreeable to Burr to be brought before it. But Burr went directly up to it and said in a very loud tone, ‘Ah! Here is Hamilton.’ And, pressing his finger along certain lines of his face said, ‘There was the poetry!’

Adams, Charles Francis. Richard Henry Dana: A Biography. United States, Houghton, Mifflin, 1891.

Arguably the most beloved busts of Hamilton has been coined as Giuseppe Ceracchi's iconic one. When Ceracchi took a trip to the US in 1791-92, he proposed a monument in honor of the Revolution and appealed to Congress to finance the project. Ceracchi had attempted to raise the funds for the memorial, and Jefferson endorsed him and told Robert Livingston that he was; “a very celebrated sculptor from Rome.” [x] He began sculpting models of the founding fathers, including others like Washington and Jefferson. In July 1792, Ceracchi wrote to Hamilton that he was; “impatient to receive the clay that I had the satisfaction of forming from your witty and significant physiognomy”. [x] When Ceracchi heard the memorial proposal was rejected by Congress on May 7th, 1792, he sent the completed busts to each of his models in 1794. Hilariously, he also sent them each a bill for the work which they didn't ask for. Though while Washington tried to return the bust rather than pay that outrageously for a marbel copy of his face, Hamilton shamelessly paid $620; “for this sum through delicacy paid upon cherachi's draft for making my bust on his own importunity & as a favour to him.” [x]

The Roman stylized bust paints Hamilton like an ancient senator, with a slash of the Order of Cincinnatus over his bare chest—Likely referring to the Society of the Cincinnati, which you can read more about here and here. The original is inscribed on the back in Latin; “DE FACIE PHILADELPHIAE EX ECTIPO FLORENCIAE FACIEBAT JOS. CERACCHI CIDDCCLXXXXIV” Which translates; “Executed in Philadelphia and copied in Florence, Executed by Joseph Ceracchi, 1794.” [x]

The Hamilton family kept the bust until 1896 when they donated it to the New York Public Library, there is also a copy on display at the Grange. This bust would be utilized as a common reference for Hamilton's appearance posthumously, as Trumbull used the bust as model for a series of 1804-1808 portraits of Hamilton, that would later be used for reference on the ten dollar bill. [x] And the first US Postal Service stamp to honor Hamilton was an 1870 30-cent stamp using this bust as a model. [x] Also in 1880 while the bust was owned by Hamilton's son, John Church Hamilton, he lended it so it could be used as a model for the head of the granite statue of Hamilton by Carl Conrads. [x]

#amrev #american history #alexander hamilton #historical alexander hamilton #elizabeth hamilton #elizabeth schuyler #thomas jefferson #aaron burr #history #cicero's history lessons #founding fathers

[aswithasunbeam]

Hey! As you know a lot about the time period I’m wondering if I can ask you a question. From what I’ve seen, John Hamilton’s biography of his father was criticised because it claimed that Hamilton authored many of Washington’s letters (and I gather he was criticised by people who admired Hamilton). Did Hamilton actually author many of the papers under Washington’s name - did people just not want to believe it because of Washington’s reputation or for political reasons?

Hamilton definitely authored a good number of Washington's papers. During the Revolution, Hamilton's job as Washington's aide de camp included the duty to pen letters for George Washington. A quick search of Hamilton's papers on Founders Online shows a total of 889 letters written in Hamilton's handwriting that were sent under George Washington's signature.

What brought much more political controversy was Hamilton's involvement in the drafting of Washington's famous Farewell Address. All those years as Washington's aide meant Hamilton had a great knack for writing in Washington's voice. When Washington determined to step down from the presidency, he sent Hamilton a draft for a Farewell Address that James Madison had worked on four years previously (See Hamilton to Washington, 10 May 1796). Hamilton reviewed Madison's work, but decided instead to send his own version of what he thought Washington ought to say to the public. (See Hamilton to Washington, 30 July 1796). Washington ultimately tweaked Hamilton's draft and also passed it around to members of his cabinet for input, but much of the Farewell Address was in fact authored by Alexander Hamilton.

Because Washington generally tried to remain above the party politics of the time, it being widely known that his beloved last words to the public were penned by Alexander Hamilton would have started a political firestorm.

When Hamilton passed away in 1804, Rufus King went through his papers and took the draft of the Farewell Address that would have proved his authorship, fearing Hamilton's family would publish it to give Hamilton credit for the work. Eliza Hamilton spent years attempting to reclaim the document. She even visited Mount Vernon at one point to look through Washington's papers to see if there was a copy of Hamilton's draft there (see The Life and Correspondence of Bushrod Washington, v. VI, pp.617-18). Ultimately, she had to file a lawsuit against King in 1825 to reclaim the document. Eliza did not, as King feared, immediately make it widely known that Hamilton had authored the Farewell Address. However, she did record a statement to be released after her death where she detailed her own personal knowledge that Hamilton had drafted the Address for Washington. In that statement, she related the following amusing anecdote: "Shortly after the publication of the address, my husband and myself were walking in Broadway, when an old soldier accosted him, with a request of him to purchase General Washington’s Farewell address, which he did and turning to me said, ‘That man does not know he has asked me to purchase my own work.'" (Elizabeth Hamilton’s Statement as to Washington’s Farewell Address, as published in The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton). Her statement was one of the many, many ways Eliza worked during her life to help preserve Hamilton's legacy.

#alexander hamilton #george washington #eliza hamilton #rufus king #farewell address #history #ask