Okay, it’s possible that the first chapters of Alexander Hamilton misled me about how nonstop thrilling Alexander Hamilton’s life was going to be. #HamAlong has now reached the stage at which Chernow dedicates almost thirty pages to describing each and every number of The Federalist Papers.
Yo, I already knew the important thing, which is that HAMILTON WROTE! THE OTHER FIFTY-ONE! I do not need an entire chapter on this.
In this section, Hamilton helps make a new Constitution, convinces George Washington to become President, and accepts a position as Treasury Secretary. Apparently he wasn’t even Washington’s first choice! Washington didn’t know that Hamilton was all up in the financial system in his spare time. It kind of makes sense that even Hamilton’s closest political ally does not have time to keep up with all the shit Hamilton knows and does. Like that is how energetic Hamilton is. Normal people not only can’t do that much stuff, they can’t even see that much stuff being done cause Hamilton moves too fast for the human eye to follow.
It is also the season of Hamilton’s abolitionism. Now, as you might expect, most of his time in this section of #HamAlong is occupied in talking for six hours (the convention is listless) and writing THE OTHER FIFTY-ONE, but then he does legitimately join an abolition society and come up with ideas for making abolition happen. The whole thing’s sort of weird because it’s like, an abolition society? Comprising, presumably, a bunch of abolitionists? Yet:
Hamilton’s committee presented its proposals on what members [of the abolition society] should do with their slaves.
This only goes on for a little bit, because nobody agrees to Hamilton’s plan of freeing litrally all their slaves in seven years’ time. Why not, early American abolitionists? That is a nice biblical number of years in which to decide that “It’s not cool to own other people” is a rule that applies to everyone, not just plantation-owners.
ALSO. I know some people in this readalong are mad at Chernow because he’s too into Hamilton and gives him a pass on everything. Yo, that is just biographies, friends; and also, Hamilton was pretty rad. My beef with Ron Chernow, I will tell you it right now, is that he called my girl Peggy “very beautiful but vain and supercilious,” but then produced no evidence in support of his claim. Here are the two Peggy anecdotes he has told so far:
Then the women remembered that Mrs. Schuyler’s infant daughter, Catherine, had been left in a cradle by the front door. Since both Eliza and Angelica were pregnant, sister Peggy crept downstairs to retrieve the endangered child. The leader of the raiding party barred her way with a musket.
“Wench, wench! Where is your master?” he demanded.
“Gone to alarm the town,” the coolheaded Peggy said.
The intruder, fearing that Schuyler would return with troops, fled in alarm. Legend maintains that one Indian hurled a tomahawk at Peggy’s head as she trotted up the stairs with the baby in her arms; to this day the mahogany banister bears what are thought to be scars from the blade.
AND
At one ball, Angelica dropped a garter that was swept gallantly off the floor by Hamilton. Angelica, who had a sly wit, teased him that he wasn’t a Knight of the Garter. Angelica’s sarcastic sister, Peggy, then remarked, “He would be a Knight of the Bedchamber, if he could.” This may all have been harmless banter, but such tales fed material to the local gossips.
I believe what you are saying, Mr. Chernow, is that Peggy is a hilarious baller. Adjust early remarks accordingly.
Hamilton Sweetness Watch: Fisher Ames (a Federalist ally) described him as “so entirely the friend of his friends . . . that his power over their affections was entire and lasted through his life.” Judge James Kent said he “was blessed with a very amiable, generous, tender, and charitable disposition.” And this is not about him being sweet, it’s just funny: An early biographer of Aaron Burr described a New York Senate race thus: “The Clintons had power, the Livingstons had numbers, and the Schuylers had Hamilton.”
Thanks as always to Alice for hosting! I love the current location of my bookmark, which now no longer says “I am a dilettante” but instead “I am a serious scholar of biographical information.” And it would never have happened without the HamAlong!