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August 16
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Alexander Hamilton

The Fall of Hamilton

Follow Hamilton’s later conflicts and final duel through this free reading guide, with source readings and related interactive history lessons.

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Readings
• The Reynolds Pamphlet from "The Works of Alexander Hamilton" by Alexander Hamilton
• Chapter 10 from "American Statesmen: Alexander Hamilton" by Henry Cabot Lodge
• Epilogue from "Alexander Hamilton" by Ron Chernow
• Chapter 9 from "American Statesmen: Alexander Hamilton" by Henry Cabot Lodge
• "Letter to John Jay" and "Letter to Gouverneur Morris" from "The Works of Alexander Hamilton" by Alexander Hamilton
• Chapter 21 from "Alexander Hamilton" by Ron Chernow (Maria Reynolds, James Reynolds, and James Monroe)
• 12 Rules, Letter to Elizabeth Hamilton July 4 1804, and Statement Regarding Duel with Burr from "The Works of Alexander Hamilton" by Alexander Hamilton
• Letter to Elizabeth Hamilton (1804) and Statement regarding duel with Burr from "The Works of Alexander Hamilton" by Alexander Hamilton
• Chapters 42-43 from "Alexander Hamilton" by Ron Chernow
• Chapter 13 from "The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton" by Allan McLane Hamilton
• Chapter 30 from "Alexander Hamilton" by Ron Chernow (Washington's quote was also pulled from Chernow; optional)
• Chapters 4 and 11 from "The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton" by Allan McLane Hamilton (optional)
• 1799 McHenry letter and 1800 Adams pamphlet from "The Works of Alexander Hamilton" by Alexander Hamilton (optional)

Reputation Under Threat

Hamilton reveals an affair to disprove corruption allegations.
Hamilton was thirty-seven and, after Washington, the most powerful man in the government. His enemies were looking for anything they could use against him.During his Treasury years, Hamilton had begun an affair with Maria Reynolds. Her maid carried notes between them at night while Eliza was pregnant with their fifth child.
Maria Reynolds
I have kept my Bed those tow dayes and now rise from My pillow wich your Neglect has filled with the sharpest thorns … I can neither Eate or sleep I have Been on the point of doing the moast horrid acts at I shuder to think where I might been what will Become of me. In vain I try to Call reason to aide me but alas there Is no Comfort for me
Maria's husband, James Reynolds, began demanding money from Hamilton.
James Reynolds
Sir I hope you will pardon me in taking the liberty I do In troubling you so offen. it hurts me to let you Know my Setivation. I should take it as a protickeler if you will Oblige me with the loane of about thirty Dollars.
Ron Chernow
To give a thin veneer of legality to his extortion, Reynolds pretended to be a proud family man who needed loans to tide him over tough times. He even gave Hamilton receipts and promised to repay the "loans." …The man who felt no need to placate Thomas Jefferson or James Madison had to grovel before the raffish James Reynolds, whom he later described bitterly as "an obscure, unimportant, and profligate man." He was so frightened of Reynolds that he wrote to him in disguised handwriting, lest Reynolds use it as "the engine of a false credit or turn it to some other sinister use," Hamilton said.
Jacob Clingman was a friend of James Reynolds and had once worked for Congressman Frederick Muhlenberg. He saw Hamilton twice at the Reynolds house. On the second visit, Hamilton found Clingman with Maria and pretended that he had only come to deliver a message from her husband.Maria and James told Clingman that Hamilton had given James money for speculation. Clingman later watched James leave Hamilton's house with a hundred dollars. He became convinced that the payments were evidence of corruption.In November 1792, Reynolds and Clingman were jailed for defrauding the government. Reynolds blamed Hamilton because the Treasury had brought the case. Hamilton refused to help him. Reynolds then began hinting that he could expose a cabinet secretary.
After Clingman was released on bail, he went to his former boss, Muhlenberg, and accused Hamilton of giving Reynolds money for speculation. Muhlenberg brought Senator James Monroe and Representative Abraham Venable into the inquiry.The three men saw unsigned notes from Hamilton and questioned Reynolds, who promised to tell them more after his release. He disappeared that night. That made the three men more suspicious. They drafted a letter to Washington but decided to confront Hamilton before sending it.On December 15, Muhlenberg, Monroe, and Venable went to confront Hamilton about his notes to Reynolds. Muhlenberg opened the meeting.
Alexander Hamilton
He introduced the subject by observing to me that they had discovered a very improper connection between me and a Mr. Reynolds. Extremely hurt by this mode of introduction, I arrested the progress of the discourse by giving way to very strong expressions of indignation.
Ron Chernow
Faced with Hamilton's wrath, the three legislators reassured him that they were not making any accusations but felt honor bound to discuss the matter with him before reporting to Washington.When they showed Hamilton his own handwritten notes to Reynolds, he instantly—and to their amazement—acknowledged their authenticity. He said that if they came to his house that evening, he would clear up the mystery by showing them written documents that would eliminate all doubt as to his innocence.
That evening, the three men came to Hamilton's house, where he showed them the Reynolds letters.
Ron Chernow
Another man might have been brief or elliptical. Instead, as if in need of some cathartic cleansing, Hamilton briefed them in agonizing detail about how the husband had acted as a bawd for the wife; how the blackmail payments had been made; the loathing the couple had aroused in him; and his final wish to be rid of them.When the three legislators realized that the scandal involved marital infidelity, not government corruption, at least one of them "delicately urged me to discontinue it as unnecessary," Hamilton recalled. "I insisted upon going through the whole and did so."
James Monroe
We left [Hamilton] under an impression our suspicions were removed. He acknowledged our conduct toward him had been fair and liberal—he could not complain of it.
The three men kept the letter but did not send it to Washington. For the moment, Hamilton's secret was safe.

Public Confession

Hamilton publicly confesses adultery to defend his financial honor.
The Reynolds papers survived. Monroe kept the originals, and a House clerk kept a copy. For more than four years, Republicans shared the story in what Hamilton called "dark whispers."In June 1797, Hamilton saw an advertisement for a pamphlet series about his years at the Treasury. It promised documents about his conduct. One pamphlet revived old corruption charges and printed letters from James Reynolds and Jacob Clingman.James Thomson Callender wrote the series. He was a political writer who had fled Edinburgh after a sedition charge. Callender printed the papers Hamilton had given the investigators in 1792. He claimed they showed that Hamilton had used his office to profit from speculation.On July 8, Hamilton answered in the Gazette of the United States. He admitted that the papers were authentic but denied what Callender said they proved.
Alexander Hamilton
They were the contrivance of two of the most profligate men in the world to obtain their liberation from imprisonment for a serious crime by the favor of party spirit.
A later pamphlet added the charge of adultery.Hamilton's friends urged him to stay silent. They warned that his enemies could invent new charges and keep him answering forever. Callender taunted him to publish everything, claiming readers would distrust a partial defense and enjoy seeing Hamilton "in the novel character of a lover."Hamilton decided to publish a full defense. In July, he shut himself inside a Philadelphia boardinghouse and wrote a ninety-five-page pamphlet. It included his confession and the letters that supported his account.Hamilton called the attack a malicious lie.
Alexander Hamilton
If, luckily for the conspirators against honest fame, any little foible or folly can be traced out in one whom they desire to persecute, it becomes at once in their hands a two-edged sword, by which to wound the public character and stab the private felicity of the person. With such men, nothing is sacred. Even the peace of an unoffending and amiable wife is a welcome repast to their insatiate fury against the husband.
Hamilton's main task was to disprove the charge that he had used the Treasury for speculation. To explain the payments, he had to confess the affair.
Alexander Hamilton
The charge against me is a connection with one James Reynolds for purposes of improper pecuniary speculation. My real crime is an amorous connection with his wife for a considerable time, with his privity and connivance, if not originally brought on by a combination between the husband and wife with the design to extort money from me.
Hamilton then addressed Eliza, who would be hurt by his public confession.
Alexander Hamilton
This confession is not made without a blush. I cannot be the apologist of any vice because the ardor of passion may have made it mine. I can never cease to condemn myself for the pang which it may inflict in a bosom eminently entitled to all my gratitude, fidelity, and love.
But that bosom will approve, that, even at so great an expense, I should effectually wipe away a more serious stain from a name which it cherishes with no less elevation than tenderness.
Hamilton then turned from Eliza back to the public charge against his Treasury record.
Alexander Hamilton
I dare appeal to my immediate fellow-citizens, of whatever political party, for the truth of the assertion, that no man ever carried into public life a more unblemished pecuniary reputation, than that with which I undertook the office of Secretary of the Treasury; a character marked by indifference to the acquisition of property rather than by avidity for it.But, moreover, the scale of the concern with Reynolds, such as it is presented, is contemptibly narrow for a rapacious speculating Secretary of the Treasury.
The bare perusal of the letters from Reynolds and his wife is sufficient to convince my greatest enemy that there is nothing worse in the affair than an irregular and indelicate amour. For this, I bow to the just censure which it merits. I have paid pretty severely for the folly, and can never recollect it without disgust and self-condemnation.

Lap of a Harlot

Hamilton publicly confesses adultery to defend his financial honor.
Hamilton chose to protect his public honor at the cost of his private reputation. For Eliza, that meant seeing his betrayal described in a pamphlet anyone could read.
Ron Chernow
Yet readers of the pamphlet must have wondered why, instead of settling for a brief apology and a convincing mea culpa, Hamilton insisted upon telling the story in almost picaresque detail. … Such descriptive touches, however much they gratified public curiosity, could only have mortified Eliza.
Hamilton believed that answering every detail would leave his enemies no room to distort the story. Instead, the detail made the confession harder for his family to bear.Hamilton's friends were appalled. Henry Knox called the pamphlet "Humiliating in the extreme." They did not understand why Hamilton had exposed his family to answer charges they thought were weak.
Henry Cabot Lodge
The manliness of the act, the self-inflicted punishment, and the high sense of public honor thus exhibited, silenced even his opponents; but the confession was one which must have wrung Hamilton to the quick …
Republican newspapers attacked Eliza. The Aurora asked, "Art thou a wife?" and told her to picture Hamilton "lolling in the lap of a harlot."Hamilton's feud with Monroe nearly ended in a duel.
Ron Chernow
According to Gelston, the two men rose instantly. Monroe called Hamilton a "scoundrel," whereupon Hamilton immediately adopted the ritual language of dueling, saying, "I will meet you like a gentleman." To which Monroe retorted, "I am ready, get your pistols." … Gelston and Church had to pry them apart, urging moderation.
On August 21, Washington sent Hamilton a wine cooler. For Eliza, after newspapers had made her humiliation part of the scandal, the gift showed that Washington still stood by Hamilton. His note did not mention the affair.
George Washington
Not for any intrinsic value the thing possesses, but as a token of my sincere regard and friendship for you and as a remembrance of me, I pray you to accept a wine cooler for four bottles.
The scandal damaged Hamilton's reputation, but Federalists still accepted him as a leader. Hamilton tried to lead the party without holding office. That would become harder once John Adams was elected president.

The President He Breaks

Hamilton's feud with Adams destroys his political influence.
Washington stepped down in 1797. Hamilton had already resigned as Treasury secretary and returned to law, but he still led the Federalist Party from outside the government.John Adams inherited three cabinet officers who were closer to Hamilton than to him. When Hamilton sent the new president an unsolicited policy memo, Adams saw the advice as an attempt to control his administration.The rivalry sharpened as the United States moved toward war with France. French privateers were seizing American ships, so Adams sent three envoys to Paris in 1797 to seek a settlement. French intermediaries demanded a large loan and a bribe before negotiations could begin. When the envoys' reports reached Adams the next spring, he published them. The intermediaries were labeled X, Y, and Z in the released papers, giving the scandal its name: the XYZ Affair. The reports caused outrage across the country and pushed the United States toward an undeclared naval war with France. Congress created a new army in case France invaded, and Adams asked Washington to command it.Washington agreed only if he could choose his generals, with Hamilton as his second. Adams resisted, but Washington stood firm.Hamilton took charge of the army and began picking fights with Adams.
Alexander Hamilton
It is a pity … that our administration have no general plan. … If the Chief is too desultory, his Ministers ought to be the more united and steady and well settled in some reasonable system of measures.It is desireable to complete and prepare the land force which has been provided for by law. Besides eventual security against invasion, we ought certainly to look to the possession of the Floridas & Louisiana—and we ought to squint at South America.
Adams, meanwhile, wanted a way out of the crisis. When France signaled that it would receive an American envoy, he nominated William Vans Murray without consulting his cabinet. The decision stunned Hamilton and other Federalists who expected war.
Henry Cabot Lodge
Hamilton even went to Trenton to urge delay; but Adams, irritated beyond endurance by the stubborn and exasperating resistance of the war party, as represented by his secretaries, treated counsel and opposition alike with contempt, and ordered the envoys away.
The argument ended their relationship. Hamilton could no longer influence Adams.Washington's death in December 1799 cost Hamilton his strongest protector. Adams soon disbanded most of the army. Hamilton lost his command and his last foothold in the administration.Hamilton responded with a fifty-four-page attack on Adams. George Cabot warned him not to publish it under his own name, but Hamilton had it printed in October 1800.
Alexander Hamilton
Not denying to Mr. Adams patriotism and integrity, and even talents of a certain kind, I should be deficient in candor, were I to conceal the conviction that he does not possess the talents adapted to the administration of government, and that there are great and intrinsic defects in his character, which unfit him for the office of chief magistrate.
It is a fact that he is often liable to paroxysms of anger, which deprive him of self-command, and produce very outrageous behavior to those who approach him. Most, if not all his ministers, and several distinguished members of the two houses of Congress, have been humiliated by the effects of these gusts of passion.
Hamilton was making enemies with every pamphlet. And he wasn't done...

Jefferson Over Burr

Hamilton's attacks repeatedly block Burr's political ambitions.
By the spring of 1800, Hamilton was at a low point. Washington was dead. Adams was dismantling the army, leaving Hamilton without his command. His fights with the president had also left him isolated inside his own party. Separated from Eliza, Hamilton admitted that his cheerfulness was fake.
Alexander Hamilton
My health continues good and I am under a necessity of playing the game of good spirits—but separated from those I love, it is a most artificial game—and at the bottom of my soul there is a more than usual gloom.
Hamilton needed fewer enemies, but he kept making them. That spring, Aaron Burr organized New York City's legislative campaign. Republicans won the state legislature, which would choose New York's presidential electors. Burr's victory put Jefferson within reach of the presidency.Jefferson and Burr each won seventy-three electoral votes. The House of Representatives would choose between them and decide who became the third president of the United States. Hamilton once again used his pen to attack an opponent. This time, he aimed at Burr.Hamilton compared Burr to Catiline, an ancient Roman conspirator who had tried to overthrow the republic.
Alexander Hamilton
As to Burr, there is nothing in his favour. His private character is not defended by his most partial friends. He is bankrupt beyond redemption, except by the plunder of his country. His public principles have no other spring or aim than his own aggrandizement....If he can, he will certainly disturb our institutions to secure to himself permanent power and with it wealth. He is truly the Catiline of America.
Hamilton despised Jefferson, but he believed Jefferson had principles and a reputation to protect. Burr, he thought, cared only for his own ambition.
Alexander Hamilton
If there be a man in the world I ought to hate, it is Jefferson. With Burr I have always been personally well. But the public good must be paramount to every private consideration. My opinion may be freely used with such reserves as you shall think discreet.
Hamilton's attacks on Burr worked. After thirty-five deadlocked ballots, enough Federalists abstained for Jefferson to win. Burr became vice president.After Jefferson dropped Burr from the 1804 ticket, Burr ran for governor of New York. Some Federalists supported him. Hamilton feared that Burr would use the office to lead a northern breakaway.Hamilton campaigned for Burr's opponent, Morgan Lewis, and helped defeat Burr. Hamilton had now blocked Burr from both the presidency and the governorship.After the defeat, a newspaper published a report that Hamilton considered Burr dangerous and held an even more despicable opinion of him.Seven weeks after losing the election, Burr read the report. His political career seemed finished. Hamilton had once been too powerful to confront, but he too had lost much of his power. Burr blamed Hamilton for blocking him again and again. Now the report's attack on his character was the final insult.

Doctor, I Despair

Philip Hamilton dies after a duel over family honor.
In 1800, Hamilton's eldest son, Philip, graduated from Columbia and began studying law.Hamilton could be a rigid father. He wrote a schedule governing Philip's entire day.
Alexander Hamilton
From the first of April to the first of October he is to rise not later than six o'clock; the rest of the year not later than seven. If earlier, he will deserve commendation. Ten will be his hour of going to bed throughout the year.
From the time he is dressed in the morning till nine o'clock (the time for breakfast excepted), he is to read law. At nine he goes to the office, and continues there till dinner time.He must not depart from any of these rules without my permission.
In July 1801, Republican lawyer George Eacker gave a public speech attacking Hamilton. Four months later, Philip and his friend Price interrupted Eacker at the Park Theater and followed him into the lobby. Eacker called them "damned rascals."Philip challenged Eacker, then asked his father what to do. Hamilton opposed dueling but still believed that an insult demanded an answer. Philip's former Columbia classmate Thomas Rathbone later described the instruction Hamilton gave his son.
Thomas Rathbone
On Monday before the time appointed for the meeting between E, & H, General Hamilton heard of it and commanded his Son, when on the ground, to reserve his fire ’till after Mr E, had shot and then to discharge his pistol in the air.
At the duel, neither man raised his pistol at the command to fire. After a minute, Eacker raised his weapon and Philip followed. Eacker fired, and the bullet tore through Philip's body.Philip was carried back to Manhattan, where Hamilton had called Dr. David Hosack. At the bedside, Hamilton took the doctor's hand.
Alexander Hamilton
Doctor, I despair.
Eliza, three months pregnant, came to Philip's bedside. Rathbone saw the family there that night.
Thomas Rathbone
On a Bed without curtains lay poor Phil, pale and languid, his rolling, distorted eye balls darting forth the flashes of delirium—on one side of him on the same bed lay his agonized father—on the other his distracted mother.…
Philip died at five the next morning, about fourteen hours after he was shot.

Still More Despicable

Alexander Hamilton faces grief and honor before his duel.
After the death of Philip, Hamilton grieved for months. He wrote that Philip was now beyond "a world full of folly, vice, and danger." Philip's sister Angelica, seventeen, suffered a mental collapse and never recovered. She spent much of her life singing songs she had played with her father and speaking of Philip as if he were alive.A few years passed, and it now looked like Alexander Hamilton would be challenged to a duel of his own. He had published yet another "still more despicable opinion" of Aaron Burr. On June 18, Burr demanded that Hamilton explain his remarks or deny them. Hamilton took two days to answer.
Alexander Hamilton
'Tis evident that the phrase 'still more despicable' admits of infinite shades from very light to very dark. How am I to judge of the degree intended?I deem it inadmissible on principle to consent to be interrogated as to the justness of the inferences which may be drawn by others from whatever I may have said of a political opponent in the course of a fifteen years competition.I trust, on more reflection, you will see the matter in the same light with me. If not, I can only regret the circumstance and must abide the consequences.
Van Ness carried Hamilton's refusal back to Burr.For nine days, the seconds tried to settle the dispute. Burr demanded a broad denial, but Hamilton refused. Burr sent a formal challenge on June 27, and they agreed to meet on July 11.On July 4, Hamilton wrote Eliza a letter to be opened if he died. He called the duel an "interview."
Alexander Hamilton
This letter, my dear Eliza, will not be delivered to you, unless I shall first have terminated my earthly career, to begin, as I humbly hope, from redeeming grace and divine mercy, a happy immortality. If it had been possible for me to have avoided the interview, my love for you and my precious children would have been alone a decisive motive.
But it was not possible, without sacrifices which would have rendered me unworthy of your esteem. I need not tell you of the pangs I feel from the idea of quitting you, and exposing you to the anguish I know you would feel. Nor could I dwell on the topic, lest it should unman me.
The consolations of religion, my beloved, can alone support you; and these you have a right to enjoy. Fly to the bosom of your God, and be comforted. With my last idea I shall cherish the sweet hope of meeting you in a better world. Adieu, best of wives—best of women. Embrace all my darling children for me.
Before the duel, Hamilton wrote another statement about why he accepted the challenge and what he planned to do. He opposed dueling, but believed refusing Burr would destroy his honor and end his public life.
Alexander Hamilton
I was certainly desirous of avoiding this interview for the most cogent reasons: (1) My religious and moral principles are strongly opposed to the practice of duelling, and it would ever give me pain to be obliged to shed the blood of a fellow-creature in a private combat forbidden by the laws.
(2) My wife and children are extremely dear to me, and my life is of the utmost importance to them in various views.
(3) I feel a sense of obligation towards my creditors; who, in case of accident to me by the forced sale of my property, may be in some degree sufferers. I did not think myself at liberty as a man of probity lightly to expose them to this hazard.
(4) I am conscious of no ill-will to Col. Burr, distinct from political opposition, which, as I trust, has proceeded from pure and upright motives. Lastly, I shall hazard much and can possibly gain nothing by the issue of the interview.
As well, because it is possible that I may have injured Col. Burr, however convinced myself that my opinions and declarations have been well-founded, as from my general principles and temper in relation to similar affairs, I have resolved, if our interview is conducted in the usual manner, and it pleases God to give me the opportunity, to reserve and throw away my first fire …
Hamilton told Nathaniel Pendleton, his second, and Rufus King what he planned.King urged Hamilton to fire in self-defense for his family's sake. Pendleton begged him to take more time before deciding to waste his shot. Hamilton refused.Before dawn on July 11, he crossed the Hudson toward Weehawken, leaving behind his letters to Eliza.

Weehawken

Hamilton's fatal duel ends with a final family farewell.
A few hours before Hamilton left for the duel at Weehawken, Nathaniel Pendleton tried once more to talk him out of throwing away his first shot. Hamilton would not change his mind.Around five that morning, Hamilton and Burr left from separate docks in Manhattan. The pistols were kept out of sight so the rowers could later say they had seen no guns.As Hamilton's boat moved north, he again told Pendleton that he would not fire at Burr. He looked back at New York.
Ron Chernow
The sight of the growing city apparently touched something in Hamilton, for "he pointed out the beauties of the scenery and spoke of the future greatness of the city," wrote his son.
At Weehawken, the men climbed to a wooded ledge above the Hudson. Burr arrived with William Van Ness; Hamilton followed with Nathaniel Pendleton. Van Ness and Pendleton were their seconds, representatives who agreed on the rules and managed the encounter. Hamilton's party left Dr. David Hosack below the ledge so he could deny seeing the duel.Hamilton had chosen the pistols. Pendleton offered to set the hair trigger, which would make Hamilton's pistol fire with a lighter squeeze. Hamilton said, "Not this time."
Allan Mclane Hamilton
[The seconds] measured the distance, ten full paces, and cast lots for the choice of position, as also to determine by whom the word should be given; both of which fell to the second of Gen. Hamilton. They then proceeded to load the pistols in each other's presence, after which the parties took their stations.
Once the pistols were loaded and the men had taken their places, glare from the water bothered Hamilton. He paused to put on his glasses, sighted down the barrel, and said he was ready.After the shots, the seconds disagreed about who had fired first. Hamilton's ball struck a tree high and wide of Burr. Burr's bullet passed through Hamilton's liver and diaphragm and lodged in his spine.
Allan Mclane Hamilton
When Mr. Pendleton gave the word, Mr. Burr raised his arm slowly, deliberately took his aim, and fired. His ball entered General Hamilton's right side. As soon as the bullet struck him, he raised himself involuntarily on his toes, turned a little to the left (at which moment his pistol went off), and fell upon his face.
Hosack hurried up from below and helped carry him to the boat. Hosack rubbed his face and hands with hartshorn, a sharp ammonia stimulant.
David Hosack
When we had got … about 50 yards from the shore, some imperfect efforts to breathe were for the first time manifest; in a few minutes he sighed and became sensible to the impression of the hartshorne, or the fresh air of the water: He breathed; his eyes, hardly opened, wandered … to our great joy he at length spoke: "My vision is indistinct," were his first words.
Hamilton could no longer feel his legs. As the boat neared Bayard's dock, he told Hosack to send for Eliza and break the news gently.
Alexander Hamilton
Let Mrs. Hamilton be immediately sent for. Let the event be gradually broken to her, but give her hopes.
At Bayard's house, Hamilton received laudanum for the pain.Eliza was first told only that Hamilton was suffering from spasms. When she learned what had happened, she broke down.
Alexander Hamilton
Remember, my Eliza, you are a Christian.
Hamilton called for for his friend the Reverend John Mason and for Bishop Benjamin Moore.
Benjamin Moore
Upon my entering the room and approaching his bed, with the utmost calmness and composure he said: "My dear sir, you perceive my unfortunate situation … It is my desire to receive the communion at your hands. I hope you will not conceive there is any impropriety in my request."I then asked him, "Should it please God to restore you to health, sir, will you never be again engaged in a similar transaction? And will you employ all your influence in society to discountenance this barbarous custom?" His answer was, "That, sir, is my deliberate intention."He lifted up his hands and said: ... "I have no ill-will against Colonel Burr. I met him with a fixed resolution to do him no harm. I forgive all that happened." … The communion was then administered, which he received with great devotion, and his heart afterwards appeared to be perfectly at rest.
The next day, Eliza brought their children to say goodbye.
Ron Chernow
She held up their two-year-old boy, Philip, to his lips for a final kiss. Then Eliza lined up all seven children at the foot of the bed so that Hamilton could see them in one final tableau … According to Hosack, "he opened his eyes, gave them one look, and closed them again till they were taken away."
Hamilton died at two o'clock on July 12, 1804.

Three Volleys

Hamilton's funeral precedes Burr's flight from public outrage.
Two days later, New York held Hamilton's funeral. The procession to Trinity Church took two hours.Militia marched with their guns pointed down, and two Black boys in white turbans walked before the casket. Hamilton's riderless horse and four eldest sons followed.
Allan Mclane Hamilton
During the procession there was a regular discharge of minute guns from the Battery … The British ship of war Boston … commenced firing minute guns … The French frigates Cybelle and Didon were also in full mourning, with yards peaked, and fired minute guns during the procession.
Gouverneur Morris, who had eulogized Washington, spoke at Trinity.
Ron Chernow
In part, he was alarmed by the vengeful outcry against Burr and decided to omit all mention of the duel, lest the vast assembly fly into an uncontrollable fury. "How easy it would have been to make them, for a moment, absolutely mad!" he said.Four of Hamilton's sons—Alexander (eighteen), James (fourteen), John (eleven), and William (six)—sat weeping on the stage beside Morris. One paper recorded: "The scene was impressive … the mournful group of tender boys, the sons, the once hopes and joys of the deceased, who, with tears gushing from their eyes, sat upon the stage, at the feet of the orator, bewailing the loss of their parent! It was too much. The sternest powers, the bloodiest villain, could not resist the melting scene."
Hamilton was buried in Trinity churchyard. Troops fired three volleys over his grave.Before Hamilton died, Burr rode home from the duel to Richmond Hill.
Ron Chernow
Aaron Burr's boat docked at the foot of Canal Street, and he had proceeded on horseback to Richmond Hill with the blithe insouciance of a man who had just taken the morning air. … a young Connecticut relative dropped by Richmond Hill unannounced and found Burr in his library. Every inch the cordial host, Burr neglected to mention that he had shot Alexander Hamilton two hours earlier.
Henry Cabot Lodge
This duel has been often spoken of as a murder. In the forum of conscience, before the tribunal of moral laws, Burr was no doubt a murderer; but by the code which he and Hamilton alike recognized, and by the system under which they were brought up, Burr acted in strict accordance with his rights.
Within days, a coroner's jury convened. Burr was already bankrupt and feared that a murder charge would keep him from bail. He fled south under cover of darkness with Peter, a fifteen-year-old boy he enslaved. Burr escaped New York, but his reputation was ruined.Back at Bayard's house, Eliza sat beside Hamilton's body and cut a lock of his hair...

The Glory Keeper

Eliza preserves Hamilton's legacy through service and devotion.
Within three years, Eliza lost her son Philip, her sister Peggy, her mother, and Hamilton. Four months after the duel, while she was caring for her ailing father in Albany, he died too.Hamilton left property but also heavy debts. Friends raised money for the family, and his executors bought the Grange and sold it back to Eliza at half price.
Allan Mclane Hamilton
Brave to a degree and unusually masterful, she managed the estate and directed the workmen.
Less than two years after the duel, Eliza helped found New York's first private orphanage.Years later, Eliza persuaded Congress to pay her about ten thousand dollars in military compensation that Hamilton had waived.In 1818, she founded the Hamilton Free School on land she donated in Washington Heights.In 1821, Eliza took charge of the orphanage and its 158 children. She spent the next twenty-seven years raising money, finding supplies, and overseeing its work. Her son once teased, "Mamma, you are a sturdy beggar."
Elizabeth Schuyler
I cannot spare myself or others. My Maker has pointed out this duty to me and has given me the ability and inclination to perform it.
Hamilton had cheated on Eliza, but she blamed James Monroe for helping expose the affair. In the 1820s, after his presidency, Monroe visited the Washington home where she was staying with her daughter.In the parlor, Monroe rose to greet Eliza. She remained standing and did not invite him to sit. He said the years since they had met and the nearness of death should soften old differences.
Elizabeth Schuyler
Mr. Monroe, if you have come to tell me that you repent, that you are sorry, very sorry, for the misrepresentations and the slanders, and the stories you circulated against my dear husband, if you have come to say this, I understand it. But, otherwise, no lapse of time, no nearness to the grave, makes any difference.
Monroe left without replying.While Hamilton's opponents outlived him and kept telling their version of his life, Eliza sorted his papers, questioned witnesses, and aimed to get his biography written. (It was published after her death.)
Elizabeth Schuyler
Justice shall be done to the memory of my Hamilton.
Nearly fifty years after cutting a lock of Hamilton's hair, Eliza lived in Washington surrounded by the things she had kept. In her nineties, she still knelt for family prayers. Her parlor held a portrait of Washington and the silver wine cooler he had given the family. Visitors would often tour the room.
Ron Chernow
In the early 1850s, few pedestrians strolling past the house on H Street in Washington, near the White House, realized that the ancient widow seated by the window, knitting and arranging flowers, was the last surviving link to the glory days of the early republic.The tour's highlight stood enshrined in the corner: a marble bust of her dead hero, carved by an Italian sculptor, Giuseppe Ceracchi … This was how Eliza wished to recall him: ardent, hopeful, and eternally young. "That bust I can never forget," one young visitor remembered, "for 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."
Eliza kept returning to Hamilton's letters.
Ron Chernow
She pored so frequently over his letters to her that they began to crack and crumble into dust. Around her neck, she wore a tiny bag containing brittle yellow scraps of the love sonnet that Hamilton had given to her during their courtship in Morristown—the scraps were sewn together as the paper decomposed—and the intimate farewell letter …
One of the letters Eliza kept near her heart was one written by Alexander when he was a 13-year-old boy. He was an orphan at this point, having lost his mom to yellow fever, and his home to probate courts. We read this letter at the beginning of the apprenticeship and we'll now finish our studies with the same letter:
Young Hamilton
To confess my weakness, Ned, my ambition is prevalent, so that I contemn the grovelling condition of a clerk or the like, to which my fortune, etc., condemns me, and would willingly risk my life, though not my character, to exalt my station.
I am confident, Ned, that my youth excludes me from any hopes of immediate preferment; nor do I desire it; but I mean to prepare the way for futurity. I'm no philosopher, you see, and may justly be said to build castles in the air; my folly makes me ashamed, and I beg you'll conceal it; yet, Neddy, we have seen such schemes successful when the projector is constant. I shall conclude saying, I wish there was a war.
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