And Hamilton frequently used the metaphor of slavery when discussing threats to political liberty. HUMANITIES: The Founders’ pro-liberty rhetoric did not square with the practice of slavery in the United States. Some of his writings suggest that he was fond of the poetry of Alexander Pope. We also know that he was an exclamatory kind of guy-or at least, an impulsive one. What do we know about the kind of literature Hamilton was reading in his youth?įREEMAN: We know that there were books in Hamilton’s childhood home, though we don’t know the titles. For example, the account he wrote, at the age of 17, of a hurricane that had landed on Saint Croix is a very theatrical piece of writing, involving what he calls “self-discourse,” which is to say, a highly poetic, exclamatory, style. HUMANITIES: In The Essential Hamilton and the 2001 volume of his writings that you edited for the Library of America, you can see that Hamilton knew a great deal about literary style. There was a person-and, indeed, an entire world-in those books that I found fascinating. I read through all 27 volumes, and then started again. The letters felt like the real “stuff” of history, and I decided that I wanted to figure Hamilton out. She pointed out Hamilton’s published papers-the 27-volume authoritative edition-and I took out the first volume. (I wish I could remember why!) So I went to the public library and asked the librarian what the author had used as evidence. But the biography that I was reading wasn’t persuasive. And there were relatively few biographies about him, so I thought that I could “discover” something new. His not-so-cushy youth in the West Indies, his dramatic death in a duel: He was interesting. He struck me as something of an outlier Founder. (The movie 1776 played a role as well.) So I went to the library and began reading Founder biographies. The Founding era was everywhere, and I became interested. FREEMAN: I stumbled across Hamilton during the nation’s bicentennial, when I was a teen. HUMANITIES: How did you first get to know Alexander Hamilton? And so we requested an interview with her, making clear that we meant “interview” in the modern sense of questions and answers and not in the Hamilton-Burr sense of pistols at dawn. Freeman is also the editor of Hamilton: Writings, which the Library of America published in 2001, the author of Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic, and a cohost of the popular history podcast BackStory. Freeman, professor of history and American studies at Yale University. And while bookish students of history brushed off their much-underlined copies of the Federalist essays to celebrate this renewal of interest in America’s first Treasury secretary, the Library of America brought out The Essential Hamilton, a paperback selection of Hamilton’s writings, edited by Joanne B. Then came the deluge of Hamilton interest inspired by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical, literally casting a spotlight on the words and actions of this important Founder, which, no doubt, helped preserve his image on the ten-spot. Treasury announced it was going to replace Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill. Embrace all my darling Children for me.In 2015, the U.S. With my last idea I shall cherish the sweet hope of meeting you in a better world.Īdieu best of wives and best of Women. Fly to the bosom of your God and be comforted. The consolations of Religion, my beloved, can alone support you and these you have a right to enjoy. Nor could I dwell on the topic lest it should unman me. I need not tell you of the pangs I feel, from the idea of quitting you and exposing you to the anguish which I know you would feel. But it was not possible, without sacrifices which would have rendered me unworthy of your esteem. 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. This letter, my very 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.
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