My Dear Hamilton

by Stephanie Dray

  We also confronted the probability that Eliza’s entanglement with slavery did not end when she left her father’s household.

  That Alexander Hamilton opposed slavery is absolutely true; so did Jefferson, though to a less efficacious degree. That did not stop either man from compromising his moral beliefs in pursuit of personal or political goals. In short, despite his antislavery stance, there is historical evidence that Alexander Hamilton did borrow, hire out, and possibly even own enslaved persons. Which is why we decided to employ the character of Jenny to demonstrate the ambiguities surrounding this particular question, and Eliza’s evolution in thinking on the matter.

  Unfortunately, because little survives in Eliza’s own hand, it’s difficult to discern what her relationships were with enslaved persons; we know from one letter that she was distressed by one of her servants dying of yellow fever. And that she eventually spoke with contempt about the institution of slavery itself and its corrupting influence on the body politic.

  * * *

  ELIZA HAMILTON’S FRIENDS, relations, and acquaintances are a veritable Who’s Who of American history, including many fascinating figures we didn’t have room to introduce, such as Ben Franklin, the Vicomte de Noailles, the Marquis de Chastellux, Talleyrand, Martin Van Buren, James and Sarah Polk, and many more. She personally knew at least twelve of the first sixteen presidents, and was present with Congressman Abraham Lincoln at the dedication of Washington’s monument.

  The revolution—and the business of nation building—was, for Eliza Hamilton, a family affair. And Eliza was particularly close to her family. After the loss of Fort Ticonderoga, General Schuyler was certainly held in contempt and, according to contemporary Dr. James Thacher, accused of collecting a bribe from the British in silver bullets shot over the fort’s wall. (Even Schuyler’s future son-in-law, a young Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Hamilton, once suspected him of treachery.) But Schuyler’s reputation in Albany was more secure than we have portrayed it; so much so that New Yorkers were trying to send him to Congress before he’d even been vindicated at court-martial.

  Our choice to have Eliza overwrought about her father’s reputation lent a nice echo for the constant worries she’d be faced with when it came to her husband’s reputation later in the book. Eliza would not have believed her father guilty of the crimes for which he stood accused, nor would she have likely believed him guilty of wrongs he did commit, and so we have portrayed Schuyler here through the lens of a loving daughter’s eyes. (Note that while Peggy probably did not elope, the fact that three, if not four, of his intelligent and headstrong daughters chose to do so—without real fear of consequence—speaks to him as a more indulgent father than his historical reputation for sternness might otherwise indicate.) Certainly, Eliza Hamilton honored and relied upon her father as a protector and benefactor, and his death likely forced her to contend with the world as a more independent woman than she would’ve liked to have been.

  Eliza’s relationship with the daughters of Governor William Livingston is documented. Though it is possible, and maybe even likely, that Kitty Livingston sided with her brother-in-law John Jay in political matters, we used her as a stand-in for the political rupture between the Schuyler and Livingston families.

  We were particularly interested in the relationship she formed with the Burrs and Madisons. The Hamiltons and the Burrs socialized frequently together and so we’ve posited a friendship between Eliza and Theodosia. We moved some of the discrimination Theodosia experienced as the wife of a British officer during the war to after the war as a demonstration of public prejudices. And because Theodosia was forward-thinking in matters of philosophy and women’s rights, we attributed other liberal ideas to her as well.

  The partnership between Alexander Hamilton and James Madison was amongst the most fruitful in the history of government. That these two brilliant and hardworking founders could work together in such close harmony, so urgently, and with such success, only to become political enemies, is a great American tragedy. But we were delighted to find some grace notes there—the respect with which Madison treated Hamilton’s family, the assistance he lent them in gathering Hamilton’s papers, and the friendship that his wife Dolley shared with Eliza even after both of their husbands were in the grave.

  Long before Dolley Payne Todd married James Madison, she and Eliza Hamilton were neighbors in Philadelphia in the early 1790s, living only a block apart on Walnut Street. Eliza most likely made the acquaintance of Dolley at one of Martha Washington’s receptions, at which Eliza was a fixture and Dolley was a frequent guest. The willingness of these ladies to put aside partisanship so that they could work together raising funds for the Washington Monument, and orphans, suggested to us a long friendship, so we put one in the book.

  Another long and heartwarming real friendship existed between Eliza and Lafayette, with whom she exchanged letters long after Hamilton’s death. Lafayette’s triumphant visit to America in 1824 began in New York City on August 16. He then returned to New York again in early September, and it was at this time he took Eliza Hamilton with him in his carriage to inspect West Point, expressing that Hamilton had been as a brother to him. It seems that she was amongst those who left the ball late and chugged off in a steamboat with him into the night. Lafayette returned again to New York at the end of September for another round of celebrations but in our story, we conflated all three visits for brevity and simplification. And we thought it extremely likely that Eliza Hamilton was amongst the escort of ladies associated with the Free School that Lafayette toured because Lafayette’s secretary mentions, in the same breath, intimate details about the founding of Eliza’s Orphan Asylum.

  When he was in America, Lafayette spent much time laying cornerstones and visiting memorials of his fallen revolutionary comrades. And we know he visited St. Paul’s, the chapel near Trinity, because his secretary made special note of the Trinity graveyard. It’s difficult to conceive of Lafayette visiting that graveyard without stopping to pay his respects to Hamilton. So we included a graveside scene and combined it with Eliza’s emotional epiphanies.

  (Additionally, there is some historical confusion over the burial place of Philip Hamilton, but we chose to accept the interpretation presented in the book of Trinity Church history that says he is buried in the same plot as his father and mother. It’s also unclear why Angelica Schuyler Church is buried in the Livingston vault. Angelica fostered with the Livingstons as a girl, and there may have been a closer familial connection there. But the ambiguity fit well into the narrative and so we used it to our purposes.)

  Another friend of Eliza’s was James McHenry, who did, indeed, get pulled back into the political fray during the Madison administration, in part because of John Adams maligning him in the press, but also because his advice was sought with regard to the forthcoming War of 1812. McHenry escorting Eliza to Washington City, though plausible, is our invention so that he could serve as a stand-in for the Federalists she lobbied at this time.

  Then there’s the matter of Eliza’s enemies.

  Her first meeting with Thomas Jefferson probably took place in New York when Jefferson arrived to take up the mantle of secretary of state, not in Philadelphia, as we portrayed it, before he served as ambassador to France. But because Jefferson happened to be in Philadelphia with his daughter when the Hamiltons were there, we found it hard to resist giving the reader a glimpse of young Patsy Jefferson of America’s First Daughter.

  As for Aaron Burr, it isn’t known if Eliza played a role in his exile from New York, but there is circumstantial evidence that she was lobbying New York society, with her grieving children in tow, only days after Hamilton’s death. Eliza is known to have come face to face with him only once after the duel. The occurrence took place on a ferry and thereafter the rumor went round that Eliza had screamed upon seeing Burr’s face, and that Burr coldly went about eating his supper. In fact, Eliza only stared icily at Burr and retained her composure, but she never corrected the record, pres
umably because the story made him look heartless and irredeemable.

  Saintly or not, Eliza Hamilton could hold a grudge.

  She could also hold her silence. For example, she left nothing behind to tell us how she felt upon learning of her husband’s infidelity with Maria Reynolds. Historians have inferred, from the way her family wrote to her about the controversy surrounding the Reynolds Pamphlet by placing the blame upon envy and newspapermen, that Eliza tolerated her husband’s adulteries and that she was only distressed to see them exposed. But if that were the case, we think it unlikely Hamilton would have submitted to blackmail in the first place.

  We think it more probable that those family letters—and Hamilton’s own restrained mention of his wife’s likely feelings on the matter—are simply evidence of the fact that Eliza had already learned about the affair and forgiven it years before. Whilst he lived, Hamilton certainly exerted a measure of charm that allowed many people to forgive him many things.

  But what about after he died? Eliza left no indication of her reaction upon reading her husband’s letters after he was shot—letters so compromising that her son even scrawled upon one that it should not be published. And amongst those letters are a correspondence with Angelica Church that is flirtatious at best and damning at worst.

  Though eighteenth-century people wrote to one another in more flowery and effusive ways than we do now, the fact remains that Hamilton’s letters to and mentions of his wife’s other sisters do not share the same flirtatious tone. To complicate matters, of course, is the fact that Hamilton’s own contemporaries appear to have believed that he was sleeping with his wife’s sister—a relationship that would have been considered incestuous by the standards of the time. More tellingly, this was believed not only by his enemies, but by his friends.

  Hamilton’s longtime friend, Robert Troup, believed it was a torrid affair, and though there is some confusion about the exact details regarding the incident with the garter, Eliza’s sister once taunted Hamilton and Angelica about their flirtation in public. Although we’re aware of no direct proof of a rift in the marriage of John Barker Church and Angelica Schuyler, there’s circumstantial evidence that the marriage was troubled. To start with, Angelica’s letters—flirting with other men, including Thomas Jefferson—imply that she didn’t find her husband to be eloquent or interesting. That she was bored in Church’s company and that perhaps he was bored in hers. Then there is the matter of Angelica’s long visit to America without the company of her husband or children, during which Hamilton paid her expenses, some of which were to be reimbursed by her husband, others of which apparently were not.

  Ron Chernow, Hamilton’s most celebrated biographer, seems to take the position that Hamilton and Angelica had perhaps an emotional, if not physical affair. But like us, Chernow is befuddled by Eliza’s reaction to the open flirtation of her husband and sister. Eliza, who enjoyed a very close and loving bond with her sisters, seems never to have objected to—and quite possibly even encouraged—the flirtation. Is it possible that Eliza knew her husband was having an affair with her sister and didn’t mind? Or was it all just a very strange family joke?

  We cannot know.

  The only thing we can be sure of is that Eliza—like Hamilton’s biographers—would’ve had to contend with these same letters after his death and make emotional sense of them. Which is a process we dramatized for the purposes of this novel, with regards to both Angelica and a speculated relationship with John Laurens, the case for which is stronger than we presented in the story. (For example, we held back a jocular letter from Hamilton to Laurens that seemed to invite his friend to watch him take his bride’s virginity.)

  Ultimately, we noticed a curious ten-year lull in the historical record when it came to Eliza Hamilton’s otherwise tireless efforts to see her husband’s legacy secured. Between the time of Angelica’s death in 1814 and Lafayette’s visit in 1824, there is a gap during which the family comes to learn that the Federalists are withholding Hamilton’s drafts of Washington’s Farewell Address from Eliza, and yet, she seems to do nothing about it. It’s only after Lafayette’s visit that Eliza returns to a frenzy of activity on behalf of her dead husband. We theorized that Eliza took these years to process any of the hurts and resentments she’d been suppressing as she reviewed Angelica and Hamilton’s correspondence.

  This also served as a convenient fictional explanation for why one of Hamilton’s sons—William, the one born during the Reynolds scandal—abruptly withdrew from West Point, left his family, and wandered to the far end of what was then the country’s borders and beyond.

  * * *

  FINALLY, THERE ARE the stories and rumors that we left out of the book.

  Some believe that Hamilton first met Eliza when he visited her father in Albany during the autumn of 1777. But scholars at Schuyler Mansion think it likely that Eliza was visiting the Livingstons at the time. Then there’s the more famous story—depicted in a painting—about Catherine Schuyler burning her crops in Saratoga so the British couldn’t get them. The story is both suspected to be apocryphal and did not center our heroine, so we left it out (though we did draft a chapter portraying this scene—one of many that hit the chopping block and that readers can obtain by subscribing to our newsletter). We’d have loved to show Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton at her husband’s funeral, but Hamilton’s biographer insists she was not there.

  We did not belabor the confusion surrounding the duels that took her husband and son. Whether Hamilton fired first, fired at Burr, threw away his shot, or fired as the result of an involuntary spasm or because of the hair triggers in the pistols remains an unsolved mystery. The same goes for the duel fought by Philip Hamilton. We didn’t feel that the debate over these details served the emotional needs of the story and many other books have been dedicated to answering the questions already.

  In summary, there is no child, or nation, that is ever born without leaving scars. We have done our best to be forthright and fair about the injustices and hypocrisies of our Founding Fathers. We hope the balance struck is one that furthers understanding and creates more interest.

  For a more detailed explanation of our sources, choices, and changes, visit MyDearHamilton.com.

  Acknowledgments

  FIRST, WE MUST thank our families and loved ones for endless patience with the whirlwind process of writing this novel. Secondly, our agent, Kevan Lyon, for her enthusiasm and advocacy. Thirdly, our team at HarperCollins, including Amanda Bergeron for inspiring and acquiring the book and Lucia Macro for editing it.

  When it came to the research itself, we are indebted to the National Archives for their work to make the digitized letters of Alexander Hamilton and the Founding Fathers available to all Americans at founders.archives.gov. Additionally, we made use of the papers at the New York Public Library and New-York Historical Society. We’re also enormously humbled by the generosity of the experts at the Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site in Albany, Ian Mumpton and Danielle Funiciello, who provided copies of letters and answered a thousand questions, large and small. Though any errors you may find in this manuscript are ours alone.

  Thanks also go to the Daughters of the American Revolution and their magazine for providing research material of interest for subjects like Sinterklaas and Dutch culture in Eliza’s time. Lars Hedbor for helping to nitpick the historical accuracy of everything from coffee to French uniforms. Alison Morton and Annalori Ferrell for help with French phrases. Lee Moore for suggesting that Hamilton’s references to Aquileia were actually a reference to an old Roman hero famous for being satisfied with his turnips. Donna Thorland, for so many things, but advice on how to remove a period gown especially. Digital and public historian Megan Brett for her knowledge of the time period and help on all things James Madison. Dr. Sarahscott Brett Dietz for help with medical questions. Mary Dieterich and Isobel Carr for help with finding demonstrations of getting dressed in eighteenth-century garb. Joshua Miller for some French help and debates about Hamilto
n. Ruth Hull Chatlien for help on the Bonapartes. Jason Jorgenson for theological help. Keith Massey for help with the customs. A big thank you to Lea Nolan, Kate Quinn, and Stephanie Thornton for beta reading the manuscript—their questions and comments made the story so much richer. E. Knight, M. D. Waters, Christi Barth, and Liz Berry for reading, plotting, and all other forms of moral support.

  Our complete bibliography is too expansive to list here, but we want to acknowledge especially our reliance on the letters of Hamilton, his family, friends, colleagues, contemporaries, and biographers in providing period-appropriate language, descriptions, and viewpoints. Additionally, we reference the New York State Museum’s extensive collection of essays on early Albany and the Schuyler family. We cite the authoritative Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, for most—but not all—of our characterizations and interpretations of Alexander in this novel.

  Thanks to Chernow and Lin Manuel-Miranda’s hit musical, the last few years have witnessed a remarkable renewal of general interest in our founding generation and Hamilton in specific. We’re grateful to them and the influence of novelists such as Alice Curtis Desmond, Elizabeth Cobbs, and Juliet Waldron. We were additionally informed in our research for this novel by Allan McLane Hamilton’s The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton, Georgina Schuyler’s The Schuyler Mansion at Albany, Katharine Schuyler Baxter’s A Godchild of Washington, Mary Gay Humphreys’s Catherine Schuyler, Peter G. Rose’s Food, Drink and Celebrations of the Hudson Valley Dutch, Anne Grant’s Memoirs of an American Lady, Warren Roberts’s A Place in History: Albany in the Age of Revolution, Cornell University’s Bicentennial History of Albany, Gerald Edward Kahler’s Gentlemen of the Family: General George Washington’s Aides-de-Camp and Military Secretaries, Joanne B. Freeman’s Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic, Thomas Fleming’s Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and the Future of America, Roger G. Kennedy’s Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character, Benson John Lossing’s The Life and Times of Philip Schuyler, George Morgan’s The Life of James Monroe, James Thacher’s Military Journal During the American Revolutionary War, Joseph T. Glatthaar’s Forgotten Allies: The Oneida Indians and the American Revolution, Harlow Giles Unger’s The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness, Karen E. Robbins’s James McHenry: Forgotten Federalist, Francois Furstenberg’s When the United States Spoke French, Robert Tonsetic’s 1781: The Decisive Year of the Revolutionary War, J. H. Powell’s Bring Out Your Dead, David Lefer’s The Founding Conservatives, Joseph J. Ellis’s Founding Brothers, Anthony S. Pitch’s The Burning of Washington, Paul A. Gilje’s New York in the Age of the Constitution, and Edward Countryman’s A People in Revolution. For a more extensive bibliography please visit our website at DrayKamoie.com.