USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > History of Independence Hall : from the earliest period to the present time : embracing biographies of the immortal signers of the Declaration of Independence, with historical sketches of the sacred relics preserved in that sanctuary of American freedom > Part 7
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IN tracing our brief biography of GEORGE WASH- INGTON in the preceding chapter, we necessarily touched upon a subject requiring an historical por- traiture of one who, it seems to us, was but another Washington in the struggle for freedom. And more particularly is this necessary - because Alexander Hamilton fought side by side, and suffered the priva- tions incident to that memorable struggle, with him ; and now, in old Independence Hall, placed almost side by side, hang the two portraits of these great and noble men. And while we stand near him, and gaze upon his living picture, our minds immediately revert back to the period when he, in company with the Commander-in-Chief of the American army, led the distracted and forlorn soldiers from post to post to defend the land against depredations of the enemy ; and we are led involuntarily to exclaim that next to
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Washington, no name shines more conspicuously than that of ALEXANDER HAMILTON. The Island of Nevis, one of the most beautiful of the West Indies, had the honor of being his birth-place, which circumstance occurred on the 11th of January, 1757. He was a lineal descendant of the noble Huguenots, his father being a Scotchman, his mother a French lady. In the original source of his blood, this happy blending of contrasted elements created a sagacious character, and invested him with great decision of purpose and execution. Like most men who are destined to be- come truly great, young Hamilton was early left to buffet adverse storms, and in the midst of difficulties to become the architect of his own fortunes. He was taken to Santa Cruz by some friends of his mother, where the foundation of his youthful education was first laid. In a very brief period he became suffi- ciently acquainted with the French language to speak and write it fluently, and the Decalogue he learned to repeat in Hebrew, in a short time, at the school of a Jewess. His education at that early age was conducted chiefly under the supervision of a Dr. Knox, a clergyman of the Presbyterian persuasion.
In 1769 he was placed in the counting-house of Mr. Nicholas Cruger, a wealthy and highly respectable citizen of Santa Cruz. Before he was thirteen years old he wrote the following to a young friend at school: "I contemn the groveling condition as a clerk, to which my fortune condemns me, and would willingly risk my life, though not my character, to exalt mv station ; I mean to prepare the way for futurity." In this paragraph gleams the true fire of a noble youth, an ardent love of fame and the strongest attachment 9
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to untarnished integrity, guarantees of splendid suc. cess, which, in this instance, was never disproved by facts. While he was in Mr. Cruger's employ, every hour he could appropriate to himself was devoted to the study of mathematics, ethics, chemistry, biography, and knowledge of every kind. Even at that early moment some of his compositions were published, and they attracted such universal attention that some of his friends determined to send him to New York, where they apprehended better advantages would be afforded to the development of his intellectual ambi- tion. He arrived in this country in October, 1772, and was placed in a grammar-school in New Jersey, under the instruction of Francis Barber of Elizabeth- town, who afterward became a distinguished officer in the American service. Young Hamilton entered King's (now Columbia) College, at the close of 1773 where, his biographer says, he "soon displayed ex- traordinary genius and energy of mind."
He was no ordinary genius, and his aptitude for acquiring knowledge was unprecedented. In De- cember, 1774, and February, 1775, he wrote, anony- mously, several elaborate pamphlets in favor of the pacific measures of defense recommended by Congress. At that early day he suggested the policy of giving encouragement to domestic manufactures, as a sure means of lessening external commerce. He insisted upon our inalienable right to the steady, uniform, un- shaken security of constitutional freedom-to the en- joyment of trial by jury-and the right of freedom from taxation, except by our own immediate repre- sentatives, and that colonial legislation was an inhe- rent right, never to be abandoned or impaired. In
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this pamphlet-controversy young Hamilton encoun- tered Dr. Cooper, who was then principal of the Col- lege, and many of the most distinguished tories of the land. When the authorship of the youthful champion was proclaimed, all classes were astonished to learn such profound principles and wise policy from so young an oracle. By his extraordinary writings and patriotic influences he early deserved and received the appellation of the "Vindicator of Congress."
At length the difficulties which had threatened the Colonies with war between them and the mother country, broke out in furious hostility, and the strug- gle for emancipation from British domination had commenced in good earnest. The letter which an- nounced the battle of Lexington, concluded with these solemn words-"The crimson fountain has opened, and God only knows when it will be closed.". Young Hamilton organized a military corps, mostly of stu- dents, who practiced their daily drill in the morning before the commencement of their college studies. They assumed the name of "Hearts of Oak," and wore a green uniform, surmounted by a leathern cap, on which was inscribed "Freedom or Death." Early and late our young hero was actively engaged, not only in promoting measures of resistance, but in mastering the science of political economy, the laws of commerce, the balance of trade and the circulating medium ; so that when these topics became permanent matters of speculation, in the light of new organiza- tions for the general good, no one was more prompt and lucid in his demonstrations than Hamilton.
He abandoned academic retirement and entered the army as Captain of a provincial company of artillery,
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in March, 1776, and in this capacity he brought up the rear of the army in the retreat from Long Island. He was in the action of White Plains, on the 28th of October, 1776, and with his company of artillery was firm and heroical in the retreat through New Jersey, on which occasion he repelled the progress of the British troops on the banks of the Raritan. He fought at the head of his brave company at Trenton and Princeton, and continued in the same command until the first of March, 1777, when, having attracted the attention of WASHINGTON, he was appointed his aid-de-camp, with the rank of Colonel. From that time until February, 1781, he continued the insepar- able companion of the Commander-in-Chief, and was always consulted by him, and by all the leading func- tionaries, on the most important occasions. He acted as his first aid at the battles of Brandywine, German- town, and Monmouth ; and at his own request, at the siege of Yorktown, he led the detachment which carried by assault one of the strongest outposts of the foe.
In consequence of the many fine qualities which were combined in him, young Hamilton became uni- versally esteemed. IIe was especially useful to George Washington, and that great man declared he was " his principal and most confidential aid." His accu- rate and comprehensive knowledge of military science placed him in the first rank of tacticians; his cour- teous manner rendered his general intercourse with the army a delight to all; his familiarity with the French language won the especial attachment of all the French division of the army, making him the con. stant favorite in particular of the Marquis Lafayette
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and the Baron Steuben. Never, perhaps, in the his- tory of nations, was a youth of twenty called to such important honors and responsibilities as those which Hamilton at that early age was called to assume as the private secretary and confidential friend of General Washington. On none did the arm of that great man lean more habitually for support, than on this erudite and patriotic youth, and by no other earthly power was he more fortified than by him. He was equally at home in the forum or with the pen; always per- *picuous and logical. His first political speech to a popular assembly was delivered at the " great meet- ing in the fields," as it was called, and was occasioned by a call to choose delegates to the first Congress, in which he insisted on the duty of resistance, pointed out the means and certainty of success, and described the waves of rebellion sparkling with fire, and wash- ing back on the shores of England the wrecks of her power, her wealth, and her glory. We can do no better than to embody here the subjoined excerpt of his history, as written by a distinguished author, the Rev. E. L. Magoon.
" In December, 1780, Hamilton married the second daughter of Major-General Schuyler, and in the Feb- ruary following, he retired from the family of General Washington, to become more completely absorbed in forensic toil. He took his seat in Congress in No- vember, 1782, and continued there until the autumn of 1783. The legislators of that body had many diffi- rult and exhausting duties to perform. Army dis- rontents were to be appeased; complicated claims to be settled ; and if possible, the half-pay of innumerable patriots to be obtained. Hamilton renounced his own 9*
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demands, accruing from long martial service, that he might freely plead the cause of his brethren in arms. On the 6th of December, 1782, he moved and carried an important resolution on national finance; the be- ginning of his invaluable labors in behalf of an im- proved revenue; the sinking fund and assumption of the State debts; a currency well defined and the estab- lishment of a national coinage. Immediately after Hamilton entered Congress all its proceedings assumed a more vigorous tone and exalted character. Griev- ances were redressed and effective measures of general interest were promptly passed. His report in answer to Rhode Island, and many other documents and speeches in behalf of a more solid and effective union, gave a new and more cheering aspect to the whole face of public affairs. His influence in guiding the terms of peace was very great, and especially was he efficient in rendering the fruits of peace in the highest degree profitable to all classes of his countrymen."
In reviewing the life of Hamilton as a statesman, it should be remarked that he was fully equal to the highest stations he occupied, and that he honored them all. . In this respect he resembled Edmund Burke. Owing nothing of his elevation to birth, opulence, or official rank, he acquired none of those adventitious supports to rise and move at ease, and with instinctive power, in the highest regions of public effort, dignity, and renown; the atmosphere of Courts and Senates was native to his majesty of wing. There was no fear that his plumage would give way in either the storm or the sunshine; those are the casualties of inferior powers. He had his share of both the tempest and that still more perilous trial which has
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melted down the virtue of so many aspiring spirits in the favor of cabinets. But he grew purer and more powerful for good; to his latest moment he continually rose more and more above the influence of party, until at last the politician was elevated into the philosopher; and fixing himself in that loftier region, from which he looked down on the cloudy and turbulent contests of the time, he soared upward calmly in the light of truth, and became more splendid at every wave of his wing.
Brougham thinks justly that Chatham's highest en- comium rests on the fact that, "Far superior to the paltry objects of a groveling ambition, and regardless alike of party and personal considerations, he con- stantly set before his eyes the highest duty of a public man, to further the interests of his species. In pur- suing his course toward that goal, he disregarded alike the frowns of power and the gales of popular applause, exposed himself undaunted to the vengeance of the Court, battled against its corruptions, and confronted, unappalled, the rudest shock of public indignation." That Hamilton actually pursued such a course as this, and was governed by such principles, is well known from contemporaneous history, and especially from his own pen, in the opening language of the " Fede- ralist." " An enlightened zeal," he observes, "for the energy and efficiency of government, will be stigma- tized as the offspring of a temper fond of power and hostile to the principles of liberty. The consciousness of good intentions disdains ambiguity. I shall not, however, multiply professions on this head. My motives must remain in the depository of my own breast; my arguments will be open to all, and may
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be judged by all. They shall at least be offered in a spirit which will not disgrace the cause of truth."
But by ingenuous and honest minds his integrity was never suspected. His moral worth was of an ex- alted character, and his varied services in behalf of his country and the human race can never be rated too high. To him with the strictest propriety may be applied what Mr. Burrows said of Grattan: "His name silenced the skeptic upon the reality of genuine patriotism. To doubt the purity of his motives was a heresy which no tongue dared to utter; envy was lost in admiration; and even they whose crimes he scourged, blended extorted praises with the murmurs of resentment. He covered our then unfledged Con- stitution with the ample wings of his talents, as the eagle covers her young ; like her he soared, and like her he could behold the rays, whether of royal favor or of royal anger, with undazzled, unintimidated eye."
To speak well and to write well are intellectual ac- complishments everywhere considered of the highest order, and in Hamilton the combination of these rare excellencies was strikingly exemplified. Like the renowned Surrey, he was the most accomplished knight and scholar of his day.
" Matchless his pen, victorious was his lance,
Bold in the lists, and graceful in the dance."
In the hall, the camp, and the forum, Hamilton was always employed in teaching the loftiest sentiments of patriotism and in executing the most generous deeds. When a Whig student in college, he secured the Tory president's safety at the risk of his own, even while the stubborn object of undeserved kindness
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cried out to the mob, "Don't listen to him, gentle men! He is crazy ! he is crazy !" And in all his subsequent career, we "find him thus fighting the cause of reason against popular passion, of the right against the expedient, and that too with the uniform and very natural reward of having his acts miscon- strued, his motives misunderstood, his language mis- interpreted, and himself held up, if not to public, at least to party odium, as a citizen without patriotism ; an adopted, but not a filial son of America; branded as a royalist, because he wrested from the law its sword of vengeance against the tories; as an English- man, because he would not hate the ancestral land against which he was yet willing to shed his blood; as a monarchist, because he loved not revolutionary France; as an enemy to the people, because he would save them from their own mad passions; and as a Cæsar in ambition, because he gave up his heart to his public duties, and ever labored in them as men do in that which they love. But popular fickleness and political rancor never moved him from his chosen and conscientious path. The motto that in the main governed his whole life was, first, truth and honor, then the popular will."
In 1795, at the age of thirty-eight, Hamilton re- sumed the practice of law in the city of New York, where he continued in active professional pursuits until the close of life. His personal appearance at that time is represented as follows : He was under the middle size, thin in person, but remarkably erect and dignified in his deportment. His hair was turned back from his forehead, powdered, and collected in a queue behind. ITis complexion was exceedingly fair,
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and varying from this only by the delicate rosiness of his cheeks. In form and tint his face was con- sidered uncommonly handsome. When in repose, it bore a severe and thoughtful expression; but when engaged in conversation, it immediately assumed an attractive smile. His ordinary costume was a blue coat with bright buttons, the skirts being unusually long; he wore a white waistcoat, black silk small- clothes, and white silk stockings. His appearance and deportment accorded with the exalted distinction which, by his stupendous public services, he had attained. His voice was engagingly pleasant, and his whole mien commanded the respect due to a master mind. His natural frankness inspired the most affec- tionate attachment; and his splendid talents, as is usual, elicited the firmest and the most furious hate.
By nature Hamilton was a moralist and metaphy- sician. The axioms of political sagacity and the pro- fusion of pointed and perspicuous reflections which flowed from his pen, as well as spoken from his lips, gave an enduring value to his works. His great en- dowments of disciplined thought and energetic will imparted to his hastiest composition elaborate force and the grace of perfection. He could do that by in- tuition and a single blow which ordinary statesmen would require months to ponder and execute. Bold in his propositions, he was inexorable in his conclu- sions ; grant him his premises, and the result was in- evitable as fate. He did not fatigue himself with pro- fuse skirmishes nor bewilder his mind in the labyrinth of a formal exordium ; but like an arrow impelled by a vigorous bow, he shot directly to the mark. One of the most enlightened critics of modern times has
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pronounced a worthy eulogium on him as the most eminent framer, most eloquent defender, and soundest expositor of the American Constitution. "Hamilton," says Guizot, in his late work on the character of Wash- ington, "must be classed among the men who have best known the vital principles and the fundamental conditions of a government ; not of a government such as this (France), but of a government worthy of its mission and of its name. There is not in the Constitu- tion of the United States an element of order, of force, or of duration, which he has not powerfully con- tributed to introduce into it and caused to pre- dominate.".
Hamilton was the great master of the human heart. Deeply versed in its feelings and motives, he "struck by a word, and it quivered beneath the blow; flashed the lightning glance of burning, thrilling, animated eloquence," and its hopes and its fears were moulded to his wish. He was the vivid impersonation of political sagacity. His imagination and practical judgment, like two fleet coursers, ran neck-and-neck to the very goal of triumph. Military eloquence of the highest grade had its birth with liberty in the American Revolution. But the majority of our heroes were not adepts in literature. They could conquer tyrants more skillfully than they could harangue them. To this rule, however, Hamilton was a dis- tinguished exception. He was the most sagacious and laborious of our revolutionary orators. He anticipated time and interrogated history with equal case and ardor. He explored the archives of his own land, and drew from foreign courts the quintessence of their ministerial wisdom. He illuminated the councils
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where Washington presided, and with him guarded our youthful nation with the eyes of a lynx and the talons of a vulture. But we should give especial at- tention to Hamilton as a writer. Through the pen he wrought more extensively on the popular mind, per- haps, than by all the impressiveness of his living elo- quence. He well understood the utility of this mighty engine for weal or woe. The ancient orators and writers, slowly transcribing their words on parch- ment, breathed in their little pipes a melody for nar- row circles; but Fame gives to modern thought the magnificent trumpet of the press, whose perpetual voice speaks simultaneously to delighted millions at the remotest points. It is of vast advantage to a nation that men of the most elevated positions in civil affairs should take a part in its literature, and thus, with their pen as well as by their patronage, foster its development and perfection. Æschylus, the oldest of the great tragedians of Greece, was himself a sol- dier, and fought with heroism in many of the glorious battles of his country, one of which furnished the theme of his most celebrated work. Herodotus was born only a few years before the great conflict with Xerxes; and Xenophon participated prominently in the remarkable military achievements he has com- memorated. The profoundest scholars, acutest poets, most masculine heroes, the best writers and most sagacious statesmen, arc always polished into enduring elegance, and fortified with the best strength amid the stern realities of public life.
Such was Alexander Hamilton. He was the in- defatigable soldier of the press, the pen, and the army; in cach field he carried a sword which, like the one
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borne by the angel at the gate of Paradise, flashed its guardian care on every hand. In martial affairs he was an adept, in literary excellence he was unex- celled, and in political discernment he was universally acknowledged to be superior among the great. We read his writings with ever-increasing zest, fascinated by the seductive charms of his style, and impelled by the opening splendors of his far-reaching and compre- hensive thoughts. They accumulate with a beautiful symmetry, and emanate legitimately from his theme. They expand and grow, as an acorn rises into an oak, of which all the branches shoot out of the same trunk, nourished in every part by the same sap, and form a perfect unit, amid all the diversified tints of the foliage and the infinite complexity of the boughs. "That writer would deserve the fame of a public benefactor," said Fisher Ames, "who could exhibit the character of Hamilton with the truth and force that all who intimately knew him conceived it; his example would then take the same ascendant as his talents." The portrait alone, however exquisitely finished, could not inspire genius where it is not; but if the world. should again have possession of so rare a gift, it might awaken it where it sleeps, as by a spark from heaven's own altar; for surely if there is any thing like divinity in man, it is his admiration for virtue. "The country deeply laments when it turns its eyes back and sees what Hamilton was; but my soul stiffens with despair," continues Ames, "when I think what Hamilton would have been. It is not as Apollo, enchanting the shepherds with his lyre, that we deplore him; it is as Hercules, treacherously slain
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in the midst of his unfinished labors, leaving the world overrun with monsters."
It is unnecessary to dwell on the unrighteous and fatal event which robbed Hamilton of life-the duel with Aaron Burr at Hoboken, when
"A falcon, tow'ring in his pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd !"
In Independence Hall, by the side of the portrait of George Washington, therefore, is the most appro- priate place for the portrait of Alexander Hamilton. Few can look upon it without realizing the fact that his history is inseparable with the history of our country-in fact, is a brilliant portion of it. Let all look upon it with reverence, and feel constrained to imitate his example.
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CHAPTER VIII.
CONVENTION OF 1776.
" In ferrum pro libertate ruebant ! In foro conscientice !"
IN the annals of our country's progress from colonial dependence to its present greatness, perhaps there is no epoch that is regarded with deeper and more profound veneration than that era embraced within the narrow limits of one single month pre- ceding the 4th of July, 1776. Public sentiment had long been maturing for decisive action against the en- croachments and aggressions of despotic Europe-the people were ripe for open rebellion, and fully deter- mined to put their resolves into practical execution. Wherever the foot of oppression had previously left its sad imprint throughout the land, a corresponding spirit of resistance became aroused. In the cities and villages, towns and hamlets; on the mountains, in the valleys, upon the hillsides, and in. the vales-wherever the hut of the hardy pioneer sent its smoke curling upward through the interlacing branches of the forests, on the circumambient blue of heaven, there beat hearts as warm and noble, as true and fear- less, and as restive for the approaching period when their chains of bondage should be severed, as in the seaboard cities, where despotic exactions were most
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