by Diana Rubino
James Reynolds, Hamilton said, was “an obscure, unimportant, and profligate man.”
To show that his communications to and from Reynolds pertained to blackmail and not to speculation with treasury funds, he printed the twenty Reynolds letters, which had not been available to Callender. He added some thirty other documents: the Muhlenberg-Monroe-Venable memoranda on their 1792 investigation; his correspondence with them in 1797; his fiery exchanges with Monroe; a testimonial to the authenticity of Maria Reynolds's handwriting by a boarding-house keeper who knew her; a statement by Oliver Wolcott; and a denial by Noah Webster, of Callender's charge that his revelations had kept Webster from proposing Hamilton as Washington's successor in the presidency. He said he'd deposited all the original documents with William Bingham in Philadelphia, where any gentleman might inspect them. Bingham said that he never received the papers. All, including the Reynolds letters, have disappeared.
When the work appeared, Hamilton's friends were appalled. “What shall we say …” Webster wrote, “of a man who has borne some of the highest civil and military employments, who could deliberately … publish a history of his private intrigues, degrade himself in the estimation of all good men, and scandalize a family, to clear himself of charges which no man believed. …”
Hamilton's enemies were delighted. They ignored his points of defense and continued their charges of speculation in public funds.
Thomas Jefferson observed that Hamilton's admission of adultery seemed “to have strengthened than weakened the suspicions that he was guilty of the speculations.” Some people considered Maria Reynolds “an amiable and virtuous wife, seduced from the affections of her husband by artifice and intrigue.” Others called her a fallen woman. Hamilton was condemned either way.
One reviewer said that Hamilton “holds himself out as trotting from one lodging in Philadelphia to another after … a prostitute!” Another said that he had “rambled for 18 months in this scene of pollution, and squandered … above $1,200 to conceal the intrigue from his loving spouse.” Yet another declared that any man who used his own home as “the rendezvous of his whoredom, taking advantage of the absence of his wife and children to introduce a prostitute to those sacred abodes of conjugal, and filial retirement, to gratify his wicked purposes” could not boast of anything except, possibly, virility.
As the ultimate insult the Antifederalists printed a second edition of Hamilton's pamphlet, without alteration or addition, at their own expense.
Many years later James Monroe paid a nostalgic call on the widow Mrs. Hamilton.
As Allan McLane Hamilton, Alexander's grandson, told the story, Mrs. Hamilton was in her garden talking with a nephew when a servant approached her bearing a card with Monroe's name. On seeing the card, Mrs. Hamilton, “much perturbed,” said in a low, angry voice, “What has that man come to see me for?”
Her nephew followed her back to the house. Monroe rose as they entered the parlour. She did not ask him to sit down. He bowed and addressed her formally in a kind of set speech he had prepared—that it was “many years since we had met, that the lapse of time has brought its softening influences, that we are both nearing the grave when past differences could be forgiven and forgotten.”
She answered, “Mr. Monroe, if you have come to tell me that you repent, that you are sorry, very sorry, for … the slanders … you circulated against my dear husband … I understand it. But otherwise, no lapse of time, no nearness to the grave, makes any difference.” Monroe bowed, turned, and left.
–from www.AmericanHeritage.com
Elizabeth Hamilton died on November 9, 1854 at the age of 98. Her daughter found a locket around her neck. She opened it and saw that it contained an early love letter from Alexander. Elizabeth had stitched up the creases many times over the five and a half decades she outlived her dear husband.
Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing, and that was the closest our country has ever been to being even. – Will Rogers
Hamilton Wedding Bands
Author's Note from Brian L. Porter
When Diana asked me to create a fictional serial killer who could be included as something of a back story to her latest novel, I was delighted to agree. I have known Diana for some years, having at one time been the editor of one of her excellent novels.
The character of Severus Black had in fact been 'kicking around' in my mind for some time and I had originally intended to use him in one of my own novels, but the chance to bring him to life in Diana's latest book was simply too tempting to resist.
Although he is a fictional creation, he is in fact modeled in a part on a real necrophiliac serial killer who stalked the streets of London both during and after the Second World War. A disturbing man with little to commend him, I have tried to convey a certain 'humanity' to Severus Black's personality, a plea from the heart in some ways for a misguided and misunderstood, tortured mind and soul.
About Diana Rubino
Diana's passion for history and travel has taken her to every setting of her historicals and paranormals. Diana now writes biographical novels with no fictional characters. She is working on the Sassy Ladies Series, featuring strong brave women in history.
Diana owns an engineering business with her husband Chris and they make their home on Cape Cod. She's a member of Romance Writers of America, the Richard III Society, and the Aaron Burr Association. Visit Diana on her website, dianarubino.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/dianarubinoauthor, and on Twitter @DianaLRubino.
Also by Diana Rubino
The Yorkist Saga
Thy Name is Love
The Jewels of Warwick
The New York Saga
From Here to Fourteenth Street
Bootleg Broadway
The End of Camelot
Vampire Romance
A Bloody Good Cruise
Time Travel Romance
Traveling Light
For Love and Loyalty
Dark Brew
Contemporary Romance
Faking It
Paranormal Romance
A Necessary End
Thrillers
Still Crazy
Murderous Digs (short story collection)
Cookbook
Around the World in 80 Meals
Coming Soon
The Sassy Ladies Series
Oney—My Escape From Slavery
Eliza Jumel Burr, Vice Queen of America
About Brian L. Porter
Brian is the bestselling author of over twenty published works, including novels, a bestselling short story anthology, and a number of children's and poetry books. Known originally for his Jack the Ripper fictional trilogy, A Study in Red, the Secret Journal of Jack the Ripper, Legacy of the Ripper and Requiem for the Ripper, his most recent and successful works to date are his new Mersey Mystery series of books, A Mersey Killing, All Saints, Murder on the Mersey, A Mersey Maiden, and the newly released, A Mersey Mariner, with other books in the series to follow. Twelve of his books have achieved bestseller status.
His most recent success has come from his true-life books Sasha, A Very Special Dog Tale of a Very Special Epi-Dog, winner of The Preditors & Editors Readers Poll, Best Nonfiction Book 2016 and now an international bestseller, and Sheba: From Hell to Happiness, which became a UK bestseller even before its release, based on advance orders at Amazon. Both books relate to the amazing lives of two of the ten rescue dogs who share the author's life and home.
He has previously won a number of awards, including The P & E Best Author, 2010 Award, and a Best Thriller Award for A Study in Red, and Best Mystery Award for Glastonbury.
He lives in the UK with his wife and ten rescue dogs.
His website is at www.brianlporter.co.uk
See his author pages at http://www.amazon.com/Brian-L.-porter/e/B00466KITC/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
And as Harry Porter at http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Porter/e/B00O43IIF8/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
Also b
y Brian L. Porter
The Mersey Mysteries
A Mersey Killing
All Saints, Murder on the Mersey
A Mersey Maiden
A Mersey Mariner
Last Train to Lime Street (Coming soon)
A Very Mersey Murder (Coming soon)
Thrillers
A Study in Red - The Secret Journal of Jack the Ripper
Legacy of the Ripper
Requiem for the Ripper
Pestilence
Purple Death
Behind Closed Doors
Avenue of the Dead
The Nemesis Cell
Kiss of Life
Dog Rescue
Sasha
Sheba: From Hell to Happiness
Short Story Collection
After Armageddon
Remembrance Poetry
Lest We Forget
Children's books as Harry Porter
Wolf
Alistair the Alligator, (Illustrated by Sharon Lewis)
Charlie the Caterpillar (Illustrated by Bonnie Pelton)
As Juan Pablo Jalisco
Of Aztecs and Conquistadors
Select Bibliography
Ambrose, Douglas, The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton, NY University Press, 2007
Atherton, Gertrude, The Conqueror, Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1902
Brookhiser, Richard, Alexander Hamilton: American, Free Press, 1999
Desmond, Alice, Alexander Hamilton's Wife, Dodd, Mead & Co., New York, 1953
Hamilton, Allan McLane, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton, 1910
Hamilton, Alexander; Jay, John; Madison, James, The Federalist Papers, 1788
Hamilton, John Church, The Life of Alexander Hamilton by his Son, D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1841
Hickey, Donald R., and Connie D. Clark, eds., Citizen Hamilton, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, MD, 2006
Kaminski, John, The Founders on the Founders, University of Virginia Press, 2008
Karlsen, Carol and Laurie Crumpacker, eds., The Journal of Esther Edwards Burr, 1754-1757, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1984
Langdon, William, Everyday Things in American Life, Scribner's Sons, 1951
Larkin, Jack, The Reshaping of Everyday Life, 1790-1840, Harper and Row, New York, 1988
Loth, David, Alexander Hamilton, Portrait of a Prodigy, Carrick & Evans, New York, 1939
Miller, John, Alexander Hamilton, Portrait in Paradox, Harper & Row, New York, 1959
Mitchell, Broadus, Heritage from Hamilton, Columbia University Press, New York, 1957
Oliver, Frederick Scott, Alexander Hamilton, An Essay on American Union, Macmillan, New York, 1931
Rogow, Arnold, A Fatal Friendship, Farrar Straus & Giroux, New York, 1998
Rosenfeld, Richard, American Aurora, St. Martin's Press, 1997
Smith, Adam, The Wealth of Nations, 1776
Smith, Billy, The Lower Sort, Cornell University Press, New York, 1990
Syrett, Harold, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Columbia University Press, New York, 1965
Weigley, Russell, Philadelphia, A 300-Year History, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1982
Papers:
Alberts, Robert, The Notorious Affair of Mrs. Reynolds
Hamilton, Alexander, The Reynolds Pamphlet, Philadelphia, 1797
Websites:
www.politbyte.com, Home of the World's Best political sex scandals database
http://eliza-hamilton.livejournal.com/profile
www.politicalgraveyard.com
http://www.answers.com/topic/common-year-starting-on-saturday - Put in any date and year in history in the Gregorian or Julian calendar, and this will tell you what day of the week it fell on.
http://nysparks.state.ny.us/sites/info.asp?siteID=27
http://www.sheilaomalley.com/archives/005683.html
www.jeffersonlegacy.org
Jacob Clingman: http://bit.ly/29VkGG7
Boston Public Library: http://bit.ly/2a6aPfx
Life of Alexander Hamilton by his Son John Church Hamilton: http://bit.ly/29Tn6Ga
Maps:
http://www.davidrumsey.com/index.html
Internet Photos:
Photo of Hamilton and Eliza's Double Wedding Band: http://bit.ly/29IA7Pd
Photo of Schuyler-Hamilton House, Morristown, NJ: http://bit.ly/29H7iqg
Photo of Eliza Hamilton's Grave, Trinity Churchyard, New York City: http://bit.ly/2aaNGv6
Photo of Alexander Hamilton's Grave, Trinity Churchyard, New York City: http://web.uvic.ca/~rutherfo/hamilton.html
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