Exertions of Washington's Staff- Result of the Action - Enemy moves to Amboy-Trial and Sentence of Lee--Duel between Lee and Laurens p.189 Plan of Operations for the year 1779- Harassing Inroads of the Enemy - Attempt to Capture General Washington - Projected Reprisal on Sir Henry Clinton - Capture of Stoney Point - Letters of Duane and Steuben-Arri- val of French Fleet - Mission of Du Portail and Hamilton-Hamilton to State of Public Credit- Financial Expedients - New Emission - Defect- ive Administration by Committees and Boards - Anonymous Letter of Ha- milton to Robert Morris - View of the State of the Currency · Remedies Suggested - First Plan of a Bank of the United States -Sufferings of the Army-Proposals to Confer Extraordinary Powers on Washington - Expe- dition to Staten Island - Mission of Hamilton for the Exchange of Prisoners -Letters to Committee of Co-operation Arrival of French Army -- Wash- ington proceeds to Hartford-Capture of André --Letter of Hamilton to Hamilton to Sears-Hamilton to Duane -- Battle of Camden -- Appoint- ment of Greene to the Southern Command- Harrison to Hamilton -- Greene to Hamilton -- Project of appointing a Dictator and Vice-Dictators-Con- templated Attack upon New-York — Hamilton asks a Separate Command- - Suggests Special Mission to France - La Fayette to Hamilton-Marriage Mutiny in the Army- Hamilton Projects a Plan for its Supply-Schuyler to Hamilton-Mission of Laurens to France - Instructions - Hamilton re- signs as Aid-Letter to Schuyler-La Fayette to Hamilton - Hamilton asks a Command in the Line - Washington's Reply-La Fayette to Hamilton -Organization of Executive Departments - Conventions at Springfield, Phi- ladelphia, and Hartford - Proposals of an Impost, a Census, and a Continen- tal Judicature-Hamilton to Robert Morris-Financial Views - Projects a National Bank -Observations on the Policy of Banking-Plan of a Bank - Morris to Hamilton - Bank of North America - The Continentalist p. 323 Washington proceeds to Newport-Army moves to Dobbs' Ferry- Ha- milton obtains a Command-Arrival of De Grasse-Interview of Robert Morris with Washington-March of the American Army-Letters of Ha- milton-Position of Lord Cornwallis - Americans approach York Town — Its Siege Attack and Capture of Enemy's Redoubts-Surrender of York Town-Return of American Army-Washington visits Congress-Hamil- Prospects of Peace- Commences Study of the Law-Writes a Manual on the Practice-Letter of Robert Morris to Hamilton and Reply- Appointed Continental Receiver -Interview with a Committee of the New-York Legislature-Resolutions for a General Convention-Appointed a Delegate to Congress-Letter to Robert Morris-Plans a System of Taxation - Letter to Meade To Morris - Address to the Public Creditors —Hamilton resigns the Office of Conti- ERRATA. Page 56, line 18-for "Chatham"-"the King." Page 284, line 9-for THE LIFE OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. CHAPTER I. ALEXANDER HAMILTON was born in the island of Nevis, on the eleventh of January, seventeen hundred and fiftyseven. On his father's side his origin was Scottish, and his lineage may be traced in "the Memoirs of the House of Hamilton,"* through the Cambuskeith branch of that House to a remote and renowned ancestry. His grandfather, "Alexander Hamilton of Grange," (the family seat situate in Ayrshire,) about the year seventeen hundred and thirty, married Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Sir Robert Pollock, and had a numerous issue, of whom, James, his fourth son, was the father of the subject of this memoir. Being bred a merchant, and the West Indies opening an extensive field to commercial enterprise, he left Scotland for St. Christopher's, where, though at first successful, * "Historical and Genealogical Memoirs of the House of Hamilton, with Genealogical Memoirs of the several branches of the family." By John Anderson, Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. 1825. 159he? fathten. through a too generous and easy temper he failed in business, and was, during the greater part of his life, in reduced circumstances. In the early period of his reverses, he was supported by his friends in Scotland, and in his advanced age, by his son Alexander. He died in St. Vincents in the year seventeen hundred and ninety-nine, having declined, by the advice of his physicians, the earnest solicitations of his son to join him in the United States. On his mother's side Hamilton's descent was French. His maternal grandfather was a Hugonot, a race to which America owes many of her most illustrious sons, who in this remote region, and after a lapse of two centuries, proved, during the war of independence, how proudly they had cherished the virtuous and determined spirit of their progeni tors. His name was Faucette. In the general expatriation of his protestant countrymen, which followed the revocation of the edict of Nantes, he emigrated to the West Indies, and settled in Nevis, where he successfully pursued the practice of medicine. He was a man of letters and of polished manners; whether his original profession was that of a physician, or it was assumed after his emigration, is not ascertained. Hamilton was the offspring of a second marriage. His mother's first husband was a Dane, named Lavine, who, attracted by her beauty, and recommended to her mother by his wealth, received her hand against her inclination. The marriage proving unhappy, she applied for and obtained a divorce, and removing to St. Christopher's, there married the father of the subject of these notices, and had by him several sons, of whom Alexander was the youngest. 76% His mother died when he was a child; but the traces of her character remained vividly impressed upon his memory. He recollected her with inexpressible fondness, and often spoke of her as a woman of superior intellect, highly cultivated, of elevated and generous sentiments, and of unusual elegance of person and manner. On her decease, the indigence of her husband threw their only surviving child upon the bounty of his mother's relatives, Mr. Peter Lytton and his sister, (afterwards Mrs. Mitchell,) who resided at Santa Cruz, where he received the rudiments of his education, commencing at a very tender age. As an instance of which, rarely as he dwelt upon his personal history, he mentioned his having been taught to repeat the Decalogue in Hebrew, at the school of a Jewess, when so small that he was placed standing by her side on a table. Many endearing traits of that generous and independent temper which were so conspicuous in his after life, appeared during his childhood. Hence, though his superiority occasionally awakened the envy of his comrades, it was soon disarmed by the amenity of his manners. There is reason to believe, from the low standard of education in the West Indies, that the circle of his early studies was very limited, probably embracing little more than the rudiments of the English and French languages, the latter of which he subsequently wrote and spoke with the ease of a native. It is not, however, to be inferred, that his boyhood was spent in indolence ;—with a strong propensity to literature, he early became a lover of books, and the time which other youth employ in classical learning, was by him devoted to miscellaneous reading, happily directed by the advice of Doctor Knox, a respectable presbyterian divine, who, delighted with the unfolding of his mind, took a deep interest in his welfare. The fervent piety of this gentleman, whose society he frequently enjoyed, gave a strong religious bias to his feel |