Alexander Hamilton

In August, yellow fever hit Philadelphia. By the end of the month, 20 people per day were dying. Hamilton and Eliza contracted a minor case of the fever on September 5, 1793. They were cured by a doctor, Edward Stevens, within five days, using quinine, cold baths, opium, burned cinnamon, and more. While recovering, Hamilton published a letter to the College of Physicians, urging doctors to learn Stevens’s methods.

On December 31, Jefferson resigned as secretary of state, which was “the year’s most satisfying event” (541) for Hamilton. Hamilton and Adams both believed that Jefferson would return at some point to run for the presidency, despite his claim that he was desperate to return to his farm and study for the remainder of his life.

In late May, Congress found Hamilton innocent of all charges of treasury abuse that were ever filed against him. Hamilton, who had planned on resigning his cabinet seat out of exhaustion, decided to stay. 

Edmund Randolph became the next secretary of state, and Madison continued to pursue Jefferson’s agendas. On November 6, 1793, a British fleet captured more than 250 American merchant ships. They also arrested many of the American seamen, claiming they were British sailors who had deserted during the war. There was once again the prospect of war with England. Hamilton drafted a plan to protect the ports in case of a potential invasion.

Henry Jay was chosen as an envoy to England, where he would work to “avert war” (552). Meanwhile, executions were topping 800 per month in France.

This chapter covers the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion.

Six thousand rebels gathered outside Pittsburgh on August 1, threatening to overthrow the government. Washington sent three officials to confer with them, but the talks were fruitless. Washington then called 15,000 members of the militia to prepare to go to Pittsburgh if necessary. Washington and Hamilton decided then to travel with the men as they marched across Pennsylvania, visiting the militia camps and subduing rebels. Hamilton also interrogated the leaders of several rebel factions.

While he was away, Eliza miscarried what would have been their fifth child. On December 1, 1974, Hamilton told Washington that he would resign from his office in January. Washington replaced him with his deputy, Oliver Wolcott, Jr. Washington wrote a letter to him that praised him for his service and his character, and Hamilton was viewed by many as “the father of the American government” (575).

After leaving Philadelphia, Hamilton was indebted and “needed money badly” (576). He returned to his legal practice and continued to write essays in support of causes he deemed expedient.

A draft of John Jay’s treaty with England was poorly received by those who read it, but Hamilton made suggestions that helped it pass into its final form. Jay had given British goods top priority, but England had made “no equivalent concessions for American imports” (579). The treaty was passed in June 1975.

Now that he was out of public office, “some vital layer of inhibition disappeared” (583) in Hamilton. At a secret session of the Senate, he defended the Jay Treaty. He then attempted to speak to a crowd in the streets about the Treaty, and they pelted him with stones. Hamilton launched a series of counterattack essays, known as “The Defence” (589), as a rebuttal to his critics. He focused heavily on the Jay Treaty and its merits.

The House tried to nullify the treaty, but it was upheld. Even though it had caused great trouble, Hamilton knew that “The treaty removed the last impediments to improved relations with England and promised sustained prosperity” (598). The country dodged another war with England, and America’s financial prospects for the future subsequently improved.

Hamilton had become New York’s most sought-after lawyer, but “he was chronically overworked and increasingly absentminded” (600).

Despite the fact that Hamilton was no longer serving in a public office, Washington and other politicians sought his advice often. Washington’s second cabinet was intellectually inferior to the first, and the difference was obvious to him. He had replaced Randolph with Timothy Pickering, but the overall composition of the cabinet wearied and frustrated Washington.

Washington decided not to serve a third term and asked Hamilton to write his farewell address, which Washington wanted printed not spoken. For several months, they collaborated on the drafts. It appeared on September 19, 1796, in Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser. No one would know that Hamilton had crafted the farewell address for many years, and Hamilton refused to take credit for it, not wanting to dilute Washington’s reputation.

Hamilton wrote a series of essays that appeared under the name of Phocion. The essays gave a damning history of Jefferson and were targeted at keeping him out of the presidency. It hinted at Jefferson’s affair with Sally Hemmings and mocked his hypocrisy as a slaveholder. Hamilton was showing a willingness to engage in the same sorts of character defamation that his enemies had leveled at him, but he justified it by assuring himself that anything was better than letting Jefferson assume the presidency.

Adams became president in February 1797. Jefferson was the vice president. Adams was detached from Hamilton in a way that Washington had not been, and so was better tolerated by Republicans. Adams also disliked Hamilton, who was soon going to find that being excluded from the innermost circles of political power would cause him great distress.