Alexander Hamilton: Founding Father-: The Real Story of his life, his loves, and his death by Mark Steinberg

Author:Mark Steinberg [Steinberg, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-01-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter IV – Hamilton as Family Man and Lover

In earlier chapters, Hamilton was described as a man obsessed with the War and with making a name for himself as a statesman and leader. Indeed, these tasks did consume much of his time and often exhausted him. But there was another side to Hamilton that rounds out his personality and gives a deeper understanding of how the man operated. Hamilton was very good looking and throughout his career loved to have fun, which in those years meant singing, dancing, and courting ladies. Above all, he was a family man with a large number of children. This chapter will look at his marriage to Eliza Schuyler as well as his affairs and relationships with various women.

Our story begins in Morristown during the winter of 1780 where, you will recall from Chapter II, Washington set up camp with his army. Hamilton was there too, and it was a gloomy winter and he was looking for some distractions. He already had a reputation of being a flirt. In fact, Martha Washington, the General’s wife, nicknamed her amorous pet tomcat “Hamilton.” In between fighting battles, Hamilton flirted with the “camp ladies” who would stop by the army’s headquarters, and he enjoyed dancing and having a good time with them.

Though the winter of 1780 was one of the most frigid in memory, Hamilton was still able to pursue his passion for entertainment as there were sleighing parties and fancy dress balls attended by the army officers. Hamilton enjoyed himself immensely at these events and courted a few ladies, one of whom was named Cornelia Lott. Washington and his friends were amused by Hamilton’s advances toward Ms. Lott, and later that winter he went after a woman named Polly. Yes, he was a fickle man and showed no signs of settling down.

Hamilton told a friend that he was wedded to the army; nevertheless, he began to think of marriage in 1779 and wrote to his friend John Laurens about it. Of course, Hamilton, as the product of an extremely unhappy marriage, was very uneasy about picking a wife and being in a lifelong relationship. He also had very high standards for what he was looking for in a wife. She had to be beautiful, intelligent, and of good character. He also recognized that he needed someone who had money. Though he was not greedy, he felt that it was important for his future wife to have enough money to indulge in whatever things she may want to acquire. So Hamilton had his criteria for what constituted his mate for life.

Into the picture came Eliza Schuyler, the daughter of Phillip Schuyler, one of the wealthiest men in the Hudson Valley. She came to Morristown in February to stay with relatives. Her Aunt Gertrude had married Dr. John Cochran, Washington’s personal physician and, later, the director of the Continental Army’s medical department. As it happens, Hamilton had already met Eliza in Albany in 1777 when he was engaged in persuading General Gates to surrender some of his troops.

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