Eliza Hamilton by Tilar J. Mazzeo

Author:Tilar J. Mazzeo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery Books

In December, with no more reports of the fever, her father relented. Their oldest daughter, nine-year-old Angelica, who was studying French in Albany, wished to stay with her grandparents and numerous local cousins, but her father sent the other children home to their parents.

Despite the fortunate escape, Eliza and Alexander were sick off and on for much of the next year, and both their health had been permanently damaged. In January, Philip Schuyler was “alarmed at the state of my Dear Elizas health, nor are we without apprehension on your Account,” he informed Alexander. Angelica inquired of her sister, “When am I to hear that you are in perfect health, and that you are no longer in fear for the life of your dear Hamilton?”

Eliza was also frustrated when Alexander again put off his departure from the Treasury, citing the volatile situation in France. It now looked like he was not going to resign after all, and Eliza was frustrated. Alexander found it hard to let go of prestige and the reins of power. As one French aristocrat whom Angelica and John helped to flee to America reported back to Eliza’s sister, Alexander spoke too much of “grandes personnages.” The same aristocrat also observed—in a sign of the tensions brewing in their marriage and in a sign, too, that the gossip about Maria Reynolds was still circulating—that Alexander noted too little the beauty of his wife. Martha Washington was not the only person whose heart went out to Eliza.

The summer of 1794 meant the return of sweltering weather and fever, and Dr. Stevens again ordered Eliza and baby James to the country for fresh air and exercise. Alexander, committed to his work in the Treasury, planned to stay behind. All plans of resigning were brushed aside for the moment, to Eliza’s exasperation. Toward the end of July, Eliza and the two youngest children, James and John, set off for Albany, although Eliza was deeply unhappy about going. For the first time, at odds over Alexander’s broken promise about resignation and putting family first, their marriage was faltering. When the baby fell dangerously ill in her first weeks in Albany, Eliza sat up with the infant for long, sleepless nights, frightened and exhausted. She longed to come home to her house, to her husband, and especially to her older boys, who had stayed behind in Philadelphia with their father.

Alexander would not support it and reminded her of his authority as her husband. By August, Eliza was considering her own uprising, and Alexander’s response to her letters showed her to be feeling increasingly caged and desperate. Albany felt like punishment and exile. Finally, in mid-August, annoyed with Eliza but tired of her upsetting letters, Alexander relented. “You press to return to me,” he wrote. “I will not continue to dissuade you. Do as you think best. . . . But let me know before hand your determination that I may meet you at New York with an arrangement for bringing you or rather write to Mr.

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