Even Callender, one of his bitterest antagonists, admitted that "as a political writer Alexander Hamilton holds the same rank in America that Burke enjoys in England." Apart from the intrinsic merit of what he wrote his literary style was perfect, and did not partake of the florid and grandiloquent character of the productions of the latter part of the eighteenth century, and in many respects was quite his own. It was free from redundant verbiage, exceedingly direct, and he never was at a loss for words to clothe his new ideas. Sumner, whose praise is sometimes faint and often patronizing, says: "Hamilton was industrious. He wrote in a clear Style although prolix." In reference to his work while at head-quarters during the Revolution he says that "he was capable of taking the General's orders and composing a letter, to publish them which would rank as of very high literary merit among the writings of those days."
Oliver, whose insight into Hamilton's character is unusual for a foreigner, but is also valuable from the intelligence and knowledge of men displayed, says: " There is in all Hamilton's work—writings and speeches—the Intense seriousness of youth. The qualities that made him a great statesman and a terrible combatant were force, lucidity, and conviction. His confidence in himself and in his ideas is amazing, amounting almost to fanaticism. If we seek for a complete presentment of the man in what he wrote and spoke we shall not find it. He treats his public ceremoniously and with reserve. An excessive gravity is the rule. Anger is the only passion which is permitted to appear; not a beam of humor, or a flash of wit. The whole procedure is stately and tense. This, also, is in accordance with the nature of youth." While to some extent this is true, and possibly Oliver has never had access to Hamilton's intimate correspondence, there are a few letters in existence that show the lighter vein in which he indulged. Among them are the breezy epistles to his wife, to her sister, and to the two or three French officers with whom he was on intimate terms. No better illustration of the occasional exercise of his graceful wit can be found than a letter to Miss Kitty Livingston, who seems to have been a rather light-headed and casual person. On one occasion, when she sought to secure his aid to enable certain friends to pass through the lines when the army was at Morristown, he replied:
Alexander Hamilton to Kitty Livingston.
Headquarters, March 18, 1779.
I can hardly forgive an application to my humanity to induce me to exert my influence in an affair in which ladies are concerned, and especially when you are of the party. Had you appealed to my friendship or to my gallantry, it would have been irresistible. I should have thought myself bound to have set prudence and policy at defiance, and even to have attacked wind-mills in your ladyship's service. I am not sure but my imagination would have gone so far as to have fancied New York an enchanted castle—the three ladies so many fair damsels ravished from their friends and held in captivity by the spells of some wicked magician—General Clinton, a huge giant, placed as keeper of the gates—and myself, a valorous knight, destined to be their champion and deliverer.
But when, instead of availing yourself of so much better titles, you appealed to the cold, general principle of humanity, I confess I felt myself mortified, and determined, by way of revenge, to mortify you in turn. I resolved to show you that all the eloquence of your fine pen could not tempt our Fabius to do wrong; and, avoiding any representation of my own, I put your letter into his hands and let it speak for itself. I knew, indeed, this would expose his resolution to a severer trial than it could experience in any other way, and I was not without my fears for the event, but if it should decide against you, I anticipated the triumph of letting you see your influence had failed. I congratulated myself on the success of my scheme; for, though there was a harder struggle upon the occasion between inclination and duty, than it would be for his honor to tell; yet he at last had the courage to determine that, as he could not indulge the ladies with consistency and propriety, he would not run the risk of being charged with a breach of both. This he desired me to tell you, though, to be sure, it was done in a different manner, interlaced with many assurances of his great desire to oblige you, and of his regret that he could not do it in the present case, with a deal of stuff of the same kind, which I have too good an opinion of your understanding to repeat. I shall, therefore, only tell you that whether the Governor and the General are more honest or more perverse than other people, they have a very odd knack of thinking alike; and it happens in the present case that they both equally disapprove the intercourse you mention, and have taken pains to discourage it. I shall leave you to make your own reflections upon this, with only one more observation, which is that the ladies for whom you apply would have every claim to be gratified, were it not that it would operate as a bad precedent. But, before I conclude, it will be necessary to explain one point. This refusal supposes that the ladies mean only to make a visit and return to New York. If it should be their intention to remain with us, the case will be altered. There will be no rule against their coming out, and they will be an acquisition. But this is subject to two provisos—1st that they are not found guilty of treason or any misdemeanor punishable by the laws of the State, in which case the General can have no power to protect them; and 2dly, that the ladies on our side do not apprehend any inconvenience from increasing their number. Trifling apart, there is nothing could give me greater pleasure than to have been able to serve Miss Livingston and her friends on this occasion, but circumstances really did not permit it. I am persuaded she has too just an opinion of the General's politeness not to be convinced that he would be happy to do anything which his public character would justify in an affair so interesting to the tender feelings of so many ladies. The delicacy of her own ideas will easily comprehend the delicacy of his situation;—she knows the esteem of her friend.
A. Hamilton.
The General and Mrs. Washington present their compliments.
Hamilton was a busy letter writer, and many of the products of his pen remain as examples of the lost art of correspondence. His chirography was artistic, graceful, and quite characteristic of the man, while his pithy and well-turned phrases remind one of the perfect English of Addison. Hawthorne thus commented upon one of his letters in his analysis of a book of autographs:
We turn another leaf, and find a memorial of Hamilton. It is but a letter of introduction, addressed to Governor Jay in favor of Mr. Davies, of Kentucky; but it gives an impression of high breeding and courtesy, as little to be mistaken as if we could see the writer's manner and hear his cultivated accents, while personally making one gentleman known to another. There is likewise a rare vigor of expression and pregnancy of meaning, such as only a man of habitual energy of thought could have conveyed into so commonplace a thing as an introductory letter.
His autograph is a graceful one, with an easy and picturesque flourish beneath the signature, symbolical of a courteous bow at the conclusion of the social ceremony so admirably performed.
Hamilton might well be the leader and idol of the Federalists; for he was pre-eminent in all the high qualities that characterized the great men of that party, and which should make even a Democrat feel proud that his country had produced such a noble old band of aristocrats; and he shared all the distrust of the people, which so inevitably and so righteously brought about dieir ruin.
It is almost superfluous to say that Hamilton's greatest literary work was done in writing the major part of The Federalist, and as years have rolled by the full credit has been accorded him. "It has," says one of his biographers, "long since been acknowledged to be the ablest treatise on our Constitution which has ever been or is ever likely to be written; and no person interested in such topics fails to become familiar with it or admire it." Hamilton's contributions were made at a trying time, when he was giving himself body and soul to the formation for, and adoption of, a Constitution by discontented patriots. Incidentally he went hither and thither to try his cases. These productions were composed under the most uncomfortable circumstances—in the cabin of a small Hudson River sloop; by the light of a dim candle in a country inn; in fact, they were regarded by their author only as essays for suggestive and contemporary use. That there existed with Hamilton and his associates Madison and Jay some degree of uncertainty as to how far they should go is shown by the introduction.