It will be seen that many of these conclusions were not based upon facts but impressions, and the actual conversation between Hamilton and Washington certainly favors the assumption that Hamilton's part was the chief one, even if documentary evidence of another kind is lacking. After his father's death, James A. Hamilton diligently sought confirmation from those who had known him, and were conversant with the circumstances.
George Cabot, of Boston, wrote to the latter: "When that address was published, it was understood among your father's friends that it was written by him. It was, however, considered important that it should have the influence of Washington's name and character, and I must advise that until it has ceased to do Its work, the question of the authorship should not be discussed."
William Coleman, the editor of the New York Evening Post, in a letter to the same person written October 21, 1824, says:
"Colonel Troup told me that on entering your father's office one morning he found him earnestly engaged in preparing a composition which he told me was the Farewell Address; that it was nearly finished; that he actually read the MSS. or heard it read, and that it was the original of what afterward appeared in print under the name of 'Washington's Farewell Address.'"
Some extracts from letters that passed between Washington and Hamilton, and collected by James A. Hamilton, may be reproduced. These, after Hamilton's death, remained in possession of Rufus King, and came into my uncle's hands only after the threat of a lawsuit. Why they should have been withheld can only be accounted for by the supposition that it had been determined by a coterie of friends to give Washington the full credit for the address. They certainly show that there was collaboration at least, and probably that much of the original material, and many of the suggestions, originated with Hamilton.
Hamilton to Washington July 30, 1796
I have the pleasure to send you a certain draft which I have made as perfect as my time and engagement would permit. It has been my object to render this act importantly and lastingly useful, and avoiding all cause of present exception to embrace such reflections and sentiments as will wear well, progress In approbation with time, and redound to future reputation. How far I have succeeded you will judge. If you should intend to take the draft now sent, and after perusing, and noting anything you wish changed, send it to me, I will with pleasure shape it as you desire. This may also put it in my power to improve the expression, and perhaps in some instances condense.
Washington to Hamilton, August 10, 1796
The principal design of this letter, is to inform you that your favor of the 30th ult, with its enclosure, came safely to hand by the last post, and that the latter shall have the most attentive consideration I am able to give it. A cursory reading it has had, and the sentiments therein contained are exceedingly just and such as ought to be inculcated.
Washington to Hamilton, August 26, 1796
I have given the paper herein enclosed, several serious and attentive readings, and prefer it greatly to the other drafts, [his own included] being more copious on material points, more dignified on the whole, and with less egotism; of course less exposed to criticism, and better calculated to meet the eye of discerning readers, and foreigners particularly, whose curiosity I have no doubt will lead them to inspect it attentively, and to pronounce their opinions on the performance.
Washington to Hamilton, September 1, 1796
About the middle of last week I wrote to you, and that it might escape the eye of the inquisitive, (for some of my letters have lately been pried into), I took the liberty of putting it under cover to Mr. Jay. Since then revolving over the paper that was enclosed therein on the various matters it contained, and on the just expression of the advice or recommendation which was given in it, I have regretted that another subject, (which in my estimation is of interesting concern to the well being of the country) was not touched upon also. I mean Education generally as one of the surest means of enlightening and giving just ways of thinking to our citizens; but particularly the establishment of a University.
Hamilton's Reply
The idea of the University is one of those which I think will be most properly reserved for your speech at the opening of the session.
Washington to Hamiltony, September 6, 1796
If you think the idea of a University had better be reserved for a speech at the opening of the session, I am content to defer the communication of it until that period, but even in that case I could pray you as soon as convenient to make a draft for the occasion.
Washington to Hamilton
The draft now sent comprehends the most if not all these matters, is better expressed, and I am persuaded goes as far as it ought with respect to any personal mention of myself.
I should have seen no occasion myself for its undergoing a revision, but as your letter of the 30th ult., which accompanied it, intimates a wish to do this, and knowing that it can be more correctly done after a writing has been out of sight for some time than while it is in the hands of its author, I send it in conformity thereto. ... If change or alteration takes place in the draft let them be so clearly interlined, erased, or referred to in the margin, that no mistake may be made in copying it for the press.
To what editor in this city do you think it had best be sent for publication? Will it be proper to accompany it with a note to him expressing ... or if you think the first not eligible let me ask you to sketch such a note as you may judge applicable to the occasion.
It is to be regretted that Hamilton made a great mistake when he wrote his letter censuring John Adams. Not only was the act a foolish one, but it can hardly be realized how a man possessing, ordinarily, such good judgment could make what was almost a hysterical attack upon another public character, no matter how great the provocation. The pamphlet appeared in 1800, and created great excitement among his brother Federalists who, upon its appearance, quickly advised him to suppress it. This he tried to do, but Burr, securing a copy, immediately flooded the market with others bearing upon the title-page "Re-printed Pro-Bono-Public." It was an abusive attack upon Adams, which was tactless in the extreme, and gave his enemies an opportunity to unmercifully gore him. The inconsistency of abusing Adams, and then, in a half-hearted way, advising the Federalists to vote for him, was a glaring political error, and can only be explained by a state of mind largely induced by his own private sorrows, and the growing desperation which was the outgrowth, not only of the dissensions in his own party, but a gain in the strength of the anti-Federalists, whose arrows were, anew, dipped in venom. The most irritating of his critics were Callendar and Cheetham. In an "answer" from the latter it is suggested to Hamilton that his dislike of Adams arose from the fact that he had not been appointed Commander-in-Chief. "Have you dreamt," said Callendar, "that you possessed the martial qualities of a Frederick and a Marlborough, a Turenne and a martial Saxe? Let the hour of vigilance inform you, that your imagination must have been intoxicated by the most delirious vanity." This was especially unjust and untruthful, as Washington's only insistence in reorganizing the army was that Hamilton should be senior of the three major-generals, though Adams objected. Hamilton never aspired to be Commander-in-Chief) and there is nothing on record to even support this claim. Even after Hamilton's death the attacks upon him did not cease, and within three months after the fateful eleventh of July some doggerel verse called the "Hamiltoniad" was published, which viciously ridiculed him as well as his friends.
The tendency to versification so general in the eighteenth century was shared by Hamilton, a few of whose fragmentary productions remain. One of these possesses a certain interest from the fact that he was but fifteen years old when the verses were written. It appears that he sat up with the young child of his friend and adviser, Elias Boudinot, during its fatal illness, and after its death prepared the following for the sorrowing mother. Only as an example of a precocious effusion are they presented.
For the sweet babe, my doating heart
Did all a Mother's fondness feel;