Chapter II
Personal Characteristics
Much misapprehension exists as to the appearance of Hamilton, some of which is due to the idea that because his birthplace was the West Indies, he presented the physical characteristics of those born under a tropical sun.
He is referred to by various authors as a "Creole," or a "swarthy young West Indian," and most of his biographers picture him as being dark in color, and "having black hair and piercing black eyes." One enthusiastic negro preacher, extolling his virtues as champion of that race during the Revolutionary War, when he favored the enlistment of black soldiers, recently went so far as to suggest, at a public meeting in the city of New York, that Hamilton's veins surely contained African blood. In reality he was fair and had reddish-brown hair, and a specimen before me proves this to have been the case. It has a certain glint which was probably more marked at an earlier period; but even now there is no difficulty in finding that it belonged to a person of the semi-blonde type. His eyes were a deep blue—almost violet—and he undoubtedly presented the physical appearance of his Scotch father rather than his French mother:
His eyes were deep set, his nose long, and of the Roman type, and he had a good chin, the jaw being strong; the mouth firm and moderately large. He is variously referred to by his biographers as "The Little Lion," and "The Little Giant/' but although short of stature, he was not notably so, being about five feet seven inches in height.
Sullivan described him as "under middle size, thin in person, but remarkably erect and dignified in his deportment. His hair was turned back from his forehead, powdered and collected in a club behind. His complexion was exceedingly fair, and varying from this only by the almost feminine rosiness of his cheeks. His might be considered, as to figure and color, an uncommonly handsome face. When at rest it had rather a severe, thoughtful expression, but when engaged in conversation it easily assumed an attractive smile. When he entered a room it was apparent, from the respectful attention of the company, that he was a distinguished person."
From the available portraits, which are numerous but are not artistically remarkable, and most of them evidently unreliable, very little impression is to be gained of his figure or how he actually looked, in repose or when animated. Even such a fruitful painter as Trumbull rarely produced the same results in his different pictures; although his portraits are all powerful, yet they have a dramatic quality which is somewhat artificial. One of the most notable gives Hamilton bow-legs, while another in the Governor's Room in the New York City Hall portrays him as a well-shaped and graceful man, of more than medium height. This artist seemed to have had special facility for studying his subject for he was always an intimate and devoted friend and after his death left a large number of personal relics of Hamilton, among them a fowling-piece and other belongings of his early friend, which he had evidently carefully treasured until the end of his life.
At the end of the eighteenth century, itinerant portraits being in vogue, we find all kinds of daubs, and all grades of depicted ugliness in the canvases that have been preserved. Those of Peale are often decidedly unflattering, for he does not seem to have known how to paint the eyes of his subjects, and he has made sad work with Hamilton. There are numerous other portraits, but many of them are said to be those of other persons.
The history of the Hamilton pictures is interesting, but it is often difficult to trace their wanderings. That of Trumbull was painted at the request of Gulian Verplanck and others, who, in the year 1791 requested that it should "typify some act of his public career," but Hamilton deprecated any such advertising in the following words: "I shall cheerfully obey their wish as far as respects the taking of my portrait, but I ask that they will permit it to appear unconnected with any incident of my political life. The simple representation of their fellow-citizen and friend will best accord with my feelings." This is the picture that hangs in the New York Chamber of Commerce, and of which there are several replicas. The best likenesses, however, were evidently those of Sharpless, an English artist who came to Philadelphia about 1796, and made various pictures of prominent people, after the Revolution, many of which are to-day in existence. Most of his portraits were small, but all were very carefully finished, and one of them is the frontispiece of this book. The most notable is the so-called Talleyrand miniature, by reason of the fact that this devoted friend and wily old diplomat was supposed to have purloined the picture while visiting in Philadelphia and taken it to France, later returning a copy in 1805. The picture he took was really a pastel by Sharpless, and upon the 6th of December, 1805, Mrs. Hamilton wrote, asking that it be returned to her, to which she received a reply from Theophile Cazenove, who for many years had been president of the Holland Company and a friend of Talleyrand, with this letter:
Theophile Cazenove to Elizabeth Hamilton
Paris, 10th September, 1805.
My dear and highly esteemed Lady: Your letter of the 6th of December last did not reach me until July, and owing to the absence of M. Talleyrand it was sometime before I received an answer in reply to your request for the picture of the friend we have all lost. Notwithstanding the great value M. Talleyrand sets upon the image of the friend of whom we speak almost daily, your request and the circumstances are of a nature requiring self-sacrifice. The picture being executed in pastel, time and crossing the sea have impaired it, yet the likeness still remains, and on seeing it I fear your tender and afflicted heart will bleed, but tears will assuage these pangs, and my tears will flow with yours. May it bring comfort to the wife of the man whose genius and firmness have probably created the greatest part of the United States, and whose amiable qualities, great good sense, and instruction have been a pleasure to his own friends. Good God—must such a man fall in such a manner! . . . In fear the original picture should not reach you with my present letter, I have ordered a copy of it in oil-painting, which I send by another opportunity, and which I request you will give to my godson in case the original shall reach you; if not to dispose of the copy in the manner you shall wish. . . . M. Talleyrand desires me to tell you of his respect and friendship and the part he has taken in your affliction.
Your obedient servant and friend,
Theophile Cazenove.
The sculptor's chisel has also been busy, but with little result in the way of serious artistic production, if we may except the Ceracci bust, the Ball statue which was destroyed by fire, and the excellent modem work of Ordway Partridge, one of whose striking statues stands in front of a Hamilton Qub in Brooklyn, and the other at the entrance of Hamilton Hall, a building of Columbia University. Ceracci's bust, which is very strong in its classical character, suggests a head of one of the Caesars, and is more familiar than any other, although Houdin about the same time made a bust, when he executed that of Washington, which is also well known. Many other stiff and conventional statues exist, among them that in Central Park. The majority, however, are unworthy of serious consideration because they are commonplace or inartistic. Giuseppe Ceracci came here during the French Revolution, but returned to France and was guillotined after being concerned in a conspiracy against the life of Napoleon. A rather amusing entry in Hamilton's expense-book is the following: $620.oo on March 3rd, 1796. For this sum through delicacy paid upon Ceracci's draft for making my bust on his own importunity, & 'as a favour to me.'"
Ceracci seems to have been a person with rather grandiose ideas, for he wrote to Hamilton from Amsterdam in July, 1797, suggesting that he should be employed by the United States Government to execute "a colossal, monumental group to commemorate National Triumph, and to celebrate the Epoch of Glory, to perpetuate the heroes of the Revolution. ... To give an idea of the grandeur of the subject it is necessary to imagine a group in sculpture sixty feet high, and having a base three hundred feet in circumference. It is to be composed of sixteen statues fifteen feet high, of Colonels, and other characters in marble, an Eagle, and other objects; the whole to be surmounted by a figure of Hero in bronze. The blocks of marble for each statue would measure 16x6 perches." The cost was to be $50,000, an enormous sum in those days, and it was to be paid in ten portions.
There