The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-04-22
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON

ALEXANDER HAMILTON.
The first and second volumes of JOHN G.. HAMIL-
TONS "HIsToRY OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE UNITED
STATES, AS TRACED IN THE WRITINGS OF ALEXANDER
HAMILTON" now before u.s. They embody HAM
ILroN's connection with public affairs to the close of
1888. He had, at this period, quilted his confden-
tial position in the military family of Washington,
and at the age of &c directing his powerful in
teect to an examination of the financial condition
of the country - studies which six years later
found expression in those measures of relief he
successfully advocated and enforced when placed by
Washington at the head of the Treasury Depart
ment.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON has always been recognized
one of the ablest men of the Revolutionary era.
His precocious talents were displayed at the early
age of IT, when he boldly entered the field of con-
troversy in opposition to Doctor MILES COOPER,
President of Kings College, New York, and SEA
BURY, subsequently Bishop of Connecticut These
mastery pamphlets, remarkable alike for grace of
dction, closeness ofargument, and vgor of thought
attracted general attention at the time of their ap
pearance, and were, at first attributed to JOHN JAY
When it became known that the author was Young
West Indian, who had not yet completed his col
legiate education, many ardent friends gathered
around the youthful champion, and encouraged him
to take more prominent part in the political dis
putes with the mother country which were then ra-
pidv ripening to head. Ambitious of making name
for himself, and conscious of his intellectual abili-
ty, HAMILTON embraced the cause of independence
with all the ardor of his tropical origin. He wrote
for the public journals; he studied military tactics;
became at the age of Is captain of artillery, and
two years later, received into the family of
WASHINGTON one of his ''ads," with the rank of
Lieut.. Colonel, and in the capacity of confidential
secretary. Prompt active sagacious, fertile in ex-
pedients, and quick of apprehension; genial COM
panion, yet neglecting no studies that might prove
eitherimmediatey or prospectvely useful it was nat
ural that HAMILTON, really possessing great talents
and early accustomed to the applause ofhis contem-
poraries should be eated by the distinction he had
acquired, and disposed occasionally to undervaue in
his own mind, the merits of the commander-in-chief
whose dispatches he had penned and who had very
possibly acted more than once on the shrewd advice
of his youthful subordinate.
In claiming for his father the honor of being the
author of many of the letters signed by WASHING
TON and written under his instructions Mr. JOHN
C. HAMILTON appears to have been governed by his
predictions rather than by his Judgment. We
have already pointed out in the columns of the Er
change the absurdity of this claim and are not dis
posed to reopen the discussion. This much, how
ever, we may say Mr.. HAMILToN's attempted vim
dicaton is lame and unsatisfactory.
As the military secretary of WASHINGTON, what
ever ALEXANDER HAMILTON wrote was written at the
dictaton of his Chief who furnished the 'spoints"
to be treated, leaving to HAMILTON the duty of
clothing them with appropriate words.
PREVIOUS to HAMILroN's appointment, JOSEPH REED
had occupied the same position, and fulfilled the
same duties. After HAMILToN's retirement other
secretaries succeeded him, who likewise wrote as
WASHINGTON dictated amplifed whatever partook too
much of Spartan brevity, and rounded and polished
inaccurate sentences.
The key note to one phase of HAMnToN's charac-
ter-an exaggerated sense of his personal dignity
may be found In the trifiing cause which induced
him to separate from the military family of WASH
lNGToN. 1t Is clear also, that WASHINGTON did not
altogether regret the separation from his brilliant
but perhaps, occasionally somewhat too presuming
'ald. The partial estrangement which then took
place between them proved of service to both, as
was evident, subsequently, in the increased respect
with which they mutually regarded each other
But II the reputation of so eminent a man as
HAMILTON could suffer from over zeal on the part of
his bographer, those who have been taught to rev.
erence his memory would have great reason for re-
greet Happily, however, his real merits have long
since been properly weighed and appreciated.
The work under notice, so far as it has been pub
lished, is singularly defective in unity 1t is neither
History nor Biography. As History, it is frag-
mentary and unsatisfying; inasmuch as it treats
only of those events in which HAMILTON was an
actor; dilates upon minor incidents and either slurs
over, or leaves wholly unrecorded, many of the
more important occurrences which marked the pro-
gress of the seven years struggle for liberty. As
Biography, is likewise faulty because-so far as
the tableau has been completed-H AMILToN's con-
temporaries have been unduv dwarfed, in the
effort to give additional prominence to the central
figure.
In point of style these volumes merit high COM
and contribution to the history of
the period, may be regarded of more than ordinary
value. To the politician, therefore, and the man
Of letters, they cannot fail to prove acceptable
while some future biographer of HAMILTON, by
making judicious of the mass of material here
collected, and by the simple process of disengaeing
HAMILTON from the multitude of his surroundings
VIII be able to present to posterty a work more
POPULAR and more exact and lielike delineation of
he great Federal leader.