The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1871-10-26
ALEXANDER nAMlLTON'S WIFE.
BY JAMES PARTON.

! can not wonder that women some
t times complain Of their lot, becaus
the happiness Of that lot appears t.
be so little dependent upon them
selves. Some Of their acutest suffer
ings come from the misconduct or er
rors of othcrs-a parent, a husband
Il son, q brother-0vcr whom they
may, indeed, exert much influence
but whom, in the crisis of their fate
they can seldom control.
| Mrs. Hamilton was II lady of stain
less life, who was conspicuously un
happy, solely through others fault
the victim Of wrongs which were
contemplated before she knew they
were contemplated. Nevertheless, il
her ease, as in that of most of the sons
and daug ghters of earth, "good-hal
and sorrow" were SO blended that We
can hardly tell whether to regard hcl
as an object of envy or pity.
She was reared in one of the hap
piest of American homes. The
daughter of General Philip Schuyler,
and of his wife, Kitty Van Renssa-
lpr, she passed most Of the days OF
her youth at the famous Schuyler
mansion, still standing in Albany, at
the head of the street that bears her
fathers name. AS she was born in
J 1853, she must have been little girl
of eight years of age when her father
moved into the Schuyler mansion,
then just finished Except the Van
RcnssalTr's and Livingstones, there
was no family in that part of the
State who maintained more elegant
establishment than that of which she
was II member. Her parents Were
blessed with fourteen children, of
whom Betsy, as she was called, was
the second daughter.
When DR.. Franklin, at the begin
ming of the revolutionary war, with
his brother commissioners, Chase and
Carroll, made his celebrated pilgrim
age to Canada to try and induce the
Canadians to join the thirteen colon
les, he was welcomed at the landing
in Albany by General Schuyler, who
took them home to dinner, presented
them to the two daughters he had at
home, Betsy and Peggy, whom one
of them described as 'Iively, agreea-
bic, black-cycd girls" Betsy was
nineteen then. The twoyoung ladies
and their father appeared to have
journcycd with the commissioners as
far as Saratoga, where Schuyler had
n country-housc. At Saratoga, Mr..
Carroll (aftcrward Archbishop Car
roll, of Baltimorc) again records the
agreeable impression made upon his
pricstly mind by the daughters of the
General
"Thc case andallabiliy with which
we were treated, and the lively be-
havior of the young ladies, made
Saratoga NEST pleasing scjour, the
remembrance of which will long re-
main with me-"
Such was Betsy Schuyler asayoung
lady-onc Of the lights and Orna-
mcnts of an opulcnt homc-onc Of
the daughters of II man high in the
confidence Of his cOuntrymcn. AS
the war went on during which their
Albany abode was the resort of Off
GERS, passing hithcr and thithcr,
there visited them now and then, the
young alert, and handsome id-do
camp of General Washington, Col.
Hamilton. She met him
first iu i17S, when he had been dis |
patched, young as he was just twcn-
ty-onc, on Il secret mission to Gen.
Gates, to induce that somewhat in |
officer to spare some Of
troops which the surrender Of Bur-
goync had released from duty in the
north. Hamilton was sngularIy at
tachcd to women, as he was by wo-
men strongly attracted. We know !
of the course of the true love
which sprung ny between the daugh-
ter Of the wealthy country gentleman,
and the advcnturer from the West
Indies, with nothing but his pay.
He was at Albany again after the cx-
plo-ion of Arnold's treason ard the |
execution of Andrcc, his affecting
Of which touched SO many |
hearts in l7S0
a few weeks after those thrilling
scenes, and while he was still aid-dc- !
camp of Washington, he was n!ayried
at Albany to Miss Schuyler, with the
Consent, as it seems, of the family.
This brilliant connection, so unequal
in the worlds eye, Was made equal
by Hamilton's shining talents and
distinguished person.
Years passed. The war was ended
The young husband fresh from the
fame acquired at Yorktown, has
studied law, has established himself
at New York, has acquired distinc-
tion ut the bnr, iias become one of
the foremost statesmen Gf the time, !
the leading spirit of Washington'a
administrations; from which he with
drew but to resume an cvcr-brightcn-
ing career at the New York bar. |
What Il pleasing picture of the Ham
jlton family is that which one of the
sons !iaS recently given us in his Re
"Hamilton'| gentle nn;Urc." writes
his son Games Az, "rcndercd i,i-
house Il most joyous one to his chill
drGn end friends. He accompanied
ilis dqugilHr Angelica at the piano,
when she played and seng. His in
tcrcOursc with his children ~qs nl-
ways ailrctionatcand comliding which
excited in them corresponding con
lidcncc and devotion. | distinctly
rcm,l!ert the scene at breakfast In the
front room Of The house in Broadway
CNo. ~. My dear mother. seated as
Wa. her won't at the head of the ta-
BILE with a napkin in her lap cutting
slices of bread, aud spreading them
With butter, for the younger boys,
who, standing at her side, read IN
turn a chapter in thr Bible, or q por-
zion of GOldsmith'S IipDn: When
the lessons were finished, the father
and the elder children were called tot
breakfast, after whioi, the boys were
packed Otto school"
When we think of this picture Of
the happy mother and wife, and with
her eight children about her, minis
,,i,,,, In thnt hnpn1y ,,,,, 4, thnir