Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1871-10-28
ALEXANDER HAMILTON's WIFE.
by JAMES PARTON.

llmeS complain Of their lot, because
the happiness of that lot appears TO
be so little dependent upon them
selves. Some Of their arutest suffer
lngs come from the misconduct or er-
rors of othcrs-a parent, a husband,
II son, Il brother-Over whom they
may, indeed, exert much influence,
but whom, in the crisis of their fate,
they can seldom control.
Mrs. Hamilton was a 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, in
her case, as in that of most Of the sons
and daughters Of earth, "good-hap
and sorrown were so blended that we
can hardly tell whether to regard her
as an object of envy or pity.
She was reared in one of tho hap
! plest of American homes. The
daughter of General Philip Schuyler,
and of his wife, Kitty Van Rcnssa-
lar, 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
l l75s she must havo been little girl
Of eight years of age when her father
moved into the Schuyler mansion
then Just finished. Except the Van
Rcnssaler's and Liyingstones, there
was no family in that part Of the
state who maintained a more elegant
establishment than that of which she
was 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
agG 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 "a "livcly, agrcca- |
BILE, blacll-eyed 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
a country-house. At Saratoga, Mr.
Carroll (afterward Archbishop Car
roll, Of Baltimore) again records the
agreeable impression made upon his
pricstly mind by the daughters of the
General
1.-THE ease andafIability with which |
we were treated, and the lively be-
havior of the young ladies', made
Saratoga n most pleasing Sciour, the
remembrance of which will long re-
main with me-"
Such was Betsy Schuylcras a young !
lady-one of the lights and orna-
ments Of an opulcnt home-onc of
the daughters Of man high in the
confidence Of his countlymen. AS
the war went on during which their
Albany abode was the resort Of Oili-
GERS, passing hithcr and thithcr,
there visited them now and then, the ,
young alert, and handsome aid-de- |
camp of General Washington. Col.
Alexander Hamilton. She met him
first in IT'S, when he had been dis
patched young ns he was Just twen-
ty-onc, on secret mission 70 Gen.
Gates, to induce that somewhat in
subordinate officer to spare some of
troops which the surrender of Bur
goyne had released from duty in the
north. Hamilton was singularly at-
tached TO women, as he was 10y WO-
men strongly attracted. We know
nothing of the course of the true love
which sprung up between the daugh-
ter of the wealthy country gentleman,
and the adVenturcr from the West
Indies, with nothing but his pay.
He was al Albany again after the eX-
plosion Of Arnolds treason and the
execution of AndrcC, his affecting
narrative of which touched so many
hearts in 1850
A few weeks after those thrilling
scenes aud while he was still aid-dc-
camp Of Washington, he was married
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
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-
ton at the bar, has become one of
the foremost statesmen of the time,
the leading spirit of Washington's
administrations; from which he with
drew but to resume an ever-brighten-
ing career at the New York bar.
What a pleasing picture of the Ham
llton family is that which one of the
sons has recently given us i'll his Re
"Hamilt0n's gentle nature" writes
his son (James Az, rendered his
house most Joyous one to his chill
dren and friends. He accompanied
his daughter Angelica at the piano,
when she played and sang. His in
tcrcourse with his children was al
ways aticctionatean and coniiding which
excited in them corresponding con
tidcnce and devotion. ! distinctly
rccollcct the scene at breakfast in the
front room of the house in Broadway
(NO. "a. My dear mother, seated as
was her wont, at the head of the ia
bic with n napkin in her lap cutting
slices of bread, and spreading them
with butter, for the younger boys,
who, standing at her side, read in
turn q chapter in the Bible, or a por-
tion of Goldsmith's Rome. When
the lessons were finished, the father
and the elder children We're called to
breakfast, after which the boys were
packed off to school,"
When we think of this picture of
the happy mother and wife, and with
her eight children about her, minis
tpring in that homely way to their
wants, II ls hard to forgive Hamilton
for his inhdelity to her. While she
was absent from the city, woman
called at the office of the Secretary to |
the Treasury, and asked Hamilton
for charity, He says, ip his we'll
known explanation Of these events,
that having no money, he told her he
would call upon her in tho evenings
when lac discovered, as he remarks,
/ that she was willing TO accept "othor
than pecuHiary consultations This
WAS the beginning of an amorous in
triguc which, when he was compelled
| l. o.,a,,, a IVo,,uhi On nnlph shame