“Will you relish being a poor man’s wife? Unable to provide for your life?” (Hamilton to Eliza, “That Would Be Enough”) – Hamilton writing to John Laurens in April 1779. But as you have done it and as we are generally indulgent to those we love, I shall not scruple to pardon the fraud you have committed, on condition that for my sake, if not for your own, you will always continue to merit the partiality, which you have so artfully instilled into ⟨me⟩. You sh⟨ould⟩ not have taken advantage of my sensibility to ste⟨al⟩ into my affections without my consent. You know the opinion I entertain of mankind, and how much it is my desire to preserve myself free from particular attachments, and to keep my happiness independent on the caprice of others. I shall only tell you that ’till you bade us Adieu, I hardly knew the value you had taught my heart to set upon you. “Laurens, I like you a lot.” (Hamilton, “My Shot”)Ĭold in my professions, warm in ⟨my⟩ friendships, I wish, my Dear Laurens, it m⟨ight⟩ be in my power, by action rather than words, ⟨to⟩ convince you that I love you.

More Hamilton Broadway Lines and Their Historical Sourcesīelow is a continuation of my previous post about Hamilton Broadway lines in the context of the primary sources that inspired them. By dividing her empire it will be weakened and she will be much less dangerous when she has a rival equal in charms to dispute the prize with her. It is essential to the safety of the state and to the tranquillity of the army that one of two things take place either that she be immediately removed from our neighbourhood, or that some other nymph qualified to maintain an equal sway come into it. He told Peggy that Eliza’s influence was so strong, that to preserve the safety of the state and the army she needed to be removed from the neighborhood: I should never have done, were I to attempt to give you a catalogue of the whole, of all the hearts she has vanquished, of all the heads she has turned, of all the philosophers she has unmade, or of all the inconstants she has fixed to the great prejudice of the general service of the female world. Hamilton joked that Eliza was breaking hearts and turning heads all over Morristown. In short she is so strange a creature that she possesses all the beauties virtues and graces of her sex without any of those amiable defects, which from their general prevalence are esteemed by connoisseurs necessary shades in the character of a fine woman. She has good nature affability and vivacity unembellished with that charming frivolousiness which is justly deemed one of the principal accomplishments of a belle. Her good sense is destitute of that happy mixture of vanity and ostentation which would make it conspicuous to the whole tribe of fools and foplings as well as to men of understanding so that as the matter now stands it is ⟨very⟩ little known beyond the circle of these. His backhanded compliments wouldn’t be out of place in a modern day dating website. Hamilton’s description is framed in the difference between Eliza and all other women in society, who Hamilton characterized as being frivolous and foolish. She is most unmercifully handsome and so perverse that she has none of those pretty affectations which are the prerogatives of beauty. I have some things of a very serious and heinous nature to lay to her charge. Hamilton playfully described having “serious and henious” charges to make against Eliza because of her beauty and charm:

You will no doubt admit it as a full proof of my frankness and good opinion of you, that I with so little ceremony introduce myself to your acquaintance and at the first step make you my confident. I venture to tell you in confidence, that by some odd contrivance or other, your sister has found out the secret of interesting me in every thing that concerns her and though I have not the happiness of a personal acquaintance with you, I have had the good fortune to see several very pretty pictures of your person and mind which have inspired me with a more than common partiality for both. At this time, he hadn’t met Peggy, but he had heard about her from Eliza. In February 1780, Hamilton wrote a letter to Eliza’s younger sister, Margarita (nicknamed Peggy) to introduce himself.

Teamwork Made the Dream Work: Washington and Hamilton.

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Hamilton to Receive Honorary Degree from Albany Law.

Eliza hamilton