The Conqueror: Being the True and Romantic Story of Alexander HamiltonAtherton, Gertrude Franklin Horn
General
The Conqueror: Being the True and Romantic Story of Alexander Hamilton
Atherton, Gertrude Franklin Horn
Hamilton, Alexander, 1757-1804 -- Fiction
I would not have you imagine, Miss, that I write you so often to
gratify your wishes or please your vanity; but merely to indulge
myself, and to comply with that restless propensity of my mind
which will not be happy unless I am doing something in which you
are concerned. This may seem a very idle disposition in a
philosopher and a soldier, but I can plead illustrious examples in
my justification. Achilles liked to have sacrificed Greece and his
glory to a female captive, and Anthony lost a world for a woman. I
am very sorry times are so changed as to oblige me to go to
antiquity for my apology, but I confess, to the disgrace of the
present time, that I have not been able to find as many who are as
far gone as myself in the laudable Zeal of the fair sex. I suspect,
however, if others knew the charm of my sweetheart as I do, I could
have a great number of competitors. I wish I could give you an idea
of her. You can have no conception of how sweet a girl she is. It
is only in my heart that her image is truly drawn. She has a lovely
form and still more lovely mind. She is all goodness, the gentlest,
the dearest, the tenderest of her sex. Ah, Betsey, how I love her!
His reiterated demand for a foreign loan, and the sending of a special
envoy to obtain it, at last wrung a reluctant consent from Congress.
Lafayette was his politic suggestion, and Congress would have indorsed
it, but that adventurous young hero had not come to America to return
and beg money on his own doorstep. There was a prospect of fighting in
the immediate future, and he was determined to add to his renown. The
choice then lay between Hamilton and Laurens, who had received the
thanks of Congress for his distinguished services in the field, and
whose father had been a president of that body. Lafayette and all the
Frenchmen were anxious that the mission be given to Hamilton. The former
went to Philadelphia and talked to half the Congress. He offered
Hamilton private letters which would introduce him to the best society
of Europe; adding, "I intend giving you the _key_ of the cabinet, as
well as of the societies which influence them."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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