Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/81

Rh bad to worse. Mr. Adams reopened negotiations with France, which disgusted the war-Federalists, and then expelled Timothy Pickering and James McHenry from the cabinet, 12 May, 1800. He also gave loud utterance to his hatred of Hamilton, which speedily reached the latter's ears, and the Federalist party found themselves face to face with an election and torn by bitter quarrels. The Federalists were beaten by their opponents under the leadership of Burr in the New York elections, and Hamilton, smarting from defeat, proposed to Jay to call together the old legislature and refer the choice of electors to the people in districts. The proposition was wrong and desperate, and wholly unworthy of Hamilton, who seems to have been beside himself at the prospect of his party's impending ruin and the consequent triumph of Jefferson. He also made the fatal mistake of openly attacking Adams, and the famous pamphlet that he wrote against the president, after depicting Adams as wholly unfit for his high trust, lamely concluded by advising all the Federalists to vote for him. Such proceedings could have but one result, and the Federalists were beaten. The victors, however, were left in serious difficulties, for Burr

and Jefferson received an equal number of votes, and the election was thrown into the house of representatives. The Federalists, eager for revenge on Jefferson, began to turn to Burr, and now Hamilton, recovered from his fit of anger, threw himself into the breach, and, using all his great influence, was chiefly instrumental in securing the election of Jefferson, thereby fulfilling the popular will and excluding Burr, a great and high-minded service, which was a fit close to his public life.

After the election of Jefferson, Hamilton resumed the practice of his profession, and withdrew more and more into private life. But he could not separate himself entirely from politics, and continued to write upon them, and strove to influence and strengthen his party. As time wore on, and the breach widened between Jefferson and Burr, the latter renewed his intrigues with the Federalists, but through Hamilton's influence was constantly thwarted, and was finally beaten for the governorship of New York. Burr then apparently determined to fix a quarrel upon his life-long enemy, which was no difficult matter, for Hamilton had used the severest language about Burr—not once, but a hundred times—and it was easy enough to bring it home to him. Hamilton had no wish to go out with Burr, but he was a fighting man, and, moreover, he was haunted by the belief that democracy was going to culminate in the horrors of the French revolution, that a strong man would be needed, and that society would turn to him for salvation—a work for which he would be disqualified by the popular prejudice if he declined to fight a duel. He therefore accepted the challenge, met Burr on 11 July, 1804, on the bank of the Hudson at Weehawken, and fell mortally wounded at the first fire. His tragic fate called forth a universal burst of grief, and drove Burr into exile, an outcast and a conspirator. The accompanying illustration represents the tomb that marks his grave in Trinity churchyard, New York. The preceding one, on page 57, is a picture of "The Grange," Hamilton's country residence on the upper part of Manhattan island. The thirteen trees that he planted to symbolize the original states of the Union survive in majestic proportions, and the mansion is still standing on the bluff overlooking the Hudson on one side and Long Island sound on the other, not far from 145th Street.

As time has gone on Hamilton's fame has grown, and he stands to-day as the most brilliant statesman we have produced. His constructive mind and far-reaching intellect are visible in every part of our system of government, which is the best and noblest monument of his genius. His writings abound in ideas which there and then found their first expression, and which he impressed upon our institutions until they have become so universally accepted and so very commonplace that their origin is forgotten. He was a brave and good soldier, and might well have been a great one had the opportunity ever come. He was the first political writer of his time, with an unrivalled power of statement and a clear, forcible style, which carried conviction in every line. At the time of his death he was second to no man at the American bar, and was a master in debate and in oratory. In his family and among his friends he was deeply beloved and almost blindly followed. His errors and faults came from his strong, passionate nature, and his masterful will impatient of resistance or control. Yet these were the very qualities that carried him forward to his triumphs, and enabled him to perform services to the American people which can never be forgotten.

There are several portraits of the statesman by John Trumbull, and one by Wiemar; also a marble bust, modelled from life, by Ceracchi in 1794, of which the accompanying illustration, on page 56, is a copy. A full-length statue of Hamilton stands in the Central Park of New York.

Hamilton was the principal author of the series of essays called the "Federalist," written in advocacy of a powerful and influential national government, which were published in a New York journal under the signature of "Publius" in 1787-'8, before the adoption of the Federal constitution. There were eighty-five papers in all, of which Hamilton wrote fifty-one, James Madison fourteen, John Jay five, and Madison and Hamilton jointly three, while the authorship of the remaining twelve have been claimed by both Hamilton and Madison. As secretary of the treasury, he presented to congress an elaborate report on the public debt in 1789, and one on protective duties on imports in 1791. In the "Gazette of the United States," under the signature "An American," he assailed Jefferson's financial views, while both were members of Washington's cabinet (1792); under that of "Pacificus," defended in print the policy of neutrality between France and England (1793); and in a series of essays, signed "Camillus," sustained the policy of ratifying Jay's treaty (1795). Other signatures used by him in his newspaper controversies were "Cato," "Lucius Crassus," "Phocion," and "Scipio." In answer to the charges of corruption made by Monroe, he published a pamphlet, containing his correspondence with Monroe on the subject and the supposed incriminating letters on which the charges were based (1797). His "Observations on Certain Documents" (Philadelphia, 1797) was republished in New York in 1865. In 1798 he defended in the newspapers the policy of