the city of New York, on Wednesday morning, about seven o'clock, July 11, 1804, in which the former received his antagonist's bullet in a vital part, and from which he died at two o'clock Thursday afternoon. No event of the kind-so far as can be discovered by the author-in America, or elsewhere, ever produced such a general and profound sensation. The intelligence of the fall of the illustrious Hamilton, while it was received with marked feeling in Europe, even, fell like a crushing doom upon the American people. New York City was paralyzed, and the inhabitants of the whole country were plunged into the deepest mourning. Great multitudes of people thronged to New York to witness the melancholy ceremonies, and to take part in the funeral procession which was very large and very impressive. This took place on Saturday, July 14. The funeral address was delivered by Gouverneur Morris, from a platform in front of Trinity Church, Broadway, in the presence of many thousands of griefstricken people, among whom were four of the sons of the deceased, the eldest of whom was sixteen and the youngest between six and seven.

The

weapons used by Hamilton and Burr are at present in the possession of a citizen of Rochester (New York). For more than fifty years they were in possession of the descendants of Hamilton, who gave them to the mother of the present possessor, also a descendant of Hamilton. In appearance they are very formidable. They are "horse-pistols" of English manufacture, and are exactly alike, so far as an ordinary observer can discover. The one from which Burr fired the fatal missile is marked by a cross filed under the lower part of the barrel. They do not in any respect resemble any modern arm. In handling them one is strongly impressed with the idea that they were evidently intended for use in duels where the participants "shot to kill" and not to obtain newspaper notoriety without the disagreeable shedding of blood. Although they evidently could not be manipulated so rapidly as the modern double-acting, selfcocking pistol, they are capable of fatal execution, as they carry a bullet of 56 calibre. They are sixteen inches long. -TRUMAN, BEN C., 1883, The Field of Honor, pp. 334, 354.

from Long Island.

To the student, however, the military services of Alexander Hamilton shine out like new stars, giving an added lustre to his fame. He sees him in the fog and darkness covering that masterful retreat from Long Island. He hears him ask permission of his chief to retake Fort Washington with but a handful of men. Again he appears at Monmouth, correcting Lee's blunders and winning victory from defeat. Finally at Yorktown, with the dash of Ney, the magnetism of Napoleon, and the coolness of his own great Washington, he captures a redoubt with the loss of scarcely a man, and makes the surrender of Cornwallis a necessity. Such is the brief history of the "little lion" of Nevis on the field of battle. And this was accomplished while in stature and in age he was yet a boy.-HOTCHKISS, WILLIAM H., 1886, Alexander Hamilton, ed. Dodge, p. 142.

No name from the rolls of our struggle for independence and our binding together as a nation awakens more intense interest or opens wider fields for consideration than that of Hamilton. From the first appearance of the youthful student, to the tragic hour on the heights of Weehawken, the story has the attraction of romance, and in it can be found the kindling of influences potent not only for then but for all time. In the very beginning of his plan to found an institution of learning, Samuel Kirkland sought the counsel of Hamilton and received his approval. Hamilton was one of the first trustees, and in recognition of his encouragement the institution received his name. It is fitting that this College should call special attention to Alexander Hamilton. Soon after the establishment of prizes for English essays, the Faculty announced as a subject for the Senior class, "Alexander Hamilton as a Constitutional Statesman. The prize on this subject was awarded in a vigorous competition to Franklin H. Head of the Class of 1856, who evinced in College the marked ability he has shown so fully since. In 1863, the Senior prizes for essays having been withdrawn, Mr. Head established the prize called by his name, designating that the subject for this Prize Oration year by year should have reference to the character and career of Alexander Hamilton. . It is believed that these efforts grouped about the life of Hamilton will be of interest to many and will at least show how

mourning for a month, the bar for six weeks. In due time the leading men of

The funeral took place from the house of John Church, in Robinson Street, near the upper Park. Express messengers had dashed out from New York the moment Hamilton breathed his last, and every city tolled its bells as it received the news. People flocked into the streets, weeping and indignant to the point of fury. Washington's death had been followed by sadness and grief, but was unaccompanied by anger, and a loud desire for vengeance. Moreover, Hamilton was still a young man. Few knew of his feeble health; and that dauntless resourceful figure dwelt in the high light of the public imagination, ever ready to deliver the young country in its many times of peril. His death was lamented as a national calamity. On the day of the funeral, New York was black. Every place of business was closed. The world was in the windows, on the housetops, on the pavements of the streets through which the cortège was to pass: Robinson, Beekman, Peal, and Broadway to Trinity Church. Those who were to walk in the funeral procession waited, the Sixth Regiment, with the colours and music of the several corps, paraded, in Robinson Street, until the standard of the Cincinnati, shrouded in crêpe, was waved before the open door of Mr. Church's house. The regiment immediately halted and rested on its reversed arms, until the bier had been carried from the house to the centre of the street, when the procession immediately formed. . . . When the procession after its long march reached Trinity Church the military formed in two columns, extending from the gate to the corners of Wall Street, and the bier was deposited before the entrance. Morris, surrounded by Hamilton's boys, stood over it, and delivered the most impassioned address which had ever leapt from that brilliant but erratic mind. It was brief, both because he hardly was able to control himself, and because he feared to incite the people to violence, but it was profoundly moving. The bells tolled until sundown. The city and the people wore

.

which should mark to future generations the cold and narrow home of him who had been so warm in life, loving as few men had loved, exulted in the wide greatness of the empire he had created.-ATHERTON, GERTRUDE FRANKLIN, 1902, The Conqueror, Being the True and Romantic Story of Alexander Hamilton, pp. 532, 533, 534.

STATESMAN

At the time when our government was organized we were without funds, though not without resources. To call them into action and establish order in the finances, Washington sought for splendid talents, for extensive information, and, above all, he sought for sterling, incorruptible integrity. All these he found in Hamilton.

MORRIS, GOUVERNEUR, 1804, Funeral Oration by the dead body of Hamilton.

I would hope and may not disbelieve, that Mr. Hamilton's attachment to the Union was of that stubborn, inflexible character which under no circumstances would have found him arrayed in arms against it. But in the events of Mr. Hamilton's life a com

parison of his conduct with his opinions, in more than one instance, exhibits him in that class of human characters whose sense of rectitude itself is swayed by the impulses of the heart, and the purity of whose virtue is tempered by the baser metal of the ruling passion. This conflict between the influence of the sensitive and the reasoning faculty was perhaps never more strikingly exemplified than in the catastrophe which terminated his life, and in the picture of his soul unveiled by this posthumous paper.-ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY, 1800-15, Federalism.

This naturally brought Hamilton into his [Talleyrand] thoughts, and of him he spoke willingly, freely, and with great admiration. In the course of his remarks, he said that he had known, during his life, many of the more marked men of his time, but that he had never, on the whole, known one equal to Hamilton. I was much surprised, as well as gratified, by the remark; but still feeling that, as an American, I was, in some sort, a party concerned by patriotism in the compliment, I answered, -with a little reserve, perhaps with a little modesty,-that the great military

commanders and the grest statesmen of Europe had dealt with much larger masses of men, and much wider interests than Hamilton ever had. "Mais, monsieur," the Prince instantly replied, "Hamilton avait deviné l'Europe."-TICKNOR, GEORGE, 1818, Journal.

That he possessed intellectual powers of the first order, and the moral qualifications of integrity and honour in a captivating degree, has been decreed to him by a suffrage now universal. If his theory of If his theory of government deviated from the republican standard, he had the candour to avow it, and the greater merit of co-operating faithfully in maturing and supporting a system which was not his choice.-MADISON, JAMES, 1831, Letters, vol. IV, p. 176.

He smote the rock of the national resources, and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of the Public Credit, and it sprung upon its feet. The fabled birth of Minerva from the brain of Jove was hardly more sudden or more perfect than the financial system of the United States as it burst forth from the conception of Alexander Hamilton.WEBSTER, DANIEL, 1831, Speech at a Public Dinner in New York, Feb.

Hamilton must be classed among the men who have best known the vital principles and fundamental conditions of a government, not of a government such as this (France), but of a government worthy of its mission and of its name. There are not in the constitution of the United States an element of order, of force, or of duration, which he has not powerfully contributed to introduce into it and caused to predominate.-GUIZOT, FRANÇOIS PIERRE GUILLAUME, 1840, An Essay on the Character of Washington and His Influence in the Revolution of the United States of America.

Among all the remarkable men of the Revolution, we know of no one, who, for the attributes which usually mark genius, was more distinguished. He was endowed with a singularly comprehensive mind, which enabled him to originate forms of government and systems of administration, whilst he united with it an intrepidity and an energy equal to the task of putting them in execution. He was a politician and a statesman, without possessing those finer and more delicate feelings of lofty

morality, which, while they do honor to a public man, sometimes go far to impair his means of usefulness. To Hamilton, men appeared always as instruments to be moved, and not as accountable beings, and theories of government or modes of policy were regarded simply with reference to the ends which might be attained by applying them. The consequence was, that however bold the features of his system were, and however decidedly beneficial in its application to the interests of the country, there was always a slight taint of earthly morality about it, which deprived him of the share in the public confidence, which he may now be regarded as having deserved. Peculiarly fitted for the difficult duty of calling a government into being, he was capable, at the same time, of understanding the bearings, of the most comprehensive principles and of entering into its minutest practical detail. Yet there is this remarkable peculiarity about the history of Mr. Hamilton, that, whilst he acted a most important and honourable part in a critical period of our national affairs, there was not, probably, an instant of his life in which he enjoyed the perfect sympathy of the mass of the people of the United States.-ADAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS, 1841, The Madison Papers, North American Review, vol. 53, p. 70.

Where, among all the speculative philosophers in political science whom the world has seen, shall we find a man of greater acuteness of intellect, or more capable of devising a scheme of government which should appear theoretically, perfect? Yet Hamilton's unquestionable genius for political disquisition and construction was directed and restrained by a noble generosity, and an unerring perception of the practicable and the expedient, which enabled him to serve mankind without attempting to force them to his own plans, and without compelling them into his own views.-CURTIS, GEORGE TICKNOR, 1854, History of the Origin, Formation and Adoption of the Constitution of the United States, vol. 1, p. 387.

In the career of Hamilton we trace the progress of the Constitution, from its first germ in the mind of the young soldier, through all the difficulties of its establishment, and the trials of its early years, until its administration passes from the control of its authors, to fall into the hands

of the champions of an absolute democracy. But, apart from all political speculations, the story of Hamilton himself, his character, his services, and his fate, are well worthy of record and ought to be better known than they have hitherto been-especially in that England which he understood with the instinct of genius, and loved with the enthusiasm of a high and generous nature. Such knowledge can only tend to the honour of his name, and to the growth of kindly feelings between his country and our own.RIETHMÜLLER, CHRISTOPHER JAMES, 1864, Alexander Hamilton and His Contemporaries, Dedication, p. IV.

It is idle to speculate on what "might have been;" but we may be permitted to conjecture that, had Hamilton lived, many of the evils which it has taxed the vitality of the States to survive, and others of equal magnitude, against which they still are struggling, would have been averted or mitigated. But when he fell, in a half-personal, half-political quarrel, in his thirty-fifth year [?] (1804), by the bullet of the infamous demagogue Aaron Burr, a blow was dealt to Western civilisation, only less vital and lasting than to that of Scotland by the assassination of the greatest of the Stuart kings; for Hamilton had no worthy successor, and the victory lay henceforth with the unscrupulous man of genius who, without serious let or hindrance, assumed the control of the national destinies. NICHOL, JOHN, 1880-85, American Literature, p. 74.

Like Napoleon, Pitt, and so many others of his great contemporaries, Hamilton, instead of working his way slowly up, established his hold upon the government and direction of affairs from the day that he was admitted to a share in them, and leaped at a bound into a position which in quieter times men attain only after long years of patient struggle. His influence seems to have been due in great measure to the remarkable sincerity of his mind. His nature was profoundly truthful.SEDGWICK, A. G., 1882, Alexander Hamilton, The Nation, vol. 34, p. 445.

There is one man in the political history of the United States whom Daniel Webster regarded as his intellectual superior. And this man was Alexander Hamilton; not so great a lawyer or orator as Webster, not so broad and experienced a statesman, but

a more original genius, who gave shape to existing political institutions. He was one of those fixed stars which will forever blaze in the firmament of American lights, like Franklin, Washington, and Jefferson; and the more his works are critically examined, the brighter does his genius appear. No matter how great this country is destined to be,-no matter what illustrious statesmen are destined to arise, and work in a larger sphere with the eyes of the world upon them,-Alexander Hamilton will be remembered and will be famous for laying one of the corner-stones in the foundation of the American structure.-LORD, JOHN, 1885, Beacon Lights of History, vol. IV, p. 367.

Alexander Hamilton was, next to Franklin, the most consummate statesman among the band of eminent men who had been active in the Revolution, and who afterward labored to convert a loose confederation of States into a national government. His mind was as plastic as it was vigorous and profound. It was the appropriate intellectual expression of a poised nature whose power was rarely obtrusive, because it was half concealed by the harmonius adjustment of its various faculties. It was a mind deep enough to grasp principles, and broad enough to regard relations, and fertile enough to devise measures. Indeed, the most practical of our early statesmen was also the most inventive. He was as ready with new expedients to meet unexpected emergencies as he was wise in subordinating all expedients to clearly defined principles. In intellect he was probably the most creative of our early statesmen, as in sentiment Jefferson was the most widely influential.

-WHIPPLE, EDWIN PERCY, 1886, American Literature and Other Papers, ed. Whittier, p. 14.

One cannot note the disappearance of this brilliant figure, to Europeans the most interesting in the early history of the Republic, without the remark that his countrymen seem to have never, either in his lifetime or afterwards, duly recognized his splendid gifts.-BRYCE, JAMES, 1888, The American Commonwealth, vol. 1, p. 641.

Hamilton's work went to the making of the American State, but personally he may be said to have failed; for when death overtook him he had no political future, and could have had none, unless he could

have readjusted himself entirely to the conditions of American public life.SUMNER, WILLIAM GRAHAM, 1890, Alexander Hamilton (Makers of America), Preface, p. iv.

There are two points which should be clearly understood; the first, that Hamilton's character as a private individual was currupt, and as a politician full of plots, and bitterness, and not always free from treachery; the second, and his views of government and democratic institutions were such that, had they secured predominance, would have been fatal to the Republic. At the present moment the tendencies most likely to work mischief are Hamiltonian. POWELL, E. P., 1891, Popular Leaders Past and Present, The Arena, vol. 3, p. 579.

No emergency found him at a loss, and his creative intellect brought victory out of disaster. The symmetry of his nature and the genuine modesty of his character veiled the extent and power of his resources; he sought not his own prosperity, but that of the measures in which he believed, and was careless though others got the credit of his success. Practical in his objects and clear in their expounding, he conquered opposition, partly by lucid and temperate reasoning, and partly by a magnetic force of intellectual passion. -HAWTHORNE, JULIAN, AND LEMMON, LEONARD, 1891, American Literature, p.31.

His promptness rivalled occasion, and serried obstinacy yielded to his intrepid assaults. It was not his own success he sought, but the triumph of a mighty cause. Had he preferred power, which is transient, to influence, which endures; had he been a partisan rather than a patriot, a selfseeker rather than the trustee of a future beyond even his hope or ken; had he been duplex, where he was open, lucid and sincere; then he had not impressed his individuality upon a whole America as the truest translator of her predestinate nationality. He was neither sophist nor paralogist. He dwelt above manipulation, and compromise, and expedient, and formula, and all mere passports. He sought the underlying principles and the ultimate reality. His soul went into his plea. With warmth and grace, but with a peculiar logical simplicity a clearness that became clarity and with the unshaken courage of one

compelled by conviction, he summoned his facts and marshaled his reasons. His was the strategy of unambushed truth and the elastic energy of a direct will.

With pen as with voice he was a chief of assemblies. He was a sharp sword and two-edged. He was the exponent and champion of frank and fearless argument. Malignity might vituperate, but he did not pause. Malice might misrepresent him, but he never sulked. Cunning was not in him, nor little envy, nor treachery. He met each new issue as it arose, and his enemies themselves being judges he was never put to the worst in free and open encounter. Life, fortune, honor were to that sacredly rendered, ungrudgingly, unweariedly, unregrettingly, and, thank God, with absolute success. had no secrets from his country!-STRYKER, M. WOOLSEY, 1895, Address at the Hamilton Club, Brooklyn, N. Y., Jan. 11, pp. 9, 10, 11.

He

Certainly one of the greatest figures in our history is the figure of Alexander Hamilton. American historians, though compelled always to admire him, often in spite of themselves, have been inclined, like the mass of men in his own day, to look at him askance. They hint, when they do not plainly say, that he was not "American. He rejected, if he did not despise, democratic principles; advocated a government as strong, almost, as a monarchy; and defended the government which was actually set up, like the skilled advocate he was, only because it was the strongest that could be had under the circumstances. He believed in authority, and he had no faith in the aggregate wisdom of masses of men. He had, it is true, that deep and passionate love of liberty, and that steadfast purpose in the maintenance of it, that mark the best Englishmen everywhere; but his ideas of government stuck fast in the old-world politics, and his statesmanship was of Europe rather than of America. And yet the genius and the steadfast spirit of this man were absolutely indispensable to us. No one less masterful, no one less resolute than he to drill the minority, if necessary, to have their way against the majority, could have done the great work of organization by which he established the national credit, and with the national credit the national government itself. WILSON,