Home > Work > My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton
41 " Farewell Address, calling out over the crowd: “‘Properly estimate the immense value of your National Union to your happiness and to your political safety and prosperity, watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing any who suggest it can be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon every attempt to alienate any portion of the country from the rest. "
― Stephanie Dray , My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton
42 " My husband is not capable of corruption.” Monroe stared as if he couldn’t quite believe a woman would challenge him this way. “I presume you didn’t know he was capable of adultery, either. I wish the public might behold in Hamilton that immaculate purity to which he pretends. But, my lady, we both know he pretends. And even if I were tempted by your friendship to say otherwise, I have other friends to whom I am obligated.” “Other friends? Mr. Jefferson, I presume.” He didn’t answer, and he didn’t have to. For partisan politics had become so strident and divisive that even someone as honorable as James Monroe refused to do what was right because it would cost him politically. He didn’t want to offend Jefferson. He couldn’t afford to offend Jefferson. "
43 " Because I realized that it was love that allowed my father to set aside the injuries done to his reputation, security, and pride. For love of his family, and his country, he swallowed down indignity as if immune to its poison. "
44 " We think that love gives us more than a glimpse into one another’s souls. But the idea that human beings are knowable is one of the many lies we tell in the service of love. That’s what I learned reading my sister’s letters. "
45 " I had little idea what fate had befallen Alexander, Congress, indeed the country itself. And it was then that I realized just how fragile this thing called independence really was. "
46 " Martha Washington called Jefferson’s election “the greatest misfortune our nation has ever experienced. "
47 " I could neither leave my husband nor love him without offending somebody. As the wronged wife, there was nothing whatsoever I could now do that might be counted appropriate, except, perhaps, to lay down and die of shame. "
48 " So it was decided, then. It was a decision that would determine my future, and the happiness of my family, but I wasn’t consulted as a partner would be. I was told. And it made me feel childish and naive and small, "
49 " As if the notion that all men were *created* equal somehow meant that one need not aspire to knowledge and ability -- all distinctions of class, breeding, or merit discarded, all notions of civility deserted. "
50 " Debt and credit are an entire thing. "
51 " This is, after all, a man who was president of a nation he never wished to come into being. Monroe had opposed the Constitution. And he helped Jefferson oppose damned near everything else. The debt, the bank, the Jay Treaty, and a standing army that would’ve prevented the nation’s capital from being burned to the ground. In short, James Monroe set himself against nearly every good "
52 " All my husband’s plans, all his schemes, were working—the promises of stability and prosperity finally being realized by our countrymen. And yet, the antifederalists saw in him some manner of corrupt, power-hungry upstart intent upon crushing the rights of our states and enriching the North at the South’s expense. They used pseudonyms, but we knew the identity of at least one of the writers because perhaps no one else in the world had better cause to know Madison’s writing than we did. And "
53 " An entire generation was growing up in a world without sure principles by which to live in peace. And I couldn’t help but wonder, would my own son, after what he’d seen in the streets, come of age believing that there was no way to solve any problem but with a club or a pistol? "
54 " measure bound to bring about the more perfect union of which he was now considered a founder. That he was a true hero in the Revolutionary War, I will never deny. That he finally came round to seeing good sense in some matters, I will grant. I can even give grudging admiration for his political genius in wrapping himself in the flag in an attempt to prevent the nation’s disunion. But James Monroe is not now and never was the better man. None of them were. Not Jefferson. Not Adams. Not Burr. Not Madison. Not Monroe. "
55 " This was, I thought, what it meant to be noble. Not a title conveyed by a king. Not by birth or blood. But through a learned and practiced strength of faith and character. "
56 " My fears seemed justified when, a few weeks later, ten thousand people were in the streets of Philadelphia threatening to drag Washington from his house and force us to join France’s war against England. Outside our door men shouted, “Down with Washington! "
57 " No man should be judged only for his best act or his worst. By only his greatness or his flaws. It seems to me, that the only way to judge a person is by the sum of their deeds, good and bad. And in the balance, your father did far more good than harm. That's all any of us can aim to do with our lives. "
58 " And, as you will find is so often the case in life, my dear Betsy, the only prudent thing to do was frown, make them humble, and forgive.” I realized that he was frowning now. That I was humbled. And that I was also forgiven. "
59 " Alarmed at the violence—he set out to use the mightiest power he had at his disposal. His pen. And though I didn’t know it then, my husband was the best writer of the founding generation. "
60 " I think you’ve already accomplished everything you set out to do.” It was not flattery. He’d fought and won a war and built a federal government. He’d created a coast guard, a national bank, and invented a scheme of taxation that held the states together. He’d founded a political party, smashed a rebellion, and put in motion a financial system that was providing prosperity for nearly everyone. In short, Alexander Hamilton was a greater man than the country deserved, and "