The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers (54 page)

11. Nagel,
The Adams Women
, 170.

12. Ibid., 168.

13. Ellis,
Passionate Sage
, 198.

14. Ibid., 198.

15. Smith,
John Adams
, 1123.

16. Ibid., 1124–25.

17. Ellis,
Passionate Sage
, 200.

18. Josiah Quincy,
Figures of the Past: From the Leaves of Old Journals
(Boston, 1883), 64–65.

19. McCullough,
John Adams
, 646. In his final moments, Adams said, “Help me! Help me!”, to a granddaughter.

BOOK FOUR
: Alexander Hamilton

BASTARD SON AND WARY LOVER

1. James Thomas Flexner,
The Young Hamilton
(Boston, 1978), 13. Also see Ron Chernow,
Alexander Hamilton
(New York, 2004), 11. Rachel and her mother had well-to-do relatives on St. Croix. That none of them came to her defense indicates the charge of double adultery was true.

2. Forrest McDonald,
Alexander Hamilton
(New York, 1979), 7. Also see Chernow,
Hamilton
, 16–17. He discusses the two dates at some length and also opts for 1755.

3. AH to JH, June 22, 1785,
PAH
, vol. 3, 617. Flexner,
Hamilton
, 26.

4. AH to ES, November 11, 1769,
PAH
, vol. 1,4.

5.
PAH
, vol. 1, 6–7.

6. Ibid., 35–38.

7. AH to CL, April 11, 1777,
PAH
, vol. 1, 226.

8. Robert Hendrickson,
Hamilton
(New York, 1976), vol. 1, 54–55.

9. AH to JL, April 1779,
PAH
, vol. 1, 37–38 (begins on 34).

10. Ibid., 348.

11. AH to ES, October 5, 1788,
PAH
, vol. 2, 455.

12. AH to ES, August 1780,
PAH
, vol. 2, 398.

13. AH to MS, January 21, 1781,
PAH
, vol. 2, 539.

14. AH to PS, February 18, 1781, ibid., 563–67.

THE WOMAN IN THE MIDDLE

1. Hendrickson,
Hamilton
, 531–32.

2. AH to Angelica Church, December 6, 1787,
PAH
, vol. 4, 374–76.

3. Hendickson,
Hamilton
, 530.

4. AH to AC, November 8, 1789,
PAH
, vol. 5, 501–2.

5. EH to AC, November 8, 1789,
PAH
, vol. 5, 502.

6. Hendrickson,
Hamilton
, vol. 2, 20.

7. Ibid.

8. Forest McDonald,
Alexander Hamilton
(New York, 1979), 229.

9. Ibid., 222.

10. JM to TJ, July 10, 1791, James Morton Smith, ed.,
The Republic of Letters, The Correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison
(New York, 1995), vol. 2, 695–96.

11. McDonald,
Hamilton
, 229.

12.
PAH
, vol. 21, 251–52.

13.
PAH
, vol. 21, 269. Reynolds Pamphlet, Appendix II, 1792.

14. Julian P. Boyd, ed.,
Papers of Thomas Jefferson
(hereafter
PTJ
) vol. 18 (Princeton, NJ, 1971), 635.

15. TJ to GW, September 9, 1792,
PTJ
, vol. 24, 353.

16. Bernard C. Steiner,
Life and Correspondence of James McHenry
(New York, 1979), 129.

17. Katherine Schuyler Baxter,
A Godchild of Washington
(New York, 1897), 224.

18. Many people think Hamilton could not have become president because he was born outside the borders of the United States. But this proviso in the Constitution applied to immigrants who arrived in the United States only after the Constitution was written and ratified in 1787–88. Hamilton came to America in 1773, before the Revolution began. Also see Chernow,
Alexander Hamilton
, 508–509, for a discussion of various reasons why Hamilton was never a candidate. The Maria Reynolds scandal was a primary factor.

19. Callender,
History of the United States for 1796
(Philadelphia, 1797), 220–22 (Google Books, online edition).

20.
PAH
, vol. 21, 135ff. Introductory Note and letter from Oliver Wolcott Jr., July 3, 1797. Additional letters to James Monroe, Frederick A. C. Muhlenberg, Abraham B. Venable, James Thomson Callender, et al.

21.
PAH
, vol. 21, 238ff, Reynolds Pamphlet.

22. Broadus Mitchell,
Hamilton, The National Adventure
(New York, 1962), 714. Also see Julian P. Boyd’s eighty-page essay in
PTJ
, vol. 18. Boyd agrees in toto with Callender and in many instances goes beyond him.

23. GW to AH, August 21, 1797,
PAH
, vol. 21, 214–15.

24. Mitchell,
Hamilton
, 417–18.

25. Hendrickson,
Hamilton
, vol. 2, 420.

26. JBC to AH, July 13, 1797,
PAH
, vol. 21, 163.

27.
PAH
, vol. 25, 436. Hosack became the Hamiltons’ family doctor. Later he recalled that Hamilton was the nurse “in every important case of sickness that occurred in his family.”

LOVE’S SECRET TRIUMPH

1. King, ed.,
Life and Correspondence of Rufus King
, vol. 2, 330.

2. AH to EH, June 3, 1798,
PAH
, vol. 21, 482.

3. Hendrickson,
Hamilton
, vol. 2, 661–64.

4. Thomas Fleming,
Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and the Future of America
(New York, 1999), 360–61.

5. Ibid., 355–57.

6. Ibid., 361.

7. James A. Hamilton,
Reminiscences of James A. Hamilton
(New York, 1869), 65.

8. Jesse Benton Fremont,
Souvenirs of My Time
(Boston, 1887), 117.

9. Baxter,
A Godchild of Washington
, 222.

BOOK FIVE
: Thomas Jefferson

ROMANTIC VOYAGER

1. Henry S. Randall,
Life of Thomas Jefferson
(New York, 1958), vol. 1, 40–41.

2. Marie Kimball,
Jefferson, The Road to Glory
(New York, 1943), vol. 1, 67–68.

3. TJ to John Page, October 7, 1763,
PTJ
, vol. 1, 11–12.

4. While writing
Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and the Future of America
(New York, 1999), the author consulted Robert B. Daroff, professor of neurology at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, an internationally recognized expert on migraine and other headache disorders; Aaron Burr also suffered from migraines (
Duel
, 421, n. 17.)

5. TJ to John Page, January 19, 1764,
PTJ
, vol. 1, 13.

6. TJ to John Page, April 9, 1764,
PTJ
, vol. 1, 17.

7. Dumas Malone,
Jefferson The Virginian
(Boston, 1948), vol. 1, 84–85.

8. Ibid., 154–55.

9. TJ to John Page, February 21, 1770,
PTJ
, vol. 1, 36.

10. TJ to James Ogilvie, February 20, 1771,
PTJ
, vol. 1, 63.

11. TJ to Robert Skipwith, August 3, 1771,
PTJ
, vol. 1, 78.

12. Kimball,
Jefferson, The Road to Glory
, 174–75.

13. TJ to Thomas Adams, February 20, 1771,
PTJ
, vol. 1, 61.

14. Sarah N. Randolph,
The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson
(Charlottesville, VA, 1947), 24–25 (Reprint). Fawn M. Brodie, in her book
Thomas Jefferson, An Intimate History
(New York, 1974), contends John Skelton was still alive when Jefferson married Martha. Her evidence is unconvincing. The bridegroom’s attempt to describe his bride as a spinster makes it even more unlikely. Kimball, Jefferson, 176, note 28, confirms this interesting change.

15. Some scholars have had doubts about the bottle of wine. It originated with Henry Randall, Jefferson’s mid–nineteenth-century biographer, who talked with surviving members of the Jefferson family as part of his research.

THE TRAUMAS OF HAPPINESS

1. Negro slave wet nurses were common in the South at this time. Many wealthy families used them. Julia Cherry Spruill,
Women’s Life and Work in the Southern Colonies
(New York, 1972), 56–57.

2. Frederick D. Nichols and James A. Bear Jr.,
Monticello
(Charlottesville, VA, 1967), 13–14.

3. Malone,
Jefferson The Virginian
, 121–22.

4. Randolph,
Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson
, 26–28.

5. This statement is conjectural from several points of view. Elizabeth Hemings’s mother was black. The Virginia law in the Howell case was aimed at white women who had children by black men. But in later years, Jefferson wrote a letter arguing that people like the Hemingses, born of mixed marriages for two generations, should be free. Another conjecture finds doubts that Wayles was the children’s father. The author feels that Jefferson’s special concern for the Hemingses, over several decades, makes this claim dubious.

6. Kimball,
Jefferson, The Road to Glory
, 118–19.

7. JA to Timothy Pickering, August 6, 1822, John Francis Adams, ed.,
John Adams, Life and Works
, vol. 100, 239. This old man’s memory requires several grains of salt.

8. TJ to John Randolph, August 25, 1775,
PTJ
, 241.

9. Boyd, ed.,
Papers of Thomas Jefferson
, vol. 8, 312, n.

10. TJ to RHL, July 29, 1776,
PTJ
, vol. 1, 477.

11. TJ to JH, October 11, 1776,
PTJ
, vol. 1, 524; RHL to TJ, November 3, 1776,
PTJ
. vol. 1, 589.

12. TJ to Timothy Matlack, April 18, 1781,
PTJ
, vol. 5, 490.

13. TJ to GW, October 28, 1781,
PTJ
, vol. 6, 185.

14. TJ to ER, September 16, 1781,
PTJ
, vol. 6, 117–18, and ER to TJ, October 9, 1781,
PTJ
, vol. 6, 128–29.

15. Some years ago, the author discussed Martha’s health with the late Alvan R. Feinstein, MD, Sterling Professor of Medicine at Yale Medical School. Dr. Feinstein, while properly cautious about such a long-range diagnosis, thought diabetes was a likely source of her childbirth woes. He noted that according to a
family tradition, her babies grew larger with each birth—a common symptom of this disease.

16. TJ to JM, May 20, 1782,
PTJ
, vol. 6, 185.

17.
PTJ
, vol. 6, 196.

18. Rev. Hamilton W. Pierson, ed.,
Jefferson at Monticello: The Private Life of Thomas Jefferson
(New York, 1862), 106–7 (Michigan Historical Reprint Series).

19. Randolph,
Domestic Life
, 40–41.

20. TJ to EE, October 31, 1782,
PTJ
, vol. 6, 198–99.

HEAD VERSUS HEART

1. JM to Edmund Randolph, November 12, 1782, William T. Hutchinson and William M. E. Rachal, eds.,
Papers of James Madison
(hereafter
PJM
), vol. 5 (Chicago, 1967), 272–73.

2. Malone,
Jefferson The Virginian
, 407–23.

3. Howard C. Rice Jr.,
Thomas Jefferson’s Paris
(Princeton, NJ, 1976), 42–43, 103.

4. Kimball,
Jefferson, The Scene of Europe
, vol. 3 (New York, 1950), 9.

5. Ibid.

6. Malone,
Jefferson and the Rights of Man
, vol. 2 of
Jefferson and His Time
(Boston, 1951), 11–12.

7. TJ to Carlo Bellini, professor of modern languages at the College of William and Mary, September 30, 1785,
PTJ
, vol. 8, 568–69.

8. Douglas Adair,
Fame and the Founding Fathers
(New York, 1974), 190.

9. Rice,
Thomas Jefferson’s Paris
, 67.

10. Jon Kukla,
Mr. Jefferson’s Women
(New York, 2007), 156.

11. TJ to Elizabeth Trist, December 15, 1786,
PTJ
, vol. 10, 600.

12. Malone,
Jefferson and the Rights of Man
, 71.

13. Ibid., notes 14 and 15. TJ described the accident as “one of those follies from which good cannot come but ill may.”

14. John P. Kaminski, ed.,
Jefferson In Love, the Love Letters between Jefferson and Maria Cosway
(Lanham, MD, 2001), 44–64.

15. Ibid., 65.

16. Kukla,
Jefferson’s Women
, 104–5. This is the most convincing summary of Maria Cosway’s second visit to Paris, during which she largely ignored Jefferson and vice versa.

17. Kimball,
Jefferson, The Scene of Europe
, 303–4.

18. Levin,
Abigail Adams
, 298–99.

19. Kimball,
Jefferson, The Scene of Europe
, 305.

20. Annette Gordon-Reed,
The Hemingses of Monticello, the Story of an American Family
(New York, 2008), 173.

21. Malone,
Jefferson and the Rights of Man
, 246.

22. William H. Gaines Jr.,
Thomas Mann Randolph, Jefferson’s Son In Law
(Louisiana State University Press, 1966), 15–24.

23. MJR to TJ, April 25, 1790,
PTJ
, vol. 26, 225.

THE WAGES OF FAME

1. Malone,
Jefferson and the Rights of Man
, 436ff. The chapter, “Hamilton Vs Jefferson” (462–77) is perhaps the best summary of the dispute.

2. Noble Cunningham Jr.,
In Pursuit of Reason, The Life of Thomas Jefferson
(Louisiana State University Press, 1987), 207–8.

3. Michael Durey,
With the Hammer of Truth: James Thomson Callender and America’s Early National Heroes
(Charlottesville, VA, 1990), 157–8. Also see
Richmond Recorder
, September 29, 1802, for reference to Madison.

4.
Richmond Recorder
, November 17, 1802. There are several more verses.