Hamilton's America Page #10

---

-And he felt bad for her,

so he ended up

giving her some money,

but that turned

into an affair.

Her husband ended up

finding out about the affair

and decided to make

some money out of it.

-Hamilton forks over

the blackmail money

and continues the relationship

for about a year.

-The story leaks but

with fuzzy details,

and Hamilton gets accused

of speculating

in treasury securities

with James Reynolds.

-So he decides

he's gonna write a pamphlet

in which he argues --

and in his mind,

this is the truth --

that, no, no, no, he's a

perfectly correct public figure.

He's never done anything

bad as a public figure.

But as a private figure,

he just committed adultery

and paid blackmail for it.

-It really reads like a cross

between a dissertation

and a "Dear Penthouse" letter.

He's not bragging,

but the language is complicated.

-Eliza was so traumatized

by the publication

of the Reynolds Pamphlet

that she never publicly

commented on what had happened.

-What we have is a letter

from Angelica to Eliza

saying, "You married an Icarus,

and he flew too close

to the sun."

- I'm erasing myself

from the narrative

Let future historians

wonder how Eliza reacted

When you broke her heart

You have torn it all apart

I'm watching it bu-u-u-u-rn

-I love the notion,

which is true,

that Eliza burned a lot

of their correspondence.

She wanted Hamilton to be known

for his political acts.

So I re-cast that burning

of the letters

as an act of anger

and acknowledgement of betrayal.

-She didn't really have options.

She couldn't just leave him.

She had eight children.

On top of that,

there were a lot of hardships.

-The second act

of Hamilton's life

centers around

the loss of his child.

His eldest son, Philip,

is gunned down

in a duel about Hamilton.

The duel began

over a disagreement

because George Eacker

had said unkind things

about Philip's father.

-As ridiculous as it seems

that Philip

would go and duel

for his father,

or that people would duel anyway

back then, you know,

it's the same

as people going out

and fighting somebody

or, you know,

because they said

something about their mother

or they said something

about their family

or their sister

or their brother or their dad.

-Hamilton

was absolutely unhinged

by the death of his son.

And when you see

paintings of Hamilton

from those later years,

he suddenly has aged

tremendously.

There definitely is a somber

note to his final years.

-Can we get back to politics?

-Please.

- Yo, every action has

its equal, opposite reaction

John Adams...the bed

I love the guy,

but he's in traction

Poor Alexander Hamilton,

he is missing in action

So now I'm facing Aaron Burr

- Aaron Burr

- With his own faction

-It could be argued that Burr

was not a very good politician.

In that election of 1800,

when it's Burr

and Thomas Jefferson,

when Burr comes really close

to becoming the President

of the United States,

he's backed in that race

by two different parties.

That is how malleable

his beliefs were.

[ Chuckles ]

-People will say,

"Boy, Burr's a handy guy

to have with you

in an election,

because he doesn't have

really strict principles."

Hamilton writes a letter saying,

"He has no principles!"

Like, "Why is that good?!

This cannot be good!"

It ends up that there's a tie

between Burr and Jefferson,

gets thrown into the House

to be decided.

And so there's Hamilton

facing the future

of one or the other

of these men,

who he really doesn't like,

are gonna be president.

- Oh

- The people are asking

to hear my voice

- Oh

- The country is facing

a difficult choice

- Oh

- And if you were to ask me

who I'd promote

- Oh

- Jefferson has my vote

-Thomas Jefferson

becomes president.

Aaron Burr becomes

the vice president.

When Jefferson ran

for re-election,

Burr goes back

to New York State

and runs for governor,

only to find

that he is again thwarted

in his ambition

by Alexander Hamilton,

and Burr loses

for governor.

You know, at this point,

Burr flies into a rage.

It seems like at

every stage of his career,

the man blocking

his path of advancement

is the same Alexander Hamilton.

-Alexander Hamilton is

the patron saint of our museum.

-Nice!

-And so, yes,

you're in Hamiltonian

country, Leslie,

but we'll do our best to try

and give a little bit

of a balance for you here

as we go forward.

-Okay.

-[ Laughs ]

-All around you are

original Hamilton artifacts

and some others

we've brought up.

But why don't we take a look

at some of the treasures

that we have here?

-Awesome.

-Lin, Leslie,

this is a book published

in 1804 --

"A Collection

of the Facts and Documents

Related to the Death

of Major-General

Alexander Hamilton."

You want to read

some of those?

-Sure.

-"Political opposition

can never absolve gentlemen

from the necessity of

a rigid adherence

to the laws of honor

and the rules of decorum.

I neither claim such privilege

nor indulge it in others."

-Burr, one day, reads

in an Albany newspaper

that Alexander Hamilton,

at a dinner party,

has uttered a despicable

opinion about him.

Burr challenges Hamilton

to a duel.

-Hmm. A reply.

[ Laughter ]

It's several pages.

"Sir, I have maturely reflected

on the subject of your letter

of the 18th last,

and the more I have reflected,

the more I have become convinced

that I could not,

without manifest impropriety,

make the avowal or disavowal

which you seem

to think necessary."

-Hamilton could have ended

the whole affair

just by apologizing

if he had inadvertently

given Burr offense.

-"'Tis evident that the phrase,

'still more despicable,'

emits of infinite shades

from very light to very dark.

How am I to judge

of the degree intended,

or how shall I annex

any precise idea

to language so indefinite?"

-If you and I were getting into

something, I would send you --

You know, I might

piss you off on Twitter

and then you send me a text

and I send you a text back,

and then it's on.

I mean, these guys had to --

They wrote long letters,

you know,

in impeccable penmanship.

There was so much time

for it to cool off,

for it to not get to

where it got to.

-And it goes on and on.

-Can you imagine getting

a letter like this back then?

Like, "Wait, I sent you

a paragraph."

Do you know what I mean?

-"I have the honor to be

A. Ham."

-I think, from a modern outlook,

the practice of dueling makes

absolutely no sense -- right? --

because it means two guys go out

onto a field in early morning

and shoot at each other because

they're angry at each other.

What does that accomplish,

right? Seemingly nothing.

But people didn't duel

to kill each other,

which is a really hard thing

to get your brain around.

They went to a dueling

ground to prove

that they were brave enough

to be there,

and thus were men of merit.

-"Your letter has furnished me

with new reasons

for requiring a definite reply.

Rate this script:4.6 / 5 votes