Salutations, Tumblr! I decided to remake my intro post because I used to have one but I didn't like it so I deleted it but now all my mutuals are making them and I'm bored so here's the On-Partiality intro post!
Names I'm fine with being called: On-Partiality, O-P, Mills, Milly.
Pronouns: any!
Country of origin: Australia
A minor.
Historical interests: Washington's military family, the American revolutionary war in general, any part of the founding of America and early American politics, all things 18th century America, the French and Indian war, 18th century fashion.
Other interests: Hatsune Miku, Sanrio, art, writing, history, anthropology, languages, character design, animation, magical girls, the His Dark Materials books, Gorillaz, Green day, Sleep Token, pretty much any 90s grunge, punk or rock band, the X files, singing and all animals.
Extreme dislikes: any modern day politics, pop music, romance novels (with only 2 exceptions), bright lights, basic people, people who use gen Z slang in real life unironically, tiktok, maths, most trends, staying inside all day, crowded places, tight clothing.
Languages I know: English, Indonesian, Malaysian, Nevisian Creole, Korean (very good but not fluent)
Languages I'm learning: Zulu, Swahili, Italian, German, French, Irish, Taino, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Greek, Dutch, probably more that I just can't remember while typing this 😅
Idfk understand how people say Laurens and Hamilton were “platonic” like there is so much proof they were more than friends!!!
First of all the way Hamilton ended his letters to Laurens WAS NOT PLATONIC;
April, 1779- Yours.
May 22d.1779-Affectionately Yrs.
September 11, 1779- Yrs most sincerely
January 8 1780- Adieu God preserve and prosper you
March 30, 1780-Yr. Affectionate
June 30, 1780- Adieu God bless you.
September 12, 1780-Adieu
September 16, 1780-Adieu, be happy, and let friendship between us be more than a name
February 4, 1781- Adieu
August 15, 1782- Yrs for ever
Yes some of these are regular ways to end a letter but he also referred to Laurens as “my dear Laurens” now I may be being delulu but that’s GAY, cause he didn’t refer to his other friends like that 😐😐😐
And can we talk about his letter he wrote April 1779
HE LITERALLY YAPS ABOUT HOW MUCH HE LOVES LAURENS LIKE 😭😭😭 they were so cute help.
And the way Laurens last letter to Ham he said how he was sad about Hamilton stepping down from public service proves he cares about him even though they’d barely talked that year, than HAMILTON RESPONDS WITH THAT HE WAS HAPPY TO GET LAURENS LETTER. Than Hamiltons like you should do politics with me AND THAN ENDS THE LETTER WITH “Yrs for ever” an than there’s a chance Laurens never got this letter 💔💔💔 that’s the worst part
BUT THIS IS MY PROOF THEY HAD SOMETHING I LITERALLY HAVE LIKE 4 PARAGRAPHS IM MY NOTES ON MY PHONE YAPPING ABOUT THIS😭❤️❤️❤️
This is gonna sound so 'ermmmm actually 🤓☝️' if you want to don't even read it but im a yapper when it comes to history unfortunately, it's a curse. 😔
while i do agree that historically Laurens and Hamilton very likely had a romantic relationship, calling people 'my dear __' was incredibly common back then, like it was used as a popular greeting for friends and relatives (e.g 'My dearest sister! How lovely to see you') and while you claim Hamilton didn't use this term for other people giving it another level of meaning, he used 'my dear' platonically in multiple letters addressed to all sorts of people. There's this one from him to Baron Von Steuben https://founders.archives.gov, this one to Layafette, https://founders.archives.gov and this one to Richard Kidder Meade, https://founders.archives.gov/. Adieu and Yrs were also really plain letter endings but yes a few of his letter endings were more romantic than average.
I must agree the April 1779 letter is pretty openly romantic and I've seen some great analyses of the meanings of all the different phrases and it is one of my favourite historical letters :]
I don't think any of these points make much sense? I might be reading them weirdly but these were all normal conversational topics. There are other parts of those letters that are far more significant or open and you could use THOSE as proof of their relationship but I'm not sure normal friendly chatting works as proof of anything??
I'm really sorry if this sounds super mean and passive aggressive please don't take it to heart! You've clearly got the passion for it so please don't stop making history posts or give up on what you believe!!! If this hurts you, I'll understand and I'll take the post down, so sorry!!! This really isn't meant to discourage someone, you're obviously new and hey people learn 💗
Yippee! It's been a while since I made one of these kinds of posts! I'm like a day off, but it's fine.
246 years ago today, the battle of Monmouth, the last battle of the Philadelphia campaign, which started in 1777, was fought on the 28th of June 1778. sometimes called the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse because, well, it was near Monmouth Courthouse. In the battle, the continentals were commanded by Washington and Charles Lee, and the redcoats were commanded by Sr. Henry Clinton.
In the Philadelphia campaign prior to this battle, the continentals had suffered multiple major losses to the British, such as the battle of Germantown, Brandywine, and the battle or massacre of Paoli. All of these losses led to the British taking over and occupying Philadelphia. The continentals in Washington's camp had stayed at Valley Forge over the winter to train rigorously and recover mentally and physically from the previous battles.
Due to the Treaty of Alliance between France and America, established in 1778, for the French to offer support to America via their military and trade, Sr. Henry Clinton was given the orders to evacuate Philadelphia and begin coming up with new defence strategies because, with the treaty, the war made a massive turn in favour of the continentals. The redcoats marched out of Philadelphia, across New Jersey, and went off by boat to New York. The Continentals followed close behind, and it would've been stupid to let the Redcoats just leave. Washington ordered nearly a third of the army following him to go ahead and accept the command of Major General Charles Lee. The plan was to do a whole lot of damage to the British without causing anything major for the continentals.
Immediately when the battle began, Lee messed up an attack on the rear group of retreating soldiers, and in response, the main group of soldiers started fighting back, forcing Lee and his fraction of an army to retreat and wait for Washington and the rest of the continentals. After Washington arrived, Clinton's army disengaged and assumed their march. In the march, Clinton split his army into two groups: the first was comprised of mainly combat troops, and the second group handled transporting items. Throughout the march, Clinton's army was harassed by the Continentals, who got closer and closer to the Redcoats with each passing day. The day before the battle, Washington spoke with the more senior officers at the front of the continental army, but he didn't give a battle plan. Lee, believing he knew exactly when and how to attack, made his own meeting after Washington left. Lee's plan was to attack as soon as he heard the British were on the move, as he believed that was when they'd be most vulnerable.
On the 28th of June, the British left the Monmouth courthouse, and Lee, hearing of their movement, ordered Brigadier General Anthony Wayne with some 550 men to attack the rear of the British army in place while he led the rest of the front group to the left with the intention of outflanking the British, but he never told his subordinates, Brigadier Generals Charles Scott and William Maxwell, of his plan and once again failed. Clinton heard of the attack on the rear of his army and sent the combat group, the first group, back to fight back. When the combat group arrived, the Americans were very quickly outnumbered. Brigadier Generals Charles Scott and William Maxwell's men began to leave because they had no idea what was going on, and Lee's men followed with them. Lee felt like he no longer had control over the army, ordering a general retreat.
At one point, Washington's group caught up, and although they were confused, they had a 2-hour-long battle with the British troops. The battle ended when continental soldiers got high ground on the British, and Clinton ordered his army to withdraw. As Clinton's army was leaving Washington, he ordered two small attacks on the army, and the battle ended at sunset. Lee clearly had some kind of problem with communication because he didn't tell Washington anything about this retreat or battle. The main group of continentals was about 3 km behind Lee's bunch, and while they had fought very well against the British, none of them knew how that fight started. Washington was soon approached by a soldier who told him of Lee's retreat, and then he saw whole units in retreat. None of the officers knew what they were meant to do, and Washington felt alarmed to see them all. In the afternoon, Washington found Lee talking to the last of his men. Lee, in his arrogance, expected praise from Washington; instead, Washington famously voiced his immense disapproval and fury in front of the other soldiers.
Keep in mind that this all happened in New Jersey in June. Many people and their horses were collapsing due to extreme heatstroke.
(Note: I keep checking different sites, and they all say Monmouth happened in completely different ways. This is a combination of the details that seemed to stay consistent on the trustworthy sites, but I'm not 100% sure that this is it; fact-checking this in the morning.)
I love your posts! How do you study and what do you read to know so much?
Yay! I get to recommend my favourite sources!
So for primary sources (first-hand accounts, letters written by people who were involved or connected to a certain event or person) I recommend:
https://founders.archives.gov/ - has lots of transcripts of letters written by or to the founding fathers.
https://www.loc.gov/ - has a wide range of revolutionary war related material like manuscripts, transcripts, maps, books and more made or written by the soldiers of the time.
https://www.masshist.org/ - has online exhibitions featuring maps, accounts of events, letters, artifacts and drawings relating to 18th century Massachusetts, the colony most important when studying the early years of the revolutionary war. I really like their Bunker hill exhibit and their one on the early days of the revolutionary war
https://clements.umich.edu/exhibit/spy-letters-of-the-american-revolution/ - an online exhibition on the Culper Spy Ring and military intelligence from both sides of the war featuring letters that directly affected the war's battles and the outcomes of said battles. It's also got mini biographies, a timeline and lots of anecdotes.
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/amerrev.asp - Just a lot of documents in chronological order starting from a year before the Stamp Act was passed by parliament to the surrender at Yorktown. Just try to ignore the misspelling of the word 'Britain'.
https://www.archives.gov/exhibits - admittedly not a site I'm very well acquainted with however I used it as a source in my really long post about standard Continental army soldier uniforms and it was very pleasant.
https://guides.bpl.org/primarysources/revolutionarywar - I love this one, they have so many resources and if you click on the link and scroll down it'll give you a nice list of places to find information on the five most popular founding fathers and just underneath that you can find lists of information on important political events.
All 6 American Archive volumes by Peter Force - I dream of one day having these books, they're the holy grail for anyone wanting to learn about the revolutionary war. They're filled with correspondence, state papers and debates from the war and I want them BADLY
I will make a separate post for tumblr users that I use as sources sometimes because there's too many of you people and frankly I want to get all of you in without having this post be absurdly long
scars in fiction: I got this trying to save my lover from an assassin- but tragically, I was too late. now I carry the mark of my failure with me always, and I can never forget~
scars in real life: so I was trying to open macaroni sauce with a paring knife
(Im supposed to be asleep lol) When I saw you updated your blog today I just squealed! I love your blog so so much! I hope everything is going ok - especially with high school. I hope to see some more new posts soon - especially your art! (Absolutely no pressure to post if you’re just taking a break or don’t feel like it)
Omg thanks so much anon, i didnt even think anyone would notice
Yeah high school's been a real pain, the aussie school system kinda sucks or maybe just my school isn't doing so great so I'm bombarded with like 4 major assignments to do every single week and given very little time to do them so I've been forced to spend much of my free time like weekends and after school time studying and working and the very little time i get where I don't have any work to do, I'm so burnt out that I just go to sleep and despite how hard I work I get really subpar grades and everyone in the grade hates me? I'm not even sure what I did but there's multiple rumours being spread about me and I don't have the energy to deal with any of them. I have one good friend though so cheers to them. I'll try to post more regularly because I'm starting to get kinda used to being exhausted and maybe I'll even upload my school doodles (theres a lot)
I watch some youtuber who analize songs, he did this with all Hamilton and after his video I went to listen to it and as a 13 years old I look it up on Wattpad first, it was amazing the first fanfic I read was abt the actual people and not te musical 🧎
I watched six the musical animatics and started getting recommended Hamilton ones on youtube and i thought they were rlly cool so a year later when i was staying home from school, sick w covid I watched it and i was obsessed w it and early in the next year we had an assignment where we had to write an essay abt a historical figure of our choosing and obviously being the autistic kid i was, I chose Hamilton
heyyyy how’s high school going??? - a kid who’s been at high school for 2 1/2 years
Good but very stressful, i have so many classes and each class gives you about 2 sheets of work each so you end up having 18 sheets of work to do per day and each class is very short so you can't actually complete any of the tasks you're meant to complete in that class and then you have to do it as homework (which really sucks because after-school and weekends are the only times I can relax and explore my interests).
I made 1 really cool friend though! They're not an amrev fan but they like all the same bands that I do, they like sanrio and they really want to learn about amrev history so they listen to all of my rambles over messages!
Some random year 9s have been giving me death threats and trying to find people to bash me over me not wanting to shake their group's little ringmaster's hand (they were sucking their fingers and with my horrible immune system, I am not risking getting a disease being polite to a year 9 girl that I'll probably never see again) but her and her little group took this personally and they keep bringing their boyfriends out and saying 'this is the one you need to bash' real cute and mature to be 14 going on 15 and threatening to beat up a 12 year old.
My teachers are all really nice and cool except for my English teacher who is this American lady from Maryland and she told me that she LOVES Thomas Jefferson and really looks up to him and when I asked her if she knew about Sally Hemmings she said yes so uh...bit of a red flag.
So yeah! Thx for asking mate and to summarise; my teachers are good but my English one is odd, school's really stressful but I have a best friend already and somehow I'm involved in school drama with 15 year olds who want me dead?
Hi, I’ve been curious about Hercules Mulligan’s inclusion in the Rev Set ever since I have seen posts saying that one of the other aids like Meade and Tilgman or Tallmadge (if Herc was added solely for spy stuff) would have been a better choice. Id love to hear your thoughts on this.
Also, (terribly sorry if this insults any Mullette shippers) but do you know why people ship Mullette? (Correct me if I’m wrong) but these two have had zero historical relations. In addition, I don’t remember from the last time I saw musical but if you do, what was Laf and Herc’s relationship onstage?
So sorry about this super long ask. I just felt like you would be the best person to ask. Tysm and I hope you have a wonderful day!😊
Aw, this is such a cool question! And you're really nice, anon! I wish you the best! I would also like to make it very clear right now to anyone else who wants to send me a long ask. I love long asks. They give me more to ramble about!
When I was first getting into studying the real history behind the musical two years ago, this same thing confused me heaps. Mainly because we have no proof that Lafayette or Laurens ever even met Mulligan, let alone became good friends with him and he wasn't particularly close to Hamilton either for most of the war (I mean, in the continental army, he would've barely seen Hamilton, and the other aides would have been around him all day). Hamilton lived with him when he was in college, and they got along really well, had fun late-night conversations, just overall were great friends who influenced eachother in positive ways and Mulligan's chats with him definitely made young Hamilton more enthusiastic about the revolutionary cause. Additionally, Hercules Mulligan was part of his artillery company, The Hearts Of Oak or the Corsicans - Mulligan's the whole reason why we know the story of 18 year old Hamilton stealing British cannons with his volunteers is because of the recount of that night that Mulligan later wrote - however, for the rest of the war they just didn't interact with one another much.
They had their separate jobs, and they did them well. Hamilton was confined to his own quaters and the aide-de-camp tent, Mulligan was hanging around British camps and the battlefield doing exactly what Hamilton wanted to do. The relationship between the two was completely different from how Hamilton, Laurens, and Lafayette were through most of the war. Working together, seeing each other just about every other day, creating the same drafts and plans; Especially Laurens and Hamilton as Lafayette got some more 'exciting' jobs because of his rank as a Major General. But out of the bunch, Mulligan really sticks out like a sore thumb, historically the group was called the gay trio and for a good 3 quaters of the war it was just them all together. So why on earth would Lin Manuel Miranda add a fourth to the trio? It very well could be that like you said, he wanted everyone in the main group to have a different role that was integral to how the Continental army ran (Lafayette commanding, Hamilton writing, Laurens battling (?) and Mulligan spying) but I ended up reaching the conclusion that because the musical starts in 1776 while Hamilton was still in college - in the musical at least, presumably, but because of the way events are swapped around with eachother and happen at all the wrong times it's a bit difficult to tell what time things happened in the musical like I believe that when it starts Hamilton's meant to be in college and not yet a soldier however Hamilton left college to make his militia thing in 1775 and he stole the cannons in 1775 however the musical shows this happening after Aaron Burr, Sir and at the start if that song they make it very clear that it's meant to be 1776 which also means that Hamilton and Mulligan should've already known each other, I digress, I could ramble about how the way the musical timeline is makes no sense for years - , they wanted to show someone who was really important to him at that age, and they just kept him with the group for the rest of the show to avoid confusion as to why he disappeared or so that they wouldn't have to introduce another character (like why they used Jefferson instead of Monroe for the Reynolds pamphlet).
I don't know about using Tallmadge as a substitute though, given that I haven't read of any interactions between him and Hamilton or him and Laurens historically, I haven't read of any between him and Lafayette either, but it seems more likely that they would've spoken given Lafayette's position as a major general. It's entirely possible that the trio had heard of him but never actually met him given that I believe that I read somewhere that the whole trio knew of the Culper Spy Ring and a lot of what they would've heard to do with the Culper Spy Ring would have related to Benjamin Tallmadge in some way or other because he was the co-founder of the group. Meade and Tilghman would be good to swap Mulligan for, but then it doesn't make sense that he was talking to them in college (although Laurens and Lafayette didn't meet Hamilton when he was 19 either and like I mentioned earlier, Mulligan should have already known him so with the logic of the Hamilton musical they could be in the main group, yes). If my theory is correct then it would make sense why none of the more historically accurate quadrios were chosen, if they wanted someone who was close to Hamilton in his college years who still fought in the revolutionary war; then Mulligan would've been a great fit.
I'm going to guess that Mullette is one of those ships where people went, 'Hmm, I have ships for every other character but these too, and they seem close enough (in the musical that is), so I'll pair them together!'. Y'know, one of those pair-the-spares kind of things that people who are really into shipping do. Additionally. I believe you're correct; it has to have been an 100% musical fandom ship originally because if there was even just a little bit of historical evidence to back it up, then we'd know for a fact that Lafayette and Mulligan knew each other. Oh, and as someone who has seen the musical rather recently (late may last year) in the show, Lafayette and Mulligan didn't interact much, but they did come across as good friends and for some very creative people, those crumbs of interactions are enough to develop whole stories and relationships and I applaud those people, the way they create so much out of so little is amazing. Personally, I don't like any ships that don't have even a semblance of historical backing because I'm definitely an amrev fan before I'm a Hamilton musical fan (I still love the musical, I just value the real history more). People can like what they like though; I won't judge.
I'll always think Mullette's funny because here in Australia recently it's become a trend again for young boys and men to get mullets and I can't read the name without thinking of some crazy looking mullets that I've seen. Thanks for the ask, Anon! It was super fun to answer :D
Sincerely,
O-P/Milly
(I apologise if I come across as rude, I've struggled with tones my whole life)
I don't know if you've been asked this already, but how would you rank the Founding Fathers (from the ones you like the most to the ones you really don't)?
Sorry for taking forever I got sick and then I had school camp but here's how I'd rank them:
1, Alexander Hamilton: I've studied him the most out of the main founding fathers so I've grown rather attached to him. I still acknowlege his flaws like the fact that the trading charter he worked for when he was younger also sold slaves, the fact that he was sexist just like the typical 18th century man and that he did cheat on his wife. But even with all of those, he's my favourite of the bunch.
2. James Madison: when creating this tier list type thing I realised that I really don't know much about Madison that's why he's higher in the list (because I've studied him so little compared to the others, I don't know as much about his flaws and problematic actions as I do the rest of the bunch) I've read a lot about him doing silly things and supposedly being a good husband but the fact that he got along so well with Jefferson throws me off because I really don't like Jefferson. So yeah, I'd say I'm pretty neutral with Madison.
3. John Adams: I haven't studied him as much as the other founders (still more than Madison though) so I find it difficult to have too strong an opinion on him. I like his stance on slavery and the fact that he never owned any, however, I don't like his thoughts on women and men without property (and just generally the requirements he wanted to make on who should and shouldn't be allowed to vote) and I don't believe he was a very good father from what I've read about how he treated his oldest son, I also don't like his personality.
4. Benjamin Franklin: I know that no one is going to agree with me on this one but something about him just grosses me out, probably because I'm semi-sex-repulsed and hearing about the way he was with so many women makes me want to gag. Additionally, the comment he made about old women being the same in the dark grossed me out heaps. I get that he technically wasn't that bad and he freed his slaves and invented so many things but his personal life throws m
5. George Washington: Look, he did some HORRIBLE things, he owned many slaves, his treatment of Native Americans was terrible and I completely disagree with most of his political views... But I really like him as a military commander and a soldier and I like his personality a lot and that's why he ranks higher than the next person on this tier list, I don't agree with most of his actions. I don't support racism or genocide. But also I have far more fun studying Washington than I do the next founding father on this list.
6. Thomas Jefferson: child rapist, owned more slaves than any of the other people on this list (I think) and was really weird with his pets. He advocated for religious freedom and he was smart, I'll give him that but I don't like his personality, I don't like his political views and he was very hypocritical. Really, with his views, he wouldn't have even liked himself and he didn't do enough to make me like him. He's still interesting to study but I find it far harder to empathise with him than I do the men listed above because I really just can't see him as anything but vile.
Bonus!: I would put Aaron Burr between Adams and Madison because while I agree with most of his views and he's really fun to study, I like Hamilton a little bit too much to rank the man that killed him higher than 3rd.
(note: I wrote this on like an hour of sleep, this may be the worst amrev take ever)
Edited, 24th of February: Got reminded of this post's existence thanks to a comment by @c0ckmuncher pointing out how inaccurate one of these takes was and checked it again and safe to say I'm never posting anything late night ever again, the rankings have now been changed to better suit what I actually think of these men
currently have the worst sore throat I've ever had in my entire life (i got it because of high school bacteria, I was literally only there for 3 days) and all I can think is 'this is so james madisoncore'
( I start high school in 3 days btw so if anyone has any advice that'd be great, fyi: Australian high school starts at year 7. Americans do not give me advice for year 10)
New Picrew challenge! Make this picrew, and write what your charcter is thinking/doing/saying!
“No, officer, that’s hair dye on my cheek, not blood.”
Tags! @quotidian-oblivion @kelotalks @sardonic-sprite @mispeltnostalgia @marithefriendlyghost @somerando369 @milky-fresh-bones and anyone else who wants to join!
"Did you know that Voltaire was one of the main people who popularised the shift from 'oi' to 'ai' in words where it's pronounced 'ai' and in 1736 in the preface to Zaïre he says it's cause spellings should correspond to pronunciation and that pronunciation naturally changes over time and that that's a positive thing which is interesting because-" *continues for five minutes*
Tagging: @moonsnightowl, @on-partiality, @breserker, and @jenxiez
Thx @my-dear-gal and @chaotic-history for tagging me! I love you both very much (platonically)!!!
'Alright, mum, so I start going to high school in 8 days - yes I know we've spent over 50 dollars on cute school things already - but I just saw this Hello Kitty chapstick....'
second: what's your opinion on Thomas Jefferson? He's such a weird historical figure to think about because he's so conflicting. I know that we shouldn't glorify nor condemn these people, but one moment I see him as a skrunkly, but then I'm reminded of what a monster he is. I just...arghhhhh :/
Oof, if I have to be honest, Thomas Jefferson is one of the only founding fathers that I genuinely hate. I have a few that I feel conflicted with like Washington, I have ones that I dislike because of their personality or actions like Franklin but Jefferson and Monroe? Utterly despise them.
Sometimes I find goofy little anecdotes about him that I laugh at before sobering up and realising that the man I just read about was a hypocritical child rapist. I actually completely disagree with you with the 'we shouldn't condemn these people' in the case of Thomas Jefferson. As I stated in a post of mine about historical relativism, I don't believe it's entirely fair to judge someone by a standard created years after they died that they could never have known would exist in future; Slavery and marrying young were both widely accepted in the 18th century but Thomas Jefferson publicly claimed to be against slavery, he claimed it was wrong, cruel and immoral so he knew. It wasn't some standard that he was unaware of because it didn't exist in his lifetime, no, it was one of his own standards and yet, he didn't release his slaves, he continued to profit off of their suffering when he knew just how horrible what he was doing was. Also 14 is young, even for the 18th century and 14 year olds would still have been considered children, he knew Sally was far too young and he still went ahead and got her pregnant, multiple times. Washington freed his slaves in his will, Franklin freed his as an old man, Thomas Jefferson only freed 10 of his 600+ slaves, 6 of those 10 were his children.
So yeah, looking at history the way Jefferson and just general folk of the 18th century would've looked at it, Jefferson's still a pedophile and a slaveowner. Regardless of how goofy he was at times. I admit the declaration was a revolutionary document for America, literally and a lot of his bills and such have contributed a lot to America's development and creation as a country but he was still a horrible man and we should remember him as such.
January 22nd, 1782 - The day Philip Hamilton was born!
Happy 242nd birthday to the sad rake! For his birthday I've decided to write about all of the information we know about him from letters sent to him, letters written about him and any other scintilla of information relating to him that I can find!
So, on this day 242 years ago, Philip Hamilton was born. The first son of founding father, Alexander Hamilton and the wealthy Elizabeth Schuyler. He was named after his grandfather (on his mother's side of course), General Philip Schuyler.
The earliest piece of writing we have on the young Philip Hamilton is this snippet of a letter:
'If you are not in the humor to read a long letter do, prithee, give this to the child to play with and go on with your amusement of rocking the cradle. '
This letter's from Mchenry, a doctor and aide of George Washington's, to Alexander Hamilton, written on the 11th of August, 1782. While it's short and just a simple humorous opening to a long letter it does give us the fact that Hamilton watched over his son well so there's that. The next letter is far more detailed because it's written by Hamilton himself and as you're about to read about he was very proud of his son. Here's the letter:
'You reproach me with not having said enough about our little stranger. When I wrote last I was not sufficiently acquainted with him to give you his character. I may now assure you... [h]e is truly a very fine young gentleman, the most agreeable in his conversation and manners of any I ever knew—nor less remarkable for his intelligence and sweetness of temper. You are not to imagine by my beginning with his mental qualifications that he is defective in personal. It is agreed on all hands, that he is handsome, his features are good, his eye is not only sprightly and expressive but it is full of benignity. His attitude in sitting is by connoisseurs esteemed graceful and he has a method of waving his hand that announces the future orator. He stands however rather awkwardly and his legs have not all the delicate slimness of his fathers. It is feared He may never excel as much in dancing which is probably the only accomplishment in which he will not be a model. If he has any fault in manners, he laughs too much. He has now passed his Seventh Month.'
This letter is from Alexander Hamilton to Richard Kidder Meade, written on the 27th of August, 1782 (yes, that is Laurens' death day) If I could find Meade's letter to Hamilton that prompted this letter in response then we could've had another early mention of Philip Hamilton as Hamilton says 'you reproach me with having not said enough about our little stranger', this sentence makes no sense if Meade didn't actually tell Hamilton he hadn't told him enough about his newborn son. From this letter we can conclude the obvious: Hamilton's really god damn proud of his son already, he loves him so dearly and it shows. He already calls him handsome, says he'll be great at anything but dancing and that he's intelligent.
+ Around this time I've heard that Hamilton said something about Philip Hamilton being ' attended with all the omens of future greatness' however I've never seen any picture of a letter that has this sentence in it? I've only heard of this through Tumblr so whether this is an actual quote from Hamilton or something made up is a mystery, if anyone actually has a link to a photo of the original letter or just proof that this was in fact written that'd be great. I've also heard of Hamilton rocking young Philip's cradle for very long periods of time (perhaps this idea came from the Mchenry letter?), yet again I've never seen or read anything that confirms this as true. The next mention of Philip Hamilton I could find in a letter is from Hamiltom to his wife, Betsy.
'My beloved Betsey the fifth day after we set out, the three first days with every favourable circumstance but the two last through very bad weather. I am however as well as I can be absent from you and my darling boy—nor was I ever more impatient to be at home. I can have little pleasure elsewhere.'
The darling boy that Hamilton refers to here is Philip Hamilton, this letter is undated but as founders.archives.gov points out, there is no mention of Hamilton's second oldest child, Angelica, Hamilton cared a lot about all of his kids so mentioning his son but not his infant daughter would be weird unless he hadn't had Angie so this trip would have to have been somewhere in the two years in between when Philip was born and when Angelica was born.
The next letter we have that mentions him is also undated:
'Give my love to my darling Philip & kiss with all possible tenderness the other two. Adieu my dearest angel. Heaven bless you'
His name appears as just a sweet little ending to a letter his father wrote to his mother sometime between May 1786 and April 1788 these dates are once again based on the number of children mentioned in the letter (3) and the time his next child was born. This bit of information is so short I debated even putting it in here but I said all facts about young Philip Hamilton's life and that means all (except for stuff about his death, that seems rather grim to be bringing up on his birthday)!
The next time we hear about Philip Hamilton is in a letter from 1789:
'The good Baron has more than ever rivetted himself in my affection: to observe his unaffected solicitude and see his old eyes brimful of sympathy had something in it that won my whole soul and filled me with more than usual complacency for human nature.'
The letter's about when Philip's aunt Angelica left to go back to London after a trip to America (I think). The only part of this letter that relates to little Philip Hamilton is this little snippet which we can guess is about Philip because earlier in the letter Hamilton refers to him as 'The Baron little Philip'. I thought this sentence was cute because in modern language it's just 'I love my 7 year old son so much, his big ol eyes make me have more hope in humanity :D' It is a little strange that none of Hamilton's other kids are mentioned in this letter though, he had 4 at the time it was written (perhaps I skipped over part of it? Who knows).
Up until this point Philip's been too young and whatnot to go to a boarding school so everything we know about him comes from his father absolutely adoring him but we've gotten to 1791, the year Philip started going to school! And we know he started school in late 1791 because a man who lived in Trenton, where Philip's school was on the 26th of November, 1791, wrote: 'Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton came to town last night they have brought their son to put to boarding school to our Episcopal Church Parson'
I received with great pleasure My Dear Philip the letter which you wrote me last week. Your Mama and myself were very happy to learn that you are pleased with your situation and content to stay as long as shall be thought for your good. We hope and believe that nothing will happen to alter this disposition.
Unfortunately, the letter from Philip that Hamilton's talking about hasn't been found so we can't learn more about his personality from that. But we can tell what it was - at least partially - about, Philip being content with his boarding school.
Your Master also informs me that you recited a lesson the first day you began, very much to his satisfaction. I expect every letter from him will give me a fresh proof of your progress. For I know that you can do a great deal, if you please, and I am sure you have too much spirit not to exert yourself, that you may make us every day more and more proud of you.
This part of the letter shows us how much Hamilton cared about Philip's schooling. He had high expectations for all of his children, wishing them to be the best they could possibly be so he paid a lot of attention to how his kids were doing academically and made sure they did well (The strict study regimens come later on). The 'Master' Hamilton mentions here is William Frazer, a clergyman and episcopal rector. The rest of the letter is just Hamilton asking his son whether he can wait until the upcoming Christmas holidays to go home or if he still wants to be picked up on the next Saturday. The letter was written on the 5th of December 1791 in Philadelphia while Hamilton was working on his 'Report on Manufactures'.
The next bit we have on Philip Hamilton is a letter from Philip himself and the only letter he wrote that we still have today. The letter was written on the 21st of April, 1797, Philip would have been 15 years old and he'd started going to King's college, the same school his father attended two decades before him and his younger brother Alexander Hamilton Jr. started going to the Boarding school at Trenton that his older brother had been to. The letter Philip wrote goes like this:
'Dear Papa:
I just now received the enclosed letter from grandpapa, in answer to a letter I wrote to him, in which he has enclosed to me three receipts for shares in the Tontine Tavern, amounting to £100. I have given the receipts to mama.
I delivered my speech to Dr. Johnson to examine. He has no objection to my speaking; but he has blotted out that sentence which appears to be the best and most animated in it; which is, you may recollect it
“Americans, you have fought the battles of mankind; you have enkindled that sacred fire of freedom which is now,” &c. Dear Papa, will you be so good as to give my thanks to grandpapa for the present he made me, but above all for the good advice his letter contains—which I am very sensible of its being extremely necessary for me to pay particular attention to in order to be a good man. I remain your most affectionate son
P.S. You will oblige me very much by sending back the letter I have enclosed to you.'
It's a nice, short letter about Philip's time at King's College and a present and letter of advice Philip received from his grandpa. When he writes about his favourite sentence in his speech being blotted out by Dr. Johnson (presumably a teacher), he doesn't read as angry, just confused. This gives me the idea that he's alright with change, another thing that supports this idea is how quickly he adjusted to his boarding school which we know about from Hamilton's letter to him in 1791.
Sometime later that same year, Philip fell dreadfully ill with a horrible fever, it's said that his father paid for all kinds of doses of medicine and hired several of the best doctors to help him recover.
Hamilton as a father was very over-protective this could've come from his fear of abandonment that he had since he was a child or just because he cared about his kids so much and didn't want anything bad to happen to them, some combination of these two or even something else entirely. But because he was so over-protective he coulf be a bit of a control-freak at times (here's when the crazy study regimens come into place) here's Hamilton's
'Rules for Mr Philip Hamilton from the first of April to the first of October he is to rise not later than Six Oclock—The rest of the year not later than Seven. If Earlier he will deserve commendation. Ten will be his hour of going to bed throughout the year. From the time he is dressed in the morning till nine o clock (the time for breakfast Excepted) he is to read Law. At nine he goes to the office & continues there till dinner time—he will be occupied partly in the writing and partly in reading law. After Dinner he reads law at home till five O clock. From this hour till Seven he disposes of his time as he pleases. From Seven to ten he reads and Studies what ever he pleases. From twelve on Saturday he is at Liberty to amuse himself. On Sunday he will attend the morning Church. The rest of the day may be applied to innocent recreations. He must not Depart from any of these rules without my permission.'
We don't know when this letter was written outside of it being written in 1800 and that's pretty vague, we also don't know who this was sent to. I assume Hamilton must have given it to either Philip or one of his Masters in person because the letter isn't addressed to anyone. The routine described in this letter is very, very similar to Hamilton's routine from when he was a student, perhaps he didn't realise how strict this routine was?
Anyway Philip decided to go to Boston and passed through Providence, Rhode Island on his own and his father needed people to look after his boy because like I mentioned before, he was a bit of a control freak and a bit over-protective. Hamilton sent this letter to Jeremiah Olney, the Collector of Customs of Providence:
'As my eldest son Philip, who lately graduated, will pass through Providence on his way to Boston, I give him this line barely to introduce him to you; since the time I have prescribed for his return will not permit the stay of more than a day at Providence.
Yrs. with true regard
A Hamilton'
From this letter we can tell that Hamilton wanted his son back QUICK, the only other thing it does is reaffirm things about Hamilton as a father like that he wants his children to be near him and doesn't like them to be away and he always needs to have an eye on them. Sadly, (for Hamilton) his son went on another trip the next year to Philadelphia. During this trip Philip saw Benjamin Rush and according to Benjamin Rush, Philip was very pleasant:
'His visits to us were daily, and after each of them he left us with fresh impressions of the correctness of his understanding and manners, and of the goodness of his disposition. To One of my Children he has endeared himself by an Act of friendship & benevolence that did great honor to his heart, and will be rememb[e]red with gratitude by Mrs. Rush, and myself as long as we live. My Son has preserved a record of it in an elegant and friendly letter which he received from him After his return to New York.'
(I am once again annoyed that a letter from Philip is mentioned but said letter has been lost to time) But after Philip's death his parents received a letter about an unpaid tavern bill from Charles W. Hare:
“I have paid 20 Dlls 67 to the keeper of the city tavern on account of your son’s bill and have taken a receipt in full. I enquired for other bills, but could not find any, and I believe he owed nothing more.”
20 dollars and 67 cents in 18th Century American currency translates to about 503 dollars in modern day USD. 19 year old Philip spent 503 dollars on booze 😀
Because there was not much written about Philip we don't know about his dynamic with everyone in his family, but we know he looked up to his father and was really close to his sister, Angelica Hamilton, who was only 2 years younger than him. We also know that his namesake, Philip Schuyler was very proud of him from this letter about Philip's graduation, written on the 25th of August, 1800:
'I rejoice My Dear Son that My Philip has Acquited himself so well, and hope that his future progress may correspond with Your & My wishes.'
Robert Troup's - Hamilton's college roomate - writing on Philip is particularly funny as in one letter he writes:
'was very promising in genius and acquirements, and Hamilton formed high expectations of his future greatness!'
whereas in a private letter he states:
'alas Philip is a sad rake and I have serious doubts whether he would ever be an honour to his family or his country'
From all of this we can conclude that Philip as a person was intelligent, charming and polite but a tad immature with liquor and a little mischevious though his father viewed his mischief warmly in a fond 'oh you cheeky little rascal!' kind of way as we see with this letter to Eliza, written on the 25th of October, 1801:
'I am anxious to hear from Philip. Naughty young man. But you must permit nothing to trouble you and regain your precious health.'
With all that said, I wish the naughty little lad a happy birthday! :)
