hello everyone im here to analyze the august 15 letter from H to L (its probably helpful to have the letter open on another tab or something because im tired and this is gonna be all over the place) (also, this is just copied and pasted from discord, where i originally talked about it. so if you’re on my server and already saw this, i apologize for making you see it again)
"Peace made, My Dear friend, a new scene opens. The object then will be to make our independence a blessing. To do this we must secure our union on solid foundations;" "union" is italicised. when hamilton uses italics for emphasis on words, he means it. that word is important. so because union is written like that, it most likely means that hes not referring to america or congress or the war, he's referring to himself and laurens. their union. in the next paragraph he says, "Quit your sword my friend, put on the toga, come to Congress." (im not exactly sure why “toga” is italicised, but it could mean "quit your sword, put on a suit instead of your uniform." i dont know.) he wants laurens to join him in congress. he wants to be reunited with him.
"an herculean task and to effect which mountains of prejudice must be levelled!" putting aside their toxicity and drama and lies would be hard. we've talked before about how hamilton was manipulative towards laurens. [if you weren’t on the server for this convo i apologize but basically to explain it in later letters from like 1780-1782 hamilton acts pretty toxic towards laurens and it seriously hurts him and his mental health.] hamilton is admitting that putting all that aside and levelling the "mountains of prejudice" between them is gonna be hard. perhaps thats why he wanted laurens to join him in congress. the distance between them really took a toll on their relationship, and being reunited would help them and would give them a chance to really talk it out.
"It requires all the virtue and all the abilities of the Country. Quit your sword my friend, put on the toga, come to Congress. We know each others sentiments, our views are the same:" i feel like he's talking about their shared views on slavery and their time together as aides.
"we have fought side by side to make America free, let us hand in hand struggle to make her happy." ok now this is where it gets funky. a lot of their time in the war was spent apart. they were close because they were in the same war and wrote eachother somewhat frequently, but not as close as they could have been. but if laurens were to leave the army and join congress, they would be closer. they would go from being only "side by side" to being "hand in hand." the distance between them would be gone.
additional thought: in the previous letter from laurens, its the most affectionate one we have from him. all the (surviving) ones from before that seem cold and less affectionate, and then we suddenly get this super "i love you and i hate being away from you" kind of letter. that might have been a sign to hamilton for him to reunite with laurens so he can save their relationship.
that’s pretty much it, the first bit of the letter doesn’t have much to analyze and is mostly actual congress and political stuff.
if you have anything you’d like to add on, please reply or reblog bc i’d love to see it !
