Philip Schuyler to Elizabeth Hamilton, 6 October 1789
“My Beloved Eliza: The following anecdote which I learned from Judge Benson may amuse. A gentleman travelling from New York to this place stopped at Kinderhook and made several turns in the street passing to and fro before the store of a Mr. Rodgers. Apparently in deep contemplation, and his lips moving as rapidly as if he was in conversation with some person–he entered the store, tendered a fifty-dollar bill to be exchanged. Rodgers refused to change it, the gentleman retired. A person in the store asked Rodgers if the bill was counterfeited. He replied in the negative. Why then did you not oblige the Gentleman by exchanging It,–because said Rodgers the poor Gentleman has lost his reason; but said the other, he appeared perfectly natural. That may be said Rodgers, he probably has his lucid intervals, but I have seen him walk before my door for half an hour, sometimes stopping, but always talking to himself, and If I had changed the money and he had lost It I might have received the blame. –Pray ask my Hamilton if he can’t guess who the Gentleman was. My Love to him, in which you participate. Adieu my Beloved child.”
Hamilton often paced and talked aloud when he was writing. Apparently, he continued the practice even in public, to great comic effect :) Nice to know our illustrious first Treasury Secretary had his “lucid intervals.” Can you imagine how much Eliza teased him over this?
Source: The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton, by Allen McLane Hamilton, pp.42-43.