“Sad Rake” Philip Hamilton?
From Wikipedia:
Robert Troup, a family friend who had been Alexander Hamilton's college roommate, wrote that Philip "was very promising in genius and acquirements, and Hamilton formed high expectations of his future greatness!"[7] Troup wrote privately, however, that despite Hamilton's certainty that Philip was destined for greatness, "alas Philip is a sad rake and I have serious doubts whether he would ever be an honour to his family or his country."[8][9]
The first quote is from a letter from Troup to Rufus King [5Dec1801]:
For twelve days past the city has been much agitated with a duel between Hamilton’s oldest son Philip and a Mr. Eacher—a brother lawyer of mine and a violent and bitter democrat.… Young Hamilton was mortally wounded and soon after died. Never did I see a man so completely overwhelmed with grief as Hamilton has been. The scene I was present at, when Mrs. Hamilton came to see her son on his deathbed (he died about a mile out of the city) and when she met her husband and son in one room, beggars all description! Young Hamilton was very promising in genius and acquirements, and Hamilton formed high expectations of his future greatness! … At present Hamilton is more composed and is able again to attend to business; but his countenance is strongly stamped with grief. Eacher has not since made his appearance at the bar. There is a general current of opinion agt. him, except amongst the violent democrats” (King, The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, IV, 28).
So where does the second quote come from where he “privately” - I’m pretty sure his letter to King was also private - termed Philip a “sad rake”? Spoiler: I have no idea.
Follow the Wikipedia citations, and these are the references:
Realistic Robert Troup, belying his fond parents’ view of Philip’s talent and promise, described him as a ‘sad rake.’
pg 7 of Thomas Fleming, Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and the Future of America (1999). Although Fleming does have footnotes for other citations, he has none for this.
The other footnote/source:
“His father,” one of Hamilton’s colleagues said regarding Philip, “is certain of his future greatness but alas Philip is a sad rake and I have serious doubts whether he would ever be an honour to his family or his country.”
p 117, The Aaron Burr Affair (1967) by Robert Hardy Andrews, in The Birth of America: Selected Readings from Mankind Magazine
No name is provided of this “colleague,” and there are no citations/footnotes in the version reprinted in this book. The references to Hamilton (father) and future greatness make it seem like it could be a Troup reference, but there’s no “sad rake” quote in his letters to King. The Robert Troup papers are at the NYPL (not digitized, it seems), but this quote might be with the recipient’s correspondence, and I don’t know who that was.
The author of the latter essay seems to be this Robert Hardy Andrews. Let me say that there are some bizarre lines in all of the essays that are re-published in The Birth of America including this one:
But Philip had begun to drink, and loved the theater, and yearned to prove himself “as more than ‘General Hamilton’s son.’”
Again, whom is Andrews quoting? Are these just scare quotes, and he largely made everything up? Andrews died in 1976, so we cannot ask him.
Let’s get back to Fleming (died in 2017), since he is the source that Chernow, etc, are quoting for Troup’s supposed description of Philip as a “sad rake.”
On pg 78, Fleming writes:
Even one of Hamilton’s closest friends, Robert Troup, lamented that his character was “radically deficient in discretion.”
Um, this is what Troup wrote [31Dec1800] to Rufus King:
The influence … of this letter upon Hamilton’s character is extremely unfortunate. An opinion has grown out of it, which at present obtains almost universally, that his character is radically deficient in discretion, and therefore the federalists ask, what avail the most preeminent talents—the most distinguished patriotism—without the all important quality of discretion? Hence he is considered as an unfit head of the party …” my emphasis, (King, The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, III, 359).
Troup was referring to the Federalists’ opinion of AH, not his own. (In fairness, this would have been a decently shared opinion even among those closest to AH.)
So where the “sad rake” quote comes from, and how it got attributed by Fleming to Troup, remains a mystery to me.
Side note: I need to write about William Coleman, first editor of the NY Post, and his duel with Thompson (he mortally wounded Thompson) in 1804.
