#Stephen Van Rensselar

[46ten]

Connection: Philip Schuyler and AH, part 2

Part 1 

I hope General Clinton's having the chair of government will not cause any divisions among the friends of America, although his family and connections do not entitle him to so distinguished a predominance...Philip Schuyler to John Jay, 1777, after losing NY gubernatorial election to George Clinton

But I am a stranger in this country. I have no property here, no connexions. If I have talents and integrity (as you say I have) these are justly deemed very spurious titles in these enlightened days, when unsupported by others more solid.... AH to John Laurens, 8Jan1780.* 

One of the mysteries of the relationship between Philip Schuyler, Aristocrat, and Alexander Hamilton is why the former accepted the latter into his family, West Indian, “connection-less,**”  lacking in property, and illegitimate (even if the result of an ‘irregularity’, as AH claimed) as he was. This is notable since Philip and Catharine Schuyler*** twice judged and denied permission to marry for two of their daughters’ suitors (John B. Carter/Church in 1777 and Washington Morton in 1797). There’s been some suggestion that the Schuylers agreed to the engagement in March/April 1780 because they feared another daughter’s elopement. But this doesn’t stop them from objecting to Morton. After two centuries, there’s not a definitive answer that can be found to the question of AH’s acceptability in PS’s view, but I think there are some strong hints.

Philip Schuyler likely had no prejudice against AH’s connection to the West Indies. While there’s no record of PS traveling to the West Indies himself (he did travel to England to help settle Maj. Gen. John Bradstreet’s debts in the 1763, and ended up having to navigate the ship, and was captured by French pirates), his trade activities suggest that he had no great issue with the West Indian colonies and the (white) men and women who lived there. As one example, in the 1760s, PS befriended William Duer, an Englishman who moved to Antigua to run his deceased father’s plantations. Making contact with Duer through trade, PS helped him secure land for lumber near Saratoga, then encouraged him to move NY in the 1770s, likely helped him secure Army contracts, and certainly aided his political ambitions. Duer served in the Continental Congress, and was later AH’s second in command at the Treasury Department. After resigning that post, Duer was the first governor of AH’s pet project, the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures, until he helped cause the Panic of 1792.

PS seemed to have an eye out for men of abilities and talents. Indeed, this seemed more important to him than family connection. The whole quote from the John Jay letter is as follows: 

I hope General Clinton's having the chair of government will not cause any divisions among the friends of America, although his family and connections do not entitle him to so distinguished a predominance; yet he is virtuous and loves his country, has abilities and is brave, and I hope he will experience from every patriot what I am resolved he shall from me, support, countenance and comfort.

 And to Clinton himself, PS wrote the following: 

I sincerely congratulate you on the honour your countrymen have conferred on you, and assure you that I shall embrace every opportunity to make you sit as easy in the chair of government as the times will admit. Your virtue, the love of my country, and that friendship which I have always and with great truth professed, are all so many inducements to it.

Here, PS is pointing out that Clinton has abilities, virtue, and is a patriot - these qualities (of a gentleman) overrode concerns about lack of a family name. 

Another explanation can be found in the letter PS wrote AH after the letter wrote a detailed letter about the “break” with Washington on 18Feb1781 [my emphases].

Last night your favor of the 18 Inst: was delivered me. I confess that the contents surprized and afflicted me, not that I discover any impropriety in your conduct in the affair in question, for of that I persuade myself you are incapable…Long before I had the least Intimation that you intended that connection with my family, which is so very pleasing to me, and which affords me such entire satisfaction I had studied Your Character, and that of the other Gentlemen who composed the Genrals family. I thought I discovered in all an attention to the duties of their station, in some a considerable degree of ability, but, (without a compliment for I trust there is no necessity of that between us,) in you only I found those qualifications so essentially necessary to the man who is to aid and council a commanding General, environed with difficulties of every kind, and these perhaps more, and of greater magnitude, than any other ever has had to encounter, whose correspondance must of necessity be extensive always interesting, and frequently so delicate as to require much Judgment and adress to be properly managed. The public voice has confirmed the Idea I had formed of You, but what is more consoling to me and more honorable to you, men of genius Observation and Judgement think as I do on the occasion. [25Feb1781]****

Here’s the interesting notion that PS studied the character of all the men in Washington’s family, and had made a very positive assessment of AH’s. Even more so, PS has persuaded himself that AH is “incapable” of “impropriety” on this point - he’s in effect saying that he strongly considers him a gentleman. And, not for the first or last time, PS is going to support his opinion about AH’s qualities by noting that other people see the same qualities in AH. In other words, he doesn’t see AH as a relentless social climber, but as someone who is socially advancing and ambitious in the proper manner, and towards the proper goals of improving and serving socity.  He’s gratified that others see AH in the same way, and I think this support also explains PS’s acceptance. 

Notice how PS writes to his daughter Elizabeth:

Ah! My dear child participate afresh in the satisfaction I experience from the connection you have made with my beloved Hamilton. He affords me happiness too exquisite for expression. I daily experience the pleasure of hearing encomiums on his virtue and abilities from those who are capable of distinguishing between real and pretended merit. He is considered, as he certainly is, the ornament of his country and capable of advising on the most ...services if his advice and suggestions if his advice and suggestions are attended to in that every true patriot rejoices that he is one of the ..of those gathered. PS to EH, 15Dec1782

Consider this from Miller (Paradox in Parallel): “Instead of recommending that his child read Lord Chesterfield’s letters to his son, General Schuyler urged him to model himself upon Alexander Hamilton.” 

Another line of thinking is that PS liked AH so much because the latter would aid the family in political ambitions. I have repeated this myself, based on the summary of Hamilton biographies I had read. But now I find I do not agree with this - rather, I think there were other men Elizabeth could have married that offered more in the way of political dynasties - but I do think PS had a strong expectation that his daughters would marry important men and had brought them up and educated them accordingly. PS walked away or declined positions that would have served his own political ambitions, including leadership of the Northern Department of the Army (1775 - resigned; 1778 - refused) and Presidency of the Continental Congress (1778 - refused). He also took the shorter (2-yr) U.S. Senate term in 1789 and would resign his U.S. Senate seat entirely in 1798, after having been again elected the previous year. Most of these decisions involved his personal affairs - health, family, or his business enterprises - having to take priority over public service (I’ll get into how AH may have been heavily influenced by this in a future post) but I speculate there was a much stronger urge in him to see highly placed virtuous gentlemen - as he defined them - in positions of authority than he was concerned with using AH for his own personal ambitions. Some biographers have suggested that AH was the best weapon with which to attack PS’s arch-enemy George Clinton and his political supporters, but again, I do not see the motives quite that cynically. And PS wasn’t suffering for want of politicians in his family: his sons held political offices, his son-in-law Stephen Van Rensselaer held several major offices including as Lt Gov of NY, even son-in-law John B. Church was a member of Parliament. The Federalists were on the wrong side of history and would become eclipsed, and these old-money families and their extensive roles in NY politics would be forgotten, but that doesn’t mean the spotlight didn’t shine on them brightly for several generations, up through the mid-19th century. 

I also suspect there was something of the benevolent lord in PS’s adoption of AH into the family - he saw himself as helping with AH’s own aims: “I shall therefore only intreat you to consider me as one who wishes in every way to promote your happiness and that I shall never give or loan but with a view [] Great Ends.” 

Of course, none of Philip’s delight with this connection would have existed, I believe, if he did not perceive that AH was a tender and affectionate partner for his daughter. After AH’s death, Philip states that EH will find life at the Grange difficult without:

“...the sweet smiles, the amiable affability, the chearful and enduring attention of the best of men...” PS to EH, 25Oct1804

This is the strongest statement I have come across that describes how Philip saw the interaction between AH and EH. 

AH was happy to be connected to the Schuyler family, and PS was happy to have this connection (although notice that the emphasis is placed on the happiness of the new couple and their affections for each other - the qualities that mattered most): 

You can not my Dear Sir be more happy at the Connection you have made with my family than I am, until a child has made a judicious choice the heart of a parent is continually in anxiety but this anxiety vanished in the moment that I discovered w[h]ere you and she had placed your affections. PS to AH 25Jan1781

*I’ve already written at some length as to why I reject the notion that AH married cynically to improve his status, so the juxtaposition of these quotes isn’t meant to leave that impression. I really bristle at the notion that AH, with his code of gentlemanly conduct, would have engaged in what amounts to marriage fraud. 

**AH complaining about his lack of connections, when in fact he arrived in NYC with an introduction to Elias Boudinot, was close to William Livingston, and rapidly developed friendships with John Jay, Gouverneur Morris, and other prominent NY/NJ men. Though he clearly found this to be insufficient compared to a family tie. 

***I have not come across any surviving letters from Catharine Schuyler (mother) and have read sources that state that none of her letters did survive. I’ve also read that she was predominantly a Dutch speaker and her written English may have been limited, but I’m not sure how much stock I put in that. So when I write about PS’s acceptance of AH, I only mean to address the side where we do have some evidence - it’s clear from the 8Apr1780 letter that CS’s consent to the engagement was also necessary. I’m not trying to write her out, but I just don’t have anything else to go on regarding her thoughts on the engagement. AH did write her a lovely note: 

I leave it to my conduct rather than expressions to testify the sincerity of my affection for her, the respect I have for her parents, the desire I shall always feel to justify their confidence and merit their friendship. May I hope Madam, you will not consider it as mere profession, when I add, that though I have not the happiness of a personal acquaintence with you, I am no stranger to the qualities which distinguish your character and these make the relation in which I shall stand to you, not one of the least pleasing circumstances of my union with your daughter. AH to CS, 14April1780

****That very same day, Philip Schuyler also writes to GW “Your Excellency’s favor of the 20th Instant evinces another instance of that friendship And attention which while I feel it flattering to me, affords me a satisfaction, which a heart impressed with affection and esteem can only truly experience but of which a description would be equally improper as impossible....Mrs Schuyler was delivered of a daughter on the 20th instant, She enjoys a share of health much beyond what is usual in such a situation, Had it been a boy I should have taken the liberty to have honored with Your name—permit me that of requesting you & your Lady to be entered as Sponsors for the Girl.”  25Feb1781  Note that PS doesn’t write anything about knowing the falling out between GW and AH, but asks for him to the godfather to PS’s new daughter, who would have been named after GW had been a boy?” (This child is Catharine Van Rennselaer Schuyler, memorialized with her family in “A Godchild of Washington”; she was indeed the godchild of George and Martha Washington.)

The future parts will be as follows: part 3 on AH’s comments on PS; part 4 on the break with Washington; part 5 on PS’s career and resignations and how this may have influenced AH. That’s the plan, at least. If there are other topics anyone would like to see addressed, please let me know. I’ll be posting some fun EH/AH letters next week.