P123
During Laurens's southern sojourn, Hamilton wrote to him some of the most personally revealing letters of his life. He knew the south was endangered by the British and that atrocities were being committed on both sides. Perhaps he wondered whether he would ever see his friend again. In one April 1779 letter, Hamilton expressed such open affection for Laurens that an early editor, presumably Hamilton's son, crossed out some of the words and scrawled across the top, “I must not publish the whole of this.”
汉密尔顿写给Laurens的信:
Cold in my professions, warm in friendships, I wish, my dear Laurens, it might be in my power by action rather than words to convince you that I love you. I shall only tell you that till you bade us adieu, I hardly knew the value you had taught my heart to set upon you. Indeed, my friend, it was not well done. You know the opinion I entertain of mankind and how much it is my desire to preserve myself free from particular attachments and to keep my happiness independent of the caprice of others. You should not have taken advantage of my sensibility to steal into my affections without my consent.
汉密尔顿一直都对Laurens热情似火,然而Laurens相比是冷淡很多的,写给汉密尔顿的信也没有那么多。
独立战争快要结束的时候,Laurens却不幸战死沙场了,这对汉密尔顿是极大的打击。他再也没有交过像Laurens这样关系的朋友。
P173 Laurens' death
But he was more of a solitary crusader without Laurens, lacking an intimate lifelong ally such as Madison and Jefferson found in each other.
After the death of John Laurens, Hamilton shut off some compartment of his emotions and never reopened it.
汉密尔顿的结婚对象是当时的纽约首富Philip Schuyler的二女儿Elizabeth Schuyler(下图)。
出身卑微的汉密尔顿“嫁”入豪门之后就顺利拿到了纽约户口。汉密尔顿和他老婆的姐姐Angelica的关系也非常不一般。如果不是Angelica已婚,汉密尔顿应该是会向她求婚,而不是妹妹Eliza。(我对活到98岁高龄生过8个小孩的汉密尔顿老婆Eliza表示同情,老公或是Closet gay,还更爱她的姐姐。。。)
P133 Angelica
Starting with that first winter in Morristown, Hamilton was drawn almost magnetically to Eliza’s married older sister, Angelica, and spent the rest of his life beguiled by both Eliza and Angelica, calling them “my dear brunettes”.
The attraction between Hamilton and Angelica was so potent and obvious that many people assumed they were lovers. At the very least, theirs was a friendship of unusual ardor, and it seems plausible that Hamilton would have proposed to Angelica, not Eliza, if the old sister had been eligible. Angelica was more Hamilton’s counterpart than Eliza.
Angelica was one of the few American women of her generation as comfortable in a European drawing room as in a Hudson River parlor, and there was a gossipy irreverence about her that seemed very European. Unlike Eliza, she learned to speak perfect French. Where Eliza bowed reluctantly to the social demands of Hamilton’s career, Angelica applauded his ambitions and was always famished for news of his latest political exploits.
汉密尔顿能娶到首富的女儿,主要因为把首富搞定了,他在一次社交活动中认识了首富,首富非常喜欢汉密尔顿,太才华横溢没办法,以至于最后穷小子汉密尔顿追首富女儿,首富觉得是他们家的幸运。。。。。。汉密尔顿求婚,把首富一家都乐坏了。。。可谓傍大款的最高水准。