Transcripts For CSPAN3 Alexander Hamiltons Legacy 20160906

Society. Weve had many discoveries and we just revealed three new ones this past thursday at liberty hall. So check online for that. The aha Society Needs to give a special thanks to a number of organizations that made this program possible today. Especially Trinity Church, who hosts this, partners with great spirit and great support. The congregant Alexander Hamilton of this church. The u. S. Coast guard and auxiliary. As you heard mentioned, that Alexander Hamilton was the founder of the u. S. Coast guard. And the members of the aha society and the board of directors all worked hard to bring this together. We had 32 events in 20 locations over ten days. And it took everyones support and encouragement. The aha society joins with you to honor Alexander Hamiltons life and his legacy. In that light the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society will be presenting the first hamilton legacy award to Richard Brookhiser for his two decades of work to educate the public about Alexander Hamilton. The revival of interest in Alexander Hamilton in the 21st century can be traced to mr. Brookhisers work. Ill give you four examples. Number one, after reading about and studying and writing a book on George Washington, mr. Brookhiser saw that theres someone, a righthand aide and man in his life, Alexander Hamilton, became intrigued and wrote a tremendous book in 1999. The book is only 220 pages long. That deserves an award. If you can tell Alexander Hamiltons life and all the dimensions of it in 220 pages, its magnificent. And the other thing that we really appreciate about mr. Brookhiser, it really gets the true hamilton. And going to the primary sources, its been really helpful to the cause of looking for people to learn about the accurate characterization of Alexander Hamilton where many of us didnt hear about him until a couple of years ago because of the mischaracterization. So we thank him for that book. It really was quite an accomplishment. Number 2, mr. Brookhiser was a historian curator for xharnalex hamilton, the man who made modern america, which was displayed at the New York Historical society in 2004. How many were able to see that . Good. He worked with the gildalerman institutew jill basker and nicole se richlt. And then there were these Alexander Hamilton exhibit panels that were produced. And it was so exciting we went down to nevis in the caribbean where Alexander Hamilton was born and there were those paneled. We just were at the Patterson Museum yesterday. No, sorry, sunday. And there were those panels that just so articulately tell the story of all the dimensions of Alexander Hamiltons life. Number 3, mr. Brookhiser worked with pbs to write and host an innovative documentary called rediscovering Alexander Hamilton. And that came out in 2011. Now, all of these resources created a foundation from years ago that resulted in great scholarship and content of much renown. They have become the core resource material this year. You may have heard the support of gildalerman institute along with the Rockefeller Foundation and the hamilton musical, all came together to serve 20,000 students to see that over 18 months 234 matinees. And that rich content was because of the work plf brookhiser over many years. Its quite a hamilton legacy, mr. Brookhiser. Because of his original continued efforts to share Alexander Hamiltons story, Richard Brookhiser is very deserving as the first recipient of the hamilton legacy award, which reads Richard Brookhiser is hereby presented with the hamilton legacy award for decades of Outstanding Service and dedication to educating the public about the contributions of Alexander Hamilton to the United States of america. The Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society, 2016. Lets thank Richard Brookhiser. [ applause ] thank you so much. The Founding Fathers were a very practical generation. And hamilton being among the most practical. And they knew that true ideals were vital. You had to have them. But theyre not enough. They have to be made real in the world. You have to work for them. And the same is true of memory. Now, wep to remember what weve done right. We have to remember what weve done wrong. But memorys not automatic. It has to be informed, and it has to be cherished and encouraged. And the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society does splendid work in that regard. And its a great honor to be recognized by them. Thank you. [ applause ] in the hamilton musical it ends with a profound perspective and a set of questions. Who lives, who dies, who tells your story id like to answer those in three parts. Who lives . We all live in hamiltons america. As it was Alexander Hamilton that created the vision and shaped the foundations upon which the United States of america achieved greatness. Who dies . On this day, july 12th, 212 years ago, Alexander Hamilton died, defending his honor. Such that as he would say to be in the future useful. In 18 minutes will be marked the 2 00 passing of Alexander Hamilton. After 30 years from his injury from the duel. He often chose the nations wellbeing over his physical, financial, and familys wellbeing. Who tells your story . We are most privileged to have Richard Brookhiser tell the story. Alexander hamilton, the man who made america prosperous. Ladies and gentlemen, Richard Brookhiser. [ applause ] so how did hamilton make america prosperous . I think we have to look at three things. We have to look at the arc of his life, where he came from, and where he went. And then we have to review what he did at the height of his life. And then we have to consider what inspired him. What most moved him. Hamilton, as you know, was an immigrant. And there were several other immigrants among the Founding Fathers. Horatio gates, robert morris, james wilson. But these other men all came from the british isles. Hamilton was the unique immigrant from the west indies. Born on the island of nevis, raised on the island of st. Croix, which is in the virgin islands. And the west indies in hamiltons lifetime, mid to the late 18th century, was like the middle east today. It was the place where the thing that everyone wanted came from. Today thats oil. In the 18th century that was sugar. The wealth that was generated by west indian sugar was fantastic. When hamilton was 6 years old, 1763, the french and indian war ended, also called the seven years war. Sb at the end of this world war between britain and france britain had conquered so many of frances colonies that they had to give some back. They couldnt possibly hold all that they had won. So there was a serious debate in the british government, should we keep canada or the island of guadalupe . Half of north america or oning sugarproducing island. They decided to give back guadeloupe. And they were fiercely criticized by the British Business community. How could they have done this . Canada has only snow. Guadeloupe is a sugar island, thats where real money is being made. That was a sign of how valuable these islands were. Hamilton saw the commerce that was generated from the ground up. His first job for christiansted in st. Croix was for a Merchant House called beekman and krueger. It was headquartered in new york city. It had branches in the west indies and another branch in bristol, england. The krueger who ran the Bristol Branch ended up becoming a member of parliament, and he represented britain along with edmund burke. Thats another sign of the importance of the sugar trade and the wealth that it generated. Hamilton was not bound for parliament. He was a clerk in a store. But he saw from the bottom, from the ground up, how trading was done, how money circumstance lait circulated. He also saw the enormous disparities in the holding of this wealth. Most of this money went to planters. Many of them didnt even live on the islands where their plantations were. In Jayne Mansfields novel Mansfield Park sir Thomas Bertram is a plantation owner in antigua and he appears in the novel halfway through. He comes back to england from antigua. But many of the planters never left england or france or their home countries. Their islands were run by overseers. Beneath the planter class there was a Small Service class. Agents, merchants, a few professionals. And this was the class to which hamiltons parents belonged, james hamilton, rachel fossette. He was a merchants agent. She owned a small store in christiansted. But the vast bulk of the population was slaves. The population of nevis when hamilton lived there was 10,000 slaves, 500 white people. The population of st. Croix was 22,000 slaves, 2,000 white people. The average lifespan of a field hand who was brought to the west ind writes from africa was seven years before he was worked to death or he died of diseases. But the planters were not so concerned with that because there was always another slave ship coming in. Beekman krueger sometimes dealt in slaves. When hamilton lived in nevis he lived just down the street from a large pen where the fresh slaves from africa were held before they were sorted out and put on smaller ships and sent throughout the west of the british west indies. So this was the social system that hamilton grew up in. Heavily skewed, no opportunity to rise. He managed to get out because of miz own brilliance and because of his luck. He was a very smart boy and a smart young man. His employers recognized that. So did the local minister in christiansted, a man named hugh knox. He had connections in the north american mainland. So when hamilton was a teenager, he was sent to north america to be educated. The plan was to get him trained as a doctor, and he would come back to the islands and prap and the first plan was to send him to the college of new jersey, which is now princeton. That didnt work. So he went to kings college, which is now columbia, and which was then just up broadway from this building. This is the second important location in hamiltons life. The fact that he came here to new york rather than to philadelphia or to boston, which were the other significant cities in british north america. Philadelphia was the largest. New york had passed boston to become second and was gaining on philadelphia. They were all commercial cities. But boston and philadelphia had been founded as holy cities. They were religious experiments. Boston was the city on the hill. Philadelphia was the city of brotherly love. And some of that atmosphere still clung to them. But new york was always and only about getting and spending. The dutch had founded it as new am ster damamsterdam. Then as the fur traffic died and withered they traded other things. The english acquired the city but it kept its character. Im sure you all know the founding myth of new york, that was that it was bought from the indians for 24 of beads and trinkets and tools by peter minuet in 1624. The way the myth is usually told is the poor indians were cheated because for 24 they gave up Manhattan Island and the land is worth billions and billions now. But i have heard some tells of the myth in which the indians who sold manhattan didnt actually live here. They were just passing through. So there may have been some double dealing on both sides. But myths always tell a truth. And the truth of that myth is that the soul of new york is commerce. Thats why people live here. To make it. To get ahead. So hamilton was coming from one commercial place to another very commercial, innately commercial place. It was also a more equal place. It was by no means a paradise. New york was a slave city in a slave colony. When hamilton came here, the population of the city was about 1 6 slave. And they worked as house servants. They also worked on the small farms in what is now brooklyn and queens. The city was doubly bound to slavery because what was grown and produced on those farms, the food, the timber, the fabric, it was shipped down to the west indies to be used by the slaves and the owners of the slaves there. So there was still slavery here in new york. But there were other things going on. There was a lot of commerce. There was also some manufacturing. It wasnt supposed to happen under the british mercantile system. According to that, all manufacturing was to be done in england and the home country and be shipped out to the colonies. But the people got around the rules and the laws, as i hear they still do in new york. So there was manufacturing here then. So hamilton came from a place that marked him, and he moved to a place that continued to mark him. He never graduated from columbia because the revolution had happened and he left his college to fight. He started in a student militia company. Then he became a captain of an artillery company. He was noticed by George Washington, put on his staff as a colonel, where he served for four years. And then finally at the end of the fighting he was given a field command at the battle of yorktown. After the war he came back to new york. He made his money as a lawyer. But he also briefly served in the new York Assembly and in the Continental Congress. He was sent as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in philadelphia in 1787. He wasnt very regular in his attendance. But after the constitution was written he took up the job of campaigning for it in the newspapers, and here his performance was stellar. He organized a series of essays. We would now call them oped pieces in the new york newspapers. New york was crucial because it had an anticonstitution governor but a central location. If new york state out of the country, new england would be split off from the rest of the country. So new york was a mustwin state. Hamilton found two collaborators, james madsison, colleague of his from the Continental Congress, and john jay, a former diplomat and spymaster. And the three of them wrote 85 essays for the new york newspapers. Jay got sick early on, so he only wrote five. Madison wrote 29. Hamilton wrote 51. These essays came out at a rate of four a week. They reached 2,000 words long. Some weeks there were five. One week there was six. Columnists in the New York Times today, paul krugman, david brooks, they write 750 words twice a week. So this was greater frequency, greater length, plus theyre also immortal. After the constitution was ratified, George Washington had to pick a first treasury secreta secretary. He first asked robert morris, who had run the finances of the country during the second half of the revolution. Morris was the richest man in america. But he didnt want to do Public Service again. He wanted to make money. So he recommended Alexander Hamilton, saying that he was damned sharp. Washington knew that already. Hamilton had been on his staff. So he becomes the first treasury secretary of the United States, september 1789, when hes 32 years old. And now we come to what he did at the climax of his life. And the problem that he faced was debt. Wars cost money. And the United States had no money. We had gone through the war. 8 1 2year war. Longest war we ever fought until vietnam. It was longer than the civil war and our portion of world war ii put together. But we couldnt pay for it. The government under the Continental Congress and the articles of confederation could not tax the states. They could ask the states for money. And if the states wouldnt pay or couldnt pay, they didnt have to pay. Robert morris said at one point that asking the states for money was like preaching to the dead. So they did other things. They printed paper money. And as unbacked paper money always does, it inflated away till it was almost worthless. Then they called in all the old dolla dollars. They said 40 old dollars will be worth one new one. They issued new money. But that began to inflate in turn. They kited their bills. They did funny stuff with their creditors. They took out loans. They took out loans from the rich people who kisted in america. They also got loans from dutch bankers who were willing to run a risk. They got loans from france. And they scraped through at the very end of the war. The soldiers marching to yorktown would not have got there because they had not been paid. But a french ship filled with silver was part of the french armada that came to participate in the yorktown campaign. And so that campaign was funded. And america won its final victory. But after the war, 1783, the larder was truly bare. Our debt was trading in europe and amsterdam and antwerp at a quarter to a third of its value. It was essentially junk. So what did hamilton do . He had going for him the fact that the new constitution did allow the federal government to raise taxes. So that was a plus. But how would the money be spent . He made two early decisions. Of great consequence. One was called assumption. The other was called nondiscrimination. Assumption had to do with the fact that there was not one american debt but there were 14. There were the debts owed by the United States and there were the debts owed by each of the 13 states. The 13 states had raised their own troops. Theyd made their own expenses in the war. And some of them were badly in arrea arrears. Massachusetts in particular and also south carolina. And there was ill feeling among the states because some of the states had paid off their debts and they thought, well, why should we take on the obligations by the deadbeat states . Now, not all the states who paid their debts had done it honestly. North carolina had simply announced they would knock off 20 of all their debts and pay the rest. Rhode island had paid its debts by printing paper money. So there was a lot of suffering and sharp dealing on all sides. Hamiltons argument was that the war had been a common struggle. All the states were fighting together for the liberty of all, for the whole country. So he assumed the debts of the 13 states along with the federal debt. They would all be treated as one debt. They would be paid off at the same time. This was the decision for assumption. Nondiscrimination had to do with the creditors, the holders of the debt. Most of them were soldiers who had not been paid during the war. This was simply chronic. Soldiers were not paid. They were given ious. And at the end of the war they were sent home with their ious, promises of future payment. But over the years some of those ious had been sold. If a soldier needed money immediately, he might sell his iou at a discount to a merchant. Or maybe he would sell to a speculator. To someone with resources who thought, well, maybe one day these things will be paid off, let me buy them up from soldiers. So the ious had been traded. Everyone agreed that soldiers should be paid off at their full value. These men had suffered for the country. They had fought. They had bled. But Many Americans felt why should we pay off speculators . They havent fought. They havent bled. They were simply looking for a profit. Hamilton newt way the world of money works. He knew that if debtors pick and choose among their creditors they can do it once. They wont be able to do a loan again. Or if they can it will be at punishing rates of interest. So he said there should be nondiscrimination, that all the creditors will be paid off at a common rate. And he was able to get congress to agree to this too. Now, he had to do some bargaining to make this happen. The most consequential deal was to move the capital of the United States from new york where it was then sitting first to philadelphia for ten years and then to a site on the potomac which was then undeveloped, is now washington, d. C. So we incurred a future of murderous washington summers, but we got americas debts paid off in a timely fashion. And that was due to hamiltons foresight and his clever dealmaking. He also had an insight about how to handle the debt. His intention was not to pay it off and make it go away. He wanted to manage the debt. He wanted a debt where regular payments would be made on the interest. And his insight was that if you did that with debt it turns from being a liability into being a resour resource. People see that youre not struggling under a burden, youre maintaining it. So theyre willing to extend you credit. Debt becomes credit. Debt can become money. Tough a credit card, you know how this works. If you have 20 credit cards, you know how this doesnt work. Debt has to be managed carefully. And that was hamiltons intention. His way of managing the debt was a new thing in world finance. Only two countries had gone this route. Holland was the first at the end of the 17th century. England followed with the bank of england. Then early in the 18th century france had tried to join the new financial world. But the man in charge of their debt was not cautious. He was a man named john law, a scotsman. Brilliant but literally a gambler. He gambled himself and he certainly gambled with frabss money. And the smashup in france was so terrible that the french have been suspicious of banks to this day. This is why most french banks are not called banks. Its credit lyonnais, not bank de lyon. Thats how deep the suspicion of banks in france goes. Alexander hamilton was going to take this small country on the edge of nowhere and make it the third country in the world in the new world of modern finance. There were going to be many bumps on the road after his death. People did not deliver his policies and we would have panics and we would have depressions. But it got us off to a solid start. When he came in as treasury secretary, as i said, our debt was trading at a quarter to a third of its value. When he left, it was trading at 110 of its value. He had made it worth as good as gold. Sought money men of europe were willing to pay a small premium to hold it. The phrase we use for poor troubled new nations is Banana Republic because most of them are in countries where bananas grow. But america was on the way to being one of those countries. If hamilton had not lived and served, the phrase for a troubled new nation would be maple republic or pine republic. Because we would have been the first one. He helped us to avoid that fate. But he wasnt doing it only to balance the books. He wasnt even doing it to expand the economy. He had a further vision in mind, and thats what i want to end with. We can see it in his report on manufactures. The Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society had an event at the great falls in patterson, the falls of the passaic, where the Passaic River drops 50 feet on its way to the atlantic. And hamilton saw that during the war. He had a picnic there with George Washington and lafayette. And he saw this as a source for power, this can be used for factories. And there were some problems with hamiltons plan. The first director turned out to be a crook. He embezzled the funds. But factories did come to patterson and they did come to america. And in a report that hamilton issued to congress he talked about the benefits of a diverse economy to the United States. He said we have agriculture, we have commerce and trade, but we also need manufacturing. We need all we can get. And he went into great detail about the kinds of things that could be made in america. One of the people that he found was samuel colt, who built a factory in paterson and then moved it to hartford. And the colt pistol and weapons were produced by colt and his descendants. And he was one of hamiltons talent picks for the paterson great falls project. But in his report on manufactures hamilton talks about what manufacturing and Economic Diversity can do for people. And he wrote what i consider to be the most eloquent, the most moving words he ever wrote. He said that minds of the strongest and most active nature can fall below mediocrity and labor without effect if confined to uncongenial pursuits. But were all the different kind of industry obtained in a community, each individual can find his proper element and call into activity the full vigor of his nature. Each individual can find his proper element and call into activity the whole vigor of his nation. Hamilton is going beyond dollars and cents. Hes even going beyond diversity. Hes going at an economys effect on people. I find this moving because hes writing about himself. He could so easily have fallen below mediocrity and labored without effect. If he had stayed the rest of his life in the islands, that been his life story. But through brilliance unlocked he got out and had a career. But unlike some people who rise from nowhere and make it, he thought of other Alexander Hamiltons. He wanted to make a world that would be easier and better for them. Thats what he wanted the American Economy to be. Thats what he was trying to create. Now, we are here to celebrate his life. But we are commemorating, we are calling it his passing, but lets be honest, his death. His death in a duel which i believe was needless, i believe was tragic. Makes me angry with him whenever i consider it. I remember the first time i went to weehawken, where many of you have been. And the dueling site is long gone. It was a ledge over the hudson about 20 feet up from the water, and it was dpiynamited in the 1h century to put in a railroad. So now at the top of the cliff they have a tiny little park. Its not much bigger than this lecte lectern. They have a rack against which hamilton is said to have leaned after he was shot. And theres a flagpole and theres a fence. And there really isnt much to see there. But what there is to see is across the water because its right on the hudson. And when you look to the east you see all of manhattan, from the battery all the way up through midtown, all the way up to riverside church. The manhattan Mountain Range of skyscrapers and apartment buildings. And i knew that if hamilton could see that now he would say this is why i came here, this is what i worked to build. Use it. Thanks very much. [ applause ] [ applause ] mr. Brookhiser has been gracious enough to be willing to take some questions and to answer them. And please for the consideration of other people if you could keep your questions short and make them questions and not statements it would really make for a very special time. Youll see in the middle at the front theres a microphone if you want to come up with a short and terse question. That would be very helpful. Thank you. Yes, this isnt the Constitutional Convention. Hamelston gave one speech that was six hours. But were not going to emulate that. Yes, sir. Did hamilton have any economic interest in any of the enterprises built at the great falls . Well, i cant say that he didnt have a dime in it. But hamilton was probably the poorest treasury secretary we ever had. His money came from being a lawyer. A lawyer. And he was a very good one and a very wellpaid one. And after he retired from the treasury and was back in Legal Practice and his finances had taken a hit because of all the years hed spent as treasury secretary, but he hoped to recoup and he expected to be able to leave his wife and children a nice estate. But his death cut that short. And his widow and his family was in very straightened circumstances afterwards. The reason i ask the question is that theres an attack on hamilton currently that really is an echo of attacks on hamilton that went on during his life and after his life. As i understand, his wife spent 50 years defending him after his death. Oh, theyve been attacking him for a long time. Well, the current attack that i hear from my people who maybe once were jeffersonians, i dont know what the hell they are today, theyre saying that hamilton, this capitalistic exploiter of everybody, had only built the Great Falls Dam because he owned the land or he had a financial interest in manufacturing o. I didnt believe it. So im glad to hear you agree that its a lie. Right. You can always ask them do you want to live in a poor country . Would that be better . Any other questions . Ah. Yes. Here. Heres one. You mentioned something that i think is very sophisticated talking about the end that every sperns a specialist. Maybe you can talk some more about specialization of larks which you didnt talkb which is a big part of capitalism which seemed to be at the end of your talk. Each individual, his own personal talents and professions being specialized in. Right. The report on manufactures is very long and theres a lot in it and its easy to miss this paragraph. It leaped out at me as a biographer because i did have this sense that hamilton was writing about himself. Which he rarely does. Hes not a selfanalytical person. Hes not very selfreflective. He never kept a diary. Some of his letters talk about himse himself. And this is true of most of the Founding Fathers. They werent generally an inwardlooking lot. John adams was. He has some of that puritan selfexamination. And he keeps a very detailed diary. But no. I thought here for a surprising moment its like the mask slips and were seeing something about the inner man. And hes probably perhaps not even aware of it. Hes perhaps not even aware that this is his own life, how it could have gone, his alternate life that hes describing. But it could so easily have happened. He had okay, he worked for a merchant firm that was headquartered here. Thats one break. He had a minister whod been educated at princeton. That was a second break. When he was a teenager he wrote a letter about a hurricane that flattened st. Croix and it was published in the local newspaper, the royal danish american gazette. And you know, so people read this thing and they thought this is a bright kid, lets give him a boost. But you could so easily see thon of those things happening or just shortcircuiting somehow. So thats what he could have been. And i just see him wanting to change the deck for future players. Very inspiring. Any other questions . I know youve seen the play hamilton. Yes. If your books had been the source tefmaterial, is there anything you would have changed or add or do you think its perfect as it is . I love the play. I saw it at the public theater. I reviewed it. They made me pay for the reviewers ticket. Thats how hot the show was even before it went to broadway. No, Linmanuel Miranda red ron chernows book, and ron and i agree on everything except the year that hamilton was born. Theres a controversy about that. And Michael Newton i think has finally put that to rest. He agrees with me, not well, i agree with hamilton. The question is was he born in 1755 or 57 . Anyway. So no, i the one thing that the play does, and i see why they did it, they make aaron burr into basically a nice guy. I mean, he has no ideas and he does kill the hero but basically hes a good sort. And this is done for dramatic reasons. You want an antagonist whos not just a villain or a mustachetwirling villain. So theyre trying to make a kind of a not a parity between him and hamilton but nothing lopsided. And i just certainly burr had many admirable qualities. He was a brave man. He was an intelligent man. A wellread man. But i just see something cold and empty at the heard of him, which is not the way Linmanuel Miranda chose to go. Its also not the way ron chernow goes in his book. I mean, his view of burr is very dark indeed. Any other questions . Yes. [ inaudible ]. Yeah, why dont you do that so everybody else can hear. They also were able to speak to like huge rooms in the 18th century. I dont they did it differently. It must have been like singing. Id like to ask you a question that i asked a Alexander Hamilton actor at the grange. I asked the question in front of professor joanne freeman, and her nor the actor, they didnt give me an answer, by the actor in his portrayal of hamilton was offended by my question. Id like to ask you, was Alexander Hamilton romantically in love with his wifes sister . Thank you. You know, yes, but did they have an affair . That i dont know. You know, we never know. Certainly his wifes sister, angelica. Betsy schuyler was one a number of schuyler daughters. Her sister angelica married a man named john church. And it was actually john churchs dueling pistols that were used in the fatal duel with aaron burr. And ive seen them. And theyre really goodlooking. Which makes it terrible. I mean, these are fetishized, artistic objects of gentlemanly death. Its really chilling to see these things. Incidentally, dueling was also illegal in new jersey. It was illegal everywhere. Deaths in duels were considered murders. But they were never prosecuted. Jury nullification. No jury would have convicted because thats what gentlemen did. It was a parallel system. It was a wicked system. But we lived with it. But so okay, there were these church sisters. And clearly angelica is also smitten with hamilton. I mean, she writes these letters to him and about him and she reminds me of a character in a jane austen novel. You know, one of these characters whos amusing by how annoying they are. Theyre always kind of in your face and putting their emotions before you. And i think hamilton was very flattered by this attention. He had an eye for the ladies. Hes not the only person, you know, you can think of who falls in love with a whole group of sisters simultaneously. Mozart did that. Charles dickens did that. You know, its kind of a common pattern for someone, often maybe from the margins and they meet rich, glamorous, or attractive sisters and they pick out one whom they marry but they just theyre just, you know, all in love with the whole crop of them. And theyre in love with him. So thats my best answer. I mean, theres no you know, theres no solid proof of anything more than that. But yes, i think there was a kind of eroticized quality to the whole relationship with all the schuyler girls. Okay. Well, thank you so much for your attention. [ applause ] you can tell by mr. Brookhisers knowledge and the depth that he has, there are many historians, there are many biographers, there are many authors, there are many journalists, very few have the scholarly depth and width that mr. Brookhiser has. I just want to share this with you all today because we announced it last week. But Richard Brookhiser has also been designated as a National Hamilton scholar, which reads for exemplary scholarship, research, and writing to provide accurate, objective and insightful information to the public about the United States of americas remarkable founding father Alexander Hamilton. The Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society. 2016. Thank you for your service to Alexander Hamilton. [ applause ] thank you. And to conclude we just want to let you know if you havent gotten one of these you can ask for it afterwards, but we have a number of more hamilton events coming up. Hamilton on the hudson on the lower part and mid Hudson Valley region. And thats the july 15th to the 17th. And the Trinity Church archives is going to have original documents, i believe also baptism certificates of five of Alexander Hamilton and Eliza Hamiltons children. So i encourage you to see that. Thank you so much for coming. And keep following and cheering on Alexander Hamilton and his contributions. Thank you. [ applause ] American History tv airs on cspan 3 every weekend, telling the american story through events, interviews, and visiting historic locations. 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