Complete Works. Hamilton AlexanderЧитать онлайн книгу.
Chapter IX
Friends and Enemies
From an early period in the war until after the overthrow of Louis XVI, a number of brilliant Frenchmen landed on our shores. Some, like La Fayette, the Duc de Lauzun, the Vicomte de Noailles, the Marquis François Jean de Chastellux, Rochambeau, Tousard, Pont de Gibaud, Duportail, Maudiut Duplessis, the Comte de la Rouarie, or Colonel Armand as he was known to his fellows, came to fight.
Others, like Louis Philippe, the Comte de Volney, the Comte Alexandre de Tilly, Moreau de St. Méry, the Duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, J. P. Brissot de Warville, came as èmigrès or to travel; and the ubiquitous Bishop of Autun, otherwise Charles Maurice Talleyrand, after stirring up all the mischief he could in Great Britain, and starting an Irish rebellion, came here to spy. These, and many other clever and witty men from different parts of Europe, among them the veteran soldier Steuben, gave to society at the time of the American Revolution a decided charm. We find them in Philadelphia, as well as at every large army camp, and in the gloom incident to the hardship and struggles of a poorly equipped force fighting against superior numbers of well-trained troops, they were cheerful and welcome visitors. They certainly brought with them a fund of gayety, which did much to raise the drooping spirits of the hardy patriots, and with most of them Hamilton was on very good terms. Of him Oliver draws this picture, which, perhaps, applies to a later period, but according to those French travellers and writers who knew him in the field, he was always fascinating: "This serious young statesman we gather to have been remarkable in private life, chiefly for his high spirits, his good looks, his bright eyes, and his extraordinary vivacity. He loved the society of his fellow-creatures, and shone in It. He loved good wine and good company and beautiful things—even clothes and ruffles of fine lace. He despised slovens and people like Jefferson, who dressed ostentatiously in homespun. He belonged to the age of manners, and silk stockings, and handsome shoe-buckles. In Bagehot's excellent phrase, 'he was an enjoying English gentleman'; companionable and loyal, gay and sincere, always masterful and nearly always dignified."
Let us see, then, who were his friends. As a rule, they were men who were honorable and well educated, of good courage and good breeding, gallant and chivalrous, and who possessed the other attractions of an heroic age.
As his capacity for making lasting friends was greatly inferior