Complete Works. Hamilton AlexanderЧитать онлайн книгу.
am anxious to visit you and to participate in the pleasure of your country retreat which I am informed is fast reaching perfection. Embrace my dear Hamilton and the children. He and they participate with you in your mother's and my warmest affections. May health and happiness be the portion of all. God bless you my dearly beloved child.
I am ever, most tenderly and affectionately, yours,
PH. SCHUYLER.
From Albany he again wrote to her on April 23, 1803:
DEAR CHILD: This morning Genr. Ten Broeck informed me that your horses which went from hence were drowned,
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and that you had lost paint, oil, &c to a considerable amount, -- Supposing this account to have been truly stated to the General, I send you by Toney my waggon horses of which I make you present.
I intended to have your house painted If you cannot recover the paint, purchase no more as I will have the house painted.
When an opportunity offers send my saddle and bridle which Toney will leave. --
Your Sister unites with me in love to you and Eliza.
I am Dr child
Your affectionate parent
PH. SCHUYLER.
As an illustration of how dwelling-houses were built in New York at the time, the mason's specifications may be produced.
Proposal for finishing General Hamilton's Country House -- Viz. To build two Stacks of Chimneys to contain eight fire-places, exclusive of those in Cellar Story.
To fill in with brick all the outside walls of the 1st and 2nd stories, also all the interior walls that Separate the two Octagon Rooms -- and the two rooms over them -- from the Hall and other Rooms in both Stories.
To lath and plaster the side walls of 1st and 2nd stories with two coats & set in white.
To plaster the interior walls which separate the Octagon Rooms in both Stories, to be finished white, or as General Hamilton may chose.
To lath and plaster all the other partitions in both Stories.
To lath and plaster the Ceiling of the Cellar Story throughout.
To plaster the Side walls of Kitchen, Drawing Room, Hall & passage, & to point & whitewash the Stone & brick walls of the other part of Cellar Story. To Point the outside walls of Cellar Story and to fill in under the Sills.
To lay both Kitchen hearths with brick placed edge ways.
To put a Strong Iron back in the Kitchen fire-place five feet long by 2 1/2 9" high.
To put another Iron back in the Drawing Room 3'-6" by 2'-9".
To place two Iron Cranes in the Kitchen fire Place -- & an Iron door for the oven mouth.
The Rooms, Hall, and Passage of the first Story to have neat Stocco Cornices -- Those of Octagon Rooms of Best Kind (but not inriched).
To put up the two setts of Italian Marble in the Octagon Rooms, such as General Hamilton may chose -- and Six setts of Stone Chimney pieces for the other Rooms.
The Four fireplaces in the two Octagon rooms & the two rooms over them, to have Iron Backs and jambs, and four fire places to have backs only.
To lay the foundations for eight piers for the Piazza.
Mr. McComb to find at his own expense all the Material requisite for the afore described work and execute it in a good & workmenlike manner for one thousand Eight Hundred & Seventy five Dollars.
General Hamilton to have all the Materials carted and to have all the Carpenters'work done at his expense --
General Hamilton is to find the workmen their board or to allow -- shillings per day for each days work in lieu thereof.
New York 22nd June 1801.
JOHN MCCOMB Jun
To build the Stew holes and a wall for the sink.
The whole to be completed by --?
The chimneys, which were very large, were a source of much anxiety to Hamilton and his advisers. At that time Count Rumford1 was an authority on everything scientific in this country, and his experiments on the domestic application of artificial light and heat attracted almost as much attention as did the inventions of Benjamin Franklin, whose stoves were coming into general use. Finally the matter was settled, and the comfort of the inmates of the house assured by the adoption of a proper chimney.
Plan of a Chimney on Rumford's principles.
The whole width in opening in front of the fire place 39 inches of which thirteen to from back side at an Angle of about 135 Degrees and thirteen the back.
From these dimensions the depth results --
The height from the floor to the throat about three feet and the throat about four inches wide -- and central to the base or perpendicular over the fire.
Thus
In this connection it is interesting to read of Burr's later opinion of Rumford's invention, and his own attempts to keep warm in a foreign city. Aaron Burr in his diary, in describing his room in Paris which he occupied in 1810, said:
"The fireplace (more like an oven) is three feet deep, and five feet wide, and of course smokes perpetually. Having endured this now more than two months, and finding my eyes worse for it, sent today for one of those scientific men called fumistes. Showed him the evil and proposed a remedy. 'Mais sur quelles principes mons. sont fon'es vos idees.' In vain did I take on myself the hazard of the result. 'Non c'est decarter de tous les principes,' and so we parted. Nineteen out of twenty of the chimnies of Paris (of France I might say) smoke always, and the other twentieth occasionally. In vain have Franklin and Rumford shown by fact and experiment how chimnies should be built. Their obstinacy and stupidity passes belief. And so I sit envellopped in smoke, or as you have it, sit like the gods in the clouds."
Hamilton kept minute accounts of the cost of labor and material, and it is curious to note the rate of wages paid one hundred years ago, long before the days of labor unions. We find that one Thomas Costigan, who had, apparently, been engaged in building the house, and afterward became a man-of-all-work, received, for services rendered for three and one-half years, the sum of four hundred and twenty-four dollars and fifty cents. Thomas Dunnevan was another workman upon the place, and in an entry in the expensebook it is stated that he was paid one hundred and fifty-two dollars and eighteen cents by wages, from the 8th of March, 1802, to the 4th of August, 1803, "when the poor worthy fellow was drowned. Sixteen months and twenty-seven days at 9d." This bill was receipted by Edward Kerhal, who was next of kin.
The entire cost of building the house was £1,550, and this sum was paid to Ezra Weeks.
Hamilton always had a taste for gardening and farming, and one of his friends who did much to encourage him was
Dr. David Hosack, a distinguished and fashionable physician of the time. In 1796 Dr. Hosack became a partner of Dr. Samuel Bard, and these two were Hamilton's physicians and friends. Later, upon the death of his son Philip, Bard wrote a most tender letter of sympathy to his dear friend Hamilton from his country house in Hyde Park, where he passed the remainder of his days. Dr. Hosack, whose education had been undertaken in part in Europe, had become deeply interested in botany. This led, on his return, to his appointment as professor of botany and afterward materia medica in Columbia College. For a time he became connected with the Rutgers Medical College, having associated himself with Dr. Valentine Mott and Dr. Francis, but later returned to the old college. In 1798 he formed the idea of providing a large botanical garden which could be used in