Complete Works. Hamilton AlexanderЧитать онлайн книгу.
of all the officers if he would prosecute that affair against me. They assembled together upon my answer, and then Informed me that on hearing of my refusing satisfaction to Mr. Wilson, my Brother officer, for a gross Insult offered to him, they were going to publish my infamous conduct to the world. I refused that paper because it was not signed, and it did not bear any mark of authenticity about it. They did not return it. Sunday last was the day it was brought to me. Mr. Lovel one of the Ring Leaders, went on that day to New York -- perhaps to have it published; on Monday -- a Mr. Elmer another Ring Leader, went up to Goshen to begin against me, as I understand, a civil prosecution for the blow. On that same day I did inform the officers that I was sorry that they had not had confidence enough in me to let me know the object of their meeting, and that in explaining to them the affair, with its causes and all the circumstances, I might have prevented the Breach from opening between us, and that they perhaps would have been convinced that a full atonement had been granted for the Insult, agreeably to stipulation, and that it was unjust to carry judgments without hearing but one party, but at all events, I proposed a way to come regularly and without passion to a Settlement, -- which was to leave the matter to the decision of three officers of the army well acquainted with the rules generally observed in affairs of honor, and that if they did determine that I owed farther satisfaction to Mr. Wilson I would follow their decision to all its extent, upon that proposition they altered their former plan and changed it into an accusation before the Secretary of War.
I am now arrived to a few Queries which I would wish you to favor with your opinion upon and as soon as convenient, in order that I may avoid if possible the Inconveniency of a writ, which may be served against me upon the application of my adversaries.
When two military characters happen to have a difference between them, which has been the cause of a Breach of the law short of murder, and when that affair of honor has been agreed upon as a Sufficient atonement, is one of the two Liable to be prosecuted by the other before the Tribunals of the State?
Is an offense passed on a Spot within the territory of the United States as West Point is, amenable before the tribunal of the State of New York?
Is an officer accused before a Military Tribunal for an offense, by the person who received it, liable to be prosecuted at the same time before the civil authority, by the same person or by anybody else for him?
If an officer is tryed before a Military Tribunal, and acquitted or condemned, is he liable to be prosecuted again before the civil tribunal?
Can I with the challenge which I have possession of, check the writ against me, if any there is? I must own to you Sir,
that I would consider that Mode of clearing myself as Shameful, the perfidy of the act perpetrated against me would be the only reason that would make me pass over it, and the disagreeable situation of being under the weight of an arrest from the Civil Authority would be a further reason in favor of it.
I will dispense Sir, with any further Queries upon the subject laid before you, I have tried to detail it as much as I could, in order that you may be led by the circumstances, and that you may give me explanations upon points which, the essential, I have not perhaps insisted on or even perceived.
The most delicate point which I would be glad you would favor me with your opinion upon, is that of honor, my firm determination is to give full and ample satisfaction if wanted, even was it unasked, for I conceive that a man is the most unhappy of wretches, if he is convinced that his honor and delicacy have received a check.
I am with great Esteem and Respect, Dear Sir
You obedt. humble Servant
STEP. ROCHEFONTAINE
Lt. Col. Com'dr. of the Artr. & Engr.
Alex. Hamilton, Esqe., Attorney-at-law, New York.
On May 10 he again wrote:
WEST POINT BY PEEKSKILL.
DEAR SIR: I have had the honor to transmit to you in the course of last week, a letter detailing the affair which passed between Mr. Wilson, a Lieut. in the Corps, and myself; the Injuries offered on both sides had been settled agreeably to the rules of honor adopted by gentlemen, and in consequence of a Particular agreement made by the two Seconds. Two days after I received a challenge from Mr. Wilson by his second, Mr. Lovel, a Lieut. also, -- my answer was that I looked on that affair as settled. Some of the officers who are far from being my friends, and who are too Prudent to
Expose themselves without danger, -- they assembled the officers who, thro' hatred to me, others thro' fear of their Brother-in-Arms, many without any other motive but insubordination, which is generaly impregnated in the minds of the people under a Free Government, signed a sort of libel. in which they declare that they will publish to the world, that after insulting Mr. Wilson, I refused to give him satisfaction; I refused the paper which was not authenticated by any signature and I did not receive it back, but they sent me a copy of some charges laid against me before the Secretary of War.
Mr. McHenry has sent me the copy of the accusation, and has not informed me yet what plan he expected to proceed upon, -- I desired him by this post to grant me a Court of Inquiry instead of a Court Martial. The Court of Inquiry may investigate the whole affair which will throw the accusation to the ground, -- a Court Martial on the contrary cannot conceive any disposition upon facts, let them be so near related to the head of accusation, if they are not materialy in the charges, it begins also by a Punishment, the arrest. This is at least the principle upon which our officers have acted, for they are most of them Lawyers of the worst Kind, viz: full of those low means, which are dishonorable in the eyes of an honest man. I have another evil to contend with, that of preventing the officers from gaining or otherwise hindering the witnesses that I may call upon to prove certain facts, from telling what they saw or heard. The general saying among those people is, that it will bring trouble unto those who will take any part for me.
I will not take up any more of your time to read my scribbling, my first letter has gone as fully as I thought necessary on the details of that affair, -- I wish you would oblige me with your advice, both as to my conduct towards the civil or military prosecution, to avoid the evils prepared against me by baseness, and cowardice; any expense attending the prosecution of my enemies and my defense upon the delicate point of honor, I will bear with a great deal of pleasure, I wish therefore you would inform me what will be necessary,
and the Sums will immediately be forwarded thro' the Bank at New York.
I wish very much for your answer, and I am very anxious to know if you will condescend to take my defense in that affair, in which I may again assure you that my honor has not received the least attack or blemish.
I am with great Respect
Dear Sir
Your most obedt. Servant
STEP. ROCHEFONTAINE.
Lt. Col. Com'd'r. of 7th Corps of Art'r. & Eng'rs.
It does not appear that anything came of all this, and it is probable that through Hamilton's efforts matters were adjusted.
From this time on he underwent a decided change of heart regarding this method of settling personal difficulties. Many of the old army and some of his friends had fallen in the field of honor, for toward the end of the century encounters of this kind were too often the result of trivial affronts and tavern brawls. When his own beloved firstborn perished in this way his horror of the duello became so great that he, whenever possible, forced his clients and those who consulted him to settle their difficulties in some less extreme way.
Brave as he was, it may be, therefore, perceived how his encounter with Aaron Burr was one that he was reluctantly drawn into, and quite inconsistent with the stand he had taken for the last two years before his death.
Though much misconception exists as to the relations of Hamilton and Burr, it cannot be denied that destiny shaped their lives in such a way that their paths forever crossed, and that one always affected the other in some manner during their eventful careers. The thought certainly suggests itself to the fatalist that the subsequent death of Hamilton and the disgrace and poverty of Burr were preordained. A study of the parallel