oh throwback

matching icons for you and your friends from that one painting

Robespierre dessiné en oiseau pour le livret de l’opéra Ça Ira, par Nadine Roda-Gil.

‘Every lad had a lover or friend who took care of his education and shared in the praise of blame of his virtues or vices. It was the same with the women.’

— Alexander Hamilton’s notes on Spartan soldiers in his paybook

(maximilien robespierre voice)

John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States, 1801-1835 - Philadelphia Art Museum | August 2017

After Mr. Harrison had spoken, the question which I have before spoken of was brought forward to prevent the decision of which Mr. Hamilton, the American Cicero, arose.

David S Bogart to Samuel Blachley Webb, June 14th 1788

This at the time of the State Convention in Poughkeepsie, where Hamilton took part in a campaign for the United Stats Constitution’s ratification in New York. He was pitted against the Clintonian faction who wanted to amend the Constitution, while maintaining the state’s right to secede if their attempts failed, while Hamilton’s faction were against any conditional ratification, under the impression that New York would not be accepted into the Union.

(via iafayettes)

y'all mind if I just… add the comparison.

(via ciceroprofacto)

Oh, Chernow, why are you the way that you are?

Let’s take this paragraph and break it down:

Hamilton now believed that his greatest opportunities lay behind him.  On December 1, 1794, the day he returned to Philadelphia, he told Washington that he would surrender his Treasury post in late January.

Hamilton was actually back in Philadelphia by November 27. It’s unclear when he returned.  He left Pittsburgh on November 19 and, based on their pace of travel going west, it was about a week’s travel, possibly longer.  He likely got home on November 26 or, if he received Henry Knox’s letter of November 24 the day it was written, he could’ve sped ahead and returned home by the 25. 

Either way, he didn’t return on December 1.

One wonders whether Eliza’s miscarriage affected this snap decision.

YEAH, ONE WONDERS.  (poor Chernow’s wife).  Also, I’ll again point out that what they called a miscarriage was actually a still birth as Eliza was over six months pregnant when this happened.

Also, it was not a snap decision, but one Hamilton had contemplated for a long time. He even told George Washington on May 27 of that year that he wanted to resign but would not because of the state of the country.  However, he continued, if his family’s health suffered because of his continuing, he would resign. 

It was not a snap decision, but one he promised.

With her selfless love for Hamilton, she didn’t care for the blood sport that passed for politics and was disgusted by the unceasing attacks on her husband.  It pained her to see the scant appreciation for his sacrifices.

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with this except that it was THEIR sacrifices.  Chernow continues to not understand late 18th century marriage. 

Angelica Church wrote to Eliza with mixed emotions when she heard of Hamilton’s rumored resignation, “This country will lose one of her best friends and you, my dear Eliza, will be the only person to whom this change can be either necessary or agreeable.  I am inclined to believe that it is your influence [that] induces him to withdraw from public life.”

 Angelica wrote this nearly a year before Hamilton’s resigned.  Like, way to misrepresent when things were written, bro!  Great job!

Church knew Hamilton’s fun-loving side and agreed that Hamilton needed a respite from politics, telling Eliza that “when you and I are with him, he shall not talk politics to us.  A little of his agreeable nonsense will do us more good.”

Meanwhile, this was written a year and a half after Hamilton’s resignation.  Like, please stop taking things out of context!  This wasn’t really about what Hamilton needed, but about Angelica moving back to America and what her life would be like! 

What sins as a nation have we not to repent of [?]

Eliza in 1837 regarding the treatment of native populations. 

And we keep adding to our sins. 

(via runawayforthesummer)

I expect e’er long to hear that [Thomas] Pain[e] is Split and pliced for an Aristocrat: perhaps roasted or broild or fryed. He is too lean to make a good Pye, but he is now in company with a Number, who are admirably qualified and disposed to feed upon each other.

John Adams to Abigail Adams, 14 January 1793

John Adams, actual cannibal, confirmed.

(via iafayettes)

(this is John expressing incredulity at the increasingly indiscriminate killing during the French Revolution. “for” in this case means “as;” John is referring to the fact that Paine was elected to the French National Assembly- despite not speaking French -and hated by the most radical revolutionaries for his opposition to the violence of the Terror

his point was that the revolutionaries were starting to “cannibalize” and denounce each other. and he was ultimately right

sorry I know this is a joke post but there’s such fascinating historical context behind it)

Philip Schuyler to Elizabeth Hamilton

Albany June 30 1803

How soothing my dearly beloved Child, are your affections of tenderness and anxiety for me.  I thank god that I can greet your apprehension by assuring you that I enjoy good health that I am happily spared of pain, and that the wounds in my feet, by which much gouty matter has been discharged and now clean and healing with all the rapidly I can with.

I most humbly Join in your wish to be with you but it will not be possible until September as I have several concerns to attend to and my confinement retards a separation to them.

I hope you freely consent to your Dear Hamilton’s remaining in town at least three days successively for I fear that too much exposure to the sun at this ardent season may prove injurious to his health and its preservation will Justify many sacrifices of otherwise domestic comfort. Let him and Your Dear Children I have with you in that Love & affections which I feel and ought to feel for so much attention as I comfortably experience.

All here are well and Catharine and her nieces afford me much agreeable amusement they all desire their Love.

I am happy that your babes are recovered. Do not let them eat too much fruits nor drink iced water.

Adieu My Beloved

I ever most tenderly

Yours

Ph. Schuyler

Eliza’s sense of humor

Some good examples:

1791 to Angelica Church:

Peggy has just left this city with Mr. Rensselear having spent three weeks with us she is in good health and spirits but bears no marks of usefulness to the Commonwealth. I also continue Idle. but pray my Lady what are you a bout all this time with your grave enquierys about the success of your Sisters Labours?

1828 to her sister, Catharine:

I wish you to write to me often you see I send you quite a Domestic letter but let me tell you I have the great Mr. Monroe late President in my neighbourhood 

the sarcasm, it drips

1842 to her sister-in-law:

In some of our conversations I think we concluded that the inhabitants of the world were going cracked. Last evening I was at the levee at the palace of our great metropolis where there was a great assemblage of the Talents of the Union, and a very old lady with a cap that the fashion had not been changed for the last forty years nor her dress since the birth of her first great grandchild, she was bowed about at the great ball. Now, my dear, does not this folly make good our conclusion?

Happy birthday to this wonderful, strong and beautiful woman. The more I learn of her life, the more in complete awe I am of her strength, grace, loyalty and perseverance. She spent her life fighting to share her husband’s story. I’m so glad hers is finally being told.

Eliza getting that family portrait once a year!

Short overview of Ben Franklin & slavery

Benjamin Franklin, like many of the other founders, expressed beliefs that the colonists were being kept enslaved by the British yet still keeping people enslaved themselves. Franklin, while harbouring abolitionist views himself towards the end of his life, at first owned slaves and held period typical views on black people. Examples of this are shown in essays, such as ‘Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind’ in 1751.

Keep reading

What the actual fuck was wrong with Thomas Jefferson

The unnecessary capricious & abominable assassination of the National honor by the rejection of the propositions respecting the unsubscribed debt in the House of Representatives haunts me every step I take, and afflicts me more than I can express. To see the character of the Government and the country so sported with, exposed to so indelible a blot puts my heart to the Torture. Am I then more of an American than those who drew their first breath on American Ground? Or What is it that thus torments me at a circumstance so calmly viewed by almost every body else? Am I a fool—a Romantic quixot—Or is there a constitutional defect in the American Mind? Were it not for yourself and a few others, I could adopt the reveries of De Paux as substantial truths, and would say with him that there is something in our climate which belittles every Animal human or brute.

Alexander Hamilton to Rufus King, February 21, 1795 (via publius-esquire)