So after previously only ever being amazed at other people on here finding and exposing Chernow falsities, I am now proud to say that I have now uncovered one all on my own (though of course someone else might have found this already but if they have I havenāt found them saying so).
Itās about a quote describing the appearance of Alexander Hamilton that Chernow claims is by Fisher Ames, a federalist, member of the Essex Junto and great admirer of Hamilton (spoiler: it isnāt).
(Very long post. Thereās a tl;dr at the end if you donāt want the details or how I got there.)
In the article āThe Erotic Charisma of Alexander Hamiltonā (read here or on JSTOR) the author writes:
āHis good friend and fellow Federalist Fisher Ames (1758ā1808) rhapsodized about him, particularly admiring his eyes (āof a deep azure, eminently beautifulā) and his physical deportment (āone of the most elegant of mortalsā with āeasy, graceful, and polished movementsā).ā
Thatās Fisher Ames
The eye part is probably the more widely known part of this quote but the most elegant of mortals part is the funnier one. Now this isnāt too crazy but still quite the thing to say about someone. Not that I wouldnāt have thought Fisher Ames to be capable of that, he did write what I call the glazing manifesto about Ham after his death after all. You can read that here, itās fun. But still, I thought, Iād check where it came from.
The citation was of course Chernow. Since the man sometimes just doesnāt cite at all, I went to the copy I acquired some time ago for these purposes to check if he did cite here. And he did!
On page 51 he writes: āHis later federalist friend Fisher Ames left some graphic impressions of Hamiltonās appearance. Of his eyes he said, āThese were of a deep azure, eminently beautiful, without the slightest trace of hardness and severity, and beamed with higher expressions of intelligence and discernment than any others that I ever saw.ā Ames often bumped into Hamilton on his daily walks and said āhe displayed in his manners and movements a degree of refinement and grace which I never witnessed in any other man ⦠and I am quite confident that those who knew him intimately will cheerfully subscribe to my opinion that he was one of the most elegant of mortals. [ā¦]āā
This is footnote 26 of this chapter (three) and that is the following citation: New York Mirror, n.d. Copy in LC-AHP, reel 31.
With LC-AHP he means the Papers of Alexander Hamilton as hosted by the Library of Congress, he has an abbreviations key for that fortunately because all kinds of things abbreviated AHP are hosted by the Library of Congress and the Ham papers isnāt one of them. Theyāre PAH but whatever.
So firstly I searched for New York Mirror in the PAH and found there to be no such document. Then I went to the reel 31 that he cites specifically and again that doesnāt exist as a document.
Turns out itās not a document of its own, itās just a clipping in the file āClippingsā of the file āMiscellanyā (which is one of two files titled reel 31) but Chernow couldnāt be bothered to add that to his citation and instead made me go through all of reel 31 which took me some time because I was supposed to be doing other things.
(I did find all kinds of funny stuff doing that though, so thatās positive. I might share some of it later.)
Because itās just a newspaper clipping weāre missing some information, like Chernow says itās not dated (n.d.), we donāt have the full context and as you will see we also canāt say who wrote that. But the quote is in fact there and real. Letās get into it.
So first of all itās way more insane than Chernow letās on so read it yourself here in full (on danger of choking on your drink)
Secondly, the context:
So apparently there was some sort of description of AHam printed in the New York Mirror, our not-Fisher Ames had gripes with it and wrote to the Editor of the New York Mirror, his corrections being subsequently printed as well. Then someone requested it and it was re-printed in āThe Americanā (I canāt say what paper that is, there were many with The American in their title).
Then thereās part one of the elegance quote:
This is quoted correctly but I included the sentences before that because Chernow says āAmes often bumped into Hamilton on his daily walksā. Is it just me or does the first sentence sound less like them walking together and more this person watching (stalking) Ham?
Hereās the most elegant part:
Thereās some insane glazing in between but Iāll spare you that, you can just go read it yourselves if you wish.
The eye part:
Iāll be nitpicky because why not, itās āThey wereā not āThese wereā. And he left out the best part of this honestly. āHuman face divineā lmao. Weāre quoting John Milton for this I guess. (Itās a quote from Paradise Lost)
Lastly, we have a sign off:
āRemembrancerā
So itās anonymousā¦
After finding the quote where Chernow vaguely said it was, I expected him to have been correct but I really donāt know where he could have possibly gotten Fisher Ames from in relation to this. Did he just pick someone who would seem realistic because they were glazing Hamilton anyway?
Because not only is there no indication of this Remembrancer being Fisher Ames (itās anonymous and also has no private information that would point towards him. Even if weāre assuming Chernow got it from somewhere that Ames did often accompany Ham on walks and this person was walking with him too, what kind of evidence is that??? Generally this could have been anyone who knew him personally in his later years.) itās actually impossible for this to have been Ames.
The āNew York Mirrorā was first published in 1823. There were other newspapers of that or a similar name later but seemingly not before. Fisher Ames died in 1808!
At first I thought the original quote might have been re-printed in the NYM but alas, thatās not it. It was clearly a correction addressed explicitly to the editor of the New York Mirror which didnāt exist while Ames was alive.
Subsequently this is not Ames but some unidentified contemporary AHam fanboy or fangirl and Chernow is wrong! (Unless he knows something he doesnāt want to share with the class?)
Ha! I fact-checked you, Ron!
So there you have it. Of course, if someone else knows anything more about the mystery writer or does in fact have information debunking what I just explained too elaborately, let me know.
If you read to the end, congratulations and I love you. Have a cookie šŖ
tl;dr: The quote exists and is correct but itās not by Fisher Ames as Chernow claims because that guy was dead by the time it was written. Instead itās some anonymous writer. (Whoās kind of in love with and potentially used to stalk AHam.)












