Androgynous Descriptions of Alexander Hamilton
Trying to compile a list of all the times Hamilton’s contemporaries or early biographers described him in or portrayed him as acting in particularly feminine or androgynous ways, positive or pejorative:
He was under middle size; thin in person, but remarkably erect and dignified in his deportment. His hair was turned back from his forehead, powdered, and collected in a club behind. His complexion was exceedingly fair, and varying from this only by the almost feminine rosiness of his cheeks. His might be considered, as to figure and color, an uncommonly handsome face. When at rest, it had rather a severe and thoughtful expression; but when engaged in conversation, it easily assumed an attractive smile.
Hamilton has a very boyish, giddy manner, and Scotch-Irish people could well call him a “skite.“
He’ll, all at once, start from his chair, / Twirl his whip and sing an air, / Dance, to show his grace and shape, / Brisk and sprightly as an—Ape. / To the glass he often goes, / There adjusts his stock and clothes, / Meets his image with a glance, / Of the sweetest complaisance.
Although I read with tranquility and suffered to pass without animadversion in silent contempt the base insinuations of vanity and a hundred lies besides published in a pamphlet against me by an insolent coxcomb who rarely dined in good company, where there was good wine, without getting silly and vaporing about his administration like a young girl about her brilliants and trinkets, yet I lose all patience when I think of a bastard brat of a Scotch pedlar daring to threaten to undeceive the world in their judgment of Washington by writing an history of his battles and campaigns.
Hamilton had no more gratitude than a Cat. If you give a hungry famished Cat a slice of meat, she will not accept it as a Gift; she will snatch at it by Force, and express in her countenance and air, that she is under no obligation to you; that she got it by her own cunning and activity, and that you are a fool for giving it to her.
Burr, though not one of the fomenters of the American Revolution, had been one of its officers, and every opportunity which Hamilton improved Burr had possessed in an equal degree. He, like Hamilton, had been awhile on the staff of Washington; he, like Hamilton, had the benefit of the society of the Schuyler family, in his early military days, but he made no honorable impression there. Burr, for no public services whatever, except as one of the earliest heroes of the Albany lobby, was sent to Philadelphia as United States Senator, and when Hamilton lost his political power, Mr. Burr reached the second station in the country. Yet, in the lapse of days, how insignificant appears the effigy of Burr beside this symmetrical, almost girlish engine of thought, intercourse and public science.
- G.W.P. Custis, Katherine Baxter’s Godchild of Washington
In the intercourse of these martial youths [Hamilton and Laurens], who have been styled “the Knights of the Revolution,” there was a deep fondness of friendship, which approached the tenderness of feminine attachment.
- John Church Hamilton, Life of Alexander Hamilton
His temper was as sportive as it was kind. An eminent Presbyterian clergyman from New England was introduced to him, when on a visit to New York. On his return, his friend said, “Well, you have seen Hamilton—you have seen the great man.” “I cannot tell you about his greatness,” the Divine answered, “but he was as playful as a kitten.”
- John Church Hamilton, Life of Alexander Hamilton
There was something almost feminine in Hamilton’s gentleness and concern for the comfort and happiness of other people.
- Allan McLane Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton
His attachments were strangely assorted, but, as a rule, were very deep, very affectionate, and very lasting; and, as is usually the case, the less brilliant and more sober-minded friends were those that remained loyal and unselfishly devoted to him until the end, and did more for his family after his death than any of the others. It may be said that they were divided into two categories: those that were drawn to him by his humorous and almost feminine traits, which were coupled with a fascinating culture and a flow of spirits that almost bubbled over; and others, who had been engaged with him in the war, and in his legal practice, and the many public affairs which were so vital at the time. These really loved him for his great intellectual gifts and his absolute sense of justice.
- Allan McLane Hamilton, The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton
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