Alexander Hamilton the Lawyer. derisively played some years previously at Concord and Lexington. That intermission was the result of an in cident little known, but which illustrates the tenacity of purpose and quickness of action that were peculiar to Hamilton, and which forms one of the very few littlenesses in Washington's life. It seems that on one occasion the Commander-in-Chief being at a headquarters house, and in an upper story of it, despatched an orderly to Aide-de-camp Hamilton, bidding him come up stairs for sudden duty. Lafayette was met on the stairs coming down as Hamilton was going up. The former had recently arrived and had taken a fancy to the latter that culmi nated in an historic friendship. They passed a few moments in conversation and parted. The meeting detained Hamilton, and at the head of the stairs, as he reached it, stood Washington, who made a petulant remark to Hamilton, saying (as was his account long afterward to his son John C.),"Col. Hamilton, this delay to my message is inex cusable." The tone was resented on the spot, and Hamilton perhaps too warmly retorted with a verbal resignation, retraced his steps, and retired to the camp where was the regiment of which he was yet colonel. The proverbial mildness of Washington al most immediately returned, and he sent to Hamilton a brother comrade as peace-maker. The lover's quarrel was soon made up, and like the proverbial lover's quarrel led to stronger affiliations. Well may one con templating the incident — to which perhaps a Napoleon or a Wellington would have given a less pleasant termination under sim ilar circumstances — recall the lines of Tom Moore : — "Alas, how light a cause may move Dissensions between hearts that love : Hearts that the world had tried And sorrow but more closely tied; That stood the storm when waves were rough Yet in a sunny hour fall off." Perhaps it was the after sorrows soon following the temporary estrangement that
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closer tied the hearts of Washington and Hamilton. After his participation in the victory at Yorktown, and while negotiations for peace progressed, he determined to leave the pro fession of arms and to grasp the mightier pen as a lawyer. He had in 1780 married an accomplished daughter of General Philip Schuyler. The union was a purely lovematch. There was already, when peace came, a first-born; and the young father felt not only need of occupation but of sup port. To himself insensibly, while a West Indian clerk he had been a student of com mercial law; while in the army he neces sarily became a student of the law of nations. He was always a student of human nature. What wonder, therefore, that in only four months' time he fitted himself for examina tion as an attorney of the Supreme Court of the state of New York; signing its roll in a July and in the following October acquir ing, the dignity of counselor. He at once stepped into an almost phenomenal practice, especially attracting commercial clients, and those having claims against the expiring Continental government. The fame of his college oratory now revived for the thirtyyear-old lawyer with his clear, elegant and affluent style of speech and his commanding manner. Of that, and of his personnel at this time, there is of record a pen-picture made by his sister-in-law, Mrs. Catharine Van Rensselaer Cochrane : " He had a small, lithe figure, instinct with life. He stood erect and was steady in gait. His presence was military without the intolerable accuracy of a martinet. His address was graceful and nervous; as indicating the beauty, ac tivity and energy of his mind. He had a bright, ruddy complexion, light-colored hair, a mouth infinite in expression, its sweet smile being most observable and much spoken of, eyes lustrous with deep meaning ' on glancing with quick, canny pleasantry; and the whole countenance decidedly Scottish in form and expression. His political ene-
