My Awesome Chill Professor Who Indulges My Tangents And Has Really Interesting Points As A Past Avid

my awesome chill professor who indulges my tangents and has really interesting points as a past avid admirer of jefferson: i find it amusing that many of the reviews and conclusions drawn from commentary that point out jefferson's flaws is "he wasn't an angel or a demon, just a guy :(". huge amount of slack, don't you think? he's the king of pr.

me: so you're saying that jefferson uses the "i'm just a girl" defense?

professor: accurate. jefferson's just a girl! he tried his best. support his rights and his wrongs.

remember the glorious day when someone corrected aaron burr's wikipedia page and finally revealed to the world that he was responsible for jefferson's miku binder? nobody ever say again that burr gets a bad rep because of the duel.

Link to one version of the page

the mcu is just the front for american military propaganda promoted to hide the true powerhouse which is turn's sexy george washington.

Every time I rewatch Turn I end up forgetting that for some unholy reason they cast a hot Washington and his introduction gives me fucking whiplash

no because this moment right here? earth 👏 shattering 👏 television👏

episode 3342982 of me going wtf was hamilton's life

Did y'all know that someone broke into Hamilton's dorm room and stole his books and pamphlets, likely because they were Loyalist and wanted him to shut up? They took a bunch of papers that patriot Alexander McDougall had supplied, presumably to aid Ham with the anti-British arguments he was publishing.

I swear there was something in the amrev air because everyone was batshit crazy. Who's the guy who climbed through a window, broke open a case, just to take a bunch of reading material from Hamilton and dip? Can you imagine being a stressed college student coming back to your dorm after a long day only to realize that some little shit had gone to the trouble of breaking and entering just to take books and papers you needed? I would've had a breakdown.

It is with the utmost chagrin I am obliged to inform you, that I am not able to return you all your pamph[l]ets; and what is still worse the most valuable of them is missing. I beg you will not impute it to carelessness; for I assure you upon my honor the true state of the case is this—I put your pamphlets in the case with my other books; and some person about the College got into my room through the window, broke open my case, & took out The friendly address, Bankrofts treatise, Two volumes of natural philosophy and a latin author. Letter to Alexander McDougall

Also hilarious how Alexander clarifies in his letter "This is not my fault and it wasn't because I was careless, I swear I swear". The letter's dated between 1774-1776 but maybe his habit of losing things was already established.

this is super interesting to me as well, and i find hamilton's relationship with his west indian associates fascinating! (off topic but the thought that maybe ned stevens moved back to the west indies despite establishing himself in america and even having a governmental position as john adams' consul general because of hamilton's death??? crying.)

because record-keeping at that time can be so sketchy, we don't know for sure and it's frustrating. was it that ham didn't want any reminder of his west indian life? was he ignoring neddy specifically? did his letters get lost at sea?

i personally noted that in the same letter is this passage:

I am perfectly at a Loss I assure you, my Dr: Hamilton, to account for your Silence. I have written you frequently, and, as I know that you was at a Distance from New York, enclosed your Letters to some of our common Friends in that City, and requested them to transmit them to you. But I have not been able to collect the least Intelligence concerning you from any Quarter, untill very lately your Friend Dr: Knox informed me, that he had heard from you, that you was perfectly well, and that you had been exalted to the Rank of Col: and Aid de Camp to general Washington. You may be certain I received these Accounts with the most unfeigned Pleasure, especially as I was perfectly convinced that they were the Rewards of essential Services. Write me my Dear Hamilton by the first opportunity, and direct to me at this University.

so this means that hamilton did write and successfully deliver a letter to another st. croix associate - he's not cutting off everyone just yet, although he seems to lose contact/not mention it later on. this means that he was either specifically leaving only neddy on read, or was unable to get to stevens, for whatever reason.

also, although stevens managed to get the letters to their common american friends, they were unable (or maybe even refused?) to give him information about alexander. he only learned about alex's position through dr. knox, who was (i believe) on st. croix at that time. someone who has a better feel for the international response to the american revolution might be able to answer this: is it that neddy's location being edinburgh (again, scotland aka part of britain) played a role in the communication stop, unlike st. croix, which was a danish colony? i can see alexander, being zealous as usual, and being appointed as captain and then aide de camp to the commander in chief, not wanting to relay information that could potentially be intercepted - but this is entirely speculation on my end. it would be more clear if i knew whether other aide de camps wrote frequently to family/friends in britain during the war, whether that was common at the time, etc.

*also: he said "i learned you were exalted to colonel", but doesn't mention captain which makes me think he might've already known about that? i mean he knew that hamilton was fighting for the cause, but then he says he never got a response after coming to edinburgh (1775) so maybe he did get some info from some other source some time before this letter? then why didn't that source let him know that alex was now colonel and aide? augh so many questions always.

the only reasoning i can see for alexander choosing not to write to neddy for such a long period of time is him being scared of his disapproval, or feeling hesitant about sharing his new position in life compared to their childhood together. i do think that neddy goes to lengths in this letter, "You may be certain I received these Accounts with the most unfeigned Pleasure" to reassure him that he's really proud and happy with hamilton's military achievements. he even goes as far as to say "congratulate you...on successes...against tyrannical adversaries" which made me raise an eyebrow. that's a pretty bold statement followed up by even bolder claims, "glad that you humbled [Burgoyne's] pride...I hope to see America ⟨one of the⟩ most flourishing Republics in the World" and i wondered how much of that revolutionary fervor is due to loyalty to his new york friends on the side of the rebels. we'll never know for sure.

but neddy certainly seems chiding in the letter and interprets hamilton's silence as a personal, intentional move. he goes to lengths to flatter him and the cause as he pleads for him to write. so maybe he thinks that insecurities along the lines of "omg is neddy going to be happy about this, will he be on my side, will he approve" might've caused the ghosting?

whether or not that's true is uncertain. hamilton has habits of ghosting so it wouldn't be crazy to say he just did it again. but i can also see why logistical situations due to the war and neddy's location might've caused the block. what a long way to say idk man, someone resurrect them so we can figure this shit out.

Super Random Food For Thought:

@icarusbetide’s Edward Stevens AU post earlier got me to reread Stevens’ earliest surviving letter to Hamilton from December of 1777. Every time I reread this letter (and often, which I shall explain), I’m always struck by this one portion:

Why have you not written me a single Line since our Separation? Has your Anxiety for publick Affairs entirely eradicated from your Mind all remembrance of your private Concerns? Or have you forgotten those Vo⟨ws⟩ of eternal Friendship, which we have so often mutually exchanged? I am perfectly at a Loss I assure you, my Dr: Hamilton, to account for your Silence. I have written you frequently, and, as I know that you was at a Distance from New York, enclosed your Letters to some of our common Friends in that City, and requested them to transmit them to you.

“To Alexander Hamilton From Edward Stevens [23 December 1777],” The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Volume I: 1768-1778 Ed. Harold C. Syrett, Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 369-371. [Founders Online Link]

All I’m left to always ask is: what happened here? Did Hamilton in fact write to Stevens and his letters just miscarried across the Atlantic? Did Hamilton intentionally not write to Stevens? If so, why? Stevens left for Edinburgh after graduating from King’s College in 1774 to pursue further education, so this places this letter about three years later. That’s a significant amount of time and explains Stevens’ emphasis on Hamilton’s silence as seen above. We have later letters that Stevens wrote to Hamilton, but beyond Hamilton’s initial surviving letter to him (the famous “I wish there was a War” letter), there are no other letters written from Hamilton to Stevens that were printed in The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (see here).

The reason I’ve read this letter so many times is due to TAI which may be a bit silly. This letter is grouped with a couple of others in what I like to personally refer to as the “pillar letters” that have informed my creative decisions for the main arc of Volume I and to that end, part of the larger arc for the rest of the series. A few of these include the previously mentioned war letter, Hamilton’s letter to Laurens of April 1779, a letter Hamilton wrote Robert Troup in 1795, and some others but this is besides the point.

Of course, The American Icarus is fictional and thus I’ve decided that Hamilton simply ignoring Stevens is an interesting take to explore and build part of a character arc from, but historically speaking, I just have too many questions.

The fact that Stevens (more than once) addresses Hamilton as “my dear Hamilton” in this letter I s also interesting to note, but there’s not really much to conclude there. This post in its entirety is inconclusive, but as I said at the top this is just my food for thought.

king's college, hamilton & custis: two very different 1773 students

Jacky Custis (Washington's stepson) enrolled at King's College in May 1773, but "dropped out" in less than a year. Crazy how small colonial America was, because guess who else began attending King's College in 1773 before being formally matriculated in 1774? Alexander Hamilton. Who, like George Washington who originally wanted to send Jacky to Princeton, had applied first to Princeton but gone to King's College after being rejected.

You can really see their contrasting motivation because Hamilton was devouring all these books and whatnot as per usual, and Jacky was out here sending letters to his mother going "the teachers look upon me in a particular light aka they suck up to me a lot"; Myles Cooper the president of King's College writing to Washington in the best light possible at first, saying that Jacky "dines with the Professors and myself in the College-hall...I doubt not will make a Proficiency equal to the warmest Wishes and Expectations" in July. But they gave up the ghost and Washington wrote in December that Jacky wouldn't be returning to King's College. Very passive aggressive: "I have yielded, contrary to my judgment, & much against my wishes, to his quitting College." (Myles Cooper is also the Loyalist that Hamilton tried to help by talking down the Patriot mob long enough for him to escape.)

From the notes in Cooper's September letter to Washington, it appears that Jacky left King's College late September and arrived (?) at Mt. Vernon on October 2nd, never to return. Washington assumed this was just a mini vacation but it wasn't. Knowing this and that Hamilton most likely started studying in fall of 1773, there's a very slim chance that Custis and he crossed paths at least once.

Someone write that fanfic for me. Hamilton remembering a lackadaisical, pompous student he met at King's College, joking and sharing the story with the military family - Washington realizing who he's talking about, but not saying anything much until Hamilton realizes in horror that the "John or whoever that ate with the professors and never picked up a book and went on and on about his girl Nelly" is General Washington's son Jacky.

This is me still fixating about the southern Hamilton au, but it tickles my fancy to think that both Washington's actual son and his rumored illegitimate son attended the same college in the same year, though with wildly different results. More realistically, even if Hamilton never met Jacky, it still must've been an awkward conversation with the general, if it ever got brought up. "I studied at King's College, sir." "Oh really? My son attended King's College in 1773." "Oh! I started studying there in 1773 too, maybe I met him!" "Probably not since he dropped out in a few months." "Oh."