Name/Title
Letter from Alexander Hamilton III to James Alexander HamiltonEntry/Object ID
HHV 005.35Tags
Accessioned objectDescription
Letter from Alexander Hamilton III to James Alexander HamiltonSubject
Mr. Young’s course, Senate, Mackenzie’s court martial trial, Mackenzie’s statements and actions, prices of flour, salted meat and pork, European markets, “Lord Stanley’s Canadian project” [Canadian Corn Law of 1843], wheat sales, German and French immigration to the US, price of Gold, Ministerial crisis (resignations), new Cabinet formed by Cortina for Espartero, Olozaga callas on Cortina to quit because recent election was a fraud, but actually they are friends and walk together arm in arm, “affair of Barcelona” ?, formation of provincial banks, San Fernando Bank, Irving has been sick, improving but must travel during hot summer months for his health, scuffle in Tyler’s cabinet between Sec. Spencer (father of man executed on Somers re: MacKenize trial) and Upshur, regime to “reduce myself”, Teatotaller, Brahmin, issue with U.S. Consul CadizSubject Person/Organization
Alexander Hamilton III, James Alexander Hamilton, Commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, Salustiano de Olózaga y Almandoz, Manuel Cortina, General Baldomero Espartero, Washington IrvingSubject Place
* Untyped Subject Place
Madrid, Spain, New York, France, England, Barcelona, Spain, NevisCollection
Hamilton CollectionCataloged By
Tara R. IacobellisCategory
Documentary Artifact
Communication Artifacts
Acquisition
Source (if not Accessioned)
J.C. HamiltonNotes
J.C. Hamilton : Donor
Credit Line: Source: J. C. HamiltonLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Secondary Object Term
LetterNomenclature Primary Object Term
CorrespondenceNomenclature Sub-Class
Other DocumentsNomenclature Class
Documentary ObjectsNomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication ObjectsLetter Details
Letter Date
May 4, 1843 - May 5, 1843Transcription
Transcription
Madrid May 4th 1843. [pencil marks]
(Thursday morning) [pencil marks]
My dear Papa
We received yesterday Newyork papers to the 1st April / by a Havre packet which brings dates to the 4th. It was some relief to / the feelings caused by the account in your letter of Mr. Young’s course; / to find in the proceedings of the Senate that it was not to pass without / Condemnation : we are all interested very much to learn the result / of Mackenzie’s trial; tho’ it seems hardly possible [^ but] that the Court / has not honorably acquitted him _ his letters and statements seem / to have been in moany points very ill judged; and his ordering three / cheers for the Almighty after the execution seemed to me in bad / taste; and as a compliment in some degree, as if he were secretary / of the Navy.
I am glad to find that the low prices of our flour / and provisions are opening for them the markets of Europe : the French / papers announce that the appearance of American Pork, and other / salted meats has excited a great alarm in the town of Morlaix / and the friends of protection cry aloud for additional duties to keep / out this dangerous rival : they flatter themselves however that the / evil will be of short duration, as it is to be attributed solely to the / wretched condition of our Country, which has reduced prices to a point / at which they cannot afford to profit _ In England Lord Stanley’s / Canadian project; admitting our wheat (passing thro’ Canada) at / 3./ quarters; the ordinary duty being 20/ is becoming a very / promising topic for agitation, and pledges, pour et contre, are /
[END OF PAGE 1]
Respectively given by the applicants for “the sweet voices” of impurchaseable / Electors _
From the German + French papers, it appears that in spite of the / representations (made by order of the Governments) of the bad condition of those who / emigrated last year; 100.000 Germans with as is supposed 5 millions of Dollars / have made arrangements to emigrate to the substantial strength of the / Country and these with other things lead me to hope that we will soon / shake off the evils which had measures and our own extravagant character / have brought upon us!
In the mean time Gold seems to be pouring in upon / your from all quarters and U.S. and other sage stocks rising _ It is quite a little / triumph after Mr. Robinson’s unsuccessful offers [^ in England[ of the Gov’t stock at [par?] to / see it quoted at home as 108 :
Here in poor Spain we have been in a ministerial / Crisis for four or five days. On Sunday last (as soon as the Chamber of Depu - / ties was constituted) by an overwhelming Majority An opposition Candidate was / made speaker _ the ministry resigned the same Evening _ but since that time / it has been found impossible to form a new Cabinet, and the old one holds over / of necessity ) the whole affair is made [^ up] of little miserable intrigues in which / the interest and the character of the Country are sacrificed to the vanity and / personal ambition of the leaders of Sections _ Without any difference of note in / relation to the domestic or foreign policy of the nation the “progressives” or refor - / mers are divided between three leaders who alternately combine and / separate without having apparently any other fixed object than to embarrass / the existing Government, these reformers compose the great majority of the / chamber and having been displeased last winter by the conduct of M / Olozaga, one of the leaders; a coalition placed in the chair of the presidency /
[END OF PAGE 2]
Last week, M. Cortina, who was formerly the Lieutenant of the [other] _ As / soon as he accepted the resignation of the late ministers, Espartero, called / M. Cortina (tho personally his enemy) to the palace, and requested him to form / a new cabinet; this was undertaken but after two days the new president / stated to the Regent that he could not make a ministry which would / command a majority of the chamber : It is now matter of notoriety that / after the election on Sunday, M. Olozaga publicly charged his former friend / with having been elected by a fraud and called upon him, to the great scandal / of the assembled multitude, to quit the chair; which he occupied thro’ / treachery _ The negotiating _ consultations continue _ every morning the / papers in large characters announce that the crisis is not over; while yesterday / (more matters for a may morning) the gossips were amazed to see the / two notorious leaders I have mentioned walk arm in arm thro’ the / Puerta del Sol + other thoroughfares : _ In the midst of all this confusion / the sturdy little Duke, with an honest heart but not a very strong / head, is scarcely bothered to keep the machine in motion, and would no / doubt by greatly relieved if the difficulty were a gordian knot but of which / he might cut his way with the sword; an instrument he understands much / better than the complicated machinery of a constitutional Government. /
Friday Evening : May 5th - The Crisis still continues and is indeed becoming / worse every hour : the Regent has successively called the three most promi - / nent leaders of parties to form a cabinet and [^ the] two first have returned to / him to say that they cannot depend upon the support of the chamber of / Deputies : the third, Lopez, is making his effort to day _ In the mean time / the House is not in session but can be called together at any moment / by the President. M. Cortina and whenever assembled, it is understood that / a large party is prepared to impeach the late ministers and thus thro’ / them attack the Regent for the affair of Barcelona; in this event they / would probably be dissolved and then _____ heaven knows what will /
[END OF PAGE 3]
Happen next : The Sanate two days ago after a long + warm discussion / curried by an overwhelming majority a paragraph of their address in answer / to the Queen’s speech in which the gauntlet was in some degree thrown / down to France _ In the first days of March, M. Guizot being pushed hard / on the Spanish question in the French Chambers, said among other things that / if there should be an attempt to take the crown of Spain from the succession of / the Bourbons or the glorious dynasty of Louis 14th he should advise his Master / +c +c the King of France to interfere to prevent it _ this declaration has roused the / Spanish pride and some clever + bitter speeches have been made in which the / course of the French nation in overturning these glorious Bourbons, has been well / contrasted with Spanish loyalty + devotion _ He frenchmen have already noticed sharply / this paragraph (printed a fortnight since) and thus another difficulty is added to the / unfriendly feeling which already exists :
A committee has been appointed in the Senate to report upon / the establishment of provincial Banks : and M. Marliani one of the cleverest men, / and best orators in that body is a member : he has applied to me for information and as / it is scattered thro all the reports in the office, I have been preparing [^ for him] a sketch of / the Financial history of the U.S. _ There is now in Spain I believe but one Bank; and / that one is here, “San Fernando” _ the exchanges domestic commence +c +c are in / the most backward condition imaginable : there is in the Spaniard, an obstinacy and / objection to innovation or improvement, so strong; that he is a riddle to his own more / enlightened countryman =
Mr. Irving continues to improve slowly, without yet being able / to apply himself to any thing or amuse himself by going into Society _ his Spirits suffer / in consequence _ he will not be well established in his health before the very warm weather / and then his physician and all his friends agree that he must leave Madrid for a / month or two _ should he persist in the idea of remaining here to work thro the / sultry season he will expose himself to a great danger _ I had been forming a / little project for an excursion to the watering places in the Pyrennees of three or / four weeks, but the necessity of Uncle Geoffrey’s departure will keep me a prisoner / here like the last rose of summer, to manage or mismanage the affairs of the / Country by my[sen] : You must write continually, and make the Girls write /
[END OF PAGE 4]
[CROSSED PAGE 1]
Volumes about Nevis, in order that I may not become desperate _ What do you think of Strawberries and / green peas at this present writing (May 5th)? You are some distance off yet; I’ll warrant ___
Newyork dates yesterday to the 8h April _ the only / interesting piece of news is the scuffle between / Spencer + Upshur in the Cabinet Council / which is duly heralded in European papers / to exhibit at full length the horrors of / republicanism!!
My health is good, tho I am / under a regimen at present to reduce myself / down to a summer establishment _ It is / astonishing how one is etheralized in this / rarified air of Madird. I have never /
[END OF CROSSED PAGE 5]
Been so termperate in my meals and drink as / since my arrival here; and now (from habit) peck / so daintily and [going-ludically?] that it was matter of / wonder to my pretty neighbor Mrs. Scott, at dinner / last Ev’g at the Embassy _ I’m in good / training for a Teatotaller or a Brahmin.
We have a new little crisis of our own / about the U.S. Consul Cadiz : I have been in pursuit / of the Secretary of State (who holds over) all day / and at last caught him at 5 o’clock as he / was coming out of the Senate : he confessed /
[END OF CROSSED PAGE 6]
Frankly that he was work out and half dead thru / the swing of “les affaires”, but the poor gentleman / is rather old and quite infirm :
Good night unbounded love to all
Your affectionate son
Alex HamiltonTranscriber
Kathryn AlexanderLanguage
EnglishOther Names and Numbers
Other Numbers
Number Type
Former NumberOther Number
H 869General Notes
Note Type
DepartmentNote
LibraryNote Type
Curatorial RemarksNote
Condition: GoodCreated By
CHannanCreate Date
March 4, 2024Updated By
cmonaco@hudsonvalley.orgUpdate Date
October 8, 2025
