Nov 21 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2687 -

Sale 2687 - Lot 146

Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
HAMILTON FAMILY. The son of Alexander Hamilton describes a trip to New Orleans, dinners with President Jackson, and more. 8 Autograph Letters Signed as "James A. Hamilton," "JAH," or "JAHamilton" to his daughter Eliza. Each 3 or 4 pages (approximately 10 x 8 inches) on one folding leaf, with address panel on final page, the first three with New York or Washington postmarks; minor wear, a few markings in red pen and blue pencil by an early family member, one letter with a sewn closed tear. Various places, 1822-1829
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Additional Details

The author of these letters, James Alexander Hamilton (1788-1878), was the third son of the American patriot Alexander Hamilton. He was an attorney in Hudson, NY and New York City, and was later an appointee in the Andrew Jackson administration. He wrote these letters to his eldest child Eliza Hamilton (1811-1863), who later married George L. Schuyler. She was not yet 11 years old when this correspondence began.

The first four letters were written while on trips to Washington and New York City, and consist mainly of family news and religious exhortations. More interesting are two letters written from an excursion to what was then considered the West. On 15 December 1827, he wrote from the steamboat Atalanta on the Ohio River between Wheeling and Marietta, recounting his westward route along the Maryland panhandle. He shared a coach with General Jesse Thomas, "a Senator from Illinois who I had long known," and then later rode with "an Irish author & pedlar of books, a worthy man & who took a great interest in me, which you well know always affords us pleasure." Near Maryland's Sideling Mountain, "on the road I passed three white men with what is called a gang of Negro slaves, male & female children & grown persons, going probably to Missouri or Tennessee. The poor wreches looked most miserably." Past Cumberland, MD he noticed that "in the mountains are continued evidences of coal & the entrances to several mines. The coal burns like the Liverpool & is sent to Georgetown & Washington."

Hamilton's 14 January 1828 letter is written aboard the schooner Emerald in the Gulf of Mexico, describing the terminus of his river cruise in New Orleans: "Very few of the streets of N.O. are paved except the sea walks as the soil is alluvial, it is very muddy & disagreeable when it rains, & during dry weather it is very dusty. The city has two characters, that is French & Spanish, & of an American town. . . . French is almost the universal language of the place. . . . I went to 4 balls, of which one was a maskue, a very insipid disgusting assemblage. I presume N.O. is a coarse miniature of Paris. it is destined, however, to be a city of immense wealth. . . . I had no idea of the western states until I visited them."

The last two letters were sent from Washington in 1829, after Hamilton had entered government. He wrote on 17 April, just a few weeks after his short stint as Jackson's acting Secretary of State. He describes the seating at a state dinner for nearly 40 with "the dinner & wines of an excellent quality." In his last letter dated 30 November 1829: "Tell Mama that Van Buren's house is very neat & handsome. . . . The President gave a dinner in the East Room to 53 persons on Thursday last. It was splendid & all things went off well. The room is very handsome . . . the chandeliers are not as large as I expected. They are like those of Gardiner's but larger. I never saw the President better both as to health, spirit & intellect." He also describes the newborn daughter of Jackson's niece and unofficial First Lady Emily Donelson, the second baby ever born at the White House: "Mrs. Donaldson's daughter is a very nice child & quite large. It is to be called Mary Rachel." The girl was actually named Mary Emily Donelson, but at least he tried.

Provenance: Sotheby's Alexander Hamilton sale, 18 January 2017, lot 1071. Discussed in Boulden, "Won at Auction: James Alexander Hamilton's Letters to Daughter Eliza," in American Ancestors Magazine 19:3 (2018), page 44.

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