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“It’s not Hamilton,” are Madison’s words when Jefferson opens the door to a frantic knocking.
“What’s not Hamilton?” he asked, letting his old friend into his New York residence.
“The person we’ve been fighting against, fruitlessly, I might add. Or, it is not all Hamilton, and not all his ideas.”
“And where have you come up with this thought?” Thomas gestured the both of them into the sitting room, lowering himself into a plush armchair.
“While I hesitate to admit falling to such low standards,” James said stiffly as he sat himself on the settee, “I knew Hamilton, I worked with him on the Federalist Papers. He had the same manic energy then that he does now, but the manic highs were followed by lows where he could become quite ill. He used to take care of himself in those times; he does not do so any longer. I felt that his behavior change was strange, and then he did not go with his family for the summer, and summer is always the worst time for his health, why would he stress himself so-”
“Breathe, James,” he reminded him drily. His friend looked about to pass out from lack of oxygen. “You’re rambling.”
“Yes, well, I went looking for him in his office just now, and he was not there, but there was correspondence on his desk. I admit that I read it, looking for something helpful in our cause against his ridiculous banks.”
“And you found that?”
“Not . . . exactly,” James hedged. “I did not want to take the letter for fear of it being discovered to be missing, but I copied it.” He took a folded piece of paper from his jacket pocket and passed it over the table to Thomas’ waiting hand. “It seems quite manipulative, do you not think?”
Thomas could nearly not believe his eyes, and even less so when he reached the signature. “President Washington wrote this?”
James nodded. “I know we’ve been saying that Hamilton controls Washington to undue amounts, but this looks as if it is the other way around.”
Thomas nodded and stared again at the hastily-inked copy. Lines appealing to Hamilton’s time as a soldier, asking him to put his all into this battle for the banks that ‘this nation desperately needs’, lines that appealed to Washington’s own lack of time, and the fact that he could not be seen to be involved in the dispute . . . dear God. And the constant use of the phrase ‘your banks,’ used so much that Thomas found himself wondering if the banks were truly Hamilton’s idea all along, or only Washington’s words in his younger mouth. And Hamilton was so very young. Thomas himself was ten years his senior, and by far one of the younger members of the government. How easy must it have been for the influential President to coerce this young man into doing his work for him? And even before that, during the war, what had General Washington asked of his so very loyal aide?
“There was another page, folded with that one,” James said, interrupting his musing. “I did not think myself to have time to copy that one as well, but it contained orders. One telling Hamilton to work against sending any aid to France in their Revolution, should it prove at all chaotic.”
“But the French aided us in our war, we owe them!” Incensed. Thomas was incensed. “And Lafayette counts both the President and Hamilton among his warmest friends!”
“Considering the hold Washington appears to have over Hamilton, which we never saw, or guessed at, I am not surprised,” James muttered. “He seems a master manipulator, pulling strings from behind the scenes to make his puppets dance. That an exuberant and trusting soul such as Lafayette was pulled in seems no surprise.”
“But Hamilton does not seem the type to abandon his friends,” Thomas mused, and James shook his head.
“If Washington is as clever as we are assuming, then it is he who is at the center of Hamilton’s life, even more so now that his family is gone from the city. Washington is the only support Hamilton may think he has left here, with his and Burr’s relationship so strained now. He has always needed an anchor, someone to calm him and tell him to take care of himself.”
“And Washington’s the only one left in the city?”
“He does not trust many,” James said slowly, “and, as we can see, Washington does a poor job of actually looking after him. But I used to be one of those people he trusted. If I can remind him of our friendship of years past-”
“He cut ties with Burr because he ran for the opposite party,” Thomas cut in drily, sprawling himself more comfortably into the armchair, though his mind was whirling with tension. “I doubt he would listen for anything you have to say.”
“He cut ties with Burr for running against his father-in-law, another person Hamilton trusts,” James dismissed, and Thomas wondered how he could be so optimistic. “He is openly against slavery, and yet many of his friends partake in the trade.”
“Barbaric,” Thomas said.
“Hypocrite,” James muttered, then raised his hands placatingly. “I’m not judging you, I am in the same position. Were that the economy allow us to free all slaves at once, but it does not.”
They sit in contemplative silence for a moment, the two of them wandering hallways of possibilities inside their minds.
“He is alone in his house at the moment,” James said into the quiet. “It would not take much work to have him agree to stay with myself for the summer if he is in one of his illnesses as I suspect he is. I shall speak with him tomorrow. And then we can work together to see how deep Washington’s power over him goes.”
“And hope Hamilton comes to his senses over the bank in the meantime,” Thomas said, but James shook his head.
“He has always wanted some kind of national bank, though this one is much more aggressive in the taxing than anything he and I ever spoke of. Washington’s influence, I think. Hamilton has told me that he knows what it is to have little, he would not want to tax so many food items if he were the only one creating this plan.”
“So we will get nothing out of this.”
“A member of government free from tyranny,” James said, raising an eyebrow. “He fought for our freedom, the least we can do in return is fight for his, even if this battle is in the psychological arena, rather than on a grassy battlefield.”