Was American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton Gay ? Part 2

About the American founding father Alexander Hamilton and the debate over whether or not he was a homosexual.

WERE THEY GAY?

ALEXANDER HAMILTON

The American Revolution was in progress; John Laurens had left camp for South Carolina, hoping to be authorized by that colony's assembly to organize battalions of black slaves to fight the British. In April, 1779, Hamilton wrote to him:

"Cold in my professions, warm in [my] friendships, I wish, my Dear Laurens, it m[ight] be in my power, by action rather than words, [to] convince you that I love you. I shall only tell you that till you bade us Adieu, I hardly knew the value you had taught my heart to set upon you. Indeed, my friend, it was not well done. You know the opinion I entertain of mankind, and how much it is my desire to preserve myself free from particular attachments, and to keep my happiness independent on the caprice of others. You sh[ould] not have taken advantage of my sensibility to ste[al] into my affections without my consent. But as you have done it and as we are generally indulgent to those we love, I shall not scruple to pardon the fraud you have committed, on condition that for my sake, if not for your own, you will always continue to merit the partiality, which you have so artfully instilled into [me]."

Laurens was still in South Carolina five months later, on Sept. 11, 1779. On that date, Hamilton wrote to him:

"I acknowledge but one letter from you, since you left us, of the 14th of July which just arrived in time to appease a violent conflict between my friendship and my pride. I have written you in five or six letters since you left Philadelphia and I should have written you more had you made proper return. But like a jealous lover, when I thought you slighted my caresses, my affection was alarmed and my vanity piqued. I had almost resolved to lavish no more of them upon you and to reject you as an inconstant and an ungrateful--."

A space is here left blank in the manuscript, a word left unwritten by Hamilton, who continues:

"But you have now disarmed my resentment and by a single mark of attention made up the quarrel. You must at least allow me a large stock of good nature."

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