1From Alexander Hamilton to James A. Hamilton, [June 1804] (Hamilton Papers)
I have prepared for you a Thesis on Discretion. You may need it. God bless you. Your affectionate father. Hamilton, Reminiscences James A. Hamilton, Reminiscences of James A. Hamilton: or Men and Events, at Home and Abroad, During Three Quarters of a Century (New York, 1869). , 40. In describing this letter and its enclosure, James A. Hamilton wrote: “In 1804 a student in Columbia College...
2Enclosure: [Thesis on Discretion], [June 1804] (Hamilton Papers)
The celebrated Dean Swift calls discretion an Aldermanly virtue. With all his great and estimable qualities he possessed very little of it himself; and thus was disposed to turn it into derision. But his own experience should have taught him, that if not a splendid it is at least a very useful virtue, and ought on that account to be cultivated and cherished. Sayings of ⟨this⟩ kind by...