To Alexander Hamilton from Philip Schuyler, 3 August 1803
From Philip Schuyler
Albany Wednesday 3rd
Augt 1803.
My Dear Sir
How greatly have you Obliged And my Beloved Eliza relieved me of anxiety, by drawing from the unhappy seat of Contagion1 Mr Morton and his family.2 How much Am I pleased to Learn that you are to make an excursion into the country. I shall now no longer labour under those apprehensions which have so greatly distressed me least some Calamity Should befal my family.
My fine Grandson Alexander3 Accompanies his Aunt Church4 tomorrow on a vist to my Sister5 they will proceed to Utica and visit the canal Companys works6 at the falls.7 I have directed him to examine those works and to bring me a report of the progress of the works prosceeding there. My James8 will on Monday go to Eastown9 to pass some days with his Uncle10 and Couzin Phill.11 I will not part with those Children until the disorder has so far abated as that they may with safety return to their Studys in NYork.12
I have by the advice of Mr Stringer13 confined myself to my bed, as a mean the more speedily of healing the Ulcers on my foot, and have already experienced a good Effect, probably a week more will restore me to the ⟨use⟩ of my legs.
Angelica14 & Catherine15 unite in love to you, to their Sisters, & the Children, and all with you.
It would amuse my Dear Angelica16 to take a tour to this place, and be greatly pleasing to me, cannot you find a conveyance for her.
Adieu My very Dear Sir I am Ever most affectionately Yours
Ph. Schuyler
Gen Hamilton
ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. On August 20, 1803, Rufus King wrote to Christopher Gore, United States chargé d’affaires at London: “Our City continues to be scourged with the yellow fever: it is probable that upwards of 20.000 of the Inhabitants have retired to the country & the quarters of the city, where the influence is supposed to have most prevailed, are evacuated, and in consequence of their Removal, fewer cases happen than otherwise wd. take place—hitherto not more than 18 new cases, nor more than 9 deaths have taken place any one day; but from the severity of the attack in a plurality of cases, the Effects of the Disease are more and more alarming than formerly. Men in perfect health to all appearance, and who are engaged in their business as usual, are seized and die in the course of 40 hours” (, IV, 294).
See also I. N. Phelps Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, V (New York, 1926), 1412–13.
2. Washington Morton, a New York City lawyer, was the husband of Cornelia Schuyler Morton, one of Schuyler’s daughters. The Mortons had a three-year-old son named Alexander Hamilton Morton (Schuyler to H, August 25, 1800).
3. Alexander Hamilton, H’s oldest surviving son, was seventeen years old.
4. Angelica Church was Elizabeth Hamilton’s oldest sister and the wife of John B. Church.
5. Gertrude Schuyler Cochran, Schuyler’s older sister, lived in Palatine, New York.
6. The Western Inland Lock Navigation Company. See Théophile Cazenove to Egbert Benson and H, May 29, 1797; Schuyler to H, April 5, August 19, 1802.
7. The falls of the Mohawk River located at Little Falls, Herkimer County, New York, eighteen miles southeast of Utica.
8. James Alexander Hamilton, one of H’s sons, was fifteen years old.
9. Eastown is in Washington County, New York, approximately thirty miles northeast of Albany.
10. Rensselaer Schuyler, one of Philip Schuyler’s sons, was married to Elizabeth Ten Broeck.
11. Schuyler had three grandsons who were named Philip: Philip P. Schuyler, oldest son of Philip Jeremiah Schuyler; Philip Schuyler, oldest son of John Bradstreet Schuyler; Philip Church, oldest son of Angelica Church.
12. Both Alexander and James Hamilton were students at Columbia College in 1803. Alexander was graduated in 1804, and James was graduated in 1805.
13. Dr. Samuel Stringer, a native of Maryland, received his medical education in Philadelphia and served as director general of hospitals in the northern department during the American Revolution. After the war he settled in Albany and continued to practice medicine. He was the Hamilton family’s doctor in Albany. See H to Elizabeth Hamilton, August 2, 1791; August 8, 1794.
14. Angelica Church.
15. Catherine Schuyler, Schuyler’s youngest daughter.
16. Angelica Hamilton, H’s older daughter.