From Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Hamilton, [7–11 May 1804]
To Elizabeth Hamilton1
[New York, May 7–11, 1804]2
My Dear Eliza
On Sunday Bonaparte & wife3 with the Judges will dine with you. We shall be 16 in number if Morris4 will come. Send him the enclosed note5 on horseback, this Evening, that James6 may bring me an answer in the morning. He is promised the little horse to return.
If not prevented by the cleaning of your house I hope the pleasure of seeing you tomorrow.
Let the waggon as well as the Coachee come in on Saturday. I mention this now, lest you should not come to Town yourself. I have particular reasons for this request.
It is my intention to get out Gentis7 & perhaps Contoix.8
Yrs. Affecty
A H
ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. When H wrote this letter, he was at 54 Cedar Street, his rented house in New York City, while Elizabeth Hamilton was at the Grange in upper Manhattan.
2. For the dating of this letter, see H to Victor Marie Du Pont de Nemours, May 12, 1804.
3. Jérôme Bonaparte was Napoleon’s youngest brother. On Christmas Eve, 1803, when he was nineteen and was visiting Baltimore, he married Elizabeth Patterson of that city. In 1805 he returned to France, where Napoleon had their marriage annulled. He subsequently married Princess Catherine of Württemberg and was made king of Westphalia by Napoleon.
4. On May 13, 1804, Gouverneur Morris entered the following in his diary: “Dine at Genl. Hamiltons with the Bonaparte Party” (AD, Gouverneur Morris Papers, Library of Congress).
5. Letter not found.
6. H’s son was sixteen years old.
7. Genti was a cook. See H to Aaron Ogden, May 19, 1800.
8. Contoix worked for H’s family on other occasions. See Angelica Church to her son, Philip, June 14, 1804 (ALS, New-York Historical Society, New York City).