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Rough Diamond: The Life of Colonel William Stephen Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton's Forgotten Son

2024; University of Illinois Press; Volume: 117; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5406/23283335.117.1.12

2328-3335

J. T. Murphy,

Canadian Identity and History

The task that A. K. Fielding, an artist and independent scholar, sets for herself in exploring the life of William Stephen Hamilton is a difficult one. The sixth child of Alexander and Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, William was not quite seven when Aaron Burr killed his father in their famous duel, and despite his family name, he remained overlooked, if not forgotten. From the outset, Fielding can only speculate about much of William Hamilton's life, and she depends on earlier studies, such as Sylvan P. Muldoon's Alexander Hamilton's Pioneer Son (1930), whose information she readily accepts but also challenges. Through her research, for example, she confirms that a portrait of William is not (as often claimed) of his elder brother Phillip. Even the date and cause of William Hamilton's death require extra attention. "William was tight-lipped about his personal life" (p. xiii), Fielding writes. He left few letters, no diary, and a smattering of business correspondence. As a result, her primary sources are limited, and his story is based on observations by family and acquaintances. "The only way to truly find out more about William," Fielding concludes, "is to study his life through the period in which he lived," and she emphasizes the importance of his frontier experience in shaping that life (p. xiii).After dropping out of the United States Military Academy in 1817, the twenty-year-old Hamilton made his way to St. Louis where, in the following three years, he studied law and contracted with the General Land Office as a surveyor. Sometime in 1821, he moved to Sangamon County, Illinois, to establish a new life in the new state. Hamilton proved a striver, a young man on the make looking for opportunities, and over the next six years, through his connection to the land office, state government, and the courts, Fielding left a trail of information that demonstrates his intelligence, personal drive, and a political standing enhanced by his family name. In 1823, he surveyed lands along the Illinois River, and in 1826, he received two town lots as payment for platting Peoria's streets. He also won election in 1824 as Sangamon County's representative in the Fourth Illinois General Assembly. His single piece of legislation taxed locals for road repairs and construction, but it was overturned the following session because the male citizenry preferred a five-day obligation to do the work themselves rather than find cash for a tax payment. In 1825, Hamilton served as aide-de-camp to Governor Edward Coles and acted as interpreter when the Marquis de Lafayette visited St. Louis. That same year, Hamilton defended a Potawatomi man accused of murder, lost the case, but succeeded in getting a retrial and an acquittal. If he handled other legal matters as an attorney in Illinois, they are not part of Fielding's story.In 1827, the lead-mining boom drew Hamilton to Galena, and he soon developed a mine and smelting operation just inside Michigan Territory where a settlement he named Wiota (in today's Wisconsin) attracted miners. No doubt he was in pursuit of the next chance, and Fielding underscores Hamilton's enterprise and his willingness to work alongside his employees. "His miners admired him," she writes, "and began calling him the 'Rough Diamond' because although his outward appearance was rough, to them, he was a true gem inside" (p. 68). Hamilton's interests flourished throughout the next two decades, and following the pattern he began in Illinois, he pursued a political career serving as president of the "Rump Council" in the newly formed Wisconsin Territory in 1836. But as a Whig in a territorial government controlled by Jacksonian Democrats, he never achieved the influence he desired.When Black Hawk led his people back to their Illinois homeland in 1832, Governor John Reynolds appealed for volunteers to defend the state, and Hamilton answered the call. He built a stockade at his diggings to protect workers and their families, but while he attained ranks of captain then colonel for his three-month participation as a leader of Indian scouts, he saw little action. His primary contribution, like most members of the militia, was simply a willingness to serve.By 1849, as lead prices fell and the cost of mining increased, Hamilton needed money to upgrade his operations, and he looked to the gold fields of California as a solution. Planning to return within two years, he joined argonauts headed west on the overland trail. Unfortunately, Hamilton left no record of his trail experience, so Fielding assumes it was the same as those overlanders who did. "Like many other forty-niners," she notes, referring to his 1841 complaint about a cough and rheumatic pain, "William may also have decided to go to California to improve his health" (p. 86). That is a good guess, but a guess nonetheless. She is correct, though, when she reminds us that Hamilton "survived all the hardships associated with overland travel and made it to California in 1849" (p. 100). Once there, he was among the early prospectors along Weaver Creek, one hundred miles north of Sacramento, and besides panning for gold, he opened a store to supply miners. By the fall of 1850, Hamilton had relocated to a rented room in Sacramento where he died, most likely from cholera. His final regret was leaving the Midwest and living "in this miserable hole" (p. 1). His grave in the public cemetery was identified by a wooden marker until 1871 when friends replaced it with a granite stone. His body was reburied twice more, and the site became a focal point in the historic cemetery noted for its shrubs, roses, and perennials.Some of Fielding's assumptions can be frustrating, such as her attempt to tie Hamilton to Abraham Lincoln because of their shared Illinois experiences as lawyer, surveyor, legislator, and militia officer. But her conclusion that Hamilton's life in the West made him "the quintessential American" might not be far off the mark. If anything, it suits the mythic nature of the frontier experience that remains appealing today.