James A Hamilton and Washington's Farewell Address

Today, nobody questions the fact that Alexander Hamilton assisted George Washington with writing his Farewell Address. The correspondence proving it is part of the Alexander Hamilton papers held by the National Archives, but that was not always the case.

When Alexander Hamilton was killed in a duel with Vice-President Aaron Burr in 1804, members of the floundering Federalist Party were eager to deny Hamilton's part in the Farewell Address, fearing that connection to his name did little for the party's popularity or the first president's memory. Eliza Hamilton was just as eager to prove and publicize her husband's part in the Address as others were to deny it.

This is where James comes in. His mother requested his help with locating and obtaining the documentation that demonstrated Alexander's work with Washington. James, ever keen to defend and honor his father's name, willingly obliged.

We may not today appreciate the unprecedented and unexpected move that George Washington made when he announced that he was stepping down from the presidency after two terms. In the 18th century, leaders did not simply step away from power, but that was precisely what Washington planned to do. His Farewell Address, which was written rather than spoken, stated his faith that the country could thrive under new leadership and encouraged people to appreciate the differences between regions, states, and people that made up the United States of America.

Alexander Hamilton, as he often did, assisted Washington with the writing of this important historical document, but how was his son to prove it?

Correspondence between the two men, both long dead by the time James set off on this quest during the 1820s, was somewhat scattered. Some of his father's relevant papers were held by Rufus King, who refused, for the sake of Washington's memory and reputation, to hand them over. Other documentation was the property of Judge Bushrod Washington, who had inherited Mount Vernon and other Washington property. Despite the fact that he served as a justice of the Supreme Court, Bushrod lied and said that none of the letters he had were related to the Farewell Address.

The Hamilton and King families were friends, but that did not make James's task any easier with them. Many letters, visits, and conversations included requests to at least see the letters, but he was always denied. Even a reluctant lawsuit did not result in possession of the correspondence James most required.

Eliza recorded her own testimony that her husband had principally written the Address and recalled that Alexander "read to me by him as he wrote it and a greater part if not all was written by him in my presence."

When Horace Binney published An Inquiry into the Formation of Washington's Farewell Address, the truth of Hamilton's authorship was finally generally accepted. In 1859, sixty years after George Washington's death (55 years after Alexander's).

Read more about James Alexander Hamilton in my new biography published by Pen & Sword History!