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on-partiality · 2 months

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Hi, I’ve been curious about Hercules Mulligan’s inclusion in the Rev Set ever since I have seen posts saying that one of the other aids like Meade and Tilgman or Tallmadge (if Herc was added solely for spy stuff) would have been a better choice. Id love to hear your thoughts on this.

Also, (terribly sorry if this insults any Mullette shippers) but do you know why people ship Mullette? (Correct me if I’m wrong) but these two have had zero historical relations. In addition, I don’t remember from the last time I saw musical but if you do, what was Laf and Herc’s relationship onstage?

So sorry about this super long ask. I just felt like you would be the best person to ask. Tysm and I hope you have a wonderful day!😊

Aw, this is such a cool question! And you're really nice, anon! I wish you the best! I would also like to make it very clear right now to anyone else who wants to send me a long ask. I love long asks. They give me more to ramble about!

When I was first getting into studying the real history behind the musical two years ago, this same thing confused me heaps. Mainly because we have no proof that Lafayette or Laurens ever even met Mulligan, let alone became good friends with him and he wasn't particularly close to Hamilton either for most of the war (I mean, in the continental army, he would've barely seen Hamilton, and the other aides would have been around him all day). Hamilton lived with him when he was in college, and they got along really well, had fun late-night conversations, just overall were great friends who influenced eachother in positive ways and Mulligan's chats with him definitely made young Hamilton more enthusiastic about the revolutionary cause. Additionally, Hercules Mulligan was part of his artillery company, The Hearts Of Oak or the Corsicans - Mulligan's the whole reason why we know the story of 18 year old Hamilton stealing British cannons with his volunteers is because of the recount of that night that Mulligan later wrote - however, for the rest of the war they just didn't interact with one another much.

They had their separate jobs, and they did them well. Hamilton was confined to his own quaters and the aide-de-camp tent, Mulligan was hanging around British camps and the battlefield doing exactly what Hamilton wanted to do. The relationship between the two was completely different from how Hamilton, Laurens, and Lafayette were through most of the war. Working together, seeing each other just about every other day, creating the same drafts and plans; Especially Laurens and Hamilton as Lafayette got some more 'exciting' jobs because of his rank as a Major General. But out of the bunch, Mulligan really sticks out like a sore thumb, historically the group was called the gay trio and for a good 3 quaters of the war it was just them all together. So why on earth would Lin Manuel Miranda add a fourth to the trio? It very well could be that like you said, he wanted everyone in the main group to have a different role that was integral to how the Continental army ran (Lafayette commanding, Hamilton writing, Laurens battling (?) and Mulligan spying) but I ended up reaching the conclusion that because the musical starts in 1776 while Hamilton was still in college - in the musical at least, presumably, but because of the way events are swapped around with eachother and happen at all the wrong times it's a bit difficult to tell what time things happened in the musical like I believe that when it starts Hamilton's meant to be in college and not yet a soldier however Hamilton left college to make his militia thing in 1775 and he stole the cannons in 1775 however the musical shows this happening after Aaron Burr, Sir and at the start if that song they make it very clear that it's meant to be 1776 which also means that Hamilton and Mulligan should've already known each other, I digress, I could ramble about how the way the musical timeline is makes no sense for years - , they wanted to show someone who was really important to him at that age, and they just kept him with the group for the rest of the show to avoid confusion as to why he disappeared or so that they wouldn't have to introduce another character (like why they used Jefferson instead of Monroe for the Reynolds pamphlet).

I don't know about using Tallmadge as a substitute though, given that I haven't read of any interactions between him and Hamilton or him and Laurens historically, I haven't read of any between him and Lafayette either, but it seems more likely that they would've spoken given Lafayette's position as a major general. It's entirely possible that the trio had heard of him but never actually met him given that I believe that I read somewhere that the whole trio knew of the Culper Spy Ring and a lot of what they would've heard to do with the Culper Spy Ring would have related to Benjamin Tallmadge in some way or other because he was the co-founder of the group. Meade and Tilghman would be good to swap Mulligan for, but then it doesn't make sense that he was talking to them in college (although Laurens and Lafayette didn't meet Hamilton when he was 19 either and like I mentioned earlier, Mulligan should have already known him so with the logic of the Hamilton musical they could be in the main group, yes). If my theory is correct then it would make sense why none of the more historically accurate quadrios were chosen, if they wanted someone who was close to Hamilton in his college years who still fought in the revolutionary war; then Mulligan would've been a great fit.

I'm going to guess that Mullette is one of those ships where people went, 'Hmm, I have ships for every other character but these too, and they seem close enough (in the musical that is), so I'll pair them together!'. Y'know, one of those pair-the-spares kind of things that people who are really into shipping do. Additionally. I believe you're correct; it has to have been an 100% musical fandom ship originally because if there was even just a little bit of historical evidence to back it up, then we'd know for a fact that Lafayette and Mulligan knew each other. Oh, and as someone who has seen the musical rather recently (late may last year) in the show, Lafayette and Mulligan didn't interact much, but they did come across as good friends and for some very creative people, those crumbs of interactions are enough to develop whole stories and relationships and I applaud those people, the way they create so much out of so little is amazing. Personally, I don't like any ships that don't have even a semblance of historical backing because I'm definitely an amrev fan before I'm a Hamilton musical fan (I still love the musical, I just value the real history more). People can like what they like though; I won't judge.

I'll always think Mullette's funny because here in Australia recently it's become a trend again for young boys and men to get mullets and I can't read the name without thinking of some crazy looking mullets that I've seen. Thanks for the ask, Anon! It was super fun to answer :D

Sincerely,

O-P/Milly

(I apologise if I come across as rude, I've struggled with tones my whole life)

#mullette #mulligan #hercules mulligan #lafayette #marquis de lafayette #hamilton fanart #historical hamilton #hamilton #amrev #american revolution #american revolutionary war #american history #revolutionary war #history

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decoolz · 3 years

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A Piece of my WIP

This is part of my Work in Progress The John Laurens Alexander Hamilton Kissing book--working title (TJLAHKB) I am extremely nervous about sharing this, but I would like to see what people think about it. This is just under 3000 works so most of it will be under the cut. A new beginning. The mistakes of London and teenage fantasy were gone now, he was sure of it. All he had to do was take this meeting and the next few years of his life would be set. John stepped out of the coach and smoothed out his waistcoat. If he did this right, he’d be able to recover his reputation. No one would be talking about the rumors if he achieved glory on the battlefield. All he had to do was find General Washington’s command tent.

The camp smelled like twelve thousand people had been camping here for weeks. The sweet stench of rotting food nearly overpowered the unwashed smell of thousands of people gathered in quarters much too small. John searched the faces of passersby for someone to help, but not a single soul gave him a glance. No wonder the British had the upper hand. This was the encampment housing the head of the whole continental army and not a single person gave John a once over. He could be a spy wandering about. All this was going in his first letter to his father when he got situated.

“Excuse me!” John shouted at a boy who couldn’t possibly be old enough to enlist yet was running around the place as if he knew every inch of it. “I’m looking for General Washington’s tent. I have an appointment.”

“Good luck with that,” the boy chuckled. He turned and pointed toward the middle of camp. “See the big round one. That’s where you’ll wanna go. Hope you really got that appointment.”

“I’m Henry Laurens son. I don’t need an appointment,” John clarified rolling his eyes. “My father arranged for introductions.”

“Good on you,” the boy nodded, then ran off the way he was heading.

John continued to drag his footlocker across the dirt and dying grass up the path to the “big round tent,” silently judging every single one of the people who walked by him without offering to help or ask what he was doing wandering around this camp. From the looks of everyone’s dirty and mismatched attire, this wasn’t the kind of place where people took much care to observe anything.

He entered Washington’s tent without once being stopped. Setting his footlocker out of the way, he straightened his waistcoat again before approaching the desk in the middle of the space. The man bent over the desk didn’t bother to acknowledge him when he entered. John cleared his throat thrice before the young redheaded man looked up for his work.

“How may I be of assistance?” he asked with an unrecognizable accent. “I’m assuming you’re not the Frenchman. Are you one of his staff?”

“I am French but I’m from South Carolina,” John replied. He pulled his letter of introduction from his inside pocket as he stepped closer to the desk. The man behind it appeared altogether uninterested. “I’m Henry Laurens’s son, I’m here to have a meeting with General Washington to join this regiment.”

“He’s not taking meetings today,” the clerk replied. “I can schedule you for later this week if you’d like. What is your business with the General?” He licked the end of his quill and met John’s eyes.

“No, you misunderstand me,” John said, shaking his head. “Henry Laurens is my father. He wrote to General Washington and told him to expect me this week. I don’t need an appointment, he’s expecting me.”

The clerk clicked his tongue. “Right. You still need an appointment. The General is a busy man. He isn’t going to stop running the army because some self-important rich man’s son is going to show up at some point this week. I can write you in for an appointment tomorrow if you like. Should I write in Henry’s son or do you have a name of your own I can use?”

“No,” John shook his head. “I should be able to see him today. He’s expecting me. He told my father he’s looking for a French translator to help with correspondence and the like. He made it pretty clear the post had to be filled post haste.”

“Right … but you see, that’s not how it works,” the clerk explained, speaking slowly as if John was a simpleton. “In order to get into see General Washington, you need an appointment. I make the appointments. I would highly recommend you stop being a jackass and give me your Christian name so I can put it in the ledger for tomorrow.”

John took a deep breath. Clearly, this man didn’t understand who he was speaking to or he wouldn’t continue to be so obstructive. He’d be sure to put this in his letter to his father as well, he’ll have this scrawny boy’s job by the end of the week.

“Listen, Mister…”

“Lieutenant Colonel,” the redhead gentleman corrected.

“Fine then,” John scoffed. “Lieutenant Colonel, I don’t think you understand what’s happening here. I have a letter of introduction from my father with the understanding that I am to meet with his excellency when I arrive at camp. I am here. So, if you please, announce my arrival.”

“You seem to have poor comprehension skills, which honestly looks bad if you’re trying to get a job as a translator. There must be a meeting set up and penciled into this ledger before you can see him.” He held up the ledger for John to look at. “As you see here, today he is booked solid since he’s in the city meeting with a Frenchman who will be joining the ranks. So even if I wanted to let you in to see him—which don’t misunderstand I do not—I can’t because he’s not even in there. But if you give me your name, and not refer to yourself as your father’s son, I can write you in for tomorrow.”

“But I have a letter of introduction,” John extended his hand with the papers toward the boy.

“Go for you,” the Lieutenant Colonel nodded. “What is your name? I can set up an appointment for tomorrow at one in the afternoon right after luncheon.”

“My father said--”

“Listen,” the other man pulled a hand down his face and sighed loudly. “We seem to be at an impasse here. You need an appointment. I honestly don’t give a shit what your father said, because he’s not here. I am. I control the ledger book with the appointments. I already informed you against my better judgment that General Washington isn’t even in camp at present. I’m not sure what it is you think you’re going to accomplish by arguing with me about it. Give me your name I’ll write you in for tomorrow right after luncheon and you can go relax at the inn up the road for the rest of the day and stop bothering me.”

“This won’t do,” John shook his head. “I was promised a meeting when I arrived.”

The other man blinked slowly, shook his head, picked up his quill, and continued whatever it was he was working in when John walked in. After several tense moments of silence, John cleared his throat again for attention.

“Oh, you’re still here. Again, your meeting is tomorrow at one. I wrote down ‘Henry’s son’ so they’ll be no confusion as to how important you are. If you insist on staying in my office to wait for your scheduled time, you are more than welcome to sit in one of the terribly uncomfortable wooden chairs on the side there. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

John sunk his teeth into his bottom lip to keep from yelling and let several short quick breaths out through his nose.

“What is your name?” John demanded. “I would like to make sure Congress knows exactly the kind of riff-raff General Washington has in his employment.”

“And yet here you are trying to join our ranks,” the redheaded man met John’s gaze with a sickeningly sweet fake smile.

“Hamilton!” A head poked around the entrance of the tent. An older man with the same green pin on his hat as the clerk. “Are you set to take a break for luncheon or is Lucy bringing you a tray?”

“No, I’ll come with you,” the redheaded man, Hamilton evidently, said. He straightened his desk and stood. “It’s Wednesday.”

As he came around the desk, John got his first good look at this Hamilton. He couldn’t be taller than five and a half feet. John could probably put his hands around the man’s waist and his fingers would touch. He looked far more like a boy than someone in charge of something as important as General Washington’s ledger.

“Are you going to invite your friend?” the other man asked, gesturing to John.

“Not my friend,” Hamilton grumbled. “You can join us for a meal if you want. Or wait until we leave and look to see that no one is in Washington’s office and pout about it. Just don’t touch my desk.” He didn’t bother turning toward John as he said it.

“Will my footlocker be safe here?” John asked, stepping toward the other men.

“Sure,” Hamilton shrugged. He pushed passed the other man out into the sweltering camp.

“Is he always so delightful?” John asked.

“You must have got him on a good day,” the other man joked. “He’s usually much worse. Richard Meade, Virginia.” He extended his hand to John.

This was more of the kind of welcome he was expecting. “John Laurens, South Carolina.”

“Son of the senator,” Meade smiled. “Rumor has it he’s a lock for the presidency when Hancock retires.”

“That’s what he tells me,” John nodded.

Hamilton waited; arms crossed over his chest for the others then led the way to the mess tent walking a quick clip about twenty paces ahead of them.

“Personally, I think it’ll be great for the union to finally have some southern influence at the helm of Congress. I think we’ve heard enough from Boston and New York for a bit.”

“Those men are the catalyst for the revolution,” John countered. “However, I do agree, if we are to be our own country it makes sense to listen to men from all parts of it.”

John let Meade lead him through the buffet line and tried not to gawk as Hamilton shamelessly flirted with a young brunette woman serving the warm rolls until she slipped an extra one to him.

“Is that the reason he was so eager to come to luncheon on Wednesday?”

“No,” Meade replied as they walked toward their table. “That would be Lucy. She’s around here somewhere. On Wednesdays, she helps with the dishes.”

“Hamilton is that man then?” John sighed, taking a seat across the table from Meade. Hamilton sat a little way down the table, toward the end on Meade’s side. John knew plenty of men just like that back in London. Men who shamelessly debased themselves in front of women for tiniest scrap of attention. Hamilton didn’t quite fit the usual formula for such a man, but John had to admit there was something about him that made it hard to pull his eyes away from the scrawny redhead.

Across the table, Meade rested his hat on the bench beside him. He was slightly older than John, maybe about thirty. This was the type of man John expected to find working for General Washington, a learned Southern Gentleman from a prominent family who knew the order of things. If Meade had been behind the desk when John walked in, everything would be taken care of by now.

“Forgive me for prying,” John said between bites of a watery but rather flavorful stew. “But since I will be joining this merry group of soldiers, may I ask about the dynamic of the inner circle?”

Meade laughed, his green eyes brightening as a crooked smile crossed his face. “I take it your father arranged for you to be the French interpreter we’re looking for. If that’s the case you’ll be working closely with your new best friend, Mister Hamilton. He handles most of the correspondence and does quite a bit of the planning and strategy for small missions. He’s the brains of it.”

“French interpreter was the plan, yeah, apparently a letter of introduction and a promise from my father isn’t enough to have an audience with His Excellency. I also need an arbitrary appointment and to dance for a five-foot-tall boy who thinks too much of himself.”

“Hamilton will be the first to tell you, he’s five foot seven,” Meade smiled. “General Washington is in Philadelphia today meeting with a French General who’s come to help us. He’ll be back tomorrow.”

This was supposed to be the easy part. The last couple of years had been an awful pile of hardship and stupid mistakes. Joining the army was supposed to be the first step in the right direction. All he had to do was show up and the rest would take care of itself. He wouldn’t have to deal with people looking at him sideways or whispers behind hands at society events. As he learned more about camp John did his best to remember that he wasn’t another setback, but a pause. Tomorrow would be different.

He turned toward the end of the table where Hamilton was batting his eyes at an enraptured blonde woman in a light blue gown. Something familiar started to bubble inside John, somewhere between jealousy and contempt. When the woman was called away, Hamilton slid over to join John and Meade for the rest of the meal.

“What do you think, Ricky? Will this son of Henry will fit in our merry band of aides-de-camp?”

Meade nodded as he wiped the corners of his mouth with a napkin. “It’ll be fine Hamilton. The two of you should figure out how to get along. If Mister Laurens will be working French translations, you’ll most likely be sharing a desk.”

Hamilton groaned, and let his head fall back, just as enthused about the prospect as John was.

“You’re at least learned in French though?” Hamilton asked. “Fluent? We have a remarkable number of Frenchmen coming to take up this cause”

John nodded. He’d been taught by his mother as a boy and then in some of the finest schools he could be sent to in Europe. Hamilton continued to eye him suspiciously.

“I gotta head back,” Hamilton wiped his mouth his sleeve and stood quickly walking off with his dishes, handing them to the servant whose job it was to clear plates from the tables when they were finished eating. John’s eyes never left him as he smiled and laughed his way into taking an extra pear from the young woman who gave him the extra bread.

“An acquired taste, but I assure you he’d a good egg,” Meade said, pulling John’s attention back to the last of his meal. “He’s probably the smartest person in the army, including General Washington.”

John caught Hamilton walking backward out of the mess tent with a wink to the women at the serving stations and doubted very much that a man like that could surprise him.

“Come on, I’ll walk you out to the inn, make sure you’re settled.” Meade stood and placed his hat atop his head. “It’s decent accommodation over there. Savor it, my friend, you’ll be living on a straw mattress on the bottom bunk until we move for winter camp.”

Once settled in the single room of the inn, John dug through his belongings for his stationary to write the promised letter to his father. So far, this journey wasn’t what he was hoping for, but tomorrow looked promising with the appointment scheduled to accept him into service. He was sure his education and experience would be just what General Washington needed. If he did end up working alongside that Hamilton fellow as Meade said, he’d be able to teach that man a little bit of tack. Show him how a man from Southern Society—like General Washington himself—should act.

#My writing #writing historical fiction #historical fiction #deanna writes #TJLAHKB

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46ten · 4 years

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AH: marriage and military service should not mix

The summary of this post: A lot of historians have noted how important AH’s marriage to EH was to his future, a true before and after marker in his life. But the strangeness of it has gotten less attention - AH married while the war was going on, and even wrote of not hanging around the army at all in order to setup for his life with his new wife. Once one sees the oddity of that, a lot of other things fall into place in his 1780/81 letters.

For the past few years, I’ve wanted to work more on the theory that although marriage was generally expected of the 18th century Anglo-American colonial man (see prior posts here and here), the elite in AH’s circle did not marry until their military obligations and other duties were complete. From their examples and a few phrases here and there, getting married seemed to have been frowned upon, perhaps because of the uncomfortable examples of general’s wives and this idea that romantic love with a woman was a weakness that interfered with duty and hindered one’s commitment to military glory. (I am familiar with the challenges faced by Martha Washington, Catharine Greene, and Lucy Knox; Philip Schuyler refused a return to military assignment and presidency of the Continental Congress after the death of a newborn, among other things, in 1778). AH is an exception among his circle, with Meade, in getting married during the war itself - nearly everyone else who is unmarried waits until after their military service is complete (and sometimes well after) to marry. Not enough is made of the oddity of his courtship and marriage, within his circle, while the war is ongoing.

Now to modern thought, the title of this post makes a lot of sense - relationships are often strained when one partner is in military service, and the hows and whys are very familiar to us. But for the 18th century, when adult manhood was tied to matrimony, avoiding matrimony seems odd, as does the length of some of the courtships of AH’s friends: two years for William Jackson, about the same for Tilghman, four years of flirtation for McHenry. At a time when engagements lasted a matter of weeks (and AH notes that his own is unusually long - it’s lasting “an age” in one of his letters to ES), the delay in taking the next step is notable. Even in the prior generation, although Philip Schuyler was sexually intimate with Catharine Van Rensselaer, he continued his military service and did not marry her until it became unavoidable by decency standards (CVR was 4 months pregnant).

So what’s with AH and ES wanting to get married in such a hurry, comparatively, besides the obvious emotional ones? Maybe he really was 26-27 years old and time was running out! Another obvious possibility, noted then and noted by biographers since, was the benefits of their marriage on a personal and political dynastic level. @aswithasunbeam has noted a contemporary article (sourced from Mitchell) about what Philip Schuyler had to gain through the new attachment between himself and Washington’s aide-de-camp. (And look how quickly P. Schuyler had AH working to get GW to visit them.) The advantages for AH were obvious to, as the Marquis de Fleury stated outright to AH: “ I congratulate you heartyly on that conquest; for many Reasons: the first that you will get all that familly’s interest, & that a man of your abilities wants a Little influence to do good to his country. The second that you, will be in a very easy situation, & happin’s is not to be found without a Large estate.”

I also suspect part of AH’s decision to hurriedly marry was tied to getting a command and spending the rest of his time studying the law.* I agree with most biographers that he never takes the steps of leaving Washington’s family and asking for (Nov 1780) and then demanding (June 1781) a command without being Philip Schuyler’s son-in-law. (I also think the break with GW doesn’t happen without AH feeling VERY confident in his relationship with his new wife. EH should have been a better patriot - as in other times - and seemed less happy in her marriage, or at least not let AH read her letter to her sister.) I think that’s what Laurens knew while on parole in Phil. and causes the minor flurry of letters in late August/September 1780, when P. Schuyler was briefly at HQ and then sending lots of letters about Congress to GW, AH was going on about his planned six month leave, McHenry was writing a love poem about AH and ES and trying to get AH to get P. Schuyler’s help in getting him a command, etc . AH and ES likely intended to marry in October/early November, but both Meade and Harrison took leave instead, and AH had to stay, though he would leave in late November before their return (in fact, Harrison and Meade never returned.)

Take Laurens (left wife and daughter he’d never see in England) and Lafayette (absent from France from March 1777 to Feb 1779 and March 1780 to early 1782). Both of them left wife and child(ren) behind, and here AH was planning a long absence from military service and telling his fiancee that he’ll leave it entirely if that’s her wish. AND Meade is discussing doing exactly that! [So Laurens presumably wrote to AH - we don’t have that letter - that he hopes AH will get over this quickly, and AH wrote back that he won’t, but I’m getting ahead of myself.]

I offered to make a comparison of AH’s letters to Laurens vs Elizabeth Schuyler - while revealing of personal feelings, in content and expression they are more different than they are similar - but I think I first need to set up that major transition that’s occurring in AH’s life in 1780/81. To the extent Laurens may have objected to AH’s excitement about ES and their impending nuptials (and there’s only one phrase in one letter, and that from AH to Laurens, from which it can be interpreted that those were Laurens’ feelings), and AH felt embarrassed about conveying the news of his engagement, it was because it interfered with a (believed to be mutual) sense of military obligation and public duty and dismissal of marriage and its attendant obligations. I touch on it in a response here; I’ll try to elaborate on it in upcoming posts. [I will get into why this makes the most sense, and why claims of AH trying to spare any romantic feelings JL may have felt, quite frankly, do not make sense in a later post. Spoiler: AH wrote absurdly callous stuff re ES and his relationship with her in his letters to JL if he was hoping to spare JL’s feelings.]

I already put some of my thoughts on this in old posts that may have some helpful content and may spare me having to repeat myself too much, and then I’ll also provide some quotes from letters to get started, limited to 1777-1782 and then probably the most famous quote from 1799.

Hamilton on marriage part 1 (overview)

Hamilton on marriage part 2 (feelings on marriage 1777-early 1780)

Hamilton-Schuyler engagement (early 1780-mid 1780)

Hamilton on marriage part 3 (my breakdown of the July-Oct 1780 letters to ES)

Hamilton on marriage part 4

Reynolds Pamphlet, part 2

And a post (not my own) about how much AH’s military involvement as Inspector General was affecting his family financially.

Letter quotes [my emphases]:

You and I, as well as our neighbours, are deeply interested to pray for victory, and its necessary attendant peace; as, among other good effects, they would remove those obstacles, which now lie in the way of that most delectable thing, called matrimony;—a state, which, with a kind of magnetic force, attracts every breast to it, in which sensibility has a place, in spite of the resistance it encounters in the dull admonitions of prudence, which is so prudish and perverse a dame, as to be at perpetual variance with it. AH to Catharine “Kitty” Livingston 11Apr1777

Do I want a wife? No—I have plagues enough without desiring to add to the number that greatest of all; and if I were silly enough to do it, I should take care how I employ a proxy. AH to John Laurens 1779 [likely from mid-April up to July - this letter is actually undated, and the April date is based on other mentions in the letter; both JCH and Lodge dated it December 1779]

The most determined adversaries of Hymen can find in [ES] no pretext for their hostility, and there are several of my friends, philosophers who railed at love as a weakness, men of the world who laughed at it as a phantasie, whom she has presumptuously and daringly compelled to acknowlege its power and surrender at discretion. I can the better assert the truth of this, as I am myself of the number. She has had the address to overset all the wise resolutions I had been framing for more than four years past, and from a rational sort of being and a professed contemner of Cupid has in a trice metamorphosed me into the veriest inamorato you perhaps ever saw. AH to Margarita Schuyler, Feb1780

I would add to this by way of consolation, or rather of countinance, that the family since your departure have given hourly proofs of a growing weakness. Example I verily believe is infectious. For such a predominancy is beauty establishing over their hearts, that should things continue to wear as sweet an aspect as they are now beheld in, I shall be the only person left, of the whole household, to support the dignity of human nature. But in good earnest, God bless both you, and your weakness, and preserve me your sincere friend James McHenry to AH, 18March1780 [this was during the time of AH’s courtship of ES]

Here we are my love in a house of great hospitality—in a country of plenty—a buxom girl under the same roof—pleasing ⟨expect⟩ations of a successful campaign—and every thing to make a soldier happy, who is not in love and absent from his mistress. ... Assure yourself my love that you are seldom a moment absent from my mind, that I think of you constantly and talk of you frequently, I am never happier than when I can engage Meade in some solitary walk to join me in reciprocating the praises of his widow and my betsey. AH to ES, 6July1780

I hope for a decisive campaign. No one will desire it more than me; for a military life is now grown insupportable to me because it keeps me from all my soul holds dear. Adieu My love. Write to me often I entreat you, and do not suffer any part of my treasure, your sweet love, to be lost or stolen from me. AH to ES, 20Jul1780

Impatiently My Dearest have I been expecting the return of your father to bring me a letter from my charmer with the answers you have been good enough to promise me to the little questions asked in mine by him. ... Meade2 just comes in and interrupts me by sending his love to you. He tells you he has written a long letter to his widow asking her opinion of the propriety of quitting the service; and that if she does not disapprove it, he will certainly take his final leave after the campaign. You see what a fine opportunity she has to be enrolled in the catalogue of heroines, and I dare say she will set you an example of fortitude and patriotism. I know too you have so much of the Portia in you, that you will not be out done in this line by any of your sex, and that if you saw me inclined to quit the service of your country, you would dissuade me from it. I have promised you, you recollect, to conform to your wishes, and I persist in this intention. It remains with you to show whether you are a Roman or an American wife. AH to ES, Aug1780

But now my love to speak of the practicability of complying with both our wishes in this article—There is none, I am obliged to sacrifice my inclination to ⟨my public⟩ ch⟨aracter.⟩ Even though my presence shou⟨ld n⟩ot be essential here, yet my love I could not with decency or honor leave the army during the campaign. This is a military prejudice which while I am in a military station I must comply with. No person has been more severe than I have been in condemning other officers for deviating from it. I have admitted no excuse as sufficient, and I must not now evince to the army, that the moment my circumstances have changed, my maxims have changed also. This would be an inconsistency, and my Betsey would not have me guilty of an inconsistency. Besides this my Betsey, The General is peculiarly averse to the practice in question. If this campaign is to end my military services, ’tis an additional reason for a constant and punctual attendance, if it is not my leaving the army during the campaign would make it less proper to be away all the winter ’till late in the spring. In one case, my honor bids me stay, in the other my love. AH to ES, 31Aug1780

Pardon me my love for talking politics to you. What have we to do with any thing but love? Go the world as it will, in each others arms we cannot but be happy. ...I was once determined to let my existence and American liberty end together. My Betsey has given me a motive to outlive my pride, I had almost said my honor; but America must not be witness to my disgrace. AH to ES, 6Sept1780

I have told you, and I told you truly that I love you too much. You engross my thoughts too intirely to allow me to think of any thing else—you not only employ my mind all day; but you intrude upon my sleep. I meet you in every dream—and when I wake I cannot close my eyes again for ruminating on your sweetness. ‘Tis a pretty story indeed that I am to be thus monopolized, by a little nut-brown maid like you—and from a statesman and a soldier metamorphosed into a puny lover. I believe in my soul you are an inchantress; but I have tried in vain, if not to break, at least, to weaken the charm—you maintain your empire in spite of all my efforts—and after every new one, I make to withdraw myself from my allegiance my partial heart still returns and clings to you with increased attachment. To drop figure my lovely girl you become dearer to me every moment. I am more and more unhappy and impatient under the hard necessity that keeps me from you, and yet the prospect lengthens as I advance. AH to ES, 5Oct1780

I would not have you imagine Miss that I write to you so often either to gratify your wishes or to please your vanity; but merely to indulge myself and to comply with that restless propensity of my mind, which will not allow me to be happy when I am not doing something in which you are concerned. This may seem a very idle disposition in a philosopher and a soldier; but I can plead illustrious examples in my justification. Achilles had liked to have sacrificed Greece and his glory to his passion for a female captive; and Anthony lost the world for a woman. I am sorry the times are so changed as to oblige me to summon antiquity for my apology, but I confess, to the disgrace of the present age, that I have not been able to find many who are as far gone as myself in such laudable zeal for the fair sex. AH to ES, 13Oct1780

How often have I with Eloisa exclaimed against those forms which I now revere as calculated to knit our union together by new and stronger bands...Meade already begins to recant. I have received a letter from him on the Journey2 in which he tells me he finds he must return to the army. This will be a new proof to you that I cannot leave it, as we both so ardently desire. AH to ES, 27Oct1780

You possess a heart that can feel for me; you have a female too that you love. I was reduced at one period to entreat, threat, kiss, but all to no purpose; her fears were for my safety, mine for hers. You must imagine to make out the tragedy all that I am incapable for want of words to express. After placing her with at least Twenty other females & children at a safe distance I immediately returned, & joined the Baron about the time the Enemy left Richmond in order to render him all the aid I could being intimately acquainted with the Country for many miles in the vicinity of the Enemy & on their return down the river I left him to go in pursuit of a residence for a favorite Brother who was driven from his home & obliged to attend to his Wife & a family of little children. Was it not cruel my dear fellow that my matrimonial enjoyments should have been interrupted thus soon; not more than one month had passed when the damned invasion seperated us, & we have yet to meet again, for 60 miles divides us. You know I am a Philosoper my dr fd & prepared to meet much more serious disappointments. This gives me an opening to speak of my return to the army. I have been long wishing your advice in full on the occasion; you are acquainted with the arguments I have used in favor of my stay here. I have now but one to add to them, the experience of that happiness I ever expected to enjoy with the best of Women. She loves not less than your Betsy, & I fear could not bear a seperation. I have not however as yet thrown off the uniform, but I am inclined to believe that it must be the case. Meade to AH, 13Jan1781

I was cherishing the melancholy pleasure of thinking of the sweets I had left behind and was so long to be deprived of, when a servant from Head Quarters presented me with your letters. I feasted for some time on the sweet effusions of tenderness they contained, and my heart returned every sensation of yours. Alas my Betsey you have divested it of every other pretender and placed your image there as the sole proprietor. I struggle with an excess which I cannot but deem a weakness and endeavour to bring myself back to reason and duty. I remonstrate with my heart on the impropriety of suffering itself to be engrossed by an individual of the human race when so many millions ought to participate in its affections and in its cares. But it constantly presents you under such amiable forms as seem too well to justify its meditated desertion of the cause of country humanity, and of glory I would say, if there were not something in the sound insipid and ridiculous when compared with the sacrifices by which it is to be attained.

Indeed Betsey, I am intirely changed—changed for the worse I confess—lost to all the public and splendid passions and absorbed in you. Amiable woman! nature has given you a right to be esteemed to be cherished, to be beloved; but she has given you no right to monopolize a man, whom, to you I may say, she has endowed with qualities to be extensively useful to society. Yes my Betsey, I will encourage my reason to dispute your empire and restrain it within proper bounds, to restore me to myself and to the community. Assist me in this; reproach me for an unmanly surrender of that to love and teach me that your esteem will be the price of my acting well my part as a member of society. AH to EH, 13Jul1781

Don’t think me unkind for not talking of your making a journey to the Southward. It would put us to a thousand inconveniences and would in fact be of no avail; for while there I must be engrossed in my military duties. Heaven knows how much it costs me to make the sacrifice I do. It is too much to be torn away from the wife of my bosom from a woman I love to weakness, and who feels the same ardent passion for me. I relinquish a heaven in your arms; but let me have the happiness to reflect that they ever impatiently wait my return sacred to love and me. Give your Mama, your sisters and the whole family every assurance of the warmest affection on my part. Indeed I love them all.

Yrs. with unalterable tenderness and fidelity AH to EH, 25Aug1781

Early in November, as I promised you, we shall certainly meet. Cheer yourself with this idea, and with the assurance of never more being separated. Every day confirms me in the intention of renouncing public life, and devoting myself wholly to you. AH to EH, 6Sept1781

My heart disposed to gayety is at once melted into tenderness. The idea of a smiling infant in my Betseys arms calls up all the father in it. In imagination I embrace the mother and embrace the child a thousand times. I can scarce refrain from shedding tears of joy. But I must not indulge these sensations; they are unfit for the boisterous scenes of war and whenever they intrude themselves make me but half a soldier. AH to EH, 12Oct1781

You cannot imagine how entirely domestic I am growing. I lose all taste for the pursuits of ambition, I sigh for nothing but the company of my wife and my baby. The ties of duty alone or imagined duty keep me from renouncing public life altogether. It is however probable I may not be any longer actively engaged in it.

I have explained to you the difficulties which I met with in obtaining a command last campaign. I thought it incompatible with the delicacy due to myself to make any application this campaign. I have expressed this Sentiment in a letter to the General and retaining my rank only, have relinquished the emoluments of my commission, declaring myself notwithstanding ready at all times to obey the calls of the Public.4 I do not expect to hear any of these unless the State of our Affairs, should change for the worse and lest by any unforeseen accident that should happen, I choose to keep myself in a situation again to contribute my aid. This prevents a total resignation.

You were right in supposing I neglected to prepare what I promised you at Philadelphia. The truth is, I was in such a hurry to get home that I could think of nothing else. AH to Meade, March 1782 (from a JCH transcription)

You were right, My dear General, in saying that a Soldier should have no Other wife than the service...William North to AH, 12Nov1799

AND just for amusement:

I thank you My Dear Sir for the military figures you have sent me. Tactics you know are literally or figuratively of very comprehensive signification. As people grow old they decline in some arts though they may improve in others. I will try to get Mrs. Hamilton to accompany in games of Tactics new to her. Perhaps she may get a taste for them & become better reconciled to my connection with the Trade-Militant. AH to McHenry, 21June1799

__________________________________________

*I broke this down in a prior post too, but I’ll repeat it here again: I think the clearest statement of his plan left to us is from the draft of the letter he sent to Philip Schuyler explaining why he wants to break with GW (18Feb1781):

As I cannot think of quitting the army during the war, I have a project of re-entering into the artillery, by taking Lieutenant-Colonel Forrest’s10 place, who is⟩ desirous of retiring on half pay. I have not however made up my mind upon this , Start insertion,head, End,, as I should be obliged to come in the youngest Lt Col instead of the eldest, which I , Start deletion,should, End, , Start insertion,ought to, End, have been by natural succession had I remained in the corps; and , Start insertion,at the same time, End, to resume studies relative to the profession which, to avoid inferiority, must be laborious.

If a handsome command for the campaign in the , Start insertion,light, End, infantry should offer itself, I shall ballance between this and the artillery. My situation ⟨in the latter⟩ would be more , Start deletion,substantial, End, , Start insertion,solid, End, ⟨and permanent;⟩ but as I hope ⟨the war will not last long enough to make it progressive, this consideration has the less force. A command for the campaign would leave me the winter to prosecute studies relative to my future career in life. With⟩ respect to the former, I have been materially the worse for going into his family.11

I have written to you on this subject with all the freedom and confidence to which you have a right and with an assurance of the interest you take in , Start deletion,what, End, , Start insertion,all that, End, concerns me.

This letter implies 1) he had a plan post-military; 2) he had discussed with PS what that plan was, and possibly that six month leave (that never happened because of illness and unavailability) was tied to undertaking some of those studies to be a lawyer, to put himself in better shape to support a family. Being able to do so was important to AH - Philip Hamilton was born Jan 1782, and Angelica would not be born until Sept 1784.

#Alexander Hamilton #Elizabeth Schuyler #Elizabeth S. Hamilton #18th century masculinity #Philip Schuyler #John Laurens #I've always found it interesting that he references Achilles to state his willingness to #throw everything away for a woman (Briseis)

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sunnyrea · 4 years

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So I was reading your most recent post on your Duty and Inclination website, and it mentioned that Hamilton wrote a letter to Meade that was so private that Meade had to thrust himself up a chimney to make sure nobody else read it. When do you reckon that this letter from AH to RKM was written?

The letter from McHenry to Hamilton is from March 18, 1780. We can guess Meade received the letter either the same day McHenry wrote his letter or pretty soon around that. Meade was in Morristown, New Jersey then while Hamilton was in Amboy, New York. The two cities are 249 miles apart.

I have this very helpful chart (which everyone that is writing historical stuff should steal and use!):

Let’s go with 30 miles a day for the courier. That makes 8 or 9 days for the letter to travel from Amboy to Morristown. So, saying Meade received it on March 18th, that puts a probable date for Hamilton writing this letter to be March 9th or 10th.

And just to check, Hamilton was definitely in Amboy by March 10th as he helped write the minutes from the prisoner exchange meeting: Minutes of the Proceedings at Amboy, 10-14 March 1780. I could see Hamilton writing Meade either day; the 9th to tell him they were starting the discussions soon and find time to talk about personal stuff or the 10th to report on the first day of discussions. Though, that might give more weight to the 9th as I can see Hamilton wanting to wait to write about the meeting results once they were done.

I might have gotten into this question a little too much... but I am favoring March 9th, 1780.

#ask #history #alexander hamilton #Richard Kidder Meade #letters

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citizenscreen · 5 years

Text

This is a special guest post by Scott Holleran:

◊

My first experience of this movie was probably on television, probably in fragments. It made an impression but the movie ranged into my memory as a series of scenes disembodied from the whole work. For example, I remember watching the burning of Atlanta and certain, distinctive scenes and not much else. So, my first impressions were perfect for today’s conceptual-deprivation culture. That’s the poverty of being among the TV generation.

It took a long time to appreciate this film as a work of art, which now I know it is. At some point, as I began to take a serious interest in movies, I rediscovered it on home video. Then, again, on disc and possibly again in a revival house on one of those scratchy prints with popping sounds. That a civilization could be gone with the wind came through and I was an admirer. Later, I read about the novel upon which the movie’s based, which, with a romance novel-type jacket design for the mass market paperback edition, was off-putting.

At some point, it dawned on me that Gone With the Wind is an important epic motion picture so I sought its source and read the novel. I was astonished at the brilliant writing. I instantly observed a similarity to my favorite novel, also an epic of American literature and also written by an author who happens to be a woman. Gone With the Wind (1936) by Margaret Mitchell conveys the romanticism, scope and grandeur of Atlas Shrugged (1957) by Ayn Rand and it’s worth noting that Rand’s first novel, too, involved a love triangle woven into the end of an era in her own 1936 novel, We the Living.

After reading Mitchell’s novel, I saw the movie again — and again. Each time, I was more impressed. And, each time, I was more impressed that I was able to be additionally impressed. This is because, as you probably know, the more you know and study a motion picture, the more easily the film can lose its newness, its ability to hold and sustain interest or focus, suspense, tension or sense of plot progression and, as a result, the less likely it can be to stir one’s original passion.

Then, a few weeks ago, I saw Gone With the Wind, which, this year, marks its 80th anniversary in a culture in which it is extremely likely to be impugned or maligned. I saw it for the first time at one of the grandest movie theaters on earth: Sid Grauman’s Chinese theater on Hollywood Boulevard.

And, this time, for the first time, I was moved … to tears.

The nearly four-hour motion picture begins with three characters in Georgia talking about war. This is an essential starting point. The novel more or less begins with this starting point, too. Gone With the Wind frames its story within an argument over the fact of an oncoming war. It’s not that they’re debating the merits of war. They’re discussing the prospect of war as such; they’re considering the impact of war on their lives. So, this, the fundamental choice to face the facts of reality, is the starting point. Not the war itself. Not slavery, the issue in dispute.

Gone With the Wind is not a war movie. Gone With the Wind is not a slavery movie. Any discourse of it as either entirely misses the movie. It is also, strictly speaking, not a romance, though war, slavery and romance factor into its drama to various degrees. Gone With the Wind dramatizes an entire civilization through the life of a single individual.

Her name is Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh at her best).

Shallow, scheming and self-centered, she’s enraged when she learns during this discussion, in which she’s attempting to ignore the reality of impending civil war, that the object of her desire, Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard), plans to marry his cousin, Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland). In subsequent scenes, the men who will become pivotal to the young, impetuous Scarlett’s life, including her father, Gerald O’Hara, but also Frank Kennedy, Ashley Wilkes, Charles Hamilton and a cad named Rhett Butler, argue war on the merits, whistle “Dixie” and, with the recklessness which exemplifies the pre-Civil War American South, crow about going to war.

In this sense, there is real substance to this movie in terms of its grasp of facts and history. Every Southern deficiency is depicted here. The staggeringly affected manners, the pompous preposterousness, the asinine traditions but also the proportionately and wildly irrational inflation of people’s sense of themselves with regard to their actual merit and worth, let alone the source of their wealth, not the main focus and therefore largely unseen. The fact of slave labor is, however, shown, even if it’s not dramatized, though it is more explicit than most films of the era. House, field and overseer are each crucial elements of Twelve Oaks and Tara, the plantations where Gone With the Wind takes place.

What’s good in the South, too, is depicted. The stunning visuals, the land, manners, socializing and courtship and the gentle way of life. Pretty and feisty Scarlett, who’s earned a reputation for being bolder than her peers, holds court and gets talked about by other females and looked upon by men. The outbreak of civil war occurs within her context.

The plot revolves around Scarlett O’Hara; there is a sense in which her pettiness will be tested by war — and what’s impure about Scarlett is fundamentally what will be Gone With the Wind.

The early evidence is Scarlett standing at the window, looking down upon newlyweds Melanie and Ashley. Here’s the heroine on the inside looking out. Yet think about the meaning of her dilemma; she’s really trapped within the Old South, as the opening titles refer to this archaic slave society. In this sense, Scarlett dramatizes how the South’s ways impair the powerful, too. Her only real saviors, friends and comrades, as far as Scarlett knows, are slaves and an angry Irishman. Everyone else is happily, some even stupidly, off to war. In a flash, again like the title, they are gone. Scarlett is left behind — abandoned, lonely and alone.

What comes next builds character, with an outbreak of measles, a move to Atlanta and the entre of the ridiculous Aunt Pittypat, as cartoonish a figure as in the novel. Scarlett’s Mammy (Hattie McDaniel in one of the screen’s greatest performances), knowing all along what exploits the ambitious young missy has in mind, represents the best of Scarlett’s youthful vigor; Mammy fosters, shapes and marks her charge’s growth. Amid a dance, a bid and donation of a ring, Scarlett learns from her new companion, Melanie, wife of the man she thinks she loves.

Here are women in service at war. This, too, is to the film’s credit. Gone With the Wind remains one of the most intelligent, insightful portrayals of women at war ever made, better and more knowing than the hordes of depictions of today’s mindless women on screen who rarely if ever think about anything having to do with serious issues, let alone war or the men sent to fight them.

With intermittent titles, David O. Selznick’s Gone With the Wind, famously directed by Victor Fleming (The Wizard of Oz), with others also filling in, shifts from breeze to gust with news from Gettysburg. Then, come the war-torn faces of those in Atlanta cast down in bonnets amid news of mass death. Fleming lingers on a list of those killed in action. It is words, not pictures that tell the horrid tale. The camera scrolls down, down, down and down on the same three words.

Cue the theme song “Dixie” as a reprise to the earlier tune’s sense of false jubilation and enter a man of reason, Doctor Meade (Harry Davenport), whose role in the picture is a crucial representation of what will become Scarlett’s education. In a shift to black-and-white color schemes from the rest of the film’s vibrant colors, Gone With the Wind goes from sad and mournful “Dixie” to a musically infused projection of a funeral procession in which Johnny comes marching home.

As Pittypat, Meade, Mammy, Melanie and a young slave named Prissy (Butterfly McQueen) besides Scarlett get dragged, plunged and thrust into the South’s mass death and destruction, in comes Rhett Butler (Clark Gable, brilliantly cast and stellar in the role) with vitality, passion and rage — at the Old South for being the Old South. Butler represents the New South, post-slavery, post-Civil War, though it’s never fashioned or made explicit. What a waste of human life — this is the meaning of his every form of his disgust and he makes no attempt to conceal his emotions or suppress himself in expressing what he feels. Like Scarlett, he is a liberated soul stifled and trapped by the way things are.

There’s music, humor and, during a dance which captures and underscores the surrealism of life during wartime, a total breach from traditionalism. Life remains drab as Scarlett and Atlanta face severe deprivation. Butler has a prostitute, Belle Watling (Ona Munson), to help him ease the chronic anxiety, guilt and agony of war and she’s more than a cliché. The pictures show rain, shadows and the hotly feared Union General William Sherman’s shelling of Atlanta, with churches coming on like a holy calling from God to cease and desist with the Old South rebellion. Pictures of Jesus Christ accompany the sound of moans, the sights of a church and, in one of the movies’ most iconic scenes, the camera pulls back for a scene of mass death and dying.

“Peace be within thy walls“ incongruously graces the screen after Scarlett O’Hara encounters a patient with gangrene. Perhaps you don’t know or remember the grit of Gone With the Wind but it’s there. Between marriages, the making of Scarlett from romantic Southern belle to seasoned war bride happens during Atlanta’s silence and siege. And it isn’t even Intermission.

Before that comes, as Rhett Butler finally kisses Scarlett and enlists in the war for a kind of misintegrated sense of honor, slave Prissy hinges the plot. Prissy’s trauma triggers a key reaction that results in the story’s classic and quite penetrating tale within a tale of three women and a baby. Though this famous scene is generally regarded as humorous, I think after seeing Gone With the Wind in the Chinese theater that simple-minded Prissy’s meltdown underscores the folly of slavery even as it echoes as a call and response to Scarlett’s own earlier cluelessness.

A foreshadowing scene on a bridge marks the end of slavery preceding a scene in which women take refuge in reading (in the novel, it’s a story by Victor Hugo; here, it’s fiction by Charles Dickens). The self-made theme continues with a rainbow followed by blackness, fog and a strange yet familiar place.

The shock and violence of post-war Tara soon becomes clear. Scarlett strikes her sister, Prissy and pretty much everyone else except her mother figure, Mammy, and she forges a secret bond with Melanie over the death of a soldier. By the time war widow Scarlett, who’s remade herself as a businesswoman in post-war Southern society, meets again with her true love Ashley Wilkes, who tells her that he admires her for “facing reality“, the heroine grips the earth and grasps her property rights, legacy and life lessons and vows … to herself and her own ego.

Gone With the Wind essentially carries Scarlett in conversation with herself throughout the epic movie. From that first conversation at Tara with her suitors, the Tarleton twins, to becoming a Confederate captain’s wife in New Orleans and hiring as her subordinate the man to whom she’d once pledged to worship and motherhood, Scarlett O’Hara is both intransigent and indomitable. She will not be struck down.

Like Mammy, the former slave woman whose respect everyone respectable seeks to earn and keep, Scarlett keeps company with herself as a worldly woman alone. She makes mistakes — she makes a terrible parent — and she makes money and love. Scarlett liberates herself from tradition for capitalism, egoism and her own way of life. Gone With the Wind traces her journey in this sense from selflessness to selfishness, in time for the man whose love she finally earns to come full circle with his own mistakes, i.e., drinking alone and taking pity on himself, to reject her with the movie’s most famous line.

“Frankly, my dear…” and the precision with which Mr. Gable delivers the line redeems the film’s previous strife and tension into a single moment. It is tempting to root for what at first might seem like his own redemption. But Gone With the Wind is not the leading man’s story and, on the movie’s terns, it’s a mistake to jeer or cheer the line.

‘Frankly’ spends itself on a serious dramatic moment; it signifies Rhett Butler’s ultimate betrayal of himself — in particular, his idealism — and everything he loves. And it signals one of the screen’s greatest victories.

While the ‘Frankly’ line endures in audience memories, it is tellingly uttered only after man and woman stand as equals on the landing of the staircase from which Scarlett has literally taken a tumble in a penultimate descent — only to rise again — and, also tellingly, it comes before the movie’s last and final line.

“I’ll figure out a way to get him back … tomorrow is another day.”

This is the triumph, the meaning and the glory of Gone With the Wind. It is not a film about the slavery. It is not a movie about civil war. It is not a picture of what war does to a slave, a woman and a man — or a family, a home and way of life, though it rarely gets credit for its insights into each of those dramatizations. There is depth to this movie about Prissy, the overseer, Pittypat, India, Charles, Sue Ellen and more, not just Ashley, Melanie, Mammy, Dr. Meade or Scarlett and Rhett Butler.

Like We the Living, Atlas Shrugged and other epic novels by Hugo, Rand and other great works of literature and movies, it is an expression of the ability of the individual to resist the times, the trials and ruins of the day, rise and never let one’s ego be destroyed. It is the story of a man, or, in this case, a woman — or, in any case, a girl who becomes one — and it is certainly not a romance for romance’s sake. Gone With the Wind depicts the promise not to yield, suffer and be beaten down. It is in this sense, to paraphrase one its admirers, Ayn Rand, a paean to forging the “I” one must learn how to say before one can learn to say “I love you”.

This is why it ends where it vows to once again begin.

—

Gone With the Wind screened during the 10th anniversary Turner Classic Movies festival on April 14, 2019 for its historic 80th anniversary at the Chinese movie theater designed and built by Sid Grauman. This was the 25th anniversary date of the film’s initial airing — the first motion picture showcased without interruption or editing — on Ted Turner’s Turner Classic Movies (TCM) cable channel’s first day of launch. The movie was introduced by TCM’s festival director, Genevieve McGuillicuddy, before the original Robert Osborne introduction from April 14, 1994 was shown before the movie.

◊

Scott Holleran began his professional writing career as a newspaper correspondent in 1991. He’s worked in a variety of media, including magazines, broadcasting and Internet ventures. His news, cultural commentary, sports and other topical articles has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and Philadelphia Inquirer. You can find Scott on Facebook, Twitter or on his website. I’m thrilled Scott reached out to feature this entry on Once Upon a Screen. I hope there will be others.

Analysis: GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) This is a special guest post by Scott Holleran: ◊ My first experience of this movie was probably on television, probably in fragments.

#Butterfly McQueen #Clark Gable #David O. Selznick #Gone with the Wind #Harry Davenport #Hattie McDaniel #Leslie Howard #Margaret Mitchell #Olivia de Havilland #Ona Munson #TCM #Victor Fleming #Vivien Leigh

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aswithasunbeam · 6 years

Text

Salamanders and Solemn Vows, a Lams fic

[Also on AO3 here]

Summary: Hamilton may have had one too many at Von Steuben’s latest get together. Thankfully Laurens is there to help him through the worst of it.

A sweet Lams sickfic set in Valley Forge

March 1778

Loud snores filled the dark quarters when Hamilton slowly peeled his eyes open. He squeezed them shut again against the dull pounding in his head, and he had to swallow twice before he could produce any saliva in his dry mouth. The sour taste of half-digested beef and alcohol lingered on his tongue.

His memory felt patched and blurry. He vaguely recalled a dimly lit parlor and the din of unintelligible chatter and laughter. Von Steuben’s party, he remembered. The Prussian’s way to poke fun at their miserable lack of supplies, now that Greene had taken over as quartermaster and a light appeared at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Torn breeches were the price of admission; Hamilton had met the demand easily, picking the thread out of his most oft mended pair.

The roar of approving hollers when a match produced flames atop the strong spirits, he remembered more clearly. “It’s called a Salamander,” one of Von Steuben’s aides had explained in his ear, voice raised to be heard over the noise of the room. How many had he tossed down last night?

His mind felt too fuzzy to think properly. He rolled over, intent on curling up and going back to sleep, only to find his course blocked by another body. Laurens, he recognized distantly. The abruptly aborted motion had set his stomach churning. Saliva, so hard to produce only moments ago, suddenly flooded his mouth. He shot up and kicked his feet over the side of the camp bed, stumbling instinctively around the trunks and other beds crammed into the small room towards the chamber pot shoved in the opposite corner.

Nothing came up, even though the stench emanating from pot worsened his nausea. The rapid movement and dry heaves only served to turn the dull pounding in his temples to a more intense throbbing. He moaned softly as he rubbed his palm over his forehead and tried to take a steadying breath.

A hand landed on his shoulder blade, and he startled badly. Whipping his head around, he could just make out Laurens in the darkness. He’d been so caught up in his misery, he hadn’t heard him approach. “You’re all right,” John whispered.

“I thought I was going to be sick,” he rasped, waving his hand at the chamber pot in an attempt at explanation, not awake or sober enough to realize John likely couldn’t see the gesture in the dark.

“I doubt you have anything left in your stomach.”

His face went hot with embarrassment as he understood this wasn’t the first time John had comforted him through his nausea tonight. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

John’s hand soothed down his back. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I can’t remember much of the party. How badly did I embarrass myself?”

Laurens breathed out an amused little chuckle. “You actually seemed fine all night. It wasn’t until we left that I realized how bad off you were. You stumbled in a mud puddle on the way back to headquarters, and when you were down on all fours you started getting sick.”

He groaned. “Did anyone else see me?”

“Just me,” John assured him. “Everyone else was still at the party, or already back at headquarters. I helped you back here when you were done and put you straight to bed.”

“Thank you,” he said sincerely. “You’re too good to me, Jack.”

“You’d do the same for me,” Laurens replied, shrugging off the gratitude. “You need help getting back to bed?”

He nearly refused, but when he tried to push himself up under his own power, his head spun dangerously. “Mm, please,” he requested, reaching out to steady himself on John’s shoulder. John’s arm wrapped around his back securely as he lead him back to the camp bed in the corner.

As he collapsed on the half-stuffed, threadbare mattress, he heard Laurens cross the room. Water tinkled softly into one of the pewter cups they kept near the wash basin. Laurens maneuvered easily back to the cot, sat beside him, and urged him to sit up. “Come on, Ham. You need to drink. You’ll feel better.”

He pushed himself up on his left forearm with a low moan and reached out with his right to take the cup. The water did help a little, washing the foul taste from his mouth and stilling his belly somewhat. “Thank you,” he whispered again.

“Shh,” Laurens hushed him. One of John’s cool hands soothed over Hamilton’s forehead, paused for a moment, then combed his hair back from his face. “Go back to sleep.”

He obediently curled back up on the mattress, already fast asleep by the time Laurens returned.

The morning gun sounding reveille woke him next. His headache felt much worse in the hazy light of dawn. He pushed his face fully into his pillow to try to block out the light.

“Up, my boys,” Harrison called, his booming voice accompanied by the rustling of papers as he began handing out assignments for the day. “That includes you, Ham.”

“We’re sure he’s still breathing, right?” he heard Tilghman ask with clear amusement.

He groaned into his pillow to prove he remained among the living. Tilghman laughed. How could he be so cheerful so early in the morning? Especially after last night?

“Go easy on the lad, Harrison,” Meade urged in his distinctive Virginia drawl. “We’re all a bit slow moving this morning.”

“And whose fault is that?” Harrison retorted.

“Hammy?” John’s voice was softer and closer. A hand landed on his back again, rubbing gently over his shoulder blades and down his spine. “Are you all right?”

“Mm,” he hummed, shifting so he could peel an eye open and shoot Laurens a weak half smile. “I think I’ll survive.”

Laurens pressed the back of his hand to Hamilton’s forehead again. Hamilton frowned lightly, and reassured him, “I’m fine, Jack.”

“I know,” Laurens agreed, though his smile looked strained as he rose from the bed.

Harrison heartlessly yanked on Hamilton’s blanket as he strolled passed the cot. “Up, Ham.”

He reluctantly sat up, and he waited a moment for his vision to right itself before he placed his feet on the floor. A towering stack of papers slapped onto the mattress beside him. He squinted at the writing on the top of the page, his head swimming as he tried to make out the words.

“I’m never drinking again,” he muttered as he pressed a hand to his pounding head.

Tilghman and Meade both snickered.

Harrison gave him a fatherly pat on the shoulder, but remained firm. “Learn life lessons on your own time, my boy. We’ve work to do.”

He bit his tongue to keep from pointing out that he hadn’t had his ‘own time’ for nearly two years now. Instead, he pasted on a smile and assured Harrison, “I’m fine, really. I can work.”

“Here, Hammy, fresh clothes,” Laurens said softly. Giving up the attempt to read the documents beside him, he glanced over and saw John had pulled a clean shirt, breeches, and stockings from his trunk for him.

He gave John a grateful look and started to pull off the muddy, torn clothes he’d slept in.

“I’ll save you something hot at the table, Ham,” Tilghman promised, halfway out the door with his own stack of papers tucked under his arm. Meade and Harrison both followed him out.

He’d do almost anything for a cup of hot coffee, but he knew he’d be lucky even to find weak tea. It would have to do, he supposed. The thought of anything more solid turned his stomach. He glanced over at Laurens, who had collapsed back on his forearms on the bed, already fully dressed with his own work neatly piled beside him.

“Aren’t you going down to breakfast?”

“I’ll wait for you,” Laurens shrugged.

"All right." Hamilton smiled a little as he tugged his shirt over his head, the white linen hiding his face and overtaking his vision. He could feel John's eyes on him as he changed, and he wished he felt well enough to properly enjoy the sensation.

Hamilton slumped a little further over the document he was copying and allowed his eyes to close for a just a moment. Two long oak tables had been pushed together to create one large working space for Washington’s aides, and the heaping stacks of papers that laid upon them awaiting attention obscured Hamilton’s view of the entryway. The parlor was unusually quiet for late afternoon, with Tilghman, Meade, and Harrison all off attending to other duties. Laurens had just disappeared to an unknown destination as well. Hamilton relished the brief snatch of quiet.

He felt a good deal better than this morning, but a dull headache and a sour feeling in the pit of his stomach lingered stubbornly. He still hadn’t managed anything more than tea, which was so weak it was basically just hot water. Given the amount of teasing he’d endured all day, he knew he looked about as good as he felt.

“There you are. I almost couldn’t see you behind all those papers.” John’s voice startled him into a more upright posture, and his eyes flew open to see him peering over the towering stacks with a bowl of steaming stew in hand. “I brought up some food for you. You need to put something in your stomach.”

He wrinkled his nose in distaste. Laurens chuckled fondly and set the hot stew beside Hamilton, patting his shoulder companionably as he resumed his own seat. Sighing, Hamilton stirred the watery broth a few times, raised the spoon to his lips, and blew gently to cool the stew before swallowing it down. He paused for a moment to ensure it settled with no ill effect, then repeated the motion.

The bowl was half empty when his stomach started to protest. He pushed the food away and sat back, drawing in a deep breath through his nose. Shouldn’t he be feeling better by now?

“Why don’t we take a walk?” Laurens suggested. “The fresh air will do you good.”

Hamilton frowned at the towering stacks before them.

Seeming to intuit his thoughts, Laurens added, “All this will wait.”

He smiled at John. “All right. A walk sounds nice.”

They both pushed back from the table and set off through the back door, shoulders bumping as they wandered down the muddy path away from camp. The sun had already sunk low in the sky, but enough daylight remained to see their surroundings. Grass had finally replaced the heaps of snow that had buried them for months, and the remaining trees, too skinny to have bothered cutting down during the harsh winter, had started to bud. Hamilton’s head felt clearer in the cool spring air.

“I feel like a fool,” Hamilton confessed as they walked. “I can’t believe I allowed myself to become so inebriated.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” John consoled.

He laughed softly. John could be too forgiving of his follies sometimes. “Whose if not mine?”

“You didn’t drink that much, Ham,” John said, his eyes trained on the path before them.

“Clearly I did,” he argued, his voice still light.

“No, you didn’t,” John repeated, his voice taking on a sharp edge. “I was with you all night. You’re just…you’re still so thin, Hammy.”

He looked down at himself, noting, not for the first time, how loosely his uniform still fit. That he remained underweight was hardly his fault. He’d lost too much weight during his near-fatal fever just a few months ago, and provisions were so scarce in camp that he had no hope of reaching full strength again.

He glanced at John and noticed how tense his expression had grown. “I’m all right, now. You don’t need to worry about me.”

“I always worry about you,” John retorted. “You were so sick, Ham. I read the letters you sent to Washington. I hated that you were so sick, and I couldn’t be there to help you. I was so scared that you weren’t going to come back.”

Hamilton hesitated, not sure how best to give comfort. Honestly, he’d thought he was going to die, too. The fever had overwhelmed him, burning through him so intensely he’d felt like he was being cooked from the inside. Violent, unbearable pain had throbbed in all his joints, and his limbs had felt numb and tingly. He’d have sworn on his life that his mother was in the room with him during the worst of it. Though he’d never told anyone, as he’d sunk deeper into the fever and away from the pain, the knowledge that he was dying had been something of a relief. If only John had been there with him, he might have died content.

“I’m all right now,” he settled on repeating. He tried to catch John’s eye, but he was still looking down at the path, so he let his gaze drift out to the horizon. The sky had turned a brilliant pink as the sun sank lower. The scraggly trees were shadowed, their still nearly bare branches reaching up like black fingers, starkly contrasting with the bright color beyond.

Into the comfortable quiet, he added, “I didn’t realize you were still so upset about me getting sick.” Although, giving it a moment’s thought, it shouldn’t have surprised him. John had been so tender and caring when he finally made his way to camp. Even though he’d been deemed healthy by the doctors, John had insisted he take it easy for a few days, and drafted their fellow aides to help shoulder the burden so Hamilton could rest a little longer.

John had sat by his side for days, reading aloud and inventing ridiculous stories. The sound of his voice in the quiet quarters, the back of their hands pressed together, remained one of his most treasured memories.

John raised a shoulder slightly. “Of course I am. I lo—I mean, I really care about you.”

A smile blossomed across Hamilton’s face at the unspoken word. John had never said the word aloud, but he could sense it in every interaction. Leaving things unspoken had never been his talent. “I love you, too, Jack.”

John paused on the path suddenly, finally meeting his eye, and demanded, “You can’t leave me. Not like that. Not without saying goodbye. Promise me.”

He vowed softly, with no hesitation, “I promise.”

John’s arms snaked around him and tugged him close. He wrapped his arms around John in return, resting his chin on John’s broad shoulder. The embrace was warm and firm, a peaceful oasis in the horror of war. Hamilton grabbed a fistful of John’s worn uniform jacket as he squeezed him closer, trying to commit the feeling of John’s warm weight in his arms to memory.

Not until years later, alone in his office with a crumpled paper, damp eyes, and a broken heart, does he realize he never demanded John vow the same to him.

Note: research for this fic primarily based on posts from ciceroprofacto and revolutionary-pirate here on tumblr. Regarding Hamilton’s hangover in March 1778, see this post. For James McHenry’s poem describing a morning among the aides, see this post.

#hamilton fanfic #alexander hamilton #john laurens #lams #sickfic #robert hanson harrison #tench tilghman #richard kidder meade

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revolutionary-pirate · 7 years

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TL; WR: Canon-era Lams sick fics about January 20th, 1778 and the days following are entirely plausible. Laurens didn’t work during the days following Hamilton and Gibbs’ arrival at Valley Forge and worked unusually sparingly until Hamilton returned to writing regularly on February 2nd. Gibbs, who isn’t an official aide and only occasionally writes letters for headquarters, wrote an unusually high number of letters (for him) during that time and might have been picking up Laurens’ slack for him.

If you like very dense, highly informative, but debatably clear and probably boring and awful (but fascinating to me) data and statistics about all of the aides during this time frame for the sake of historical accuracy/potential accuracy from which one can draw various plausible conclusions, then the following is for you!

(skip to the bottom to see the vast amount of potential conclusions about the situation that I drew from the mass of data I collected if you don’t care about the nitty gritty and just want the various conjectures I developed out of incomplete information)

I got really curious as I was going through the Calendar of Washington’s Correspondance for my Meade research and ended up doing some obnoxiously tedious data compiling across a few platforms. We know that Hamilton and Gibbs arrived back at Valley Forge on January 20th. I discovered then that the only writing Laurens did from January 20th-February 2nd (which is about when Hamilton resumed his writing duties) was:

a letter to his father on the 23rd

a really short message to his dad for Washington also on the 23rd

a translation of a letter written on the 20th that he didn’t receive and translate till some days later and wasn’t answered until the 26th (so it was probably translated between the 25th-26th)

the letter written on the 26th, mentioned above

a letter to his dad on the 28th, after which he left to attend the Continental Congress Camp Committee meetings with Washington

a copy of the Board of War instructions from the 31st that he could have done who knows when.

There were ~45 letters total written for Washington (so not including Laurens’ letters to his dad) by the aides during the 14 day period between Hamilton’s arrival and his return to regular duties (20th-2nd). According to the Calendar of Correspondance and some additional hunting on Founders, the breakdown looks something like this:

Tilghman wrote 16 (despite also possibly attending the Continental Congress Camp Committee Meetings with Laurens and Washington)

Harrison 10.5 (Harrison and Fitzgerald share a letter)

Meade 5 (Left on the 31st to meet and escort Mrs. Washington)

Gibbs 4

Laurens 3-4

Fitzgerald 3.5 (Left on leave on February 1st bearing letters from Washington to deliver while away.)

Hamilton 2

This was, obviously, a rather lax time at headquarters. ~45 letters written in total in 14 days is hardly a dozen more than the volume of letters Tilghman would write by himself in busier sets of two weeks. This is in part because the 29th-2nd were sparse in the letter department, potentially because of the Committee meetings and Washington’s absence from Valley Forge while attending them. Only 8 letters in total were written from the 29th-2nd. 3 from Harrison, 2 from Gibbs, 1 from Fitzgerald, 1 from Tilghman, and 1 from Hamilton. (Fitzgerald’s on the 29th, Harrison’s across the 30th-31st, Tilghman’s on the 30th, Gibbs’ both were on the 1st, and Hamilton’s was on the 2nd)

Gibbs’ contribution through all of this is somewhat striking. He only writes letters occasionally because he’s Captain of the Life Guard first and special aide-de-camp second. His handwriting generally only shows up about 2-4 times in an entire month if it shows up at all and probably only when everyone else is too busy and they need an extra pen. Two in one day for him is a rarity and he wrote both of the only letters written on the 1st. Since he was accompanying Hamilton on his mission, his absence from the calendar for November-January is explainable. But writing so many letters in a small span of time is unusual for him. Gibbs’ contributions were on the 20th, 22nd, and the 1st. (and one on the 3rd, which was one of only 3 letters written that day). Laurens didn’t contribute the 20th-22nd, 24th~25th, 27th, and was attending meetings the 28th and 29th and potentially ‘till the 31st. Washington was writing from Valley Forge on the 1st after ordering Meade to go out and meet Mrs. Washington the day before. Washington was writing from both Moore’s Hall and Valley Forge on the 31st, so they were probably back at camp that day. this means that, ~7 out of the ~11 days that Laurens was at headquarters during Hamilton’s ‘recovery’ period were spent not writing and doing other things instead. (Side note, He also didn’t contribute the 18th-19th). Laurens only writing/translating 3-4 letters for Washington in this time period is an irregularity for him because he usually writes twice that plus whatever extra letters he’s writing to his dad (but it can’t be dismissed that this was a lax time). Before you say that it’s not fair because he was attending committee meetings with Washington ~28th-31st so it’s not very representative of him against everyone else, factoring out the 8 letters that came out of headquarters during that time period and shortening the judging time frame, it’s still an unusually low amount for him and an unusual distribution amongst them. We only have concrete evidence that Laurens was at the Committee meetings because he wrote his father about Washington having him to attend them with him, but Tilghman was also absent from writing for almost the exact same amount of time that Laurens was (save a single letter Tilghman wrote himself). I hunted around in the financial series of the Washington Papers and found a bill written by Tilghman on the 2nd about the reimbursement to him of “money paid for the family” [x x], referring to the Military Family, and potentially in reference to money he paid for Laurens, himself, and whoever else was on the Committee Meeting trip with them (like Hamilton) a few miles out of camp for some days because Aides are required to be reimbursed for all of their travel expenses. This is the reasoning for my deduction that there is a chance that Tilghman was at that meeting as well. But, on the other hand, that money could have also been a reimbursement of money owed back to Tilghman since November. There is a line that Tilghman crossed out on the document where I can just make out “Whitemarsh” somewhere in there, which is where they were camped out in November and was while Gibbs, who was in charge of the cash, was gone. So it could really go either way. With no concrete evidence that says one way or the other, Tilghman was either there or he wasn’t. I don’t know that definitively as of yet. It’s just weird that he only wrote one letter during this time while Gibbs wrote several. Washington’s letter to the Continental Congress Camp Committee was written by Hamilton and read by the committee on the 29th [x]. It’s almost 13k words long. Washington made some corrections to it before taking it with him to present to the Committee 3 miles down the road at the Moore House. There are two unfinished drafts of it that Hamilton numbered 21 and 22 and that Washington had a hand in as well. Those numbers could either represent dates or numbers, it’s unclear. It’s also uncertain how long he spent working on this letter and how long it took him to write it but it contains 16 sections and details the reformation of the different war departments and the way that things are done. Days of work had to have gone into it and weeks of thought and collaboration into its development, and months of build up to it meaning that Hamilton’s absence from contributing to headquarters writing upon his return was probably a result of his work on this specific, incredibly-important letter in preparation for the Committee meeting (which he may have also attended).

Various Potential Conclusions that can be drawn about the Aides during the period of January 20th-February 2nd with the above Information (some situations more plausible than others):

Caleb Gibbs

Gibbs picked up Laurens’ slack while Laurens was helping Hamilton since he wrote on the days Laurens did not.

Gibbs was tasked with helping out at headquarters in Fitzgerald, Meade, Laurens*, Hamilton*, and Tilghman’s* absences. (*Maybe Hamilton and/or Tilghman as well depending. Laurens also, depending on the day.)

“Gibbs has gotten out of writing letters since November so he should do it” “That’s not fair, What about Hamilton????” “He almost died, remember??? You were there.”

All of the Above, any combination of the above, or none of the above. Regardless, he was also sorting out all of the finances since November. Like reimbursing Tilghman $68 because being in charge of the headquarters finances was one of his jobs as Captain of the Life Guard. (Exciting, I know.)

John Laurens

Laurens was absent from writing because Hamilton was back.

Laurens was absent from writing the 18th-20th because Hamilton could be back any day now

Laurens was absent from writing because Hamilton was ill and needed to be watched over and only worked every few days or so so that he didn’t neglect his duties.

Laurens was absent because he was helping Hamilton with the Committee letter which led to Washington asking Laurens to go with him instead of Hamilton, who was just recently back and recovered from illness and should take a break now after putting all that effort into that letter.

““ ““ Washington asking both Laurens and Hamilton to go with him to the committee meetings. (He was often accompanied out of camp by at least 2+ aides, I’m pretty sure. Might need to look more into that, though)

Laurens was just doing other aide duties that weren’t writing for Washington because those exist and him not writing for several days isn’t entirely uncommon. It’s just Tilghman not writing for a few days that is uncommon.

Laurens was told to take a break from writing the 31st-2nd because Gibbs’s got it and there’re only a few letters to write anyway.

Alexander Hamilton

The two numbered drafts were Hamilton’s failed attempts at doing work on January 21st and 22nd before Laurens discovered him and made him stop and go back to resting. Washington looked over the unfinished drafts anyway to provide his opinion/alterations on what was already there. This is an important document.

The numbers on the drafts aren’t dates, but something else.

Hamilton wasn’t sick at all because it’s more likely that he was pretty much fully recovered before he left his final sickbed in Peekskill.

Hamilton wrote the final draft of that letter in anywhere between 2 and 8 Days.

Hamilton worked very closely at headquarters with an agitated Washington on that letter from the day of/after he got to Valley Forge until it was done.

Laurens may have served as the wall for Hamilton to bounce ideas off of while he was writing the Committee Letter.

Hamilton appeared healthy when he returned to camp but then relapsed by the end of the 22nd, hence the unfinished drafts, and was bed-ridden. Laurens indulged him and debated/discussed, in small doses, the topics that Hamilton would end up writing about fully in his letter to the committee in preparation for his actually sitting down and quickly writing it in just a few days once he was recovered enough to do so or could no longer delay doing so

Hamilton does the above and then retires to rest and fully recuperate. Laurens goes to the committee meeting and Hamilton does not, staying behind to stay in bed. When Laurens returns he goes to tend to him if he needs it until he fully recovers from the small relapse he got from overworking himself on the letter.

Hamilton goes to the meeting despite his relapsed health because it’s not a major relapse, just a minor one.

Is entirely healthy on completion of the letter and goes to the meeting

Hamilton going to Moore Hall for the meetings along with Laurens (and potentially Tilghman for a time) during the 28th-31st in combination with a lack of letters to write is why he didn’t resume his writing duties until the 2nd.

also potentially in combination with him being mildly sick again and having to recover a final time being why he didn’t resume his duties.

Caleb Gibbs being like “I got this, you just relax” and writing all the letters for the 1st because Hamilton wrote the committee letter and should take a break.

Hamilton’s absence from writing was him taking a break when he got back because he generally knows how to take care of himself and knows when it’s time for him to take a break, which is why he didn’t start writing any other letters until the 2nd after having to rush to complete the massive Committee letter sometime before the 28th.

“I just wrote 13k words so I’m not writing again for, like, a week.”

Harrison was the one that made Hamilton not work on anything until the 2nd, where Hamilton wrote the only letter for that day and got back to writing regularly from there on out.

See some of the options above in the John Laurens section for other alternatives

Tench Tilghman

Wrote 3 letters on the 27th, 3 letters on the 28th, no letters the 29th, 1 letter signed by his own name the 30th, no letters the 31st-2nd. (fact)

Didn’t go to the Committee Meetings

Went to two of the Committee Meetings before returning to camp

Was coincidentally sick and needed a break at the exact time the committee meetings were happening and for the exact same amount of time that Laurens and Hamilton were absent from writing as well (minus the one letter on the 30th).

Hamilton was actually sick, in the last stages of his recovery, and when the Committee meetings rolled around and he didn’t go, Tilghman volunteered to help him out in Laurens’ place.

Harrison made Tilghman take a break the 29th-2nd and told him that he and Gibbs would take care of it all, but didn’t stop him from writing the one letter on Washington’s behalf. Otherwise, Tilghman was just chillin’ and takin’ a break for several days because he usually doesn’t ever stop.

Robert Hanson Harrison

Was holding down the fort while everyone was gone.

Went to 28th-29th committee meetings because he often attended important meetings with Washington and was back by on the 29th because he wrote both letters for the 30th (probably not)

Didn’t go to any of the committee meetings at all because they were outside of camp and he was the one that usually ran headquarters during Washington’s absences from camp. (more likely)

Richard Kidder Meade

Left on the 31st to collect Mrs. Washington and escort her back to camp because Washington ordered him out as soon as he got word [x].

Went to the meetings (unlikely)

Didn’t go to the meetings (most likely)

Didn’t write letters the 28th-31st because there were pretty much no letters to write.

Might have been doing his numerous non-writing aide duties because him writing infrequently for Washington at headquarters was not uncommon in his case. It wasn’t his main duty to write letters.

Gibbs gave Meade $130 for the expenses of his Mrs. Washington trip and Meade returned $110 back him. [x the linked document says 1779 in the title, but this is an error. The document clearly states 1778]

Meade was almost broke and needed money for the trip [actually somewhat likely]

Meade was not broke, it’s just that he spent $317 out of his own pocket for all of the family’s expenses in Gibbs’ stead back in October while Gibbs was with Hamilton on their mission [x] and Gibbs was like “I’m giving you money for this trip.” “No. I can handle it. You already paid me back.” “TAKE THE MONEY. IT’S MY JOB TO GIVE YOU MONEY FOR THIS SHIT.” “Okay but I'm giving back everything I don’t spend.” -only spends $20 because Meade lives like he’s poor even when he has money and someone else paid for the return trip-

Gibbs gave him the money because they are supposed to reimburse all travel costs anyway, so why not jump the gun and give Meade the money to start with.

John Fitzgerald

Didn’t go to the meetings

Wrote the only letter on the 29th, which signed in his own name because Washington wasn’t there.

Left on leave the 1st with Washington’s letters for some people in Virginia to drop off while he was out [x]. Didn’t return until mid-May.

In General

The 28th-7th just didn’t have a lot of letters. It was a really ‘relaxed’ time and there weren’t a lot of letters to write in comparison to some other times so there was more free time to do other things and letters from headquarters could be taken care of by a couple people on their own and there was no significance to the distribution of letters at all and none of this matters.

It might have all been business as usual-just less of it.

I don't have a life.

Laurens definitely went to the meeting

Hamilton and Tilghman might have gone, Hamilton more likely than Tilghman.

Harrison and Meade probably didn’t go but there is a slim chance they might have

Gibbs and Fitzgerald definitely didn’t go

I am way too focused on that unimportant bit of information over who went and who didn’t, honestly.

I spent way too much time on this (like, 45+ hours)

Hamilton had an incredibly important letter to write between the 20th-28th regardless of how healthy he was when he started.

Laurens wrote fewer letters than he usually did and Gibbs wrote far more than he usually did.

So, there are a lot of different conjectures that one can make based on this incomplete data set and a variety of different ways that one can view said data and then piece it together to come to several different plausible conclusions/scenarios, but the most important one is:

Canon-era lams sick fics of Hamilton’s return on the 20th and the days following that are entirely plausible based on cold-hard data. And, Caleb Gibbs might have stepped in to write letters for Laurens so he could help/spend time with Hamilton with recovering and writing a 13k word long letter pass it on.

Of course, other situations are just as entirely plausible as that one and even that scenario has a wide variety of variables that can be applied to it based on the data, so take it as you will.

#statistics #speculation #aides-de-camp #John Laurens #Alexander Hamilton #Caleb Gibbs #Tench Tilghman #Robert Hanson Harrison #Richard Kidder Meade #John Fitzgerald #way too god damn much time spent on this instead of other things #like my homework #If i can't find parking immediately i'm going to be late to my amrev class. shit. first week is miserable for parking

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thelonelyrdr-blog · 7 years

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Thoughts on Alexander Hamilton: The Graphic History of an American Founding Father

(Spoiler-free review, because it's impossible to "spoil" historical events.) Since Lin-Manuel Miranda shaped him into a pop culture icon last year, many have come to sympathize with Hamilton, but reading the graphic history of his life has made me realize that I identify with the man, and, considering how his story ends - and his reputation as an arrogant, authoritarian asshole (ah, the alliteration) - I'm not sure whether to view that fact as a positive or a negative. In case you're curious, or would like to weigh in on the validity of my self-comparison with Hamilton, here are the similarities I noticed: 1. Let's get the most superficial comparison out of the way first: we're both bastards. In the literal sense. (I dare you to judge me, either for airing my family business on the internet or for being born out of wedlock.)

2. We're both poor, despite having New York City jobs. 3. According to Jonathan Hennessey, the author of this graphic history, Hamilton was not the most talented of his peers, but he did have "an exceptional talent to make an impression on superiors." Judging from the praise I've received throughout my academic and actual careers, I have that same talent. Although I won't deny that I'm intelligent and hard-working, I don't believe that I possess these qualities in greater abundance than others who have inhabited the roles that I have, yet I nearly always earn the distinction from my superiors of being "one of the best." 4. On a related note, aside from making a strong impression on our superiors, my and Hamilton's most prominent talents appear to be writing and ambition. I bet that if Hamilton were to take the Pottermore Sorting Hat quiz, he'd be assigned to Slytherin, too. Surprised as I was by the result initially, I've since warmed to it. 5. I, like Hamilton, believe that most people are terrible - i.e. "[will] always act in their own interests. Seflishly" - and are therefore incapable of governing themselves. Sorry, guys. Putting my possibly disconcerting spiritual kinship with Hamilton aside for the moment, I really enjoyed Hennessey's account of his life. Contrary to what I expected, the comic book is more history than narrative history, more academic than literary. If you're looking for a dramatization of Hamilton's life à la the musical, look elsewhere. However, I love history, even more as I get older, so not only did the academic tone not bother me, but it also represented a welcome change from the fiction that I usually read. I learned so much that I didn't know about the Revolutionary War, particularly concerning the Caribbean islands' and foreign countries' involvement in it. (Why doesn't that appear on the curriculum, by the way, at least one of the half-dozen times that Americans are taught about the Revolutionary War in school?) Would I read Ron Chernow's famous biography of Hamilton, or another non-fiction book about him? Perhaps not, but I'm glad I read Hennessey's graphic history. Although I confess that I paid little attention to Justin Greenwood's illustrations, I remember them as detailed and striking, with just enough color to pop. The art made the history easier to envision, and what readers can envision, they can comprehend. My only complaint would be the weird, unexplained blue man who kept intruding in the history. I'm all for subtlety, but I need to know what the hell that thing was supposed to be. I know he was a symbol - for humankind, I'm guessing, although I could also argue for interpreting him as a dead Hamilton or the spirit of the United States - but it's unclear for what, and regardless, the use of symbolism just doesn't match the realistic style of the rest of the comic. I don't have much else in the way of a review, but here are some random thoughts I had while reading that I hope you'll find humorous: *Seriously? You can get a personal letter recounting the events following a hurricane published in a local paper? And not only that, but a letter that, I'm sorry, wasn't even that impressively written. I want to live in this time period. And not be a woman. Or die of malaria or yellow fever. Actually, never mind. *I know I'm not the first to pose this question, but why, of all of the founding fathers, did Lin-Manuel Miranda choose Hamilton as the subject of his musical, and why has the public response to the musical so incontrovertibly justified his decision? Is it because Hamilton started as a poor orphan and Americans, in particular, have a fondness for underdog stories? *In the interest of privacy, I won't specify the city, but Hamilton lived and studied in my hometown! More importantly, I never knew that and was never taught that in public school either. (On a related note, when Aaron Burr mentioned that he was an alumnus of "the College of New Jersey," I got excited, until I recalled that Princeton once used that moniker.) *Hennessey writes that Boston Harbor "stank for days" after the Boston Tea Party. Not so notable nowadays, when all harbors stink always. *I love General Charles Lee's gentlemanly insult toward Washington prior to dueling with Colonel John Laurens: "It is true I have shared with my friends and acquaintances my opinion of General Washington's inferior military character. And I attest that I shall perhaps do so again." Um, oh no he didn't? *I'm sad, though not surprised, that Hamilton's and Laurens's belief that "negroes' natural faculties are probably as good as [white people's]" was progressive compared to their peers'. “PROBABLY”??? *Is it bad that, in addition to identifying with Hamilton's pessimistic view of humanity, I relate to the sentiment in Hamilton's letter to Laurens? "I hate the army. I hate the world. I hate myself. The whole is a mass of fools and knaves." Man, do I know that feel. I googled the quote and it concludes with, "I could almost except you and Meade," which is even more appropriate, because we all have that one friend whom we assure that we don't hate when we're venting to them about how much we hate everyone and everything. *Hennessey notes that, in un-seating Hamilton's father-in-law in the New York Senate, Aaron Burr "earned a permanent spot on Hamilton's to-do list." Perhaps I'm immature, but my immediate thought was, “OH, BABY!” and even though, weeks after finishing this comic, I can finally read that line without tittering, I still think it's unnecessarily homoerotic. (But if anyone can recommend any good HamiltonxBurr stories - pre-duel, of course, and I wouldn’t consider them fanfics, as they focus on real people - you'll have a permanent spot on my to-do list. I'll stop.) *Learning more about the Revolutionary War has only further validated my belief that, patriotism be damned, the war amounted to a lot of drama over inconsequential grievances. Representation or not, the taxes weren't that high or that unreasonable - in fact, taxes rose post-war, under the US national government, because the US accrued so much debt during the war - but because some colonists resented being told what to do, they had to declare independence. Really, had the Founding Fathers not been a bunch of stubborn, entitled babies, we might still be under the rule of Parliament and the Queen. An understandably scary thought for most Americans, considering that we’ve been indoctrinated since birth to value independence above all else, but keep in mind that we wouldn’t have Trump as president if we were still under British rule. ...On that depressing note, if you're looking for a thought-provoking read midway between history and fiction that both educates and entertains, I'd highly recommend Hennessey's and Greenwood's Alexander Hamilton: The Graphic History of an American Founding Father. It may not be a substitute for the musical, but books are more affordable than Broadway tickets.

#alexanderhamilton #jonathanhennessey #justingreenwood #graphichistory #comicbooks #ushistory #nonfiction #books #bookreviews #reading #tenspeedpress #crownpublishinggroup #penguinrandomhouse #ypg #littlebigmouth #publishing #linmanuelmiranda #revolutionarywar #foundingfathers

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kitefleischer-blog · 5 years

Text

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Jordyn Lines < [email protected]> Date: Mon, Oct 18, 2019 at 12:16 PM Subject: FW: FW: FW: lurp out work out To: Nick Trowbridge<[email protected]>, Shaylee Sly<[email protected]>, Joseph Eddie<[email protected]>, Ellizabeth Coleman<[email protected]>, Nathan Young<[email protected]>

Just so you guys know what the most recent government experiment is. First Area 51, then chem trails, then Polybius, now mind-damaging workout videos. At least 6 people have gone brain death in some way associated with this full routine. Perhaps this is part of their plan to destabilize foreign governments by destroying the cognitive capabilities of the unsuspecting masses using the modern internet? Spread via VHS tapes? Does a digital version of the full set exist? Or is this just a harbinger of things to come?

Jordyn

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Greg Hatch < [email protected]> Date: Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 12:16 PM Subject: FW: FW: FW: lurp out work out To: Micah Wilcock<[email protected]>, Claire Robinson<[email protected]>, Alex Chandler<[email protected]>, Ian Woodberry<[email protected]>, Kassidy Hamilton<[email protected]> Jordyn Lines <[email protected]>, Isaac Wright<[email protected]>,

SPREADING FOR AWARENESS

IF YOU EVER WALK INTO A ROOM AND SEE THIS PLAYING, RUN AND DON’T LOOK BACK. DON’T BE LURED IN BY THE FUNKY MUSIC, OR THE WEIRD FASCINATION OF SO MUCH ARM BEING SWUNG AROUND. IT WILL SUCK YOU IN AND FIRST YOU’LL PAY TOO MUCH MONEY FOR IT THEN YOU’LLGIVE IT EVERY WAKING THOUGHT. THE LURP OUT WORK OUT IS CURSED OR POSSESSED OR SOMETHING.

BUT THE PREVIEW VIDEO IS OKAY TO WATCH THOUGH. ITS NOT CURSED

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Jessica Brownell <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 12:16 PM Subject: FW: FW: FW: lurp out work out To: Justin Holland<[email protected]>, Matthew Ricks<[email protected]>, Greg Hatch<[email protected]>

I’m actually a big fan of this! body positivity is soemthing really important today in our society- you don’t have to be jacked or ultra buff to be fit, even super skinny people can too! We should consider doing this as an activity for community awareness week!

From,

Jessica Brownell

Co-Vice President

AJHS Student Council

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Jordan Smith < [email protected]> Date: Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 12:16 PM Subject: FW: FW: FW: lurp out work out To: Christine Grosland<[email protected]>, Jessica Brownell<[email protected]>, James Smith<[email protected]>, Brylee Perry<[email protected]>, Derick Shawns<[email protected]>

This haunts my dreams.

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Jon Parker <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 12:16 PM Subject: FW: FW: FW: lurp out work out To: Adam Cook<[email protected]>, Courtney Farnsworth<[email protected]>, Olivia Ockey<[email protected]>, Riley Field<[email protected]>, Jordan Smith<[email protected]>

THIS HAPPENED TO MY COUSINS.

They got a boxed set of the LOWO tapes at a yard sale, thought they looked funny, I don’t know. Picked them up on monday. Told us they were going to carpool up to my parents house for sunday dinner with us, but on sunday, they didnt come outside. We honked, called, nothing. We just went without them.

Then we heard that they had missed all of their college classes from some mutual friends. Somebody went over- found them standing in the living room, staring at the tv. They were barely moving, looked like they hadnt eaten in days, one was mumbling something over and over again. Hospitalized for three days each. Neither had any memory of what happened or why they were just standing there. Chucked all the tapes though.

So do at your own risk. Im not going to!

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Carol Neibaur < [email protected]> Date: Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 12:16 PM Subject: FW: FW: FW: lurp out work out To: Mark Hailstone<[email protected]>, Matthew Laudie<[email protected]>, Justin Hendricks<[email protected]>, Megan Warner<[email protected]>, Jon Parker<[email protected]>

Some kids in my class started doing this and have now missed an ENTIRE WEEK OF SCHOOL. They’ve been doing it every day---- even one of their moms is doing it too! DON’T GO IF YOU VALUE YOUR GRADES CAUSE YOU WONT STOP.

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Amaryllis Lorelai < [email protected]> Date: Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 12:16 PM Subject: FW: FW: FW: lurp out work out To: Carol Neibaur<[email protected]>, Wesley Andersen<[email protected]>, Alyse Walker<[email protected]>

Does anybody else think this is creepy? XD

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Kyle Crossmore <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 12:16 PM Subject: FW: FW: FW: lurp out work out To: Chad Anderson<[email protected]> Jake Ferndale<[email protected]>, Caroline Everett <[email protected]>, Zaryia Meades<[email protected]>, Karen<[email protected]>, Grace Kelly<[email protected]>, Amaryllis Lorelai <[email protected]>, Charlie Kaufmann<[email protected]>

Ive never felt so good in my entire life.

Love the lurp

Go with the gangle

LURPOUT WORKOUTTTTT YEAH

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Sarah Dalley <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 12:16 PM Subject: FW: FW: FW: lurp out work out To: Jake Ferndale<[email protected]>, Caroline Everett <[email protected]>, Zaryia Meades<[email protected]>, Karen<[email protected]>, Chad Anderson<[email protected]> Kyle Crossmore <[email protected]>, Grace Kelly<[email protected]>, Amaryllis Lorelai <[email protected]>, Charlie Kaufmann<[email protected]>

For all of you who were wondering why Bo, Devs, BJ, Xavier, Evan, Erik, and Cynthia missed class today, I think they were doing this? They started last weekend, and idk must be pretty good if they’d all miss stats for it. We should try it?

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Quin Dalley <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 12:16 PM Subject: FW: FW: FW: lurp out work out To: Anne Dalley<[email protected]>, Richard Dalley<[email protected]>, Stephen Dalley<[email protected]>, Sarah Dalley <[email protected]>,

Hey fam tried this with friends. Was alright. 3/10. Pretty funny to watch everybody else go crazy tho.

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Brett James <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 12:16 PM Subject: FW: FW: FW: lurp out work out To: Cynthia Yates<[email protected]>, Blake Moore<[email protected]>, Erik Ortiz<[email protected]>, Veronica Belt<[email protected]>, Quinn Dalley<[email protected]>

GUYS YOU ALL HAVE TO COME!!!!!1!!!1 We did numbers 2 through 7 tonight and when we’re done with them we’re going to do it all again! We’re going to do it tomorrow! At 11 AM!

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Xavier Bushman <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 12:16 PM Subject: FW: FW: FW: lurp out work out To: Beau Robertson<[email protected]>, Devin Livingston<[email protected]>, Brett James<[email protected]>, Evan Hansen<[email protected]>, Xavier Bushman<[email protected]>

Luke and I got his brothers tapes and got a VHS player at Savers and tried the first one. Was crazy good. We’re doing the next one on Friday at my house at 5 if any of you want to join!

-Xav

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Andrew Caldwell <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 12:16 PM Subject: FW: FW: FW: lurp out work out To: Beau Robertson<[email protected]>, Devin Livingston<[email protected]>, Brett James<[email protected]>, Evan Hansen<[email protected]>, Xavier Bushman<[email protected]>

SO DUMB I CAN’T STOP LAUGHING XD XD XD XD XD XD XD XD XD EVERYONE NEEDS TO SEE THIS

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Luke Yang <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 12:16 PM Subject: FW: FW: FW: lurp out work out To: Victor Klein<[email protected]>, Samantha Bale<[email protected]>, Adam Redford<<[email protected]>>, Harry Stein<[email protected]>, Elizabeth Nelson<[email protected]>, Bradley Warren<[email protected]>, Andrew Caldwell<[email protected]>

This is actually really great! My brother did this! He got so buff! He could punch down a wall! And its fun! What more could you want! I think he still has the VHS! I will ask him!

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Samantha Bale <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 12:16 PM Subject: FW: FW: lurp out work out To: Luke Yang<[email protected]>, Garret Jeffs <[email protected]>

I can’t unsee this. XD

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Victor Klein <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 12:16 PM Subject: FW: lurp out work out To: Carlos Reyes<[email protected]>, Adam Redford<[email protected]>, Samantha Bale<[email protected]>, Felix Arias <[email protected]>, David Johnson <[email protected]>

Lol wut

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Iggy Beriman <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 12:16 PM Subject: lurp out work out To: Victor Klein<[email protected]>, Loren Brunken <[email protected]>

Guys guys guys guys guys check this out we need to totally do this!!! Its like its made for you

Jordyn

SPREADING FOR AWARENESS

BUT THE PREVIEW VIDEO IS OKAY TO WATCH THOUGH. ITS NOT CURSED

From,

Jessica Brownell

Co-Vice President

AJHS Student Council

This haunts my dreams.

THIS HAPPENED TO MY COUSINS.

So do at your own risk. Im not going to!

Does anybody else think this is creepy? XD

Ive never felt so good in my entire life.

Love the lurp

Go with the gangle

LURPOUT WORKOUTTTTT YEAH

Hey fam tried this with friends. Was alright. 3/10. Pretty funny to watch everybody else go crazy tho.

GUYS YOU ALL HAVE TO COME!!!!!1!!!1 We did numbers 2 through 7 tonight and when we’re done with them we’re going to do it all again! We’re going to do it tomorrow! At 11 AM!

Luke and I got his brothers tapes and got a VHS player at Savers and tried the first one. Was crazy good. We’re doing the next one on Friday at my house at 5 if any of you want to join!

-Xav

SO DUMB I CAN’T STOP LAUGHING XD XD XD XD XD XD XD XD XD EVERYONE NEEDS TO SEE THIS

This is actually really great! My brother did this! He got so buff! He could punch down a wall! And its fun! What more could you want! I think he still has the VHS! I will ask him!

I can’t unsee this. XD

Lol wut

Guys guys guys guys guys check this out we need to totally do this!!! Its like its made for you

https://youtu.be/AuMG0DSyJr4

0 notes

hsews · 6 years

Link

Since the Korean War was fought in the 1950s, these soldiers would be now 90 years old at the very least, meaning all those many people asking Trump to bring their remains home would be at least 110 years if not older.

Illustration: John Shakespeare

Photo:

What else did he really mean us all to believe in the address? – Louise Whelan, Chatswood

Frankly, only time will tell if the achievements of Trump and Kim’s meeting will grow over time to outshine his meeting with the Kardashian Kim.

At least with the original Kim meeting, one American was set free after a number of decades for a first offence, an act of humane clemency which, if they ever heard of it, may inspire greatly the imprisoned and economically deprived masses in North Korea, some of whom will have been waiting since 1948 for the freedoms that Europe and Japan have enjoyed since 1945.

Surely our recent record of humane treatment of refugees could not suffer by offering refuge to Kim refugees, as long as they managed their alleged political influence a bit more discreetly than their neighbours. – Garry P Dalrymple, Earlwood

What else could we expect from a lying braggart but mendacious bluster? So it was with Trump’s post-summit press conference, a nauseating, hour-long, self-congratulatory rant.

President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore.

Photo: AP

Only two things were achieved by this meeting, and neither were mentioned by Trump. First, a murderous and dictatorial international pariah secured legitimacy and security for his regime without giving up a thing. Second, a shallow conman secured a gold mine of self-promotional material to con his way towards a second term.

Everyone else is a loser. The art of the deal indeed. – Michael Hinchey, New Lambton

I think of my old school motto – res non verba – when Trump claims his handshake with Kim is history-making. Such political handshakes offer great photo opportunities but have an unproductive history. Handshakes are a beginning but also, too often, the end. – Ron Sinclair, Bathurst

Talk is cheap.There will be likely many a twist and turn before Trump and Kim arrive at a quid pro quo agreement .Any talk of a permanent paradigm shift is presumptuous as both are erratic ego-driven leaders. – Steve Ngeow, Chatswood

The blurry line between friends and enemies

Donald Trump is carving a new path through the world order inspired by the adage to keep your enemies close.

So allies are now backbenchers and the new ministry is made up of strong men and bad guys: Putin, Kim, Duarte, Xi for a start.

Trump is on a slippery slope with delisting voters and demonising minorities. – Robert Caraian, Crows Nest

It’s come to this. The leader of Canada is a very, very bad man. The leader of North Korea is a good one. – Max Staples, Wagga Wagga

An interesting few days in the world of Trump. On one hand Justin Trudeau, who has brought a humanity and balance to his country, and on the other a leader who has only brought terror and death to his people.

It is to be hoped that Trump and Kim can continue their friendship because, by the end of the year, it’s likely the only friends the US will have in the world will be Russia, Israel and North Korea. – Charles Hargrave, Elizabeth Bay

Trump is so out of his depth. It is so much easier to be presidential in a meeting with a weakling impoverished nation than be an equal participant among equivalent nations of wealth and influence at the G7.

I truly pray for the impoverished North Koreans that actual change can come of this meeting but I can’t help but feel that it’s all window dressing and egomaniacal posturing on both sides. – Rebecca Semple, Abbotsford

While we rightly focus on the appalling human rights abuses in Kim’s North Korea, the Australian media has been almost silent on the atrocities for which the Americans have never atoned during the Korean War itself (“Remember who Kim is and his victims”, June 13).

In a remarkable 2017 book, NSW Supreme Court Justice Michael Pembroke chronicles the grotesque almost total obliteration of North Korea, its infrastructure and millions of people with more bombs being dropped on that one small nation than in the entire WWII Pacific campaign.

As we all hope for this summit to actually mean something, let our media and government also call on the Americans to own up to what Pembroke concludes were crimes under international law. – Bruce Donald, Waverton

Any graphologist will tell you that Trump’s brutal, heavy signature is evidence of his egocentric, aggressive and cruel personality. By contrast, Kim’s tippy-toeing lightly upwards suggests he is enormously optimistic, even perhaps away with the fairies.

The scary thing is that the world’s future hangs on the actions of these two men. – Nedra Orme, Neutral Bay

A hairy call

US President Trump and his hair.

Photo: AP

Please tell me I am not the only one alarmed that the responsibility for making sure that the world does not end up in a ball of flames and rubble has been left in the hands of two men sporting such weird and unfathomable hairstyles. Does not the hair maketh man? – Cristina Corleto, Stanmore

I reckon the summit between the US and North Korea has been very successful. There have been literally millions of photos, mentions and column inches in the media of Trump and even the possibility of a Trump apartment complex on a North Korean beach. A very successful summit, indeed. – Hilton Symes, Hamilton (Vic)

I hear President Trump has given orders to remove maple syrup from the breakfast menu. – Julie Robinson, Cardiff

Bully boys meet, pose, pander and sign a vapid document. Kim plays Trump and gets a concession. Tune in for the next instalment of world reality television when the narcissistic protagonists need another high. – Deb McPherson, Gerringong

William Shakespeare’s report on the meeting would have been the most prescient: “It is a tale told by an idiot (two actually) full of sound and fury and signifying nothing.” – David Goss, Woonona

For sale: prime NSW real estate sites

How long will it be before the NSW government decides to sell off Government House and the Conservatorium of Music (“Museum site was marked for housing”, June 13)?

Think of what could be built there. I suppose it will be a decision of cabinet made commercial in confidence and nobody has the right to see the business case. – John Bracey, Forestville

Is anyone really shocked that the NSW government’s Powerhouse Museum business case involves the sale of prime Parramatta real estate so the state government can build two super-towers on our riverbank? In return for the land sell-off it’s been revealed that Parramatta gets half the museum for double the entry fee.

What family can afford $150 tickets? It’s cheaper for a family of four to take a train from Western sydney to visit the Powerhouse in Ultimo.

This should be the start of a great cultural tourism economy for western Sydney. Instead what we are being offered is a second-rate hatchet job. – Suzette Meade, Toongabbie

The NSW government selling off iconic sites for development? Well I never, what will they think of next? – Janine Burdeu, Mona Vale

Life in the slow lane

Will the proposed $2.6 billion F6 extension consist of two-lane tunnels in each direction only so that in years to come the NSW government will have an excuse to contribute a further $8 billion to the private contractors to add another single lane on either side (“New toll: costly catch for motorist on F6”, June 13)?

After the same debacle with the M5 it is incomprehensible that this road format was even considered, let alone approved. Not only does it allow no capacity for growth, the inherent disadvantages of a two-lane tunnel in the event of a breakdown or accident should be obvious to even the most moronic politician. – John Collins, Loftus

The joy of reading

Reading wars (“Phonics wins reading wars, research finds”, June 13)? Only in academia. Those at the coal face have been using a blend of strategies for nearly four decades in my time in teaching.

Best practice by those teaching the initial stages of reading know those that need what strategy and when. A basic understanding of letter/sound relationship combined with a solid core of sight words and the children, in a majority of cases, “get it”.

Watching them take to reading is one of the great joys of teaching. – David Woodward, Warners Bay

So refreshing to hear that phonics is now recognised by one of our university research teams as a significant aid in the teaching of reading.

So boring to hear that this war just goes on and on. Fifty years ago, as a remedial reading adviser, I was asked to talk to a gathering of local infants teachers.

At the conclusion, one approached me and said in hushed tones how she appreciated the emphasis I had placed on the teaching of phonics as part of a balanced reading system but she stressed that she used phonics very discretely as she recognised the distaste that the system was viewed officially at that time.

If those people who regularly, historically, attack phonics took time to more fully understand how much of the English language follows simple, logical, understandable rules. – Ed Raftery, Davistown

Turning teeth green

Why would Byron Bay residents want fluoride in their water (“Minister won’t force towns to add fluoride to water supplies”, June 13), after all, how damaging can a diet of kale be to one’s teeth. – Peter Miniutti, Ashbury

Stop the NRL clock

The NRL wants free flowing football so, not unexpectedly, it looks for someone other than itself to blame and this time the referees cop it (“Penalty blitz to end as NRL overhauls sin-bin system”, June 13).

Maybe, the NRL could make the effort to discover what the fans want. Near the top of their wish list is their desire to see 80 minutes of action. Stop the game clock every time the ball is out of play.

Admittedly, that’ll require some adjustments, not the least the need for games to start earlier, perhaps half an hour, if current finishing times have to be maintained. – Col Shephard, Yamba

Suffer the children

Another report about dysfunction in the child protection system (“System ‘failing’ children”,June 13). Unfortunately we have seen these reports for decades and nothing changes.

No system can protect children until we get on top of substance abuse. That is where the emphasis should be and unfortunately until it is nothing will change for the kids involved. – Greg Loder, Springwood

The first straw

Plastic straws are on the EU’s environmental hit list.

Photo: AP

Whenever I see words like “fashionable”, “virtuous”, “trifling” used in relation to our environment I feel fury and despair (“Banning plastic straws won’t save the oceans”, June 13). Our environment is not a boutique issue, it’s our only home. Replacing plastic straws falls in the category of “every little action counts” as does declining a plastic shopping bag, taking my own coffee cup to a cafe and leaving plastic-wrapped meats and veg in the shop. – Sue Young, Bensville

Days of rest and recreation

All this fuss again about the significance of the June and October long weekends when the reality is that they simply mark the beginning and the end of the official ski season (Letters, June 13). – John Truman, St Leonards

With suggestions we should abolish Labour Day, due to unions having low memberships these days, perhaps the same can be said about Christmas Day and Easter public holidays. With so few people attending church surely these religious days, and maybe even Sundays, can be relegated to being just another ordinary work day? – Con Vaitsas, Ashbury

Our culture is evolving

I think the point that is missing is that we are living in a cultural melting pot (Letters, June 13). A new Australian culture is evolving with contributing influences from all the many cultures that constitute our society. Western culture is at its basis but we all need to recognise we are a part of a new Renaissance and should revel in the wonder of it all. No thanks to Malcolm but we live in exciting times. Enjoy. – John Grinter, Katoomba

Stars in his eyes

Now that’s a film (“Hogan to star as himself in new film”, June 13)! – Pasquale Vartuli, Wahroonga

Hoges might end up being the only person to watch it. – Mustafa Erem, Terrigal