Elizabeth Hamilton by Abigail

Elizabeth Hamilton by Abigail - February 2016 Scholarship Essay

If I could have dinner with anyone in history, I would choose Elizabeth Schuyler-Hamilton. Elizabeth was the wife of Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the treasury. She has been compared to modern politicians’ wives, as she stood by her husband despite his infidelity. After he was killed in his famous duel with Aaron Burr, she did not fade into obscurity. She went on to live fifty more years, continuing her husband’s work wherever she could and ensuring his legacy would never be forgotten. When she dined with President Fillmore in 1853, the first lady even gave up her chair for Eliza.

Elizabeth was an incredible woman who was very nearly forgotten by history. However, she has had a lasting impact on remembering our nation’s history in ways that few know of. In 1806 Elizabeth co-founded and served as deputy director for New York's first private orphanage, the ‘New York Orphan Asylum Society’, which still exists today under the name ‘Graham Windham Services to Families’. She gathered all of Alexander’s writings and began a decades-long campaign to make sure his life was remembered. She corresponded and visited with Federalists for information concerning her Alexander, preserving the soldiers’ legacy at the same time. At 91, she worked with Dolley Madison to raise funds for the Washington Monument.

She is quite an inspirational woman. We don’t even know the full scope of her accomplishments. She was a woman in revolutionary times and consequently her life wasn’t as well documented as her male counterparts. What we do know is that she was very outspoken about her dislike of slavery, just like her husband. We also know that when Alexander was alive she was his trusted confidante; he even discussed the treason of Benedict Arnold with her.

She was firm in her beliefs as well. She held a grudge against James Monroe for ruining her husband’s name by leaking his affair. When James Monroe was finished with his two terms of presidency and Eliza was in her 70s, he visited to clear the air between them. She did not even bother to sit down with him, telling him that unless he was there to sincerely apologize for every way he slandered her husband’s name, nothing he had to say would change her feelings towards him. He was so stunned by the fiery words delivered by the little old woman in widow’s garb that the ex-president picked up his hat, bid Eliza good day, and left the house, never to return.

I would like to have dinner with her so we could talk about her life. What amazing events were completely missed by history books? What was attributed to a male figure in history instead of to her? She spent more time preserving Alexander’s legacy than he spent living his life. Did she ever think anyone would preserve her legacy? It is not often that living through the revolutionary war is the least interesting thing about a person. Even writing this, I am disappointed that I am doomed to never know more about this strong woman in history.

Elizabeth Schuyler-Hamilton is one of history’s forgotten characters, and some may argue she is hardly important. However, she made a difference. She made a difference to future historians, to orphans, to all those soldiers who would have been forgotten, to her Alexander. She inspires me to stand by my beliefs, and make a difference in my own life.