My Dear Hamilton

by Stephanie Dray

“The contempt we’ve been taught to entertain for Negroes makes us fancy many things that are founded neither in reason nor experience.

If mankind were to agree to no institution of government until every part of it was perfect, society would become a scene of anarchy and the world a desert, my husband wrote. Echoed by Mr. Madison’s simpler, If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

I was never a beauty. It was only that, until a few days ago, Alexander had made me feel like one. Now I felt like nothing.

“No man should be judged only for his best act or his worst. By only his greatness or his flaws.”

“It seems, to me,” I continue, “that the only just way to judge a person is by the sum of their deeds, good and bad. And in the balance, your father did far more good than harm. That’s all any of us can aim to do with our lives.”