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353 “Funeral Oration on the death of Gen’l Hamilton,” Gouverneur Morris Papers, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University, item 848. The manuscript is in another hand, possibly that of William Coleman. The oration was delivered July 14; a version based on the reporter’s notes, which differs considerably from this text, was published in the New York American Citizen on July 16. The New-York Evening Post published this version on July 17, and the New York Daily Advertiser published the Evening Post version, with minor differences, on July 18. 1. Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, 2:373–74. 2. Diary and Letters, 2:375. 3. Ibid. 25 • Funeral Oration for Alexander Hamilton (1804) On July 11, 1804, Morris received word that “General Hamilton was killed in a duel this morning by Colonel Burr.” When he went into town the next day, he discovered that Hamilton was still alive and rushed to his bedside, where he stayed until Hamilton died. That evening, asked to give the funeral oration, he replied, I promise to do so if I can possibly command myself enough, but express my belief that it will be utterly impossible. I am wholly unmanned by this day’s spectacle.1 Morris records in his diary that as he thinks about what to say at the funeral he is mainly conscious of things he should not discuss: Hamilton ’s illegitimate birth, his attachment to monarchy, his public “avowal of conjugal infidelity,” and the fact that he was killed in a duel. Further, there is no time for writing out an address or memorizing it. When he is finished speaking, I find that what I have said does not answer the general expectation. This I knew would be the case; it must ever happen to him whose duty it is to allay the sentiment which he is expected to arouse.2 Since there was no written text, this version is a reconstruction of Morris’s address by William Coleman, editor of the Evening Post, with Morris’s revisions.3 354 chaPtEr 25 •• Fellow-Citizens, If on this sad, this solemn occasion, I should endeavour to move your commiseration, it would be doing injustice to that sensibility which has been so generally and so justly manifested. Far from attempting to excite your emotions, I must try to repress my own, and yet I fear that instead of the language of a public speaker, you will hear only the lamentations of a bewailing friend. But I will struggle with my bursting heart, to portray that Heroic Spirit, which has flown to the mansions of bliss. Students of Columbia—he was in the ardent pursuit of knowledge in your academic shades, when the first sound of the American war called him to the field. A young and unprotected volunteer, such was his zeal and so brilliant his service that we heard his name before we knew his person—It seemed as if God had called him suddenly into existence, that he might assist to save a world! The penetrating eye of Washington soon perceived the manly spirit which animated his youthful bosom. By that excellent judge of men he was selected as an Aid, and thus he became early acquainted with, and was a principal actor in, the most important scenes of our Revolution. At the siege of York, he pertinaciously insisted—and he obtained the command of a Forlorn Hope. He stormed the redoubt; but let it be recorded , that not one single man of the enemy perished. His gallant troops emulating the example of their chief checked the uplifted arm, and spared a foe no longer resisting. Here closed his military career. Shortly after the war, your favour—no, your discernment called him to public office. You sent him to the convention at Philadelphia: he there assisted in forming that constitution which is now the bond of our union, the shield of our defence and the source of our prosperity. In signing that compact he exprest his apprehension that it did not contain sufficient means of strength for its own preservation; and that in consequence we should share the fate of many other republics and pass through Anarchy to Despotism . We hoped better things. We confided in the good sense of the American people, and above all we trusted in the protecting Providence of the Almighty. On this important subject he never concealed his opinion. He disdained concealment. Knowing the purity of his heart, he bore it as...

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