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About A Master Passion by Juliet Waldron

Alexander Hamilton has been in my life since I was eleven, when I pulled a dusty 19th century novel out of the shelves of our local used book store and began to read it. I’ve done a great deal of research on him in the 50+ years since, reading my way through all 21 volumes of his correspondence and many other pieces of primary source. In the course of my fascination with him and his family, I learned that he was a prodigy, a boy who propelled himself from an orphaned, penniless merchant’s clerk who lived on a small West Indian island, to an aide de camp to General George Washington in a mere decade. His wife, too, lived an astonishing life, as a sort of American princess, so Alexander’s marriage, too, has a fairy-tale quality to it. The “American Dream” was born in his plans for the future of his adopted country and by his administrative genius. Scholars agree; we would not live as we do in the US today if Hamilton hadn’t existed. He was an imperfect human being, too, who made mistakes and made decisions which sent him to a dueling ground death. Long story short, I can’t imagine any better American subject for a novel. His whole life was an adventure.
As a result of so many years of fascination, I know Hamilton and his wife very well. Because it’s important to me, I’ve worked to make these characters true to the breathing people that once lived. Again, I lean on letters, diaries, etc. for my understanding of emotional states. His wife burned much of their personal correspondence, as did other 18th Century women whose husbands were “great men.” Sometimes, of course, events remain obscured–200+ years and the natural desire of the famous man’s family to keep some secrets.
Conflict is built into the marriage. It does not simply spring from Alexander’s childhood experience of bastardy, abuse, and abandonment. To quote Alexander Pope, Hamilton’s favorite poet:

And hence one Master Passion in the breast
Like Aaron’s serpent, swallows up all the rest…”

Betsy’s passion is Alexander. Alexander loves his wife, but, sometimes, he loves America more.

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