Excerpt from Scandalmonger by William Safire, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Hamilton held up a hand. "The affair among us is now on a different footing," he said as if his initial indignation had been assuaged. "I always stand ready to meet fair inquiry with frank communication." He looked directly at Monroe. "As it happens, I have it in my power -- with written documents -- to remove all doubt as to the real nature of this business. I will be able fully to convince you that absolutely no impropriety of the kind imputed to me did in fact exist." He rose confidently. "You will not be forced to embarrass yourselves by making an accusation to the President that would be quickly shown to be false. Allow me to assemble some papers. Tonight at my house you will have the explanation that will lay this to rest."

"After dinner, then," said the icily correct Monroe, who Hamilton was convinced was keeping Jefferson fully informed of evidence that might lead to the removal of his Cabinet adversary. "We'll be there."


Oliver Wolcott, Comptroller of the Currency, the son and grandson of Governors of Connecticut, was the trusted subordinate Hamilton invited to be his witness and supporter at the meeting with the inquisitors. Wolcott had stumbled onto Reynolds's wrongdoing and then demonstrated his loyalty to Hamilton by finding a suitable excuse for not prosecuting the case. This action did not trouble his conscience because Reynolds had not only made restitution, but had revealed the name of the Treasury clerk who provided him illicit information, whom Wolcott promptly fired. In the more serious case of Hamilton's friend William Duer, who had misappropriated official Treasury warrants and used them as collateral for private loans, Wolcott had no choice but to refer the case to Richard Harison, United States Attorney in New York. Harison was a Hamilton appointee who investigated dutifully the complaints of hundreds of investors who lost money with Duer, but who let the case lapse without indictment.

Wolcott saw the political wisdom in that. Had Harison in New York allowed the Duer case to go forward, or had Wolcott allowed Reynolds to drag Hamilton's name through the mud, the scandals would be a burden to a Hamilton campaign for the Presidency in 1796, should the aging Washington decide to retire. Under a President Hamilton, Oliver Wolcott expected to serve as Treasury Secretary; Federalism would triumph over the disunionist agrarian faction; the nation's westward expansion would be properly financed, and the Jefferson republicans and other apologists for the bloody French Jacobins would be routed once and for all.

"The charge against me," Hamilton began, "is a connection with one James Reynolds for purposes of improper pecuniary speculation. The truth is that I have been wholly indifferent to the acquisition of property and am poorer today than when I entered public office. I have not more than two thousand dollars in the world."

"There are these letters," said Muhlenberg, "some in a disguised hand, which was in itself evidence of a need to conceal the truth, apear`¯Ê´`Ê`¯Ê`ÊŒ5àgÂTdiD trusting them or not. "I do have a note from Colonel Hamilton that arrived only last week -- I haven't destroyed it yet." She went to the desk and took a sheet out of the middle drawer. "That's the Colonel's normal writing."

It was a brief note, dated the sixth of December, offering to be of help to her, and signed boldly "Hamilton." Muhlenberg reached for it, but Maria Reynolds did not part with it. After denying again that she had any other written communication from the Treasury Secretary, or that any money had been included with that last note, she rose and politely showed them to the door.


Jacob Clingman had been upstairs in the Reynoldses' bedroom throughout the interview. When he heard the door close, he raced down and embraced Maria to comfort her. After a few moments, she pushed him away and told him she had shown them the note Hamilton sent her a few days before.

Copyright William Safire February 2000. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the publisher, Simon & Schuster