1592 Alexander Hamilton's Oct. 5 love letter

October 5, 1780

"I have told you, and I told you truly that I love you too much. You engross my thoughts too intirely to allow me to think of any thing else. You not only employ my mind all day; but you intrude upon my sleep. I meet you in every dream-and when I wake I cannot close my eyes again for ruminating on your sweetnesses. 'Tis a pretty story indeed that I am to be thus monopolized, by a little nut-brown maid like you-and from a statesman and a soldier metamorphosed into a puny lover. I believe in my soul you are an inchantress."

Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Schuyler, October 5, 1780, two months before their wedding

Not sure why she was "nut-brown."

Hamilton and the Supreme Court
Alexander Hamilton was killed by Aaron Burr at age 49, and so we will never know what other great things he might have done. However, Chief Justice John Marshall probably extended his influence for almost another 35 years, which is why what is going on right now with Roberts and Miers is so critical.

Ron Chernow writes [p. 648] : "He now rivaled [after Adams nominated him in 1801] perhaps even superseded, Hamilton as the leading Federalist and had contempt for his distant cousin, Jefferson. . .[He] revered Hamilton, having once observed that next to the former treasury secretary he felt like a mere candle "beside the sun at noonday." After reading through George Washington's papers, Marshall pronounced Hamilton "the greatest man (or one of the greatest men) that had ever appeared in the United States. Marshall considered Hamilton and Washington the two indispensable founders, and it therefore came as no surprise that Jefferson looked askance at the chief justice as "the Federalist serpent in the democratic Eden of our administration."

During 34 years on the court, John Marshall, more than anyone else, perpetuated Hamilton's vision of both vibrant markets and affirmative government.. . Many of the great Supreme Court decisions he handed down were based on concepts articulated by Hamilton."

So it is possible that Roberts, who is only 50, could extend George W. Bush's ideas another 35 years. Blog that!