Gayness In The 1700s

Early letter

The first surviving letter, written by Laurens, is from almost a year and a half after he and Hamilton first met. The content of the letter concerns the slander of Washington spread by their shared enemy Charles Lee, slander which would eventually lead Laurens to fight a duel with Lee, with Hamilton as his second. For the purpose of evaluating Hamilton and Laurens’s realtionship, however, the most interesting part of the letter is not the content but the way in which Laurens signs it. Laurens ends his letter “Adieu, my dear boy.”² Hamilton was the only man Laurens ever addressed as “my dear boy.” The only thing similar to this in Laurens’s writings is “my dear girl,” the closing Laurens reserved exclusively for his wife.³

The next letter we have is from Hamilton. In this April 1779 letter ( as seen in chapter one ) Hamilton tells Laurens: “Cold in my professions, warm in ⟨my⟩ friendships, I wish, my Dear Laurens, it m⟨ight⟩ be in my power, by action rather than words, ⟨to⟩ convince you that I love you….You know the opinion I entertain of mankind, and how much it is my desire to preserve myself free from particular attachments, and to keep my happiness independent of the caprice of others. You sh⟨ould⟩ not have taken advantage of my sensibility to ste⟨al⟩ into my affections without my consent.”⁴ This letter has often been disregarded as evidence that Hamilton loved Laurens romantically because the eighteenth century had such different standards for what level of affection was normal between male friends. While nowadays it would be surprising for male friends to say “I love you,” that was far from true during Hamilton’s time. One thing that should be considered however is the weight these words would have had for Hamilton. After a traumatic childhood, forming emotional attachments was apparently hard for Hamilton. Telling Laurens that he does not form bonds easily, but that he has formed a bond with him, is not something Hamilton would have done casually or lightly. Indeed, it is not something Hamilton says in letters to any other friend, or any other person at all, with the possible exception of his wife.