to the head-quarters of his chief, then at Morristown, N. J., where Mrs. Schuyler and his daughter accompanied him. Alexander, then Colonel Hamilton, and confidential aid to the great chief, was soon fascinated by the brilliant graces of the daughter, who, not less pleased by the fascinating manners of the distinguished young soldier, yielded to his addresses, and they were soon married, remaining some time in camp, until circumstances favored her removal to Albany, while Colonel Hamilton pursued his gallant duties in the march to Yorktown; and his letters to his young bride speak beautifully of his affections and his patriotic valor. The surrender of Cornwallis soon followed; and, on the cessation of warlike operations, Colonel Hamilton repaired to Albany, where his wife and their new-born child welcomed him to repose. Here Hamilton pursued the study of law, and was admitted to practice. About this time, as Continental Receiver, he attended the Legislature of New York at Poughkeepsie, and drafted the first legislative resolutions that were framed recommending a Convention to provide a national Constitution for the United States the embodiment of a thought which his great mind had conceived and zealously nourished for some time previously. Soon after, we find him as a representative of New York in Congress, a leading participant in the most important preparatory measures for the establishment of the present government.

After the peace General Hamilton removed with his family to the city of New York, where he soon

rose to the highest place at the bar, while, as a member of the New York Legislature, and delegate to the Convention which framed the Federal Constitution, as well as to that which adopted it, his civic fame became as great as his military glory. Thus, when the government was organized, he took the highest position in the country, next to that of Washington, as Secretary of the Treasury. During these absorbing public engagements, Mrs. Hamilton assumed the cares of their increased family, and presided over the hospitalities of their home, whose attractions rendered it the centre of a circle distinguished by the society of the most eminent persons, native born and from abroad, then residing at the seat of government. After resigning his place in the cabinet, Hamilton resumed his professional career in New York (1795), where he resided until his melancholy death. His house was the scene of most refined and generous hospitality, whether in town or at his summer residence on Harlem Heights, which afforded him and Mrs. Hamilton opportunities for cultivating those elegant tastes in rural pleasures which had been the delight of her early youth on the banks of the Hudson, in beautiful Saratoga.

The religious thankfulness with which she enjoyed these bountiful dispensations of Providence called into vigorous life the principles of piety which had directed her education under her father's care, and were preparing her for the deep sorrows of her later life. The admonition of her dying husband, the vic

tim of a political murder, most lamentable and execrable, "Remember, Eliza, you are a Christian!" showed his confidence in her faith, as well as his own recognition of its Divine source. Deeply did she need its upholding consolations. Her eldest son had already fallen a victim to a similar bloodthirsty violence when her great sorrow came; and a beloved daughter, losing her reason amid the sudden horrors of her father's death, became the sad charge of her bleeding heart.

Mrs. Hamilton bore her calamities with fortitude and resignation, but sought her subsequent enjoyments for this world in the offices of a religious life and a most active charity, which she continued to practice up to the very close of her unusually protracted life, in her ninety-seventh year. She retained ~both her mental and physical faculties to the last; and when at Washington, during her latest years, for the prosecution of her honorable claims on the general government, she was the object of the utmost veneration and affectionate wonder to all those who delighted to throng her modest dwelling, and hear from her eloquent, truthful lips, narratives of the times of which she was a part and an ornament.

Such was Mrs. Bethune's especial friend and longest loved associate in the rearing, establishing, and perpetuating the New York Orphan Asylum. Mrs. Hamilton continued to be the First Directress of the society until her removal to Washington, a few years before her death, when she was succeeded by Mrs.

Bethune. According to her dying request, Mrs. Hamilton's remains lie buried in Trinity Church-yard, near the tomb built for her illustrious husband by the Society of Cincinnati, whose President General (after Washington) he was. Among the most sincere and affectionate mourners at her funeral was my beloved mother.

The Rev. Dr. Weston (St. Paul's, New York), at the request of the Orphan Asylum Board, prepared a sermon eloquently commemorative of her many virtues and pious services, to be preached in the chapel of the institution, but was prevented by illness from delivering it.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE SUM OF HER LABORS, AND HER REST. Review. Mr. and Mrs. Bethune's Plans.-Visit of Missionaries.Church Relations. - Sunday-schools. - Economical School. House of Industry.-Instruction of the Young.-Mrs. Bethune's Death.

[THE closing chapter of this memoir is taken from a sketch which the Rev. Dr. Bethune prepared and published immediately after the death of his mother. He left the biography unfinished; and, in order to complete it in his words, this sketch is here inserted, though it repeats some facts already mentioned.Editor.]

Before the year 1807 Mr. Bethune and his very intimate friend, Mr. Robert Ralston, of Philadelphia, sympathizing in larger missionary views than those generally entertained in this country at that time, had made themselves Foreign Directors of the London Missionary Society, the only two such in the United States. In 1807, that society sent to this country (to avoid French cruisers), on his way to China, the Rev. Mr. (afterward Dr.) Morrison, the translator of the Bible into Chinese, and the Rev. Messrs. Gordon and Lee, on their way to India. These brethren, while waiting for a vessel, spent the greater part of their time in Mr. Bethune's family,