ML Archives and Special Collections

The traveling exhibition Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America will be coming to the Missoula Public Library from December 20th to February 15 (click here for more information). So in honor of the event, here’s a Hamilton-related item from Special Collections: The Hamiltoniad, or The Effects of Discord, written by “a Young Gentleman of Philadelphia” and published on August 3, 1804.

Just a few weeks prior, on July 11, Burr had mortally wounded Hamilton in a duel with pistols. The conflict arose out of a longstanding political rivalry brought to a head by Hamilton’s active campaigning against Burr in the race for the New York governorship. Burr felt that some of Hamilton’s comments were slanderous and challenged him to the duel.

Joseph Hopkins (the “Young Gentleman of Philadelphia”) uses The Hamiltoniad for a number of purposes: mourning Hamilton’s death (”Weep, weep his loss, for he will ne’er return”), combating anti-Federalists (”… That noble FEDERALISM’S slighted cause,/ Again would flourish…”), attacking Burr (”… Oh! B–rr, the fatal, fatal deed!/ Earth shudders at thy wicked daring crime”), and offering a passionate call for an end to dueling (”… The people, high and low, would then detest/ And shun the Duellist as a common pest”). And he manages to do it all in heroic couplets! In addition to the poem, Hopkins also includes an appendix reprinting the fateful correspondence between Burr and Hamilton in the days leading up to the duel as well as Hamilton’s eulogy.

An early owner of this particular copy offered his own assessment of the poem on the volume’s flyleaf (click to view image): “Hamiltoniad: to perpetuate the infamy of Aaron Burr”

Call Number: SpColl: 973.4 H2172ho