Alexander Hamilton X John Lauren's Letters

chapter 4

Laurens was still in South Carolina five months later on September 11, 1779. On that date, Hamilton writes to him:
I acknowledge but one letter from you, since you left us, of the 14th of July which just arrived in time to appease a violent conflict between my friendship and my pride. I have written you five or six letters since you left Philadelphia and I should have written you more had you made proper return. But like a jealous lover, when I thought you slighted my caresses, my affection was alarmed and my vanity piqued. I had almost resolved to lavish no more of them upon you and to reject you as an inconstant and an ungrateful -- [a space is here left blank in the manuscript, a word identifying Laurens is left unwritten by Hamilton, who continues:]
But you have now disarmed my resentment and by a single mark of attention made up the quarrel. You must at least allow me a large stock of good nature.