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#49 Alexander' best friend

Gouverneur Morris, have highlighted an account of Hamilton's last hours, and the emotions that racked Morris, an old friend of Hamilton's, in the wake of the tragedy.

Hamilton and Morris met as young firebrands during the American Revolution: Hamilton was an officer, Morris a congressman. Socially they were an odd couple: Hamilton was an illegitimate immigrant from the West Indies, Morris the son of a wealthy Bronx family (Morrisania is named after their estate).

Yet personally and politically they were soul-mates. Both were smart, and tart; they knew their business and did not suffer fools.

Both served as delegates to the Constitutional Convention (Morris wrote the final draft) and in the administration of President George Washington - Hamilton as Treasury secretary, Morris as ambassador to France.

The two friends feature in a story that may be too good to check.

Hamilton reportedly offered to throw a dinner party for Morris if he would go up to Washington at a public reception and slap him chummily on the back. Morris did and got his dinner party, though he supposedly said that the frown Washington gave him was the worst moment of his life.

Jokes aside, the two men respected each other: Hamilton said of Morris, "Men like him do not super-abound." Morris praised Hamilton's "heroic spirit" and "splendid talents."

Aaron Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel after years of political rivalry. They met early on the morning of July 11 on a remote cliff-side ledge in Weehawken.

Hamilton shot and missed; Burr didn't - his bullet pierced Hamilton's liver and lodged in his spine. Hamilton was rowed across the Hudson to Greenwich Village, where he lay in agony in the house of a friend.

Morris, at his home in The Bronx, was told that Hamilton had died, though when he went into the city on July 12 he learned that he was still (barely) alive.

Morris went to the sickroom, where the scene so distressed him that he had to walk in the garden to get control of himself. After that he sat by his friend's side until he died.

What happened next was described in a letter written by a nephew of Morris' named David Ogden. Eliza Hamilton, Alexander's wife and mother of their eight children, had been with her husband for the previous 24 hours.

"The poor woman was almost distracted [and] begged Uncle Gouverneur Morris might come into her room. She burst into tears, told him he was the best friend her husband had, begged him to join her in prayers for her own death, and then to be a father for her children.

"Mr. Morris had been already almost overcome with grief at witnessing the last moments of the man of whom of all others he loved most on earth.

This last scene with the bereaved widow was almost too much for him to bear, and the big tears that flowed down his cheeks bespoke the anguish of his soul."

Ogden's letter was preserved by his relatives, given to a historical society in 1940 and privately printed in 1980. Some Hamilton biographers have quoted parts of it, but the complete paragraph gives the wrenching sorrow of the moment.

Morris pulled himself together to do right by his friend. He delivered the eulogy at Hamilton's funeral on July 14 at Trinity Church (the grave is at the south side of the church yard).

He organized a secret subscription among Hamilton's friends to pay off his debts and support his family. He also helped organize Hamilton's papers, which had been left in "wretched disorder."

Eliza Hamilton also pulled herself together after her initial shock and despair. She became a tireless defender of her husband's reputation.

She directed one of their sons, John Church Hamilton, to write his father's biography. She put her children through school, and devoted herself to charitable work with orphans. She survived Hamilton by 50 years.

Morris' diaries, 1799-1816, are slated to be published by the University of Virginia; Lin Manuel Miranda's award-winning musical "Hamilton" opens on Broadway July 13. They are reminders that great men not only do great things, but can suffer and surmount turmoil in their private lives.