During the Revolutionary war Alexander Hamilton, the American conservative Founder, became
close friends with several fellow officers.
His letters to the Marquis de Lafayette and to John Laurens, employing the sentimental literary conventions of the late eighteenth century and alluding to Greek history and mythology, have also been read as revealing a homosocial or perhaps homosexual relationship. In many ancient Greek societies there was little stigma about homosexual relations.
Now and then, Hamilton apparently felt the tug of attraction to other
men besides Laurens. For instance, in 1780, he went heartsick over
British spy John André, who was captured during the Benedict Arnold
treason episode. André was gay, as most historians admit.
He was also
so handsome and charming that even Washington heaved a sigh of regret
as he ordered that André be hanged. During the death watch, Hamilton
visited André in his cell. When the execution took place, Washington
and his aides couldn't bear to watch, so they went in their
headquarters and closed the shutters.
But John Laurens was clearly the
sunlight in Hamilton's day. When Laurens went home to South Carolina to
fight, Hamilton got himself detached from Washington's staff so he and
Laurens could serve together in cavalry combat.
Through it
all, Hamilton wrote his buddy some fervid letters that survive today. In one
of them, he confessed,
"I wish, my dear Laurens ... it might be in my
power, by action rather than words, to convince you that I love you."
Lauren's own letters to Hamilton were warm, but a shade less frank.
Hamilton also had a lavender marraige to
Elizabeth Schuyler, daughter of General
Philip Schuyler, and thus joined one of the richest military and most political families in the state of New York. The marriage took place at
Schuyler Mansion in
Albany, New York.
Today, LGBT women and men in uniform have reclaimed the "Little Lion" who fought for freedom.
Gay war veteran Paul Hardman, who wrote feelingly about Hamilton in his history title
Homoeffectionalism, was instrumental in founding the Alexander Hamilton Post 448 in San Francisco, and became its first commander.
Despite protests from the Legion's more conservative members, the American Legion granted a charter to Post 448 in 1985. Today Post 448 lives and thrives, as its members -- and all the rest of us -- fight in another, newer revolution.
sources:
http://www.bilerico.com/2008/10/alexander_hamilton_--_little_lion_of_the.php and wikipedia
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