AND THE FEDERALIST PARTY 105 



tude, for the work he felt no special fondness. In a 

 letter dated just two months before he was thirteen, 

 he thus unbosomed himself to a schoolmate: "To 

 confess my weakness, Ned, my ambition is prevalent, 

 so that I contemn the grovelling ambition of a clerk, 

 or the like, to which my fortune condemns me, and 

 would willingly risk my life, though not my character, 

 to exalt my station. I am confident, Ned, that my 

 youth excludes me from any hope of immediate pre- 

 ferment, nor do I desire it ; but I mean to prepare the 

 way for futurity. I'm no philosopher, you see, and 

 may be justly said to build castles in the air; my 

 folly makes me ashamed, and beg you'll conceal it. 

 Yet, Neddy, we have seen such schemes successful, 

 when the projector is constant. I shall conclude by 

 saying, I wish there was a war." 



The reading of Plutarch has awakened generous 

 ambition in many a youthful mind. Hamilton " pre- 

 pared the way for futurity " by studying and com- 

 menting upon this author, and by trying his hand 

 at literary composition. In August, 1772, the island 

 was visited by a terrible hurricane ; and a remarkable 

 description of it, published in a newspaper at St. 

 Christopher, attracted general attention throughout 

 the British West Indies. The authorship was traced 

 to Hamilton ; it was decided that such literary talent 

 required wider opportunities than were furnished on 

 the islands; the needful funds were raised by sub- 

 scription; and before the end of October the boy's 

 romantic temperament was at once gratified and 

 stimulated, as he found himself on board ship headed 

 for Boston, with potent letters of introduction from 

 Dr. Knox in his pocket. The connection with this 



