AND THE FEDERALIST PARTY 109 



and the Tory type carried off to Connecticut to be 

 melted into Whig bullets. 1 



By this time the boy was ranked among the leading 

 spirits of the Whig party. He had already begun to 

 study the military art, and now joined a corps of young 

 men, chiefly college students, known as " Hearts of 

 Oak." They wore green coats and leather caps 

 adorned with the motto, " Freedom or Death," and 

 they were drilled and paraded daily until they became 

 a model of discipline. On the i4th of March, 1776, 

 Hamilton was appointed captain of the first company 

 of artillery raised by the state. Presently the thorough- 

 ness of its drill and the grace of its movements caught 

 the keen eye of that great genius and eager military 

 student, Nathanael Greene, who arrived in New York 

 on the 1 7th of April. Greene was so impressed that 

 he sought Hamilton's acquaintance and spoke of him 

 enthusiastically to Washington. The young captain 

 and his company did good service at the battle of 

 Long Island and the retreat which followed ; and 

 again at White Plains and Trenton and Princeton. 

 On the ist of March, 1777, he accepted a position on 

 Washington's staff, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. 

 It was with some reluctance that he took this place, 

 for he had been looking forward to promotion in the 

 line ; but what he lost in one direction he probably 

 more than gained in another, through the peculiarly 

 intimate relations into which he entered with Wash- 

 ington. His great work was to be, not that of a 

 general, but of a statesman ; and there was no place 

 more favourable than Washington's staff for studying 

 minutely into the causes of the miserable weakness 



1 Morse's "Hamilton, 11 I. 19. 



