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From: JOSH@RED.RUTGERS.EDU
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: L Neil Smith and Alexander Hamilton
Message-ID: <3719@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Fri, 20-Sep-85 18:53:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.3719
Posted: Fri Sep 20 18:53:21 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Sep-85 05:31:41 EDT
Sender: daemon@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 22

From: JoSH 

Not too long ago, there was a message about a new L Neil Smith
book.  The title is actually "The Gallatin Divergence", not 
"... Connection".  More interestingly, there was a comment 
about Smith's portrayal of historical characters, which one 
assumes referred to the sexual hi-jinks ascribed to Hamilton
in the book.  

It turns out that the real Alexander Hamilton was actually
involved in a sex scandal.  We do not know the physical 
details of his dalliances, so it is impossible to confirm
(or discredit!) Smith's conjectures.  However, there was 
quite a row about it at the time.  The implication by
Smith that Hamilton's sexual and political proclivities
went hand in hand is *not* unhistorical:  There is a 
surviving letter by John Adams claiming that Hamilton's
excessive ambitions were due to "a superabundance of
secretions."

--JoSH
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