Jefferson's hour had come. He
could undo all that he had denounced in his rival as monarchical,
aristocratical, pernicious to the life of Democracy. But the
administrations of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, ran from first to
last on those Federal wheels which are still in use, protected within
and without by Federal institutions. But their architect was sent to his
grave soon after the rise of his arch-enemy to power, was beyond
humiliation or party triumph; it would be folly to war with a spirit,
and greater not to let well enough alone. But that is a far cry.
Meanwhile the Bank was being rushed through, and its establishment was
anticipated with the keenest interest, and followed by a season of crazy
speculation, dissatisfaction, and vituperation. But this Hamilton had
expected, and he used his pen constantly to point out the criminal folly
and inevitable consequences of speculation.

XXV

Congress adjourned while the excitement was at its height. Washington
went to Mount Vernon, the Cabinet scattered, and there was an interval
of peace. Philadelphia in summer was always unhealthy, and liable to an
outbreak of fever at any moment. Hamilton sent his family to the
Schuyler estate at Saratoga. Mrs. Croix had gone as early as May to the
New England coast; for even her magnificent constitution had felt the
strain of that exciting session, and Philadelphia was not too
invigorating in winter. Hamilton remained alone in his home, glad of the
abundant leisure which the empty city afforded to catch up with the
arrears of his work, to design methods for financial relief against the
time to apply them, and to prepare his Report on Manufactures, a paper
destined to become as celebrated and almost as widespread in its
influence as the great Report on Public Credit. It required days and
nights of thinking, research, correspondence, comparison, and writing;
and how in the midst of all this mass of business, this keen anxiety
regarding the whirlwind of speculation--which was involving some of the
leading men in the country, and threatening the young Government with a
new disaster; how, while sitting up half the night with his finger on
the public pulse, waiting for the right moment to apply his remedies, he
managed to entangle himself in a personal difficulty, would be an
inscrutable mystery, were any man but Alexander Hamilton in question.

I shall not enter into the details of the Reynolds affair. No intrigue
was ever less int