My Dear Hamilton

Eliza moves back to The Grange with her youngest two children. She obsessively reads Hamilton’s letters and account books, discovering that Hamilton bought things for Angelica. She looks through his things in search of letters from Angelica. She finds a secret compartment in one of his boxes, but instead of finding letters from Angelica, she finds letters from John Laurens, indicating a romantic relationship between the two men. She also reads letters he wrote to Laurens just before their wedding in which Hamilton discusses their marriage as if it were a scheme to obtain money and position.

Eliza feels cheated. She falls asleep in the attic where she is going through the letters. Her son William finds her and reads Hamilton’s letters to Angelica. Eliza lies to assuage his suspicions. She continues to wear this mask, not knowing that her children see through it.

The British burn the president’s mansion in the ongoing war, and Eliza blames the Republicans. The war ends in a stalemate, and Eliza’s sons survive. Monroe runs unopposed for president, and a generation forgets the name of Alexander Hamilton.

Twenty years after Hamilton’s death, Lafayette and his son Georges visit. Lafayette asks her to show him what is going on in the United States, as he does not trust that President Monroe will do so. Eliza shows Lafayette the orphanages and schools she founded, and Lafayette believes she will finish the revolution they started.

Lafayette wants to see Hamilton’s grave, but Eliza does not want to go as she avoids the churchyard where he, Phillip, and Angelica are buried. She and Lafayette discuss their spouses and how they both died with secrets. Eliza contemplates asking Lafayette about Laurens but does not. They go to the graveyard, where Lafayette places a wreath on Hamilton’s grave and then leaves Eliza alone for a moment. She admonishes Hamilton after death but feels bad for doing so beside Phillip’s grave. She returns to Lafayette and surprises him by saying she did not feel loved by Hamilton. Lafayette reassures her that, despite his betrayals, Hamilton did love her.

Lafayette invites Eliza to a celebration in his honor, and she gives her daughter Lysbet one of Angelica’s dresses to wear. The women are surprised to see a bust of Hamilton at the gathering, and Eliza feels respected for the first time in a long time. Lafayette invites the Hamilton women on a steamboat trip that night, and Lysbet agrees to Eliza’s dismay. Eliza listens as former soldiers speak about the Revolution, and she feels entitled to consider herself one of them. To her surprise, Eliza feels pride in her country again. Lafayette invites Eliza to go west with him, and she also becomes interested in the future again. They speak of how the biography project is failing, partly because a man named Pendleton stole some of his letters, but Lafayette is sure he can get the letters back.

Eliza goes through Hamilton’s letters again, believing she is the only one who can save his legacy. She argues with Hamilton in her mind, knowing she must keep her promise, made during their bouts with yellow fever, to forgive and love him no matter what. Reading over his letters again, she tries to find his love for her. Shortly after, the events of the Prologue take place and Monroe visits The Grange.

Eliza refuses to reconcile with Monroe. She comes to terms with the weight of her place in history, thinking, “I will not politely agree to lies about my husband’s legacy and call it history” (567). She tells Monroe that, unless he came to apologize, time has not changed anything between them. He leaves without another word.

In 1837, Eliza finally holds a biography of Hamilton, written by one of her sons. Monroe died shortly after their last meeting, and Eliza survives nearly every person in her circle. Eliza is heading west to see her son William for the first time in 20 years and thinks about how the Republicans continue to force Indigenous people off their land. The mother and son speak about Hamilton, and while she forgives him, William cannot. Eliza recognizes Hamilton’s passion and zeal in William. She wants him to come home with her but sees that he already is home, so she leaves, knowing she will likely never see him again.

On July 4, 1848, Eliza and Dolley go to see the first stone of the Washington Monument laid. They discuss the likelihood of their husbands patching up their disagreements in the afterlife, and Eliza is escorted out of her carriage by Congressman Abraham Lincoln, who quotes the Federalist Papers to her. Eliza feels Hamilton is here with her, knowing he is inextricably woven into the fabric of the nation.