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He said of them that ‘it has very properly been ranked not among the least of the advantages which compensate for the evils they produce that they serve to bring to light talents and virtues which might otherwise have languished in obscurity or only shot forth a few scattered and wandering rays.’ Who could doubt that the comment had an autobiographical ring?”

“The American Revolution transformed Hamilton from an insecure outsider to a consummate insider who was married to the daughter of General Schuyler and stood on easy terms with the leaders of the Continental Army. In a eulogy that he later delivered for General Nathanael Greene, Hamilton talked about the personal opportunities that accompany revolutions. …

“The day after Hamilton’s wedding, Congressman John Mathews of South Carolina nominated him as minister to Russia. Again, he was passed over. Hamilton now feared that he would be shackled to his desk for the duration of the conflict—for him, a degrading form of drudgery. He wanted one last chance for battlefield honor, which would be a useful credential in the postwar political world.”

… These disappointments only buttressed his belief in meritocracy, not aristocracy, as the best system for government appointments.”

“Earlier in the year, when Laurens had tried to secure Hamilton a post as secretary to the American minister in France, Hamilton had analyzed his own rejection thus: ‘I am a stranger in this country. I have no property here, no connections. If I have talents and integrity ... these are justly deemed very spurious titles in these enlightened days.’ …

“Having felt scapegoated for the fall of Fort Ticonderoga, Schuyler urged Hamilton to respond emphatically to personal attacks. ‘A man’s character ought not to be sported with,’ he once wrote, ‘and he that suffers stains to lay on it with impunity really deserves none nor will he long enjoy one.’ Such a man was not likely to curb Hamilton’s predilection for feuds and duels.” Is this the right strat?

Hamilton was 25 (purportedly) and Eliza 23 when they got married.

… Hamilton spiked the plan with a cogent objection, telling Washington that if Clinton was taken prisoner ‘it would be our misfortune, since the British government could not find another commander so incompetent to send in his place.’”

“If anything, he was even less dazzled by General Clinton. One day, Henry Lee broached to Washington an ingenious plan for kidnapping Clinton, who was quartered in a house on Broadway in New York. He had a large garden out back, overlooking the Hudson River, where he napped in a small pavilion each afternoon. Lee wanted to sneak men across the Hudson at low tide and snatch Clinton as he dozed. …

In private, no one railed more against the preferential treatment of French aristocrats than Hamilton, who was later so freely branded an ‘aristocrat’ by rivals. At the same time, he saw that an aristocratic class could contain progressive members and that republican wisdom wasn’t a monopoly held by mechanics and tradesmen.”

“It was the bane of Hamilton’s service that he had to draft numerous letters to Congress, requesting promotions for undeserving Frenchmen. If Congress spurned these requests, then he had to apply balm to the wounded suitors through oily compliments. Hamilton once told John Jay that he wrote these letters to shield Washington from the invariable resentment of rejected Frenchmen.

“Hamilton’s notes from Postlethwayt showcase his exemplary discipline in undertaking private courses of study.”

Post iom da malbonaj aferoj venas tia feminismo, kiu volas liberigi la edzinon-patrinon de la domo… ĉu tre sovjete?

Tamen ankaŭ la sugestoj pri la tiama E-ujo interesas — ekz. E-a korespondado inter laboristoj kaj ruĝarmeanoj menciiĝas. Nerilate, estas iom da tajperaroj ĉi-eldone.

Post longega atendado mi finfine eklegis ĉi tion ĉar nenio estas garantiita; ĝi estas multe pli bona ol mi atendis! La lingvaĵo estas interesa (aparte se laŭtlegi), kiel ankaŭ la tiam ne sed nun jam foraj etosoj. Mi suspektas ke mi povos diri ke ĝi ja meritas legadon ankaŭ pro kialoj krom nur tiu, ke ĝi estas originale Esperanta.

Where are Dawid’s other writings, like poems and the mentioned _Alarm_?

… Nobody’s working anywhere; everyone’s running to secure work assignments for those in their family who are unemployed; parents of the unfortunate children are trying to save them by any means. The Registration Office was sealed after the lists were made, so that all rescue attempts by falsifying birth certificates, registration books and other documents, or making up death certificates, etc. are failing.”

“Friday, September 4. Łódź. Yesterday’s tragic news has turned out to be unfortunately true. The Germans are demanding all the children up to age ten, the elderly over sixty-five, and all other sick, swollen invalids, people unable to work, and those without employment. The panic in the city is incredible. …

… As a result, when the Germans sent in vehicles today for the rest of the sick, a number of hostages were included to fill the quota, while the ‘connected’ ones stayed in hiding. The mood in the ghetto is panicky; everything’s in suspense, and everyone’s waiting.”

… they went to the apartments of the sick who had already been driven out and, as if out of the blue, asked where the deported person was. When the unfortunate relatives answered that they had already been taken, the police took hostages anyway, unless the alleged fugitive was presented. …

… On this occasion, the Jewish police committed a kind of crime unknown before in the ghetto. The Germans demanded as a quota the number of sick registered on the hospitals’ lists. The police, as a result of various orders from influential people, wanted to spare the relatives of powerful persons, so they invented a new way of dealing with the situation: …

“Wednesday, September 2. Łódź. The hospital tragedy did not end with yesterday’s deportation of the sick from the ghetto. When the Germans found out that a number of the sick escaped from various hospitals, they demanded their return. Following the registers from the hospitals, they started to search the apartments of patients’ relatives to fish out the fugitives. …

… Their wages are minimal, deductions [for their expenses] enormous, and their working conditions must be awful because notifications keep arriving about sick workers sent to hospitals in Berlin, from where they are returned to the ghetto and are unable to work.”

27.Aug.1942: “I’m helping to set up a new file of workers being deported for labor to Germany. I am learning very interesting things: letters and bills sent in by various German firms and work camps that employ Jewish slaves (jüdische Arbeitskräfte) from our ghetto. …

… Leder-und-Sattler idiots. Above all, I don’t have too much time left to stay at home and think of food.”

… There’s also none of the prisonlike atmosphere in the workshop, no screaming, less dust, and no …

26.Aug.1942: “Today I worked in the Arbeitseinsatz as a clerk, a pen pusher. I work there from 7:30 in the morning to four in the afternoon. I’m very satisfied because I finally have the peace I longed for. I don’t have to care about anything, and the thoughtless rewriting of data in the files doesn’t require any effort. …

23.Aug.1942: “The radical remedy for these plagues [bedbugs and flies] would be to end the war. That would solve this and other important problems as well.”

21.Aug.1942: “In the afternoon it was +39˚C [103°F] in the sun. I don’t feel the heat at all. But the fatigue, which is characteristic of all starvelings, increases a hundredfold in the heat. I can’t study at all, and even reading fiction is arduous for me. I can leave home only if my legs don’t fail me, and they are failing more and more often recently.”

20.Aug.1942: Amid rumors of an impending end to the war: “A few friends and I spoke a lot today about the future, and we have come to the conclusion that if we survive the ghetto, we’ll certainly experience a richness of life that we wouldn’t have appreciated otherwise. May the moment of liberation come at last!”