“No,” said Washington, “there is none; there is every possibility of your becoming one of the most brilliant figures on the revolutionary battlefields.  I admit that, and I understand your ambition.  Nevertheless, I think I can prove to you that there is another way in which you can serve your country better.  I know your uncompromising sense of duty and your high patriotism, and I am sure you will accept my invitation when I prove to you that while there are hundreds to fight valorously, even brilliantly, there is scarcely a man I can get to write my letters who can do more than punctuate properly or turn a sentence neatly.  You must know the inexpressible value of a brilliant accomplished versatile secretary, with a brain capable of grasping every question that arises—­and you can imagine how many of that sort have come my way.  I have been driven nearly distracted, dictating, explaining, revising—­when I have so much else to think of.  Besides the constant correspondence with the Congress and the States, something else is always turning up—­to-day it is the exchange of prisoners, a most important and delicate matter.  Were you my secretary, you would also be my brain:  a word would be sufficient.  I could trust you so implicitly that if matters pressed I could confidently sign my name to whatever you wrote without reading it over.  There is no one else living of whom I can say that.  You are the most useful young man in America, and if you will give your great brain to this country from this time on, she will be far more grateful to you than if you merely continued to fight, splendidly as you have done that.  And I need you—­I have no words to tell you how much.”

“Sir,” said Hamilton, deeply touched, “no human being could withstand such an appeal, and your words of praise are glory enough.  I will come as soon as you say, and do the best I can.”

“Come at once.  The British persist in treating us as rebels.  It is for you, with your inspired pen, to force and coax them to regard us with the respect an educated thinking people—­not a horde of ignorant rebels, as they imagine—­deserve.  If you do that, you will do a greater service to your country than if you rose to be first in military rank.  Here are some notes.  When you have finished, write to Congress and ask for the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel; and move up here to-day, if possible.  I cannot tell you how happy I shall be to have you a member of my family.”

Washington had won his point.  A shrewd judge of men, he had calculated upon Hamilton succumbing to an appeal to his sense of patriotic duty—­the strongest passion in his passionate nature.  Much as he loved Hamilton, he had no hesitation in using him, and our petted young hero was to learn what work meant for the first time in his life.  He wrote most of the day, often half the night; but although he chafed angrily at the confinement, beat many a tattoo on the floor with his heels, and went for a hard ride more than once that he might keep his temper, the result was that mass of correspondence, signed “George Washington,” which raised the commander of the American forces so high in the estimation of Europe, adding to his military renown the splendour of a profound and luminous intellect.