In May and July there were illustrious additions to Washington’s family,—­John Laurens and Lafayette.  Both became the intimate friends of Hamilton, the former one of the few passionate attachments of his life.  Although Hamilton was by no means indifferent to the affection he inspired in nine-tenths of the people he met, he did not himself love easily.  He was too analytical, he saw people too precisely as they were, and his acquaintance with human nature had made him too cynical to permit the flood gates of his affections to open except under uncommon stress.  He dreaded disappointment.  For Troup, Fish, Stevens, Meade, and Tilghman he had a deep affection and served their interests ardently; for Washington a contradictory budget of emotions, which were sometimes to be headed “respectful affection,” at others “irritated resentment,” now and again a moment of adoration.  While he could not pay sufficient tribute to Washington’s magnanimity and generosity, he had by now seen him in too many tempers, had been ground too fine in his greedy machine, to think on him always with unqualified enthusiasm.  Lafayette, brilliant, volatile, accomplished, bubbling with enthusiasm for the cause of Liberty, and his own age within a few months, he liked sincerely and always.  There was no end to the favours he did him, and Lafayette loved no one better in his long and various career.  Women, Hamilton fancied sharply and forgot quickly.

But Laurens, the “young Bayard of the Revolution,” fresh from the colleges and courts of Europe, a man so handsome that, we are told, people experienced a certain shock when he entered the room, courtly, accomplished to the highest degree, of flawless character, with a mind as noble and elevated as it was intellectual, and burning with the most elevated patriotism,—­he took Hamilton by storm, capturing judgement as well as heart, and loving him as ardently in return.

Like Hamilton, Laurens was of Huguenot descent; he was born in South Carolina, of a distinguished family.  Against the expressed wish of his father he had returned to America, made his way to Headquarters and offered his services to Washington, who immediately attached him to his military household.  The unhappiest of men, praying for death on every battlefield, he lived long enough to distinguish himself by a bravery so reckless, by such startling heroic feats, that he was, beyond all question, the popular young hero of the Revolution.  He worshipped Washington as one might worship a demi-god, and risked his life for him on two occasions.  But Hamilton was the friend of his life; the bond between them was romantic and chivalrous.  Each burned to prove the strength of his affection, to sacrifice himself for the other.  Laurens slaved at Washington’s less important correspondence, and Hamilton’s turn came later.  The age has passed for such friendships; but at that time, when young men were nurtured on great ideas, when they were sacrificing themselves in a sacred cause, and had seen next to nothing of the frivolities of life, they were understandable enough.