“Go to Congress!” he exclaimed.  “Who goes to that ramshackle body that is able to keep out of it?  Could not they find someone else to send to distinguish himself by failure?  I’ve my living to make.  If a man in these days manages to support his wife and child, there is nothing else he can do which so entitles him to the esteem of his fellow-citizens.”

“True,” said Troup, soothingly; “there certainly is nothing in that body of old women and lunatics, perpetually bickering with thirteen sovereign, disobedient, and jealous States, to tempt the ambition of any man; nor, ordinarily, to appeal to his sense of usefulness.  But just at present there are several questions before it with which it is thought you can cope more successfully than any man living.  So I think you ought to go, and so does General Schuyler.  I know all that you will sacrifice, domestic as well as pecuniarily—­but remember, you solemnly dedicated yourself to the service of this country.”

“I’m not likely to forget it, and I am willing to sacrifice anything if I am convinced of my usefulness in a given direction, but I see no chance of accomplishing aught in Congress, of doing this country any service until it is a nation, not a sack of scratching cats.”

Not only was great pressure brought to bear upon him, but he was not long convincing himself that it was his duty to take his knowledge of certain subjects vexing the Confederation, to the decrepit body which was feebly striving to save the country from anarchy.  He had given little attention to the general affairs of the country during the past six months, but an examination of them fired his zeal.  He accepted the appointment, and returned to his law books and his dispiriting struggle with the taxes.

In the autumn Hamilton received the second of those heavy blows by which he was reminded that in spite of his magnetism for success he was to suffer like other mortals.  Laurens was dead—­killed in a petty skirmish which he was so loath to miss that he had bolted to it from a sick-bed.  Hamilton mourned him passionately, and never ceased to regret him.  He was mercurial only among his lighter feelings.  The few people he really loved were a part of his daily thoughts, and could set his heartstrings vibrating at any moment.  Betsey consoled, diverted, and bewitched him, but there were times when he would have exchanged her for Laurens.  The perfect friendship of two men is the deepest and highest sentiment of which the finite mind is capable; women miss the best in life.

In October Hamilton resigned the Receivership, having brought an honourable amount of order out of chaos and laid down the law for the guidance of future officials.  November came, and he set off for Philadelphia philosophically, though by no means with a light heart.  The baby was too young to travel; he was obliged to send his little family to General Schuyler’s, with no hope of seeing them again for months, and a receding prospect of offering them a home in New York.  His father-in-law, not unmindful that consolation was needed, drove him two-thirds of the distance, thus saving him a long ride, or its alternative, the heavy coach.  In Philadelphia he found sufficient work awaiting him to drive all personal matters out of his head.