Hamilton quotes

He has been settling the score with Melissa up stage. He speaks with a slight French accent. Ha! Ha! The fortune of war!

You bring about the war, your soldiers fight for you and conquer your enemies and then you repudiate their claim for pay. The fortune of war!

The war for them—the fortune for you, eh?

Down with aristocrats! Down with tyrants everywhere!

Yes, I know your idea of liberty! Down with aristocrats! Down with everybody⁠—who is in your way!

I’ll tell you one thing, Citizen Tallyrand, and I’ll tell it to you now. There are some damned aristocrats in this country that’ll get the same treatment your king got if they don’t go careful.

Coming toward table L.

Come, come, Monroe, more flies may be caught with a dish of molasses than with a sea of vinegar.

You know you’ve set your heart on being appointed Minister to France.

Monroe and Jefferson protest; Jefferson rises.

We don’t need to discuss his arrival into the world, Giles. I am far more interested in his removal.

Reynolds turns chair in front of him and puts his feet on it.

And the people trust him.

Shake the people’s faith in him, that’s the thing.

Reynolds lowers his paper a moment.

Moving toward L. and turning again. I don’t say who’s the author of the accusations. I don’t say it’s Tom Jefferson or Senator Monroe, but I know where to put my hand on the man who does the dirty work. Giles crosses angrily toward him.

Yes, you’re a fighter, but you know only one knockout blow, and that’s the one below the belt.

You needn’t glare at me. I wouldn’t soil my hands with you, but this is one of the times when I wish I had gout anywhere but in my foot.

Smiling. Shake the people’s faith in him.

Well, that’s the only way I get a living, Mr. Giles⁠—keeping my ears open.

Picking up his hat from beside him.

You’re a little gentleman, ain’t yer, Reynolds?

Women are the deuce for tangling up a man’s finances.

You know all about it, don’t you?

You come in on the blackmailing end of the game, eh? You’d do any damned thing for a ten dollar piece, wouldn’t you?

Yes, I’m afraid my price is a little lower than yours, Mr. Giles.

Leans forward again. You might see Mrs. Reynolds. She’s a nice little thing. I’m very fond of her, but she’s too good for me.

Giving Schuyler’s hat to Zekiel. Exactly. That’s why I have to be “out, out, out.”

You see there is still a large section of the public who regard the Treasury as a sort of savings-bank, from which they can withdraw money without the preliminary inconvenience of depositing it.

Helping Schuyler off with his cloak and giving it to Zekiel.

C.

Yes, we have a Treasury, but we haven’t any treasure.

How’s the gout?

Well, I’m going to do the fighting now. Picks up pens.

Here’s a whole new bundle of pens and I’m going to stick a man with every one of them.

The opposition have half a dozen bundles to your one, and they poison the points.

The thing that hits him hardest is their everlasting hooting about the army.

George Washington loves his army as he would have loved an only child.

He has beggared himself in an attempt to meet the country’s promise to pay. It’s the old story. The greater the achievement of the man, the more violent his detractors.

He has beggared himself in an attempt to meet the country’s promise to pay.

It’s the old story. The greater the achievement of the man, the more violent his detractors.

Enter Zekiel, L., with tray containing chicken, bread and butter, jug of milk, glass, bottle of wine, wineglass, napkin and white cloth on tray. Now they are shouting “Dictator” and accusing him of trying to make himself king. And they know it’s a lie.

Enter Zekiel, L., with tray containing chicken, bread and butter, jug of milk, glass, bottle of wine, wineglass, napkin and white cloth on tray. Now they are shouting “Dictator” and accusing him of trying to make himself king. And they know it’s a lie.

Of course it’s a lie⁠—that’s why the politicians glory in it.

You can’t lead the people with a lie. The truth.

Well, it doesn’t seem much to go building banks on.

How can I build banks without pie!

It’s time Betsy came back. Thank God, she will be home next week.

Giving another hopeless look at Schuyler, who grunts. I wish I could make you understand.

The Treasury at present is only a name⁠—an empty name.

Takes paper from Woman. This is Rhode Island’s promise to pay. Mrs. Whalen, I am trying to make the country keep this promise; I’m trying to make them pay.

Well, there’s a lot of rats running after him that’d be all the better for drowning.

There are always rats running up the backstairs trying to nibble their way into office.

Enter Zekiel from door up R.; comes down to table C.

Well, I’ll be—! Haven’t you any patriotism, man?

I don’t care where the Capital is, or whether it’s built of marble or whether it’s made of wood, so long as we get the right men inside⁠—to restore law and order to this limping, half-starved government.

Puling his chair around to face Schuyler and anticipating amusement. What are the reasons why the Capital should be in the North?

Incurred in gaining Virginia her freedom. Gentlemen, if the interests of the thirteen states continue to clash, there is no hope of established independence. I appeal to you both, as patriots, not to squander the time of the country by the discussion of party interests.

We are builders of a nation; let us build strongly, let us build on the foundation stone of honor. The nations of the world are watching us.

Let them sneer at our youth, let them sneer at our poverty, but let them never cast a slur upon our honesty.

We are builders of a nation; let us build strongly, let us build on the foundation stone of honor. The nations of the world are watching us.

Let them sneer at our youth, let them sneer at our poverty, but let them never cast a slur upon our honesty.

You plead merely for the honor of the nation: I plead also for the rights of the individual.

Rising and with firmness. Citizen Hamilton, I am pledged to the people.

We cannot pick the pockets of the man who trusts us in order to pay another man’s debts.

Gentlemen, this is repudiation—the last stage of national humiliation.

And I find that, in settling arguments of all kinds, it is necessary to give and take.

The best diplomatist, I presume, being the man who gives the least and takes the most.

Jefferson and Monroe laugh slightly.

I’m afraid you might. That’s why I say goodbye. Takes hand. Sail home as fast as a fair wind will carry you.

Your genius is universal, but your morals are indigenous to Paris.

Godspeed!

Despondently.

No, I’ve waited for years for things to be brighter tomorrow.

Sympathetically. I fear you are very tired.

How you can do it, I don’t know. I’ve felt the motion of the boat all night. I wouldn’t do that if you paid me.

If I could afford to pay you, Angelica, I’d employ somebody who knew how.

Angelica shakes steps in retaliation. Betsy screams.

What’s rack?

I know what ruin is. It’s the salary your country pays you for saving it.

If you’re the Judge, you’ve no right to be embracing that lady. Betsy is nestling during this.

Oh, you know, do you?

Then you haven’t come for information⁠—but merely for the love of sport.

That money was paid out of the Treasury of the United States.

After a pause and looking through letters. Thirty dollars—twenty-five dollars—one hundred dollars—Very modest amounts for purposes of speculation.

Just as dishonest to steal ten dollars as ten millions.

You can’t dodge, Hamilton. I owe it to this country to expose this damned business. You use your official information to rob the patriots who raised the money to save this nation!