I always enjoy trying to link my various novels together with little cross-references or homages. My current work in progress, WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE, is the second foray into alternative history I've done, the first being PRESIDENT HAMILTON. But among my unpublished works, there is the full libretto to a two-act musical about Theodore Roosevelt, another one of my favorite American leaders. So, in Chapter Sixteen of my Lincoln story, set in the late fall of 1865, I decided to tip my hat to both of these past writing projects. Let me know what you think:
Before leaving New York, Lincoln was invited to be the
guest of honor at a dinner hosted by some of the city’s leading attorneys. He
delivered a few brief remarks, thanking them for the invitation, and then took
his seat at the head table. Across from
him was a man who looked vaguely familiar, a white-haired septuagenarian with a
prominent Roman nose and high forehead. Lincoln was trying to figure out where he knew
him from when the gentleman saw the President looking at him and smiled.
“Thank you for your remarks, Mister President,” he
said, offering his hand. “I am John C.
Hamilton. My son Alexander speaks very
highly of you.”
“Of course!” Lincoln said. “I think we met briefly at the Willard two
years ago. Your son Alex is an excellent
staff officer and did a fine job delivering my daily military briefings.”
“He’s named after my father, of course, and I can’t
help thinking that Papa would be proud of his service in this regrettable
conflict,” Hamilton said.
“Your father was a great man,” Lincoln said. “His grasp of economics, and of the
relationship between labor and capital, was ahead of his time. Education, especially education of the
working class, is central to the general welfare of the nation, and he
recognized that truth and championed it. Jefferson wrote some memorable phrases about
human liberty, but Alexander Hamilton understood the importance of economic
liberty. National prosperity does not
lie in the concentration of wealth at the very top of society, but on
prosperity that is shared by every level.”
“Exactly right!” John Hamilton said. “Jefferson condemned my father as a
monarchist for wanting the federal government to be stronger than that of the
states, but Papa knew that people can only be free when the government is
strong enough to protect their freedoms, and fairly administered enough so that
every man has a chance to rise as high as his abilities will take him!”
“That is the dream of America,” Lincoln said, “and I
am living proof of it. No one will ever
be able to say that I came from a life of privilege, and yet by the grace of
God and no little sweat and effort on my own part, I’ve risen to lead this
great land.”
“And you have led it very well!” Hamilton said. “My father would appreciate your strong stand
for our glorious union, and your implacable hostility to slavery, for he shared
your views on both those issues. You
know, he wanted to arm Negroes to fight in the Revolution, but his proposal was
voted down.”
“I thank you for your kind words, Mister Hamilton,”
Lincoln said. “Your father was a man I
wish I could have known, and I will say that I read your biographical series
about him with great interest. I like to think that in some ways I have
fulfilled his vision for our nation.”
Hamilton leaned across the table and lowered his
voice.
“Mister President,” he said, “I don’t speak of this
very often. I was nearly twelve when Papa
took part in that dreadful duel with Aaron Burr. Even as my father was dying, in the agonies
of his mortal wound, his thoughts were of the future of our country. After bidding farewell to my mother and
younger brothers, he looked at me and the others at his bedside and said: ‘If
they break this Union, they will break my heart.’ I must say, sir, that when the rebels fired
on Fort Sumter, I thought that my father’s worst nightmare had finally come
true. And it might have, had it not been
for you. You stood up to them, Mister President. You led our nation through a long, dark night
of disunion and rebellion, and into the glorious dawn of liberty and
unity! Thank you, Mister Lincoln, for
saving the Union my father struggled and died for. If he is looking down on this vale of tears
from the hereafter, I know that he would approve of your decency, your courage,
and your passion for freedom.”
“That is high praise indeed, Mister Hamilton,” said
Lincoln, deeply moved. “Those words mean more to me than I can say.”
“They are heartfelt,” Hamilton replied. “In some ways, Mister President, I feel you
have completed the work my father and Washington began, by saving the Union
from dissolution.”
Lincoln rose and bowed deeply, and then found himself
accosted by Governor Fenton, who had ousted Horatio Seymour the previous
fall. By the time he was done speaking
with the governor, the President saw that Hamilton had gone home for the
evening. They did not meet again for several years thereafter, but the
conversation he had with Alexander Hamilton’s son remained with Lincoln for the
rest of his life.
As he was leaving the dinner, Lincoln was accosted by
a familiar figure. Theodore Roosevelt
had been an active member of the Union League, and during the war he had
championed the allotment system that allowed Union soldiers to send a monthly
portion of their pay to their families at home.
The President had been very impressed with the idea and had appointed
Roosevelt to be the allotment commissioner for all of New York.
“My dear Mr. Roosevelt,” Lincoln said, “it is good to
see you again!”
“I am delighted to see you as well, Mister President,”
said the sturdy, bearded figure.
Roosevelt had done much to support the Union armies but had chosen not
to serve in the military himself – partly because, Lincoln suspected,
Roosevelt’s wife had been an active supporter of the Confederacy and her two
brothers had donned the grey to fight for the South. Since some of his own wife’s family had also
fought on the opposite side, Lincoln felt a certain empathy for a man caught in
the middle.
“What can I do for a man who did so much to help our
boys in blue?” Lincoln said after exchanging a few pleasantries.
“I have a son who would very much like to meet you, Mister
President,” the New Yorker said. “He’s
waiting in my carriage – he’s been very sick, but he absolutely begged me to let
him see you.”
“I’d be delighted,” Lincoln said. “I know how much my Taddie enjoys meeting the
people he’s looked up to.”
Trailed by his ubiquitous military guards, Lincoln
followed Roosevelt to a richly appointed carriage that was waiting at the curb.
“Teedie?” the elder Roosevelt said. “I’ve brought him to meet you!”
There was a rustle of blankets, and a pale young face
sporting an enormous pair of spectacles looked out the window at the President.
“President Lincoln!” the lad exclaimed. Even in the pale light from the nearby
streetlamp, Lincoln could tell that the boy was not well. He was very thin for his size, his face was
pale, and there were dark hollows under his eyes. Moved with compassion, the
President reached his long arms through the window of the carriage and lifted
the child out, cradling him so the boy could look him in the eye.
“And who might you be, my lad?” he said.
“I’m Theodore Roosevelt Junior!” the child replied
with evident pride in his family name. “My papa is the best man I know, and he
says that you are the best man in the whole world!”
Lincoln laughed and the elder Roosevelt flushed
slightly.
“Well, the good opinion of men like your daddy means
the world to me,” he said. “Your father
did noble service to our great Union during the war, and I am very grateful to
him.”
“I wanted the war to last longer so I could go fight!”
the lad said, but then his small body spasmed as he was racked with coughs.
“What ails the lad?” Lincoln said softly as he patted
the child on the back.
“The doctors call it asthma,” Roosevelt replied. “He will be all right for several weeks, but
then it will kick in again, and he wheezes and turns blue and frightens us
dreadfully.”
“It’s not that bad, Papa,” the boy said as he got his
breath back. “I always get better!”
“And I have hopes that one day you will outgrow it, as
many men do,” his father said, ruffling the boy’s brown hair.
“I am very glad that the war did not last another
dozen years,” Lincoln said to the younger Roosevelt, “but as brave as you are,
I will bet the rebels are equally glad they didn’t have to fight you!”
The boy’s eyes sparkled, and he threw his arms around
the President’s neck.
“I think you are as good a man as papa says,” he told
Lincoln.
“You’re quite the young politician,” the President
told him. “You mind your schooling and develop
that young mind of yours, and one day you might get to live in the White House,
too!”
“I’d rather be a great general,” Theodore Junior said,
“but being President wouldn’t be bad either.
Could I do both?”
Lincoln laughed out loud at the boy’s ambitions and said:
“It wouldn’t surprise me if you did, my lad!
Now I need to go back to my hotel – I have to leave early in the
morning. It was a delight to meet you,
Theodore.”
“You can call me Teedie,” the boy said. “Everybody
does!”
“Do they now?” Lincoln mused. “Well, then, good night, Teedie, and thank
you, Mr. Roosevelt, for introducing me to your remarkable son!”
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https://www.amazon.com/President-Hamilton-Novel-Alternative-History/dp/1632137100/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1657739091&sr=1-1
