In 1797 a sex scandal rocked the capital. A sleazy affair connected with allegations of bribes and government corruption drew condemnation and destroyed the reputation of Alexander Hamilton. This week we look at the Maria Reynolds Affair.
The Meeting
The actual affair began back in the summer of 1791.
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| Alexander Hamilton |
The next night, Hamilton brought her $30. He later said that it was clear that Maria wanted a more intimate relationship, and the affair began that night. Hamilton’s wife, unaware of all this, took the children on vacation to Albany to visit her father. Hamilton brought Maria into their home, where the affair continued.
This went on for what was later described as “a short time” - maybe a few weeks, maybe months. At some point Reynolds told Hamilton that she was reconciling with her husband, something Hamilton later told others that he encouraged. Hamilton probably figured, it was fun summer, now it’s over, my family will be returning soon, and life will go on like nothing happened.
As you might have guessed, something happened.
The Money
Hamilton may have continued to see the young woman from time to time after she returned to her husband. At one point, Maria told Hamilton that her husband, James Reynolds, speculated in government securities and that he was getting insider information from the Treasury Department to make money.
Hamilton met with Mr. Reynolds, who identified Assistant Treasury Secretary William Duer as the person who was leaking insider information. We discussed Duer back in Episode 379. Insider trading was not illegal at the time. But Duer was involved in financial schemes of his own. He was engaged in a conspiracy to corner the securities market with borrowed funds. In early 1792, the conspirators were unable to repay their debts. They went to debtors’ prison and caused the Financial Panic of 1792.
Before all of that blew up, Hamilton received two letters dated December 15, 1791. One was from Maria Reynolds saying that her husband had discovered letters revealing their affair. The second letter was from James Reynolds saying that he had discovered the affair, that his wife had confessed everything to him, and attacking Hamilton for taking advantage of his wife. Two days later, James sent a second letter demanding to meet with Hamilton. Two days after that he sent a third letter, referencing a meeting between the two men, and making an interesting offer. Reynolds said he could not reconcile with his wife after what had happened. He asked Hamilton to give him $1000 so that he could leave town with his daughter, and that he would leave Maria behind for Hamilton to do whatever he wanted with her.
Hamilton paid Reynolds $600 a few days later, and another $400 a couple of weeks after that. $1000 was a considerable sum. Hamilton received an annual salary of only $3500. But with this payment Hamilton hoped to put the whole thing behind him. That didn’t work.
Reynolds did not leave town as promised. In fact, probably with the money from Hamilton, he purchased a large house on Vine Street. Over the next six months, Mr. Reynolds would ask for more money from Hamilton in smaller amounts. He essentially pimped out Maria, encouraging Hamilton to visit her and to lend him small amounts of money that everyone knew would never be repaid. Reynolds even encouraged Hamilton to visit Maria. In one letter to Hamilton he wrote “I find when ever you have been with her, She is Cheerful and kind, but when you have not in some time she is Quite the Reverse and wishes to be alone by her self."
Mrs. Reynolds also sent letters to Hamilton begging him to visit her. Hamilton continued the affair through most of 1792. Hamilton also passed along hundreds of dollars in loans to Mr. Reynolds during this time.
Reynolds Background
To this day, it is not entirely clear whether the Reynolds’ planned this from the beginning, or whether they simply took advantage of the situation. Hamilton came to believe that James and Maria Reynolds conspired together to ensnare Hamilton in a blackmail plot from the beginning. It is also possible that Maria really did come to Hamilton at first, seeking help, and with a willingness to trade sex for favors, and that James discovered the affair and only then decided to use it for blackmail and profit.
Our knowledge of the Reynolds’ background is limited. Maria was born Maria Lewis in New York City. Her father, Richard Lewis was an illiterate laborer. Her mother was Susanna Van Der Burgh. It was her second marriage. Susanna had at least six children with her first husband, Elias Dubois, and another six with Richard Lewis. Maria was the second to last, born in 1768. She has been described by various people who knew her as very attractive, and also very emotional, prone to wild mood swings.
In 1783, at age 15, she married James Reynolds, who had served in the Revolutionary War with his father, David Reynolds, most of that time in the commissary department. Reynolds was originally from Orange County, New York. Most of what we know of his post war years was that Reynolds made multiple efforts to receive compensation for losses during the war, and looking for a government job. The couple had one child, a daughter, Susan, born in 1785.
In 1790, a New York merchant, William Vredenburgh, hired James to buy up pay claims from soldiers in Virginia and North Carolina as part of a speculation scheme that they could get them at a discount and get the government to pay them in full. You may recall that at this time, Congress was considering legislation that would not allow speculators to collect on these claims, that the money should go to the original claimants. Hamilton was fighting for the speculators.
It is likely that James and Maria Reynolds moved to Philadelphia in early 1791, just after the Congress moved from New York to Philadelphia. They followed Congress in order to continue efforts to collect on the veterans’ claims that were the subject of their speculation efforts.
Investigation
In the fall of 1792, Reynolds was arrested for illegally purchasing soldier pensions and back-pay claims, as well as forging documents. This was part of his ongoing efforts to profit from speculation in the claims of veterans. Again, this was not illegal. The crime was that he got at least one person to testify that a veteran had died and that they were representing his estate, when in fact that soldier was still alive. That was fraud. That was illegal.
Oliver Wolcott, Comptroller of the Treasury at the time, swore out criminal warrants against Reynold and his partner Jacob Clingman. Clingman was released on bail the same day he was arrested. Reynolds lingered in jail. Maria appealed to Pennsylvania Governor Thomas Mifflin for her husband’s release. The Governor forwarded the matter to the Pennsylvania Attorney General with instructions that the Secretary of Treasury should have a say in whether Reynolds should remain in custody.
Reynolds remained in jail. Hamilton left the investigation with Wolcott. At some point Wolcott agreed to drop the prosecution if the suspects would reveal who at the Treasury Department provided them access to the lists of veterans that they were using to make their fraudulent claims. Reynolds claimed the source was William Duer. Wolcott did not believe that, since Duer had resigned nearly three years earlier . Wolcott later pointed the finger at an unnamed clerk. Historians believe that clerk was Simeon Reynolds who was terminated on December 17, 1792, shortly after this scandal broke, and is believed to be related to James Reynolds.
When Clingman got out on bail, he turned to his old boss, Congressman Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania, who had been Speaker of the House. Clingman had multiple conversations with Muhlenberg over the next few weeks hinting that Hamilton was involved in the speculation conspiracy and that he had advanced large sums of money to Reynolds
Although Muhlenberg was a Federalist, he was concerned about the charges his former clerk was leveling at the Treasury Secretary. Muhlenberg shared his concerns with two Congressmen from the other side of the aisle, James Monroe, and Abraham Venable, both from Virginia. The three of them walked down to the jail to get Reynolds’ side of the story.
Reynolds told them that he was willing to expose Hamilton’s wrongdoing if they could get him out of jail. They arranged for his release and agreed to call on him at home that evening. When they arrived at his home, Reynolds was gone. He skipped town.
Mrs. Reynolds, however, was at home and spoke to them. She showed them several letters from Hamilton to her husband that indicated that Hamilton and Reynolds were involved financially. She said there were other letters but that he had just burned them. She also told them that Hamilton had advised Mr. Reynolds to “leave these parts, not to be seen here again, and in which case he would give something clever.”
The three congressmen kept the letters that they found in Mrs. Reynolds’ possession and drafted a letter to President Washington, regarding their findings. Before they sent the letter, they thought it best to confront Hamilton directly and get his side of the story.
The men made an appointment to meet with Hamilton at his home on Saturday evening, December 15, 1792. Hamilton was well aware of the subject of their investigation. He had invited Wolcott to his home as well. Hamilton confessed to Wolcott earlier in the day, so that he was aware of the situation.
When Muhlenberg, Monroe, and Venable arrived at Hamilton’s home, they confronted him with their evidence. Monroe showed him the letters they had obtained from Maria Reynolds and recounted what she had told them.
Hamilton then responded by giving a full account of his relationship with the Reynolds’, the sexual affair and what he regarded as blackmail to keep them from revealing the affair with Maria. He denied that he had any business relationship with Reynolds nor that he had any role in speculation or revealing insider information to any speculators, including Reynolds. He indicated that he was a victim of blackmail which explained the payments to Reynolds.
The three congressmen agreed that Hamilton had been forthright about the situation and believed that he was not involved in any illegal conspiracy to speculate on government securities. The fact that this turned out to be an investigation into a private sexual affair made them uncomfortable and evinced a regret that they had dug into this dirt in the first place.
The following day, the three congressmen collected their documents and drafted and signed a report about their interview with Hamilton. In it, they said “We left him under an impression our suspicions were removed.” Hamilton drafted his own memorandum of the meeting. He also asked for copies of the letters and other documents that they had shown him at that meeting. Monroe had the House Clerk, John Beckley, make copies of all the documents for Hamilton. Beckley also made copies for his own files.
Clingman, who was still under indictment, and who hoped that a Hamilton scandal might help him to get out of it, learned from Wolcott that Hamilton had revealed that the payments to Reynolds were blackmail payments to cover up the sex scandal with Mrs. Reynolds, not payments as part of a scheme to speculate on government paper. Clingman then went to see Maria, who learned from him that Hamilton was telling folks about their affair and the blackmail. After a crying fit, Maria denied Hamilton’s story completely. She denied the sexual affair and the blackmail. She said Hamilton was making up all of it to hide his role in the conspiracy to profit from the illegal speculation. Clingman met with Monroe a couple of weeks after their meeting with Hamilton and told Monroe what he had learned from Mariah. Monroe took notes from their conversation, and added it to the investigation documents.
The informal congressional investigation had satisfied themselves that Hamilton was not participating in any conspiracy to profit personally from government funds. They accepted the story that he was engaged in a sexual affair and had become a victim of blackmail. As a result, they filed away their documents and considered the matter at an end.
James Reynolds disappeared from history at this point. He may have moved back to New York. In May of 1793, Maria filed for divorce in New York. Her divorce attorney was Aaron Burr. After divorcing Reynolds, she married Reynolds' business partner, Jacob Clingman.
The entire scandal was buried and remained hidden from public view.
Public Scandal
Five years passed, Hamilton resigned in 1795 and went back to private practice in New York. There might have been a few whispered rumors of the affair, but most people seemed to forget about the whole thing - everyone except John Beckley, the House Clerk.
Beckley had retained copies of all the documents and reports created by the informal congressional investigation. Beckley was a highly partisan supporter of the Democratic Republicans. He was the clerk who wrote the anonymous article calling for George Washington’s impeachment based on Washington overdrawing his account while President.
Beckley spent much of 1793 conducting his own investigation, including interviews with Clingman and former Treasury clerk Andrew Fraunces. Beckley was convinced that Hamilton was part of a conspiracy with William Duer to profit from insider deals related to speculation into treasury notes and other financial instruments. He was also convinced that Reynolds was secretly acting as Hamilton’s agent and he was determined to prove this.
Even Beckley’s investigation did not reveal anything new, so the matter sat for years. Then, in 1797, the Federalists took control of Congress and terminated Beckley because of his many partisan activities. At this point, Beckley just seemed to want revenge. The dirt he still had on Hamilton as the leading Federalist in the country seemed to be just what he needed.
To release his secrets, Beckley turned to James Callender. Originally from Scotland, Callender got his start publishing pamphlets that attacked powerful leaders and exposed corruption. He angered enough powerful men that he fled to America in 1793 under threat of prosecution for sedition. In Philadelphia, Callender began almost immediately working for Democratic Republican papers, eventually finding a position as a Congressional reporter. In that role he and Beckley got to know one another. Callender began writing for the anti-administration the Aurora, and developed a reputation as a radical commentator in Philadelphia.
Beckley gave Callender copies of all the documents that he had related to the Reynolds affair. These included all of the documents created during the investigations by Muhlenberg, Monroe, and Venable. It also included the letters written between Hamilton and Reynolds. In May 1797, in a book entitled The History of the United States for 1796 Callender republished the transcripts of all the documents, as well as his own thoughts on the affair, for the entire public to read.
He announced the motivation for publication as a defense of James Monroe. At the time, Monroe was the target of Federalist attacks for unsubstantiated charges of corruption. He had recently returned from France after being recalled by President Washington and had written a book attacking the former president. Callender said that his release of the Hamilton documents showed that Monroe had legitimate ammunition to attack Hamilton in 1792 and refused to do so. Unsaid was the message to the Federalists that if you attack our leaders, we can drop a rhetorical nuclear bomb on your leaders.
Callender made clear that he believed Hamilton and James Reynolds were involved in corrupt speculation together and that the sexual affair with Maria Reynolds was the cover story that Hamilton was using to cover up his corruption.
In response, Hamilton published his own booklet a few months later entitled Observations on Certain Documents, generally known as the Reynolds Pamphlet. In this 95 page booklet, Hamilton admitted to the sexual affair with Maria Reynolds, but denied the allegation of corruption and collusion with James Reynolds. As he had told the investigators years earlier, Hamilton wrote that the money paid to Reynolds was blackmail to keep the sexual affair private.
Hamilton’s defense only seemed to increase the attacks on him. Democratic-Republicans accused him of trying to "creep under Mrs. R’s petticoats" to hide his actual corruption. Federalists attacked his judgement for admitting to the affair publicly, and just bringing more publicity to the matter
Hamilton also accused Monroe of leaking the documents to Callender. He met with Monroe in New York on July 11, 1797 and demanded that Monroe issue a statement repudiating Callender’s charges. Monroe refused. He denied that he had leaked the documents and called Hamilton a scoundrel. The two men were ready to come to blows when their friend separated them. The two considered a duel but were talked out of it by several others, including Aaron Burr.
Months later, the two men were still considering a duel. In December, Monroe wrote to Hamilton, essentially saying that if Hamilton wanted a duel, he was ready. Hamilton wrote a response a few weeks later agreeing to a duel, but apparently thought better of it and never mailed that letter.
Over time the scandal faded. The one lasting impact was that anyone who thought Hamilton had pretensions toward becoming president some day, that seemed would never happen. Nothing more happened about the affair, other than the permanent stain on Hamilton's reputation.
Next week: We look in on the ongoing war between Britain and France involving colonies in the West Indies.
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Next Episode 401 War in the West Indies (coming soon)
Previous Episode 399 Financial Crisis of 1797
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Further Reading
Websites
“Printed Version of the “Reynolds Pamphlet”, 1797,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-21-02-0138-0002
Cogan, Jacob Katz. “The Reynolds Affair and the Politics of Character.” Journal of the Early Republic, vol. 16, no. 3, 1996, pp. 389–417. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3124057
Alberts, Robert C. “The Notorious Affair Of Mrs. Reynolds” American Heritage, Feb. 1973. https://www.americanheritage.com/notorious-affair-mrs-reynolds
Gross, Alexandra M. The Reynolds Affair, Party Politics, and Sexuality in the Early Republic, College of William and Mary [Master’s Thesis] 2014:
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/17d49a14-c73d-4d6a-a5be-4ea27f4392e0/content
Alexander Hamilton’s Adultery and Apology https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/alexander-hamiltons-adultery-and-apology-18021947
“James Reynolds to George Washington, 26 June 1789,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-03-02-0026
“James Reynolds to Alexander Hamilton, 15 December 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-10-02-0029
“Maria Reynolds to Alexander Hamilton, [15 December 1791],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-10-02-0031
“James Reynolds to Alexander Hamilton, 17 December 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-10-02-0037
“James Reynolds to Alexander Hamilton, 19 December 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-10-02-0045.
“James Reynolds to Alexander Hamilton, [22 December 1791],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-10-02-0053
“James Reynolds to Alexander Hamilton, [3 January 1792],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-10-02-0080
“James Reynolds to Alexander Hamilton, 17 January 1792,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-10-02-0106
“Introductory Note: From Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [3 July 1797],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-21-02-0076-0001
“Draft of the “Reynolds Pamphlet”, [25 August 1797],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-21-02-0138-0001
“Printed Version of the “Reynolds Pamphlet”, 1797,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-21-02-0138-0002
“Alexander Hamilton to James Monroe, 5 July 1797,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-21-02-0078-0001
“James Monroe and Frederick A. C. Muhlenberg to Alexander Hamilton, 17 July 1797,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-21-02-0100
.“Alexander Hamilton to James Monroe and Frederick A. C. Muhlenberg, [17 July 1797],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-21-02-0101
“James Monroe to Alexander Hamilton, 2 December 1797,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-21-02-0176
“Alexander Hamilton to James Monroe, [January 1798],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-21-02-0200
Letter from Aaron Burr to William Eustis, 1 December 1800 https://www.masshist.org/database/viewer.php?item_id=7670&pid=3
Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)
Jahoda, Gloria “John Beckley; Jefferson’s Campaign Manager” Bulletin of the Public Library, Vol. 64, No 5, May 1960, pp. 247-260.
Callender, James The History of the United States for 1796, Philadelphia: Snowden & M’Corkle, 1797.
Callender, James The American Annual Register or, Historical Memoirs of the United States, for the Year 1796, Philadelphia: Bioren & Maden, 1797.
Callender, James Sketches of the History of America, Philadelphia Sedgwick & Co. 1798.
Callender, James Letters to Alexander Hamilton, King of the Feds, New York: Richard Reynolds, 1802.
Drury, Michael With the Hammer of Truth: James Thomson Callender, Univ. of Va. Press, 1990.
Hamilton, Alexander Observations on certain documents in "The history of the United States for the year 1796," New York: Hamilton Club, 1865.
Miller, John C. Alexander Hamilton: Portrait in Paradox, New York: Harper & Bros. 1959.
Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*
Brown, Ralph A. The Presidency of John Adams, Univ. of Kansas Press, 1975.
Chernow, Ron Alexander Hamilton, Penguin Press, 2004.
Chervinsky, Lindsay M. Making the Presidency John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic, Oxford Univ. Press, 2024.
Drury, Michael With the Hammer of Truth: James Thomson Callender, Univ. of Va. Press, 1990 (available on archive.org).
Elkins, Stanley M. and Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1788–1800, Oxford Univ. Press, 1993 (borrow on archive.org).
Ferling, John Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation, Bloomsbury Press, 2013.
Isenberg, Nancy Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr, New York: Viking, 2007.
Leibiger, Stuart Founding Friendship George Washington, James Madison, and the Creation of the American Republic, Univ. of Virginia Press, 1999.
Malone, Dumas Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty, Little Brown & Co. 1962 (borrow on archive.org).
McCullough, David John Adams, Simon & Schuster, 2001.
Miller, John C. Alexander Hamilton and the Growth of the New Nation (or Portrait in Paradox), Harper & Brothers, 1959 (borrow on archive.org)
Nester, William The Hamiltonian Vision, 1789-1800, Potomac Books, 2012.
Syrett, Harold C. (ed.) The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Vol 21. Columbia Univ. Press, 2024.
Staloff, Darren Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson: The Politics of Enlightenment and the American Founding, Hill and Wang, 2005.
Wood, Gordon S. Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815, Oxford Univ. Press, 2009.
* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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