COMMENTARIES, 21 JULY-30 OCTOBER 1787

Those actions which are denominated virtuous, have not any absolute
and independant, but a relative beauty; and the source from which they
derive their lustre, is the intention which guided them: if well intended,
whether they produce good, or evil, they are equally virtuous: the pro-
ducing good or evil are the accidents; the intention to produce good,
is the essence of virtue.
1. Probably a reference to one or two lengthy speeches that Hamilton made earlier in
the year. The first speech, delivered in the New York Assembly on 15 February, supported
a bill to grant the Impost of 1783 to the Confederation Congress. (For the text of this
speech, printed in the Daily Advertiser, 26 February, see Syrett, IV, 71-92.) The second
speech, delivered in the Constitutional Convention on 18 June, criticized plans of gov-
ernment then under consideration and presented his own "sketch of a plan." In his
second number, "Inspector" demonstrates that, despite the secrecy surrounding the Con-
vention, he knew what Hamilton had said about the executive, especially his proposal
that the executive serve during good behavior. (For the text of this speech, found in
notes taken by Virginia delegate James Madison and by Hamilton's fellow New York del-
egates Robert Yates and John Lansing, Jr., see Farrand, I, 282-301; and Farrand, Supple-
ment, 82-84.)
2. In 1777 Hamilton, a Continental Army captain, was invited by Commander in Chief
George Washington to become his secretary and aide-de-camp with the rank of lieutenant
colonel. Four years later, Washington and Hamilton had a falling out; Hamilton resigned
and rejected Washington's request that he reconsider his resignation. Early in October
1787 Hamilton wrote Washington asking him "to put the matter [of "Inspector's"
charge] in its true light," which Washington did in his reply to Hamilton. (See Hamilton
to Washington, 8-10 October, and Washington to Hamilton, 18 October, both below.)
3. Hamilton published two pamphlets in 1774 and 1775 (Evans 13313, 14096), when
not yet twenty years of age, supporting the Continental Congress against criticism levied
by Loyalist Samuel Seabury, who wrote as "A. W. Farmer" (Evans 13602, 13603, 42697).
In 1784 Hamilton, as "Phocion," published two pamphlets, calling for a more lenient
legislative policy toward former Loyalists (Evans 18508, 18516).
4. These two lines (not successive in the original) are taken from Isaac Bickerstaff, The
Padlock: A Comic Opera (London, 1768), Act I, scene VI. The Padlock was popular in both
England and America, being performed in New York City as early as 1769.
5. As a child, Hamilton lived on the Danish West Indian island of St. Croix, but he
had been born on the British Island of Nevis.
6. "W.S." was probably historian and former chief justice William Smith (1728-1793),
one of New York's best-known Loyalists who moved to England in 1783 when the British
evacuated New York City and to Canada in 1786. For Hamilton's "Phocion" pamphlets,
see note 3 (above).
7. The king's printer was probably James Rivington, who was criticized and attacked
by the Sons of Liberty. Rivington published the Royal Gazette, a Loyalist newspaper in
British-occupied New York City from 1777 to 1783. Although Rivington was an American
spy late in the war, unforgiving former Sons of Liberty prevented him from publishing
his newspaper several weeks after the British evacuated the city. Nevertheless, Rivington
remained in the city until his death in 1802.
8. The Whig Society was formed in New York City in January 1784 to make certain
that remaining Loyalists would find adjusting to life difficult after the British evacuated
on 25 November 1783. The creation of the society was just one example of the anti-
Loyalist feeling that swept the city. The society pressured the city's aldermen and assem-

3