Excerpt from Scandalmonger by William Safire, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

The men from Congress took their seat in the warden's office, a sullen gray room with a poor painting on the wall of George Washington astride his white horse. James Reynolds was brought to them from his cell.

"I am Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, Mr. Reynolds, and this is my colleague in the Congress."

"Does your colleague have a name?"

"I am Senator James Monroe of Virginia. Are you one of the Richmond Reynoldses?"

"No, I am a New Yorker."

"I was misinformed. Are you the man who claims to have a person in high office in his power?"

Reynolds showed them a sly smile. "Thanks to my associate in high office, who sometimes writes me the most abusive letters, I am getting out of this place tomorrow morning. Under this gentleman's influence, Comptroller Wolcott had no choice but to find a way to drop my prosecution. It would have embarrassed his superior."

"We are interested in examining those letters," said Muhlenberg.

"All in good time, perhaps. I will do nothing to prevent my discharge."

The Speaker pressed: "Will you meet us tomorrow morning as soon as you are released?"

"I'd be delighted." The prisoner added darkly, "And I'll have much to tell you about a prosecution that was commenced to keep me low, and oppress me, and ultimately to drive me away from this city. But not yet."

"Tomorrow, then," said Muhlenberg, to pin down an elusive witness. "We come to your home at three."

"Done."


Monroe, less trusting than the Speaker, suspected they had seen the last of James Reynolds. The chicken was likely to fly the coop as soon as the lid was lifted. If Hamilton had taken the chance to get Reynolds out of jail, the brilliant Secretary would not hesitate to get him out of the country before he could tell his tale.

Seated at a desk in the failing light of the warden's office, with the stout Speaker looking over his shoulder, Monroe wrote the first draft of a letter to President Washington reporting in detail the interviews just held with Clingman and Reynolds. He thought it important to get the testimony about Hamilton's perfidy down on paper while it was fresh in his mind. He intended to amend the letter the next day and make a copy to show to Secretary of State Jefferson, in utmost confidence, of course.

An hour later, with the troubled Muhlenberg in tow -- Monroe assumed that the poor fellow must be worrying about how a corruption scandal in the Treasury would dismay his fellow Federalists -- he directed the carriage driver to an address on South Fourth Street.

Monroe sat forward, most of his weight on his feet to absorb the bumps and ruts in the road. He found the port city of Philadelphia close and oppressive; it teemed with 55,000 Pennsylvanians, ten times the population of his native Richmond. In winter, one usually froze; in summer, at night one's ears were assaulted by the incessant croaking of frogs in the nearby swamps. He was glad to have voted to remove the national capital, eight years hence, to a place at the mouth of the Potomac River.

Curiously, that compromise on location was Hamilton's doing. In return for the South's willingness to let the national government take over all State debts, the Northern Federalists agreed to situate the capital near Virginia. Hamilton won his long-sought centralization of financial power, the basis for national empire; Jefferson won the presence of a new national capital near his home and far from the urban influences of Boston, New York and Philadelphia. Monroe knew that Jefferson and Madison thought the compromise would serve the anti-Federalists well in the long run, but the Virginia Senator was not so sure; Hamilton was dangerous because he understood the use of government power better than most and seemed to enjoy its exercise more than anyone. Like his New York rival Aaron Burr, he was fourteen years younger than Jefferson and would be around a long time.

Copyright William Safire February 2000. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the publisher, Simon & Schuster