Quotes from Ron Chernow

When Grant read this, he was outraged at the shocking suggestion that he had subverted justice. He handed the letter to Bristow with a passionate admonition scrawled across it: "Let no guilty man escape if it can be avoided—Be specially vigilant—or instruct those engaged in the prosecutions of fraud to be—against all who insinuate that they have high influence . . . to protect them.

Jefferson inwardly reviled Hamilton as a traitor to republican government. "What a fatal stroke at the cause of liberty; et tu Brute," he wrote in his diary.

The self-control was something achieved, not inherited, and often masked combustible emotions that could explode in fury.

What a world of scarred emotion and secret grief Alexander Hamilton bore with him on the boat to Boston. He took his unhappy boyhood, tucked it away in a mental closet, and never opened the door again.

a striking example of political gaucheness, Adams then nominated Washington to command the new army before he had a chance to register an opinion. On July 3, the Senate hastily approved the choice.

Segundo consta, foi Putnam que teria dado a seguinte instrução a seus homens, em Bunker Hill: "Não atirem antes de verem o branco dos olhos deles. E aí atirem baixo.

As with personal accounts, it never wanted to appear too eager for business.

and awaited instructions.

In this early period, Rockefeller was a chronic worrier who labored under a great deal of self-imposed stress.

With a country boy's love of open spaces, he hated anything confined or cluttered

William's imprudent decision figured importantly in the enormous disparity in wealth that developed between the two brothers.

Politely firing the man, he took charge of financial matters and pored over stacks of incomprehensible bills.

John had always confided in her about business and in 1893 was still sending her detailed reports about Mesabi ore.

In mid-February 1804, Hamilton journeyed to Albany and pleaded for a new trial before the state supreme court.

the incident confirmed his innate pessimism.

I can see him now, going over the long French bills, studying each item, many of them being unintelligible to him.

In the House, James Madison helped to compress dozens of changes to the Constitution recommended by the state conventions into twelve amendments; the first ten, when ratified by the states, would be known as the Bill of Rights.

The Rockefellers were more interested in exercise, which stressed health, than in sports, which stressed pleasure.

Fearing a biased local jury, Rockefeller retained a Minnesota newspaperman to counteract local hostility toward him and even stepped up his Baptist-missionary donations in the state.

As part of this studious approach, he recorded all his golf scores in thick little books, with names, dates, and places included.

It is hard to avoid the impression that he was deliberately tiptoeing around unpleasant subjects out of respect for her delicate medical state.

Before McHenry returned to Philadelphia, Washington slipped him a sheet naming the three men he wished to see as his major generals, listed in order: Alexander Hamilton, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and Henry Knox. Writing to Adams, Washington made the appointment of his general officers a precondition for accepting the commanding post.

In retrospect, it was clear that he had found his calling as a fearless, swashbuckling intellectual warrior who excelled in bare-knuckled controversy.

Undeterred by these extreme gyrations, both Rockefeller and Andrews wanted to borrow heavily and expand, while Clark favored a more circumspect approach.