# Hamilton-Reynolds Affair **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 26, 2019, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamilton-reynolds-affair/840832 "2019-09-26T00:21:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamilton-reynolds-affair/840832/1 "2019-09-26T00:21:57Z")
I’m putting this here because it was the musical Hamilton that made me think how little sense the affair made. I mean in the sense of why you would do it and if it even happened. So let me walk you through this: The musical says he was tired and he hadn’t slept and he was seduced. And then they carried on an affair. (I’m now relating how it really happened, in case you see little discrepancies between IRL and Hamilton) So you meet this woman and she says she needs money and her husband beats her. Hamilton doesn’t have the money on him so he gets the money and brings it to her. And there she seduces him. HORSESHIT. That has ‘trap’ written all over it. He either went there thinking, 'Damn, she’s fine. I’m gonna hit that." Or at the very least saw she was responsive to his charms. Fine. You had a one night stand. No one needs to know. Wait what??? You’re going to have an extended affair with her??? And continue to do so after her husband blackmails you??? This makes zero sense given his place, job and happy marriage. (yes i know people do stupid affair shit all the time) Then…I just read, the whole thing may have been a [cover up for a financial scandal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton%E2%80%93Reynolds_affair) (see the middle part of the page) I was especially taken with > [@](#): > > The newspaper writers also pointed out that Maria’s letters correctly spell long, complex words and yet sometimes misspelled simple words in a way that makes no phonetic sense; as Thomas Jefferson biographer Julian P. Boyd stated, the letters could resemble what an educated man believed an uneducated woman’s love letters to look like. Anyway, I was interested to see that my “This makes no sense theory” was already taken long ago. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamilton-reynolds-affair/840832/2 "2019-09-26T00:32:48Z")
if he wasn’t covering something else up with it then it seems to me that the couple was running a long-form badger game once the first instance happened they decided to profit from it… if that wasn’t the intention from the beginning ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamilton-reynolds-affair/840832/3 "2019-09-26T00:37:13Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > seems to me that the couple was running a long-form badger game > > once the first instance happened they decided to profit from it… if that wasn’t the intention from the beginning If the affair happened, then yes, that was almost certainly the case. I grant Occams Razor probably points at the affair happening. I was just taken with how my gut feeling of ‘this makes little sense’ squared with Tilar Mazzeos book theorizing with “Maybe it didn’t happen at all.” ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamilton-reynolds-affair/840832/4 "2019-09-26T00:59:27Z")
From the Hamilton biography, the affair definitely happened, but Hamilton was not quite as innocent as shown in the play. Remember, Martha Washington named a feral tomcat Hamilton. The real problem was that Hamilton botched things when it was exposed, which was also far more complicated than shown in the play. Don’t derive history from the musical, read the biography. Much as I love the musical. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamilton-reynolds-affair/840832/5 "2019-09-26T01:09:44Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > From the Hamilton biography, the affair definitely happened, but Hamilton was not quite as innocent as shown in the play. Remember, Martha Washington named a feral tomcat Hamilton. The real problem was that Hamilton botched things when it was exposed, which was also far more complicated than shown in the play. > Don’t derive history from the musical, read the biography. Much as I love the musical. Ironically (Its ironic because the rest of your post makes a lot of sense) [The Tomcat Thing is Probably Fake](https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/theater-dance/2016/07/07/group-upset-that-hamilton-alleges-martha-washington-named-tomcat-after-him/XSoUG3OaDUtbxxu1plxbyJ/story.html) But yeah…I need to get both books. Chernow’s and Mazzeo’s (Mazzeo’s is an Elizabeth Hamilton biography) ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamilton-reynolds-affair/840832/6 "2019-09-26T02:07:19Z")
Just wait until you hear about Joe Frank’s role in the whole mess. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamilton-reynolds-affair/840832/7 "2019-09-26T02:09:17Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Just wait until you hear about Joe Frank’s role in the whole mess. Looked that up. Thats a deep-dive joke! ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamilton-reynolds-affair/840832/8 "2019-09-26T02:47:20Z")
Beat me to it. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamilton-reynolds-affair/840832/9 "2019-09-26T12:18:24Z")
Not gonna be President now! ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamilton-reynolds-affair/840832/10 "2019-09-26T15:11:20Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > Not gonna be President now! Heh. I’m thinking that gif is making the rounds today ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamilton-reynolds-affair/840832/11 "2019-09-26T15:51:49Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Just wait until you hear about Joe Frank’s role in the whole mess. Curse you. Beat me to that one. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2019, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamilton-reynolds-affair/840832/12 "2019-09-27T00:41:17Z")
[Moderating] Since this is about the real history, not the musical, let’s move it to GQ. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hamilton-reynolds-affair/840832/13 "2019-09-30T17:48:57Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Just wait until you hear about Joe Frank’s role in the whole mess. I know nothing about you but this. I love you.