Mr. Braxton leaned forward and lowered his voice slightly.
“You have spent most of your life in and around Big Loft and don't get into these little countryside affairs,” he said, “but surely you know that anyone interested in maintaining the proper order of things has to watch the Hamiltons of Tinyville and those around them.”
“You mean Captain Hamilton?” she said.
“And his father, Councilman Isaiah Hamilton,” he said. “The Hamiltons have the best of all worlds in terms of ability in moving things and people, but they have an abominable record on moving things in a proper direction. They are an immensely capable family, of course, out of Alexander Hamilton's own line, and they have routinely added strong common stock to the line in addition to other Founder lines. Captain Hamilton has a Lee grandmother on his mother's side – even better.
“But they have a weakness – the modern Hamiltons have such a feeling for people that they don't discriminate as they should and keep in mind the goal that your ancestral uncle James Madison had always at the front of his mind, and wrote out so well in the 10th of the Federalist Papers: the little people, beneath our level, are never to be allowed to come together and feel their united power. We must keep them in factions.
Mrs. Slocum-Lofton sipped her apple cider again before speaking.
“So, the fault of the Hamiltons is that they love people too much – they have too much feeling for other people's common humanity.”
“Exactly. They are a threat to every proper institution people like us have built to maintain our superiority. Of all the failings for a proper American White man, having a love for people as people – not objects, not chattel to be used by their betters – is the worst. The acquisition of the entire thing from sea to shining sea would not have even been possible had you put Isaiah or Ironwood Hamilton in charge of things! You couldn't count on them to eradicate the Native or get the proper work out of the Africans or Chinese only allowed here for that purpose!”
“Either one of those men,” she answered, “would probably take your assessment on their demurring on slavery and genocide as a compliment, if I understand what you are saying.”
“I know – have you ever heard of people so daft in all your life, in light of what it also took to make this country great? Just a waste of White manhood, I tell you!”
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