ton no one possessed a livelier interest in maintaining the honor of his departed chief than William A. Coleman, the editor of The New York Evening Post, and few were more able than he to defend a contested question, in which General Hamilton, his party, or his principles were involved. The letter of "Corrector" immediately arrested his attention; and within a week after its publication in Washington it was copied at length into The Evening Post, with the following elaborate "Answer":—
"I feel it to be a duty I owe the revered memory of the great and good man who honored me during seven years, with his friendship, to arrest at once, the circulation of the above erroneous paragraph. Originating in the National Intelligencer, it might reasonably be considered as having received the sanction of Mr. Madison himself, and the confident tone in which it is expressed, might strengthen that idea, but, besides that, his character forbids such a suspicion, there is an inaccuracy of expression which never could have escaped him, or any piece revised by him. The writer is very much hurt that the biographer of Hamilton should have thought the numbers written by him, superior to the others; and calls it 'a misstatement of facts.' Now, however erroneous such an opinion may be, it certainly can be considered as no more than a deficiency in taste, but assuredly, correctness of language will never permit it to be called 'a misstatement of facts.' To repel any unjust suspicions, however, from being entertained in a certain quarter, I deem it proper, in justice to the noble minded Hamilton, to relate a fact, in reference to this part of the subject, which came within my own personal knowledge.
