On July 4, 1789 the New York Society of Cincinnati met at a well-known tavern in New York City. Among those in attendance were Martha Washington, John and Abigail Adams and various members of Congress.
(We are told that the President was “indisposed.”)
They would leave the tavern and walk to St. Paul’s church to listen to Alexander Hamilton’s eulogy In honor of his friend and patriot, General Nathanael Greene.
The eulogy is eloquent and quite long and can be read in its totality on the web, but here is just one portion that so describes Nathanael Greene’s life.
“War and revolution bring to the fore men and women who otherwise might have languished in obscurity or only shot forth a few scattered and wandering rays. Such a man was Nathanael Greene, called upon to act a part on a more splendid and ample theater. Plucked from a provincial neighborhood, he rose to high fame in his time and rests now in the pantheon of heroes of the Revolution and a Founder of the new nation.”
General Nathanael Greene died at age 43 on June 11, 1789 of heat stroke at Mulberry Plantation, gifted to him by a grateful state and nation.
Alexander Hamilton would die at age 47, July 11, 1804 from a fatal shot to the stomach during a duel with Aaron Burr.
