As the first secretary of the U. Treasury, Alexander Hamilton built the foundations of the national banking system and wielded more power in the earliest years of American democracy than any other man beside George Washington.
Yet unlike Washington, and unlike his longtime nemesis Thomas Jefferson , Hamilton never served as U. The year-old blonde presented herself as a damsel in distress, telling the treasury secretary that her abusive husband, James Reynolds, had left her and their young daughter to run off with another woman. Maria said she was destitute, and asked for money to help her get to friends in New York. At the time, Hamilton was at the height of his influence as treasury secretary, and could be considered the second most powerful man in the United States.
And yet that night, Hamilton took a note bill to the rooming house where Maria Reynolds was staying. Hamilton paid the full amount in two installments by January , but Reynolds stayed in Philadelphia despite his promise to leave town. He even encouraged Hamilton to resume the affair with his wife, who claimed to be devoted to her powerful lover.
In November, James Reynolds and an associate, Jacob Clingman, were arrested and imprisoned for their involvement in a scheme to defraud the government by posing as the executors of deceased Revolutionary War veterans to get their back pay. While out on bail, Clingman approached his former employer Frederick Muhlenberg, a congressman from Pennsylvania, and claimed that Reynolds had been involved in illegal speculation with none other than Alexander Hamilton.
To their surprise and embarrassment, Hamilton came clean about his extramarital affair, even sharing the letters he received from both Mr. Monroe, Muhlenberg and Venable left convinced that Hamilton was innocent of all except adultery, and supposedly promised not to say anything more to anyone. But unbeknownst to Hamilton, Monroe sent copies of the documents Hamilton had shown them to Jefferson, while John Beckley, then the clerk for the House of Representatives, also kept a copy.
