Proof of his valour at Monmouth and at Yorktown would no more placate the popular contempt and obloquy sure to follow an avoidance of its demands than would the victory at Waterloo have excused Wellington had he declined to challenge Lord Winchilsea.
Alexander draws a parallel between the societal pressures of dueling and historical military figures' reputations.
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Indeed, he went a step farther in the way of irreconciliation, preferring Hoffman and Tammany, he said, to "the reckless, red-radicalism which rules the present Congress....
Gross and unfounded charges of fraud are made by them against those high in authority.
Of imposing appearance, he looked like a man formed to rule.
If Clinton was the Hampden of the colonial period, Robert Yates could well be called its Pym.
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