“That is most certainly true. Can I then conclude you think this is something that could be effected?”
“I think it can. It only lacks a man with both means and ambition enough.”
“It requires something else, of course. It requires capital, and only a handful of men in the country have enough to attempt such a thing. And, if I understand how things stand, there is only one man with the means who might be willing to try.”
“I will speak to Duer,” he said.
Understanding full well the value of a coup de théâtre, I said, “Then you must not mention my name. I do not go to him directly because I fear he will not take me seriously, but if you tell him the idea is from me, he may wonder why I did not trust him. It must be our secret.”
“But what do you gain if I take the credit for your idea?”
“I gain the satisfaction of feeling clever.”
Several days later, Mr. Duer and I sat in the City Tavern and he told me of what he understood to be Pearson’s scheme. His voice was strangely flat, and I wondered if I had somehow wandered into a trap. Did he know I had been deceiving him? Yet I could not back away now. I listened as he described my Million Bank scheme back to me in all its blunt, insane glory.
“Do you think it possible?” he asked me.
I pretended to give the matter a great deal of consideration. “I do think so, yes.”
He rubbed his hands together. “The trick will be how to shift Pearson away from attempting to order me about. It is a brilliant idea, but he would not know how to go about it. It is only by the strangest of flukes that he would even think of it before I did.”
“You need not worry,” I said. “Pearson likes to present himself as brilliant, but he is all bluster, and he knows it. You will make him do as you wish by letting him tell you that he is doing as he wishes, even while he follows you about as though led by the nose. You need only tend to his pride, and he will give you all you need.”
Duer smiled at me. “You are an astute observer of human nature. I should very much hate for you to be my enemy.”
I sipped my tea and said nothing. Over Duer’s shoulder, the scarred Mr. Reynolds smirked at me, and I could not help but wonder if he had been working on Duer, convincing him to doubt me. It was only a matter of time, of course, until Reynolds or circumstances proved to Duer that he’d been foolish to be so open with me, but I was almost certain that the time was not yet here.
Joan Maycott
December 1791
It was when the scheme to take charge of the Million Bank was under way that we first became aware of Ethan Saunders, who was to become so significant an actor in the events that followed. Since I had formed my friendship with Duer, he and his followers had redoubled efforts to gain a controlling interest of six percent issues. There were now two fairly significant irons in the fire, and when we met one evening at Pearson’s house to talk of these things, it was I who raised the question for the first time.
“At some point,” I said, “these activities are going to attract Hamilton ’s attention, are they not?”
“Oh, that is nothing,” said Duer. “I can tend to Hammy. All he requires is a kind word, and he shall be satisfied. To know him is to understand he is more dog than man.”
Duer and I had more than once discussed Pearson’s need to exaggerate his own importance, but Duer was frequently guilty of the same sin. When Hamilton ’s name came up, he would pretend to a closeness and influence for which I had never seen evidence. This above all concerned me, for if Hamilton were to discover Duer’s activities too early, Duer would indeed be ruined but Hamilton would walk away-perhaps not unscathed but relatively intact.
“I think she’s right,” said Pearson, scenting Duer’s blood. He was now significantly in debt because of his involvement in Duer’s schemes, and he had borrowed recklessly from the Bank of the United States, in order to continue losing money and to have enough to invest personally in the Million Bank launch. There were rumors about town that he had even begun to sell off some of his real estate holdings, and if that was the case he was more precariously poised than I had realized or intended. If he fell from the precipice now, I had no notion of how I would save his wife and children, other than to give them money of my own.
“Mrs. Maycott is always sensible,” said Duer, “but that does not make her right.”
“ Hamilton has invested everything-his heart, his soul, his reputation, his career-into the Bank of the United States and the American financial system,” I said. “I cannot believe he will ignore suspicious activity simply because you are behind it, William.” I did not say what we were all thinking, yet the world knew: During the crisis that followed the bank’s launch, Hamilton had ignored Duer’s advice against stabilizing the market and had achieved calm at the expense of Duer’s profits.
“Well, what can he do?” asked Duer. “He can request that we stop, but he has no power to direct us.”
“If he knows too precisely what we plan, he can thwart us,” I said.
“And how would he learn what we plan?” Duer asked.
It was Pearson who spoke the name, saying it as if it were something vile, a bitter pill that, lodged under the tongue, blossoms foully in the mouth: “Ethan Saunders.”
“Who is that?” I asked. At that point, I’d not before heard the name.
“What?” said Duer. “Ethan Saunders from the war? Was he not cashiered from the army as a traitor?”
“He left under a cloud, yes,” said Pearson, “but Hamilton chose never to bring forth official treason charges. He was guilty, and everyone knew it, but no one could be troubled with it. The war was nearing its close, but he was Washington and Hamilton ’s pet, and I cannot imagine Hamilton will not use him now. I have seen him about town of late. He’s become a drunk and a womanizer-the sort of man you cannot look on without wanting to destroy.”
“Then it seems unlikely that Hamilton would engage his services,” I observed.
He looked at me a long moment, and I must admit it made me extraordinarily uncomfortable. “Must you always contradict me?” Pearson asked.
“These things concern me,” I said, attempting to keep my voice calm. “We do not discuss what we had for supper last week but what must be done next. I do not contradict, Mr. Pearson. I participate.”
“Yes, yes, you are a clever woman and all that,” he said. “But you must remember that I am a man, and that makes me cleverer. You are, at best, a parlor trick.”
Duer rose to his feet and looked to me like a little boy who needed to relieve himself but knew not where to do it. “I do not wish to involve myself in what must be a private dispute. You will excuse me for a moment.”
Seeing me abused, Duer wished to absent himself and so be rid of the discomfort.
I forced a pleasing smile at Pearson. My face was bright and full of nothing but admiration and congeniality. “We have no disagreement,” I said. “Mr. Duer may sit back down, and you, sir, may continue. We are all friends here.”
Duer looked not at me but at Pearson and, seeing something he liked, or at least found agreeable, he returned to his seat.
“With your leave,” Pearson said to me.
“Of course,” I answered easily.
And with that he continued as though there had been no disruption. “Saunders is not what he was, but Hamilton will bring him in, because he is here and because he was said to have been the cleverest spy of his day. I’m sure he wasn’t, but that is what they said of him. Besides, he owes Hamilton a debt for not bringing him up on charges. Hamilton would have to be a fool not to use a man who must regard him as the greatest of benefactors.”