1st of March, 1777, Hamilton was appointed to a place on
Washington's staff, becoming one of his aides, with the rank of
lieutenant-colonel,--his "principal and most confidential aide," to use
Washington's language. It was not without much hesitation that Hamilton
accepted this post. He had already made a name, and his promotion in the
line of the army was secured; and had he remained to take that
promotion, he would have won the highest distinction, supposing him to
have escaped the casualties of war. His military genius was
unquestioned; and what Washington required of him was service that would
not secure promotion or opportunity to show that he deserved it. He
required the mind and the pen of Hamilton. These he obtained; and the
amount of labor performed by the youthful aide-de-camp with his pen was
enormous. He was something more than an aide and a private secretary. He
was the commander's trusted friend, and he proved that he deserved the
trust reposed in him, not less by his high-minded conduct than by the
talent which he brought to the discharge of the duties of a most
difficult post,--duties which were of an arduous and highly responsible
character. The limits of a sketch like the present do not admit of more
than the general mention of his great services. Those who would know
them in full should consult the work in which Mr. John C. Hamilton has
done justice to the part which his father had, first in the
Revolutionary contest, and then in the creation of the American
Republic, and the settlement of its policy.[G] There was no event with
which Washington was concerned for more than four years with which
Hamilton was not also concerned. The range of his business and his
labors was equal to his talents, and it is not possible to say more of
them. He was but twenty years old when Washington thus really placed him
next to himself in the work of conducting the American cause. In what
estimation his services were held by the commander-in-chief may be
inferred from the fact that he was selected by him, in 1780, being then
in his twenty-fourth year, as a special minister to France, to induce
the French Government to grant more aid to this country. Hamilton did
not take the office, because it was desired by his friend, Colonel
Laurens, whose father was then a prisoner in England.

Colonel Hamilton was married on the 14th of December, 1780, to Miss
Elizabeth Schuyler, second daughter of General Philip Schuyler, one of
t