I am more and more unhappy and impatient under the hard necessity that keeps me from you, and yet the prospect lengthens as I advance. . . .

Though the period of our reunion in reality approaches it seems further off. Among other causes of uneasiness, I dread lest you should imagine, I yield too easily to the barrs that keep us asunder; but if you have such an idea you ought to banish it and reproach yourself with injustice.

A spirit entering into bliss, heaven opening upon all its faculties, cannot long more ardently for the enjoyment, than I do my darling Betsey, to taste the heaven that awaits me in your bosom. Is my language too strong? It is a feeble picture of my feelings—no words can tell you how much I love and how much I long—you will only know it when wrapt in each other’s arms we give and take those delicious caresses which love inspires and marriage sanctifies. . . .

—Letter from Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Schuyler,
October 1780