. . . Oh Mama, you do not know how very very much I want to see you all. We have been here six long weeks, indeed I feel as if I had been here more than six months, indeed you do not know how very slow time passes up here a week up here semes as long as a month use to at home . . . sometimes I get to thinking about you all and I feel as if I would go crazy but as it cannot be helped I sopose I must make the best of it . . .
The plaintive note sounded in this letter, as well as the creative spelling and punctuation, are perhaps explained by Hamilton’s age (he was only 11). He did, however, persevere, and “make the best” of his Georgetown experience, graduating from the College in 1872 and from the Law Department in 1874. He later served as Law School Dean from 1900 to 1903 and again from 1914-1943.