Founding fathers may never have contemplated same-sex marriage, but SMU history professor says gay relationships were important in early America

Alexander Hamilton fought alongside George Washington during the Revolutionary War and became the nation’s first secretary of the treasury. Hamilton also wrote some passionate love letters to other men. Hamilton was married to a woman, but as he said in one of the letters: “I have still a part for the public and another for you; so your impatience to have me married is misplaced; a strange cure by the way, as if after matrimony I was to be less devoted than I am now.” - MARK STOKES

Using the modern day theory that one in 10 people is lesbian or gay, it only makes sense that at least three and probably four of the 39 founding fathers who signed the Constitution had same-sex leanings.

But there is very little historical evidence to support this point since sexuality was not a common topic of discussion in Colonial America — that is, except for when it comes to Alexander Hamilton.

“The reason we know is because he had a series of intense friendships where he wrote these really passionate love letters to other men,” Southern Methodist University history professor David Doyle said.

Doyle teaches early American history and a class called “Sex in America,” both of which discuss Hamilton.

Hamilton, the first secretary of the treasury, fought alongside George Washington in the Revolutionary War. That’s where he met his most famous love interest, John Laurens.

During the war, in April 1779, Laurens left Hamilton’s side to head for South Carolina to organize more troops. Shortly thereafter, Hamilton wrote to him: “I wish, my Dear Laurens, it m[ight] be in my power, by action rather than words, [to] convince you that I love you. I shall only tell you that till you bade us Adieu, I hardly knew that value you had taught my heart to set upon you.”

While Hamilton’s 1959 biographer, John C. Miller, argues that the letter means nothing, because most refined men of the time spoke like this to each other, the majority of historical scholars are sold on Hamilton’s attraction to other men because of a June 30, 1780 letter to Laurens. In it Hamilton clearly goes beyond the type of dialogue that Miller cites.

“We all love you sincerely; but I have more of the infirmities of human nature than the others,” Hamilton wrote.

Miller also argues that Hamilton couldn’t have been gay because he was married. But Doyle has another theory.

“He was very ambitious politically, so he married this well-connected woman in New York State,” he said. “He apparently cared for his wife, but she was clearly a political alliance.”

David Doyle argues that although sodomy was punishable by death in Colonial times, most of the people executed had committed what we would think of as a crime rather than consensual sex.

Hamilton even wrote to Laurens about his marriage: “I have still a part for the public and another for you; so your impatience to have me married is misplaced; a strange cure by the way, as if after matrimony I was to be less devoted than I am now.”

Doyle says these dual relationships were common in the time period, and might even shed light on what the founding fathers would say about today’s gay marriage debate.

“Same-sex friendships were important, some more important that others. They were acknowledged by everyone and sort of put alongside marriage,” Doyle said. “It would not have occurred to them to link them because marriage was about procreation, so you wouldn’t have found anyone advocating marriage.”

Indeed, despite the fact that sodomy was punishable by death in the colonies, there is ample evidence that communities in the era did recognize that some men had sexual relationships with other men.

Take, for example, Nicholas Sensions of Windsor, Conn. He was open about his desire for men for more than 30 years while being married. It wasn’t until 1677 when he tried to rape a neighbor’s son that he was accused of sodomy.

At his trial, male friends and employees of Sension testified frankly that for years he had made sexual advances at them.

“I went out upon the bank to dry myself [after swimming], and the said Sension came to me with his yard or member erected in his hands, and desired me to lie on my belly, and strove with me, but I went away from him,” one neighbor testified.

“What we know of homosexuality was around and everyone knew about it,” Doyle said. “It wasn’t an atmosphere of intolerance. Instead, my readings of most of these laws, as near as we can tell, is that most of the people executed have committed what we would think of as a crime rather than consensual sex.”

Historians say that it wasn’t until the mid-19th century when the gay identity as we know it first developed. With industrialization American cities started getting larger and more and more gay men gathered together, giving them a chance to build a subculture.

But Doyle says just because historical figures didn’t identify as gay or lesbian, doesn’t mean they were not there.

“LGBT people should see if they look at our history that people like them have always been in America and have played important roles,” he said. “There are times when it appears there have not been these people, but if you look with an open mind, you can find lesbian and gay people influencing and changing the country since the very beginning.”