Even Founding Fathers got scammed

July 4, 11:14 AMScam ExaminerKarin Malchow

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Hamilton portrait by John Trumball, 1792

Alexander Hamilton: Founding Father, Washington's aide-de-camp during the Revolutionary War, first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, co-author of Federalist Papers, con artist victim.

In 1792, James Reynolds was arrested for fraudulently submitting pay claims for a dead Revolutionary War soldier, who happened to be alive. His cohort Jacob Clingman offered that Reynolds had received money from Alexander Hamilton and could implicate the Treasury Secretary in improper use of public funds; information given to Hamilton's political enemies.

When confronted, Hamilton promptly confessed, but not to financial shenanigans. He admitted he had been conned and blackmailed by Reynolds and his wife in one of our country's first sex scandals.

Mrs. Reynolds reportedly initiated an affair with Hamilton under the guise of an abused and abandoned woman needing financial help. Except she was still with her husband, who later requested $1,000 compensation for his wounded dignity. Hamilton paid. Reynolds then encouraged the affair to continue, suggesting his wife was difficult to live with when deprived of Hamilton. According to his confession, Hamilton continued the affair, advancing the willingly cuckolded husband "loans".

To defend himself against charges of betraying the public trust, Hamilton luridly described all the affair's details to accusing congressman, later even publishing a pamphlet. Mrs. Reynolds averred the affair story was concocted to cover up Hamilton's corruption. She eventually divorced Reynolds (using lawyer Aaron Burr) and married her ex-husband's partner in crime, Clingman, the man who originally exposed the whole mess.