One of the first widely reported political sex scandals in America involved Hamilton

The young Philadelphian Maria Reynolds claimed she needed money because her husband had abandoned her with a young daughter to raise when she met the married Hamilton in 1791. Hamilton, who was ready to comply despite being an orphan himself, found their financial arrangement to be more complicated when they began an affair that would last just over a year. Maria Reynolds, though, wasn't a desperate housewife. She and her husband, James, had meticulously planned the affair to coerce Secretary Hamilton, who gladly handed over the money, into paying even more.

James Reynolds revealed to the investigators—a team that included James Monroe and Frederick Muhlenberg—that Hamilton had been using government monies as hush money after he was named in another financial scam. When asked about this, Hamilton acknowledged having an affair but said that he had spent all of his money to hide it. He even provided Monroe with his love letters from Maria Reynolds as evidence. Monroe and Muhlenberg decided not to reveal Hamilton's identity after being assured that this was a private affair. However, Monroe delivered the letters to Thomas Jefferson, a personal friend and one of Hamilton's most ferocious political rivals. James Callender, a publisher who was already well-known for being the top purveyor of political rumors in the 19th century, received them from Jefferson.

After Callender published the Reynolds-Hamilton letters in his periodical in 1797, the scandal erupted. Hamilton went on the attack, more worried about how the accusations of misusing public monies would harm him politically than how the revelation would damage his family. In his lengthy pamphlet, which was published, he acknowledged the extramarital affair. Although Hamilton's integrity was praised in public, his political career was essentially wrecked.