This slim book, which or may not have been intended for publication, is quite modest and circumspect. He does not speak much of personal matters (alluding obliquely to his wife’s death) but much of legislative comings and goings and you would barely know he was key figure in American history if this was all you had.

A surprising volume of the Autobiography is dedicated to the back and forth of government ministers, popular leaders, and nobles during the early stages of the French Revolution. While now it is common to give Mari Antoinette the benefit of the doubt, he explicitly blames the Queen and says there would have been no violent revolution if not for her vicious counsel.

He ends upon his appointment as Secretary of State. If there is some finger pointing and political score settling, it might be within asides about monarchial tendencies among some individuals who might be Hamilton or Adams (I suspect Adams).