Fans of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton are familiar with Alexander Hamilton's many achievements. He was a Revolutionary War hero and signer of the Constitution who set up the nation's financial system. Even his political enemies (and he had a lot of them) acknowledged his brilliance.

Unfortunately, genius couldn't protect him from poor judgement when he had an extramarital affair with a woman named Maria Reynolds. When her husband discovered the affair, he demanded payments in exchange for secrecy. Hamilton continued both the payments and the affair for almost a year. A few years later, the muckraker James Thomson Callender exposed the payments to James Reynolds in a pamphlet that accused Hamilton of financial misconduct and speculation.

In order to clear his name of fiscal wrongdoing, Hamilton wrote his own pamphlet in response. His "Observations on Certain Documents Contained in No. V and VI of 'The History of the United States for the Year 1796' in which the Charge of Speculation Against Alexander Hamilton, Late Secretary of the Treasury, is Fully Refuted. Written By Himself” is more commonly known as "The Reynolds Pamphlet." The lengthy pamphlet, which included letters from James and Maria Reynolds, turned out to be a monumental political miscalculation. Controversy over the documents almost resulted in a duel between Hamilton and future President of the United States James Monroe, while Hamilton’s other enemies gleefully seized on his detailed confession of adultery as a weapon to use against him in the press.