Chapter 8 - the legacy and conspiracy

From that day on, the Miss America project was never spoken of again by the five men involved. Hamilton, Knox, Jefferson, and Randolph all felt a great deal of shame in what they had inadvertently done to those poor women; a shame each man would take to their graves in the coming decades.

To this day, no one knows what happened to Betsy and Eliza after Washington shut things down that day. A lot of people think that the entire thing is pure fiction. Yet rumors of the project lingered around in American folklore long after all those supposedly involved were dead. It became a mystery as to whether any of it actually happened and has had people searching for clues ever since, much like they do with the crash in Roswell, Area 51, and the faking of the moon landing.

Evidence has been hard to find, with each man denying any involvement in such a project while alive. But clues indicating the project's existence have been the focus of many critically-acclaimed books and documentaries.

A correspondence letter between a man referred to as A. Banker and a New Jersey undertaker discussing funeral arrangements in which a casket of "extraordinary scale" would need to be fashioned was discovered in the archive files of the Princeton Funeral Parlor in 1873. It is unclear who the arrangements were made by or for, but eyewitness accounts place Hamilton in Princeton three days after the date on the letter, leading many to believe that A. Banker was an alias used by Hamilton and that the extra large coffin was designed for an obese Betsy Carmichael, who must have died not long after the competition.

A journal entry by James Madison describing a series of strange moaning sounds coming from behind a locked door in Monticello while seeing servants walk in with platters full of food can be found among a collection of his personal works in the Library of Congress. When he asked Jefferson about it, he said it was nothing of importance and quickly changed the subject. Madison's account led many Miss America Truthers to believe that Jefferson kept Eliza at Monticello and kept fattening her up to be his overweight sex slave, continuing until he was elected president and possibly longer than that, since Madison's entry was made on March 18th, 1805.

An essay by Adams was originally supposed to be published in 1796, containing every detail Hamilton and Knox had told him in an effort to discredit Jefferson in the eyes of the public as the two competed for the presidency. However, after a conversation with his wife, Adams decided to hold onto his integrity and not to go forward with the publication; the document eventually being lost to time. Adams' son Charles claimed to be in possession of it and was willing to sell it for an exuberant price to the press as national interest for the story began to grow, but his claims were deemed as a meager attempt to get money to feed his drinking habit.

A copy of Knox's autobiography including his detailed account on the Miss America Project is said to be locked away in Fort Knox in Kentucky, never to be seen by the public; written only for posterity's sake.

A dialogue between Randolph and French Minister Joseph Fauchet had led to the story spreading into Europe as Randolph openly spoke with him about classified information from within Washington's cabinet. When his chattiness became known Washington after the British Navy intercepted some of his messages, Randolph resigned from the president's cabinet after losing Washington's trust.

A sketch of a busty woman with the words Madame Freedom written above her head was discovered among a collection of Ben Franklin's notes, but while historians have confirmed that Franklin may have been interested in using a beautiful girl as a national symbol, they cannot say if his idea ever made it to Washington or if Washington ever acted on it.

The main source of information on this topic, however, comes from the writings of a farmer who had been told the story by Aaron Burr while setting up camp in the Louisiana Territory. Burr told his men the entire story, just as I have told it to you, learning additional details about the fattening of Eliza while working as Jefferson's Vice President. Shortly after Jefferson got word of the Burr's fireside tales, he issued a warrant for Burr's arrest on the charge of conspiracy to commit treason. Most believe the timing was not a coincidence.

The legend of Miss America had grown so great over the years that an Atlantic City beauty contest decided to adopt the name in 1921, giving birth to the annual Miss American Pageant that we all know today.

While what actually happened back then remains shrouded in mystery, we can still enjoy the legend as we know it. Perhaps we'll learn the whole truth one day, but until then, at least we have our imaginations to fill in the gaps. Some say the story is too far fetched to possibly be true, but with all the crazy conspiracy-type things that have happened in our history, it's hard to give it a second glance.