To Alexander Hamilton from Edward Jones, 14 February 1795
From Edward Jones1
[Philadelphia] February 14th. 1795.
Dear Sir,
Mr. Wolcott2 has requested me to ask you whether you have not in your possession a Report of the Auditor on the subject of certain Accounts, which was intended for the House of Representatives?3
It is with regret, that I am obliged to trespass so often on your patience, by asking you for a Certificate relative to my services. If I were to remain in my present situation such a thing altho~ flattering would not be of so much importance but, as I have long contemplated the emigrating to the newly settled parts of Pennsylvania or New-York, it is easy to forsee, that a Testimony of the kind requested by me, maybe of signal service in my efforts to provide for a numerous & destitute family. Accept my best wishes & believe me to be
Dear sir Your Most Obedt. Servt.
Edward Jones
Colonel Hamilton
ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. Jones was a clerk in the Treasury Department.
2. Oliver Wolcott, Jr., succeeded H as Secretary of the Treasury. See George Washington to H, February 2, 1795, note 1.
3. Richard Harrison’s report of January 19, 1795, was part of a report dated December 23, 1795, which Wolcott presented to the House of Representatives on December 24, 1795 (, Claims, 172–82). Harrison’s report reads in part: “I certify that, pursuant to an act of Congress, passed on the 12th day of February, 1793, entitled ‘An act relative to claims against the United States not barred by any act of limitation, and which have not been already adjusted,’ there have been received and registered at this office one hundred and twenty-four claims, presented by the persons named in the accompanying abstract; which claims, being distributed into fourteen classes, I have examined, and am of opinion that the same are inadmissible at the Treasury, for the reasons hereafter assigned in treating of each particular class” (, Claims, 175). The House ordered Wolcott’s report to be referred to the Committee of Claims (, II, 388).
For the provisions of “An Act relative to claims against the United States, not barred by any act of limitation, and which have not been already adjusted,” see 301–02 (February 12, 1793). For the acts of limitation, see “Report on the Petition of Stephen Porter,” February 12, 1794, note 4.