31From Alexander Hamilton to Thomas FitzSimons, 4 February 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York, February 4, 1796. Hamilton endorsed a letter from FitzSimons dated December 17, 1795 : “Ansr. Feby. 4 179[6] agreeing & naming Mr. Lewis —Referees to decide as Judges in Chancellory Law & Fact.” Letter not found. ] FitzSimons, a native of Ireland, was a Philadelphia merchant. He was a Federalist member of the House of Representatives from 1789 to 1795. This is presumably a...
32To Alexander Hamilton from Robert Morris, 10 February 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
I was preparing to answer your favor of the 22d ulto when I was informed that you are to be here on the 17th of this month which I am very glad of as it will give me the Oppy of adjusting the business personally & I hope to your Satisfaction. I am most truly Yrs LC , Robert Morris Papers, Library of Congress. Letter not found. The purpose of H’s trip to Philadelphia was to argue the...
33To Alexander Hamilton from George Washington, 13 February 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
In the moment I was closing & dispatching my letters to the Post Office, I learnt from the Attorney General of the U.S. that you would be here on the 17th. My mind being continually uneasy on Acct. of Young Fayette, I cannot but wish (if this letter should reach you in time, and no reasons stronger than what have occurred against it) that you would request him, and his Tuter, to come on to...
34Draft on the Bank of the United States, [18 February 1796] (Hamilton Papers)
Cashier of The Bank of The United States Dollars 46 Pay to Mr. Bicknel or bearer Forty six Dollars ADS , Library Company of Philadelphia. Robert Bicknell, a resident of Philadelphia, was proprietor of that city’s New York and Baltimore stages. For H’s trip to Philadelphia, see Robert Morris to H, February 10, 1796, note 2 .
35To Alexander Hamilton from Angelica Church, [19 February 1796] (Hamilton Papers)
Your letters of January the 13th are received but no plan of the lot, and no description of the house. I am sensible how much I trouble I give you, but you will have the goodness to excuse it, when you know that it proceeded from a persuasion that I was asking from one who promised me his love and attention if I returned to America; If friendship is only a name, for what do I exchange ease and...
36Opinion on the Claim of Oliver Pollock, [27 February 1796] (Hamilton Papers)
At the request of Mr. Pollock I certify that I have a distinct recollection that in the course of conversations with him, respecting his pecuniary claims on the United States, he expressed the idea of his having further claims on the United States beyond those admitted and liquidated; and that I have also some recollection, but indistinct and imperfect, that when a warrant came to be issued...
37To Alexander Hamilton from Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 3 March 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Charleston, South Carolina, March 3, 1796. On June 5, 1796, Pinckney wrote to Hamilton : “I wrote to you the 3d: of last March.” Letter not found. ]
38To Alexander Hamilton from John Jay, 4 March 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
In pursuance of a concurrent Resolution of the two Houses of the Legislature of the third and fourth instant I desire You as a Counsellor at Law to defend in behalf of this State a certain Suit brought against Lewis Cornwall by or in behalf of Alexander Colden for the Recovery of a Farm sold to the said Lewis by the Commissioners of Forfeitures for the Southern District. You will herewith...
39To Alexander Hamilton from Gouverneur Morris, 4 March 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
I have just now written to the President to communicate some Intelligence lately receiv’d from Paris. This I have done in Abstract but my Correspondent has written to me as follows: “The Government here are highly displeas’d with ours. You may easily guess the Reason. It is come to a very serious State. A Fleet is to be sent to our Shore with a new minister. A definitive Answer must be given...
40From Alexander Hamilton to Robert Morris, 5 March 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York, March 5, 1796. On March 6, 1796, Morris wrote to Hamilton : “I am glad to see by your line of yesterday.” Letter not found. ]
41To Alexander Hamilton from Robert Morris, 6 March 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
I am glad to see by your line of yesterday that you had got safe home. I am at present in treaty for the Sale of some Lands of Pennsa & perhaps some of the Tracts I proposed to you may be included in the sale. If they are, others shall be Substituted & you may rely that I will not lose a day unnecessarily in preparing & transmitting the Mortgages, but instead of putting the whole into one...
42From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [7–10 March 1796] (Hamilton Papers)
Inclosed are two letters which I will thank you to hand on. I have just seen Livingston’s Motion concerning Instructions &c. My first impression is that the propriety of a compliance with the call, if made, is extremely doubtful. But much careful thought on the subject is requisite. Yrs truly PS. I hand you also a letter from Mrs. Church to Mr. Beametz —which I will thank you to send to Mr....
43Introductory Note: To George Washington, [7 March 1796] (Hamilton Papers)
This letter contains the first references in Hamilton’s extant correspondence to what proved to be a protracted dispute over the Jay Treaty in the House of Representatives. The Senate approved the Jay Treaty on June 24, 1795, and the United States ratified it on August 14, 1795. Following British ratification on October 28, 1795, the ratifications were exchanged at London on that date....
44From Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, [7 March 1796] (Hamilton Papers)
I found Young La Fayette here and delivered him your Letter which much relieved him. I fancy you will see him on the first day of April. Mr. Livingston’s motion in the House of Representatives, concerning the production of papers has attracted much attention. The opinion of those who think here is, that if the motion succeeds, it ought not to be complied with. Besides that in a matter of such...
45From Alexander Hamilton to Robert Morris, 8 March 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York, March 8, 1796. On March 12, 1796, Morris wrote to Hamilton and referred to “your letters of the 10th & 8th Inst.” Letter of March 8 not found. ]
46To Alexander Hamilton from William Greene, 9 March 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
New York, March 9, 1796. States his determination to abide by whatever opinion Hamilton “should form” in “the case of Messr. John Calogan & Sons.” Discusses his dispute with the firm of Shaw and Randall over a cargo of wine and the writ issued against him for £10,000 damages. ALS , Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress. Greene, a native of England, was a New York City merchant with an extensive...
47From Alexander Hamilton to George Clinton, 10 March 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York, March 10, 1796. Letter not found. ] Clinton, a veteran of the American Revolution, was a member of the Continental Congress from 1775 to 1776. He served as governor of New York from 1777 to 1795. MS list of letters entitled “General Hamilton to Governor George Clinton,” Columbia University Libraries.
48From Alexander Hamilton to John Jay, 10 March 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
I had the honor duely to receive Your Excellency’s letter of the 4th instant. I did not immediately answer it from an indistinct and confused recollection that a state of things existed in reference to the opposite party which did not permit my being concerned for the State. It now appears that I was not mistaken, and that I cannot with propriety execute Your Excellency’s desire. With perfect...
49From Alexander Hamilton to Robert Morris, 10 March 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York, March 10, 1796. On March 12, 1796, Morris wrote to Hamilton and referred to “your letters of the 10th and 8th Inst.” Letter of March 10 not found. ]
50From Alexander Hamilton to William Loughton Smith, [10 March 1796] (Hamilton Papers)
I observe Madison brings the power of the House of Representatives in the case of the Treaty to this Question Is the Agency of the House of Representatives on this subject deliberative or Executive? On the sophism that this Legislature and each Branch of it is essentially deliberative & consequently must have discretion will he, I presume, maintain the freedom of the House to concur or not....
51To Alexander Hamilton from Robert Morris, 12 March 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
I am concerned to perceive by your letters of the 10th & 8th Inst a degree of solicitude which I did not expect or intend to excite. You will recollect that it was a point conceded by you that even after the Mortgage I might sell & change the Security for one equally Satisfactory, and as I was in Treaty for a Sale, I thought a delay untill that Treaty finished one way or the other was not of...
52To Alexander Hamilton from Robert Morris, 14 March 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
Agreeably to my promise I enclose herewith a List of the Lands which I propose to mortgage to you as Security for the debt due to Mr Church and I think the value more than Sufficient. For some of these Lands the Patents are issued, for some they are not issued, but the Patents are only considered as Evidence of Title, because when Warrants of Survey are granted the money is paid & a return of...
53From Alexander Hamilton to Rufus King, 16 March 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
I thank you for letter of the . My opinion on the resolution when it first appeared was that the President should answer in substance as follows. (viz) “That it could not be admitted as a right of course in the House of Representatives to call for & have papers in the Executive department essentially those relating to foreign negociations which frequently embrace confidential matters. That...
54Receipt from Morgan Lewis, [18 March 1796] (Hamilton Papers)
Received New York March 18th 1796 of Alexander Hamilton [Four thousand two hundred & fifty] Dollars in full for the consideration money of a lot and part of a lot of Ground adjoining thereto situate on the Broadway and Marketfield Street in the City of New York as particularly described in a certain indenture bearing date the first day of May MDCCXCIII made between Carlisle Pollock William...
55From Alexander Hamilton to Barent Bleecker, 20 March 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
I presume you have been informed that pursuant to the power given to me by yourself and the other parties concerned, I purchased at Auction the lands in Cosbys Manor claimed by the Trustees of the Ringwood Iron Company. These lands being in the whole 6761 acres cost £2422.13.10 payable ¼ part down one other ¼ on the first Tuesday of next month (April) one other ¼ on the First Tuesday of...
56To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 22 March 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
The President is anxious to ascertain whether the gentlemen he has thought of for Commissioners under the 6th & 7th articles of the British treaty will accept of those employments. He has concluded to appoint Egbert Benson Esqr. one of the Commissioners for executing the 6th article, relative to the debts owing to British subjects—if he will accept of the employment. He is held in such high...
57To Alexander Hamilton from George Washington, 22 March 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, March 22, 1796. On March 24, 1796, Hamilton wrote to Washington : “I had the honor to receive yesterday your letter of the 22.” Letter not found. ]
58From Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, 24 March 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
I had the honor to receive yesterday your letter of the 22. The course you suggest has some obvious advantages & merits careful consideration. I am not however without fears that there are things in the instructions to Mr. Jay which good policy, considering the matter externally as well as internally , would render it inexpedient to communicate. This I shall ascertain to day. A middle course...
59From Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, 26 March 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
I perceived by the News Paper that the resolution has been carried. I have not been idle as far a⟨s⟩ my situation would permit but ⟨it⟩ will not be in my power as I had hoped to send you what I am preparing by this day’s Post. The next will carry it. It does not however appear necessary that the Executive should be in a hurry. The final result in my mind, for reasons I shal⟨l⟩ submit in my...
60From Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, 28 March 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
I am mortified at not being able to send you by this post a certain draft. But the opinion that reasons ought to be given & pretty fully has extended it to considerable length & a desire to make it accurate as to idea & expression keeps it still upon the anvil. But it is so far prepared that I can assure it by tomorrow’s Post. Delay is always unpleasant. But the case is delicate & important...