Alexander Hamilton Papers

From Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, 2 December 1794

To George Washington

[Philadelphia] December 2, 1794. “The Secretary of the Treasury has the honor to send the President some additional communications from the Supervisor of Ohio District.1 The State of that scene2 renders the arrangement with regard to District Attorney delicate & important.”

LC, George Washington Papers, Library of Congress.

1On August 23, 1794, when the Senate was not in session, Washington had signed a commission appointing Thomas Marshall, inspector of the revenue for Survey No. 7 in the District of Virginia, as supervisor of the revenue for the District of Ohio and inspector of the revenue for Survey No. 1 in the District of Ohio. On December 10, 1794, Washington nominated Marshall for these positions, and on December 12, 1794, the Senate confirmed the nomination (Executive Journal, I description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate (Washington, 1828),I. description ends , 164–65). Washington signed Marshall’s commission on December 18, 1794. (JPP description begins “Journal of the Proceedings of the President,” George Washington Papers, Library of Congress. description ends , 313).

2This is a reference to reports that certain residents in the Ohio region of the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio were aiding the insurgents in western Pennsylvania and in particular that they had assisted David Bradford, one of the leaders of the Whiskey Insurrection, to escape capture by the authorities. On November 5, 1794, Winthrop Sargent, secretary of the territory, wrote to the justices of the peace of Hamilton County. After reminding them of the President’s proclamation of September 25, 1794, warning “all persons whomsoever and wheresoever not to aid abet or comfort the Insurgents of the Western Counties of Pennsylvania,” Sargent wrote: “I have reason to believe that there are in the Town of Cincinnati at this Time a number of men in the Service of the Army provision Contractors who have presumed in Contempt of the said proclamation to protect or rescue from Authority by Force of Arms a man who has been principally instrumental and active in promoting the Insurrections in the Counties aforesaid—and that they have aided him to make his escape from the United States” (Carter, Territorial Papers description begins Clarence E. Carter, ed., The Territorial Papers of the United States (Washington, 1934–). description ends , III, 427).

On the same day that Sargent wrote this letter, “Christopher Cunningham and Daniel Duffey, citizens of Cincinnati, were arrested under the aforementioned proclamation, for aiding the escape of Mr. Bradford, an insurgent, into Kentucky” (William Henry Smith, ed., The St. Clair Papers: The Life and Public Service of Arthur St. Clair [Cincinnati, 1882], II, 336).

For an account of Bradford’s escape, see Francis D’Hebecourt to Henry Lee, November 10, 1794 (Pennsylvania Archives, 2nd ser., IV description begins Pennsylvania Archives, 2nd ser., IV (n.p., 1876). description ends , 450–51).

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