To Alexander Hamilton from Jacob Mark and Company, [11 December 1794]
From Jacob Mark and Company1
[New York, December 11, 1794]
Sir,
The Directors of the Mine commonly called Schuylers Copper Mine2 take the liberty of informing the Secretary of the Treasury that they have raised sufficient bar to enter into Contract for the delivery of 50 Tons Refined Copper by the last of May next.
If you have not already orderd the Quantity which is required for the Mint we beg to be favoured with the preference of your Commands. Your answer will oblige us.3
Your sincere friends & Obedient Humble sers.
Jacob Marks Co.
LS, RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters, 1790–1799, National Archives.
1. Jacob Mark was a New York City merchant. The firm was variously known as Jacob Mark and Company, Jacob Marks Company, and Jacob and Philip Mark (see “Report on Bank Deposits, Surplus Revenue, and Loans,” January 16, 1793). The name was also on occasion spelled Marck (see , 158, and John Murray to H, May 3, 1793).
2. The Schuyler mine was located in the vicinity of what is now Belleville, New Jersey, on land purchased by Arent Schuyler early in the eighteenth century. Before the American Revolution it was operated by John Schuyler, one of Arent’s sons. In 1793, Philip A. Schuyler of Bergen County, New Jersey, Jacob Mark, and Nicholas J. Roosevelt of New York formed the New Jersey Copper Mine Association in the hope of reviving the mine. See William Nelson, “Josiah Hornblower, and the First Steam-Engine in America, with Some Notices of the Schuyler Copper Mines at Second River, NJ.,” Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, 2nd ser., VII (1882–1883), 177; Collamer M. Abott, “Colonial Copper Mines,” The William and Mary Quarterly, XXVII (April, 1970), 299–302; Elizabeth Marting, “Arent Schuyler and His Copper Mine,” Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, Vol. 65, No. 2 (April, 1947), 126–40.
3. H endorsed this letter as follows: ’The Secretary of State will enable me to answer the within. The copper from that mine has always had the reputation of being particularly good. AH.”
After receiving the above note from H, Edmund Randolph on December 15, 1794, sent it to David Rittenhouse, director of the Mint, and asked for “his opinion upon the subject of contracting with them for the fifty tons of Copper, which they say will be ready by the last of may next” (LC, RG 59, Domestic Letters of the Department of State, Vol. 8, December 6, 1794–October 12, 1795, National Archives).