Alexander Hamilton Papers

To Alexander Hamilton from Edmund Randolph, 3 January 1795

From Edmund Randolph

Department of State, January 3, 1795. “I do myself the honor of inclosing to you a copy of a letter from Mr. Fauchet to me, dated yesterday. As it comes up to what passed between us in conversation two days ago, I must beg the favor of you to enable me to inform him of the necessary steps to complete the arrangement of the forty thousand Dollars.”1

LC, RG 59, Domestic Letters of the Department of State, Vol. 8, December 6, 1794–October 12, 1795, National Archives.

1On January 2, 1795, Jean Antoine Joseph Fauchet, French Minister to the United States, wrote to Randolph: “En attendant l’issüe des mesures dont le Governement des Etats unis s’occupe pour mettre des Fonds à ma disposition, j’ai immédiatement besoin de quarante Mille dollar, et je desire instamment qu’il lui soit possible de me procurer cet accompte” (copy, Arch. des Aff. Etr., Corr. Pol., Etats-Unis description begins Transcripts or photostats from the French Foreign Office deposited in the Library of Congress. description ends , Supplement Vol. 20). The forty thousand dollars which Fauchet requested constituted an advance on the installments which the United States owed to France for the repayment of two loans made by France to the United States in 1782. These installments were due on September 3 and November 5, 1795. For a description of these loans and the arrangement for their repayment, see Willink, Van Staphorst, and Hubbard to H, January 25, 1790, note 3; William Short to H, September 1, 1790, note 17; “Report on Estimates for the Year 1794,” December 21, 1793, notes 67 and 68.

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