Alexander Hamilton Papers

To Alexander Hamilton from Jacob Read, 18 January 1798

From Jacob Read1

Philadelphia, January 18, 1798. “… The President having thought proper to dismiss Mr Tench Coxe2 from the office of Commissr of the Revenue a Successor is Wanted. The Gentlemen of the So Carolina delegation in both Houses are anxious to have Wm. Ward Burrows3 appointed & have Warmly recommended him to the President.… Mr Wolcott … Objects to him on the score Of a probable want of Industry.… For my own part I conceive him fully Equal to the office.… He thinks you can serve him and that a line from you to Mr Wolcott woud remove Mr W’s objections.…”

ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.

1Read was a South Carolina Federalist who had fought in the American Revolution and served in the Continental Congress from 1783 to 1786. From 1795 to 1801 he was a member of the United States Senate.

2For H’s break with Coxe, see H to George Washington, February 2, 1795. For a Republican defense of Coxe, see the [Philadelphia] Aurora. General Advertiser, April 6, 1798.

3Burrows, a resident of Kinderton, Pennsylvania, who had been involved in William S. Smith’s speculative ventures (see H to Oliver Wolcott, Jr., April 22, 1797, note 10), did not get the job. Instead, on January 18, 1798, Adams nominated William Miller of Philadelphia as commissioner of the revenue, and the Senate confirmed the nomination on January 23 (Executive Journal, I description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate (Washington, 1828), I. description ends , 259–60).

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