Alexander Hamilton Papers
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From Alexander Hamilton to Sharp Delany, 13 September 1789

To Sharp Delany1

Treasury Office
New York September 13th. 1789.

Sir

Mr. Duer my assistant goes to Philadelphia to transact some business with the bank there in which your co-operation will probably be wanted.2 He will give you the necessary explanations; and I doubt not will have your acquiescence in whatever may be requisite to complete his arrangments. The other principal Officers of the Department not being on the spot some informality may be unavoidable. But the necessity will justify it; and as soon as the Comptroller3 and Treasurer4 arrive, things will be put in their proper train.

I am, Sir   Your obedient servant

Alexander Hamilton
Secretary of the Treasury

Sharpe Delaney Esq.

LS, The Sol Feinstone Collection, Library of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.

1Delany was collector of customs at Philadelphia.

In PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , V, 369, this letter is listed as a “letter not found.”

2William Duer, a financier and merchant who came to America from England and the British West Indies in 1773, was a member of the Continental Congress from 1777 to 1779 and was also on the Board of War. He held some of the largest contracts from Congress for supplying the Army during the American Revolution. In 1784 he helped to found the Bank of New York, and in 1786 he was appointed secretary of the Board of the Treasury. In 1786 he represented New York City in the New York Assembly. In September, 1789, he became Assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury.

For Duer’s “transactions” in Philadelphia, see H to Thomas Willing, September 13, 1789; Willing to H, October 1, 1789 (PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , V, 370–71, 416–19).

3Nicholas Eveleigh of South Carolina, who had served in the American Revolution as deputy adjutant general for South Carolina and Georgia during the American Revolution, was a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1781 and the Continental Congress in 1781 and 1782. On September 11, 1789, he was appointed comptroller.

4Samuel Meredith of Pennsylvania, a brigadier general of the Pennsylvania militia during the American Revolution, was a member of the Continental Congress from 1786 to 1788 and surveyor of the port of Philadelphia from August, 1789, to September 11, 1789, when he resigned to become Treasurer of the United States.

See H to Meredith, September 13, 1789 (PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , V, 369).

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