2201Treasury Department Circular to the Commissioners of Loans, 2 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, May 2, 1791. On May 15, 1791, Nathaniel Appleton wrote to Hamilton : “I am favoured with your circular Letter 2d. instant. Circular not found. ]
2202From Alexander Hamilton to Sharp Delany, 4 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
I am informed, that a doubt has been made, whether in order to obtain the Credit for two years , for the duties on Teas, according to the Act making provision for the collection of the Duties by law, imposed on Teas and to prolong the term for the payment of the duties on Wines, it is necessary that the Teas be deposited in conformity to the regulations prescribed in the Act—it being contended...
2203From Alexander Hamilton to Benjamin Lincoln, 4 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
Instructions relative to the collection of the Duties on Teas are now preparing, and will be very soon transmitted. The papers relative to the Suffolk of Weymouth were returned some time since to the District Court of Massachusetts, as they were not in such form as to enable me legally to decide upon the case. I am, sir, L[S] , RG 36, Collector of Customs at Boston, Letters from the Treasury,...
2204From Alexander Hamilton to Nathaniel Appleton, 5 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, May 5, 1791. On May 15, 1791, Appleton wrote to Hamilton : “I am … favoured with your particular Letter 5th instant.” Letter not found. ]
2205From Alexander Hamilton to Benjamin Lincoln, 6 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
I have transmitted the accounts enclosed in your letter of the 27 Ultimo to the Auditor of the Treasury. The stock which you fund in the Massachusetts office you will cause to be transferred to the Treasury, and for this purpose you will make application to Mr Appleton, the Commissioner of Loans. As the loan office certificates can be funded at the Treasury, it will be best that you transmit...
2206From Alexander Hamilton to Thomas Jefferson, 7 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
The Secretary of the Treasury has the honor to inform the Secretary of State that there are in the bank of North America Bills at ten days sight for the sum of 32.175 Guilders, which the Cashier is directed to hold for him. A warrant is enclosed for the sum of 13000 dolls. in his favor, the money for which is intended to procure those bills for the purpose of obtaining a recognition of the...
2207From Alexander Hamilton to Joshua Wentworth, 7 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, May 7, 1791. On September 7, 1791, Wentworth wrote to Hamilton : “Your letters of the 7th May & 22d June were duly received.” Letter of May 7 not found. ] Wentworth was supervisor of the revenue for the District of New Hampshire.
2208To Thomas Jefferson from Alexander Hamilton, 7 May 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
The Secretary of the Treasury has the honor to inform the Secretary of State that there are in the bank of North America Bills at ten days sight for the sum of 32,175 Guilders, which the Cashier is directed to hold for him. A warrant is enclosed for the sum of 13000 dolls. in his favor, the money for which is intended to procure those bills for the Purpose of obtaining a recognition of the...
2209From Alexander Hamilton to Nathaniel Appleton, 9 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, May 9, 1791. Letter listed in dealer’s catalogue. Letter not found. ] LS , sold by Stan V. Henkels, Jr., April 6, 1922, Lot 221.
2210From Alexander Hamilton to Pierpont Edwards, 9 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
Your account being allowed and certified by the District Judge must be forwarded to the Auditor of the Treasury, who will put it in a course of adjustment according to the forms of the Treasury. You ought also to empower some person on the spot to receive and remit to you the amount of your account. The remittance can commonly be negotiated by a draught on one of your Collectors. I am with...
2211From Alexander Hamilton to Andrew Porter, 9 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
I have concluded to comply with the request contained in your Letter of the 23d of April last and have given directions Accordingly. In doing this I merely yield to a disposition to Accomodate as much as may be in my power to the wishes of Individuals, convinced that what is directed to be done can make no difference in the legal effect of the Transaction. I am Sir Your Obedt Servant Copy,...
2212From Alexander Hamilton to William Seton, 9 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
I am desirous of making a further payment to Mr William Hill, of five thousand Dollars on account of his contract for cloathing for the Troops. The Bank of New York will oblige me by making him a payment of that sum, & taking his receipt for the same, as on that account. This sum will be charged, during the vacancy of the Comptroller’s Office, to the seperate account for the United States, as...
2213From Alexander Hamilton to William Short, 9 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
Since mine to you of the 13th. of April, I have received your several letters of the eighteenth and thirtieth of December, the fifteenth of January, the seventh, seventeenth and twenty second of february. Thanking you for the copious information they contain, I assure you, that the further developement of the business has increased my satisfaction with the course you have pursued. The issue of...
2214From Alexander Hamilton to Thomas Smith, 9 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, May 9, 1791. On June 8, 1791, Hamilton wrote to Smith : “You will perceive on reexamination that you have misconceived the instruction contained in my letter of the 9th Ulto.” Letter not found. ]
2215From Alexander Hamilton to Tench Coxe, 9 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
Being about to leave the City for a Fortnight —I have requested the Bank of North America to advance to your order such sums as you may find necessary for the current service of the Government during my absence to the extent of Twenty thousand dollars. This provision is designed to enable you to answer such demands as may arise in relation to the civil list (including the contingencies of the...
2216Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 13 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
I find instances that have occurred in some of the Custom-houses, of receiving the duties on goods by estimates formed upon the invoices, or the statements of the Masters and Owners of the vessels, and by other means than actual gauging, weighing, measuring, &c. This, it is manifest, is not conformable to law, and may lead to practices very injurious to the revenue. Neither is it necessary to...
2217Conversation with George Backwith, [15 May 1791] (Hamilton Papers)
7 “If the United States were at war with a great or respectable nation, the case would be different, a foreign mediation under certain circumstances might be desirable; in that case, the manner of the application would be official, and of course not to any public officer of that country abroad, but to the administration at home; on the present occasion, the thing in its existing shape is...
2218From Alexander Hamilton to Pierre Charles L’Enfant, 24 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
I received in due time your letter of the 8th. of April; an early acknowlegement of which has been prevented by the hurry of business. I thank you much for the full communication you have made me concerning the intended seat of Government, and will be obliged by a continuance of your observations and such further information as the progress of your operations may render interesting. You will...
2219From Alexander Hamilton to William Short, 24 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
The President of the United States has signified to me his pleasure, that I should revoke that part of your instructions which confines you to opening loans for no greater sum, at a time, than one million of dollars and which restrains you from opening a subsequent loan till the one preceding has received his approbation; and has also instructed me to authorise you to open each future loan for...
2220From Alexander Hamilton to Jabez Bowen, 25 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
I have directed the Treasurer to forward to you drafts payable to you or your order for six thousand Dollars towards paying the ensuing Quarters Interest. These drafts, which will be transmitted with proper blanks, may be directed either to Tench Francis Esquire, Cashier of the Bank of North America, or to William Seton Esquire, Cashier of the Bank of New York or to the respective Collectors...
2221From Alexander Hamilton to Tobias Lear, 25 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
Pursuant to instructions from the President of the United States, I am to request that you will cause some of the blank commissions left with you to be filled as follows: one with the name of John Whitaker as Inspector of the revenue for Survey No. 4. in the District of North Carolina, one with the name of Joseph McDowell the elder, as inspector of the revenue for survey No. 5. in the same...
2222From Alexander Hamilton to Jeremiah Olney, 25 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
It will be agreeable to me that the Officers of the Customs in the District of Providence make return of the emoluments of their respective Offices for one year following the time of their entering upon their duty instead of the year mentioned in my circular letter of the 14 of April. You will be pleased to give them an early intimation of this. I shall not object to a small boat fit for...
2223Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 25 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, May 25, 1791. On June 7, 1791, Jeremiah Olney wrote to Hamilton : “I have received your two circular letters of the 25th. and 26th of May.” Circular of May 25 not found. ] On May 25, 1791, H wrote a letter to Olney marked “circular,” but as the information in this letter was clearly not intended for the other collectors of the customs it has not been printed as a Treasury...
2224From Alexander Hamilton to Otho H. Williams, 25 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
It is necessary for the Government of the Commissioner of loans in the disposition of some Treasury drafts which have been sent him that he should be informed weekly of the monies which you shall have received subsequent to the date of your last return namely the 20th instant. Fourteen hundred Dollars of the ballance then in your hands together with the amount of your subsequent receipts, to...
2225Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 26 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
Inclosed you will find for your information, generally, and Government, in certain particulars, certain explanations & instructions concerning the two Acts, severally entitled “An Act repealing after the last day of June next, the duties heretofore laid upon distilled spirits imported from abroad, and laying others in their stead; and also upon spirits distilled within the United States and...
2226From Alexander Hamilton to Joseph Ward, 26 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
I duly received your letter of the 2d instant. The species of paper you mention presents an embarrassing question. Being issued upon the funds of individual states with a stipulation for the payment of interest by the United States, and a contingent guarantee of the principal, it is not easy to pronounce under what denomination of public debt it properly falls. It is however not in my opinion...
2227From Alexander Hamilton to Thomas Forrest, John Nicholson, and Others, Public Creditors, 27 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
I have received your letter of the sixth instant and have paid careful attention to the contents of it. But notwithstanding my earnest desire to meet the wishes of every class of the public Creditors, my judgment of the true construction of the law in the point in question remains as disclosed in my first letter. The fact is, that the Certificates issued by the Register of the Treasury do...
2228From Alexander Hamilton to Charles Pettit, 27 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
I have enquired into the subject of your letter of the 30th. of April, and according to the reports made to me by the proper Officers, it appears that the State of Pennsylvania has received its full proportion, namely, six tenths of the whole sum struck upon the security of its funds being 1495000 Dollars. The balance of 78642 Dollars stated by the Comptroller General of the State, as...
2229Treasury Department Circular to the Commissioners of Loans, 27 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
By the 18th Section of the Act, making provision for the debt of the United States, it is declared that the payment of interest, whether to States or to Individuals, in respect to the debt of any State which may have exchanged its own securities for those of the United States, shall be suspended until a reexchange shall have taken place or a surrender be made of the last mentioned securities....
2230From Alexander Hamilton to Benjamin Lincoln, [29 May 1791] (Hamilton Papers)
I have written to the Directors of the Bank of Massachusettes, a letter of which the inclosed is a copy. Be so good as to aid in diffusing the knowledge of the arrangement. You need not mention the transmission of the letter lest it should be misinterpreted. I remain very truly Your friend & serv ALS , Maine Historical Society, Portland. H to the President and Directors of the Massachusetts...
2231From Alexander Hamilton to William Ellery, 30 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, May 30, 1791. On June 13, 1791, Ellery wrote to Hamilton : “I have received your letters of the 26th. and the 30th. of May last.” Letter of May 30 not found. ]
2232From Alexander Hamilton to the President and Directors of the Massachusetts Bank, 30 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
With a view to the accommodation of those in your quarter, who may incline to become subscribers to the Bank of the United States, I have concluded on the following arrangement. That for any sums which shall be deposited in the Bank of Massachusetts to the Credit of the United States, to an amount not exceeding in the whole sixty thousand Dollars, I will cause equal sums to be paid in the City...
2233From Alexander Hamilton to the President and Directors of the Bank of New York, 30 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, May 30, 1791. On June 7, 1791, William Seton wrote to Hamilton : “I … acknowledge the honor of your letter of the 30 May.” Letter not found. ] This letter was presumably the same as H to the President and Directors of the Massachusetts Bank, May 30, 1791 .
2234From Alexander Hamilton to Jeremiah Olney, 30 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
Having considered the case of the Ship Warren, Capt Smith belonging to Messr. Brown & Francis, I find it necessary to communicate to you some remarks concerning it. I find from the letters of the Collector of Newport that this ship had departed from his district for India before my letter directing him to proceed against the Captain was received: and I learn from the papers that several days...
2235From Alexander Hamilton to Otho H. Williams, 31 May 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
It is my wish that you make the Bank of Maryland, which is established in the Town of Baltimore the place of depositing the Cash belonging to the United States which may be from time to time in your hands as collector of the District of Baltimore. I shall transmit a circular letter with respect to the receipt of its Notes, to which I must refer you on that point. I am, Sir Your most Obedt...
2236From Alexander Hamilton to Tobias Lear, 1 June 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
Treasury Department, June 1, 1791. Requests the commissions for the Virginia inspectors of the revenue. LC , George Washington Papers, Library of Congress.
2237From Alexander Hamilton to Jeremiah Olney, 1 June 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
Treasury Department, June 1, 1791. “Your letter of the 24th Ultimo has been received. I approve the intention of the Surveyor to use generally the substitute for Dycas’s Hydrometer, the difference being so small. Yet, in any case, where that difference would convert one class of proof into another, Dycas’s must govern; unless it should appear by any imported Hydrometer of Dycas’s, which you...
2238Treasury Department Circular to the Captains of the Revenue Cutters, 1 June 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
I have already communicated to you some general instructions to govern you in the execution of your duty as the Commander of the revenue cutter for the [Massachusetts] Station. I have now to inform you that your vessel will be under the management of the Collector of [Boston] as to supplies of provisions, stores, and occasional repairs, and I shall write him to that effect this day. You will...
2239Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 1 June 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
I have this day written to the Captain of the revenue cutter building for the [Pennsya.] station and I enclose you the letter unsealed which you will deliver to him open after you have caused a copy of it to be made and kept for your own information. It will also be proper that you retain a copy of my circular instructions to him, which are likewise transmitted unsealed. You will perceive that...
2240Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 1 June 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
The Bank of Maryland being in operation, and its paper having gone into circulation, it is my desire, that the cash notes (that is those payable in specie on demand) be received by you in discharge of all duties of impost and tonnage, arrising in your district under the laws of the United States, and that you will exchange whatever specie you may at any time have in your hands for those notes....
2241From Alexander Hamilton to Thomas Mifflin, 3 June 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, June 3, 1791. The catalogue description of this letter reads “Letter concerning a proposition made by the Register General of Pennsylvania.” Letter not found. ] LS , sold at American Art Association, April 10, 1929, Lot 255. See Mifflin to H, June 2, 1791 . An entry in the executive minutes of Pennsylvania for June 6, 1791, reads: “Copies of a Letter from the Secretary of the...
2242From Alexander Hamilton to Thomas Mifflin, 3 June 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, June 3, 1791. “The want of the return of survey of the tract on Lake Erie purchased by Pennsy, from the United States, has hitherto prevented my adopting the measures you have desired for the completion of that business.” Letter not found. ] LS , sold at Parke-Bernet Galleries, March 26, 1957, Lot 87. See Mifflin to H, May 5, 1791 . Text taken from dealer’s catalogue.
2243Treasury Department Circular to the Captains of the Revenue Cutters, 4 June 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
As you are speedily to enter upon the Duties of your Station, it becomes proper briefly to point them out to you. Accordingly I send you a copy of the Act under which you have been appointed & in which are contained your powers, & the objects to which you are to attend & I shall add such observations as appear to me requisite to guide you in fulfilling the intent of that Act. It may be...
2244Treasury Department Circular to the Commissioners of Loans, 4 June 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
You will by the post immediately succeeding the closing of your books, preparatorily to the payment of interest, in each quarter, transmit to the Treasury a summary of the amount of each kind of stock then standing on your books, in order to the requisite provisions for making such payment. I am, Sir, Your obedt. servant LS , to James Tilton, Delaware Historical Society, Wilmington.
2245From Alexander Hamilton to Otho H. Williams, 4 June 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
I send you herewith sundry papers, relating to applicatons of John MacRae and John Morrison to the Judge of the District Court of Virginia, upon the Act for the remission or mitigation of penalties. This transaction appears to me thus far in an extremely questionable shape, so that I am very far from being satisfied, that there has not been more than inadvertence in the case. Unwilling...
2246From Alexander Hamilton to Jonathan Dayton, 6 June 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, June 6, 1791. “My determination on the subject mentioned in your letter of the first instant is still suspended on the answer of the Attorney General, which has not yet been given.” Letter not found. ] ALS , sold at Anderson Galleries, April 28, 1915, Lot 162. Letter not found. Text taken from extract of letter in Adrian H. Joline, Catalogue of Autographs and Portraits of...
2247From Alexander Hamilton to Benjamin Lincoln, 7 June 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
Before the receipt of your letter of the 25th. of May the question concerning the true intent and meaning of the Act to amend and explain the last impost law, relative to printed, stained, and coloured goods had arisen from another quarter. In determining the articles to which the amendatory act will apply the defect alledged to exist in the original law seems proper to be had fully in view....
2248From Alexander Hamilton to Thomas Jefferson, 8 June 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
It has occurred to me that it would be productive of very useful information if some Officer of the United States in each foreign Country, where there is one, were instructed to transmit, occasionally, a state of the coins of the Country specifying their respective standards weights, and values, and, periodically, a state of the market prices of gold and silver in coin and bullion, and of the...
2249From Alexander Hamilton to John McComb, Junior, 8 June 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
I have this day written to Col. Thomas Newton of Norfolk in Virginia on the subject of your letter of the 23rd of May. It is my wish that you may proceed without delay upon the terms mentioned to him. I doubt not you will carefully and justly estimate the extra work in the foundation (should it prove necessary to go deeper than is stipulated in the contract) but as the matter is placed by law...
2250From Alexander Hamilton to Thomas Newton, Junior, 8 June 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, June 8, 1791. On June 8, 1791, Hamilton wrote to John McComb, Jr. : “I have this day written to Col. Thomas Newton.” Letter not found. ]