To Alexander Hamilton from Henry Lee, 9 March 1795
From Henry Lee
Shirley near Richmond
March 9th. 95.
Dear sir
I trust you have got back to New York where I hope among many delights which will encircle you, may be the leisure necessary to attend to distant friends.
I very much wish to derive for a good purpose a piece of information which you only can give. If you feel yourself at liberty to do so in the strictest confidence pray impart to me the authors of the several pieces of publius.1 This you can best do by enclosing the book putting at the beginning of each piece one of the letters J or H or M.
God bless you
H L
ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. This is a reference to The Federalist, written by John Jay, H, and James Madison. For a discussion of the authorship of these essays, see the introductory note to “The Federalist,” October 27, 1787–May 28, 1788.