1. For an explanation of this sentence and the remainder of this paragraph, see “Treasury Department Circular to the Presidents and Directors of the Offices of Discount and Deposit of the Bank of the United States,” February 23–March 5, 1793 (PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , XIV, 137–38).

2. For the “prior offer,” see Coxe to H, April 10, 1793 (PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , XIV, 304–05). The “gentleman” was William Vans Murray, who on March 31, 1793, wrote to Coxe: “On the most mature consideration I am of opinion clearly that I ought to embrace your friendly offer & if you can yet let me in, hereby agree to pay the money for four thousand acres at the rate of a quarter of a dollar pr. acre … on the first of September next” (ALS, Papers of Tench Coxe in the Coxe Family Papers at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia). In a document entitled “Memn. of Mr. W. V. Murray’s Money Sept. 2d. 1793,” Coxe wrote: “pd. me for accot of an undivided 4000 As. of Lands bot of Ball & Smith” (ADS, Papers of Tench Coxe in the Coxe Family Papers at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia).

Murray was a lawyer from Cambridge, Maryland. When he made the agreement with Coxe, he was a Federalist member of the House of Representatives.

3. This paragraph contains the first reference in this volume to a partnership between Coxe and John B. Church, in which H served as the latter’s representative and attorney in fact. The agreement between Church and Coxe provided that Church would advance ten thousand dollars to Coxe to purchase lands in Pennsylvania for the partnership and that Coxe would repay half of this amount of money with interest to Church.

The correspondence concerning the partnership and H’s role in it extends from 1793 to 1797, and many of the most significant letters on this subject were and are located in the Tench Coxe Papers. These papers were not made available to scholars until recently, and they therefore could not be used in the preparation of The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, XIV–XVII (February, 1793–December, 1794). The first letter from this collection to be printed in The Papers of Alexander Hamilton is Coxe to H, February 13, 1795 (PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , XVIII, 269). This and four other letters from Coxe to H (three written in 1795 and one in 1796) along with several related documents were released to the editors of The Papers of Alexander Hamilton in the early nineteen-seventies, but no search of the collection for other letters and documents was permitted at that time. As a result, the letter printed above and several others that follow it appear in this volume rather than in their proper chronological order in earlier volumes.

For a history of the Church-Coxe partnership and H’s role in it, see the introductory note to Coxe to H, February 13, 1795 (PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , XVIII, 262–69). For the correspondence concerning this partnership, see