1To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 14 December 1800 (Hamilton Papers)
After an absence of four months in the Woods I returned hither on the evening of the 10th instant; and this is the first opportunity of acknowledging the receipt of your letter of the 13th ult. A few days before I left the Woods , I received from a friend in Philadelphia, your pamphlet concerning the conduct and character of President Adams. You say the press teams with replies. I have yet...
2To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 15 May 1800 (Hamilton Papers)
I have at this instant received your letter without date, but stamped at the postoffice in NYork May 14. I intended to have done precisely what you suggest, respecting Mr Adams journal &c. (very little of which I had ever read) but there was not time. Last saturday morning I received a summons to resign , and a desire that I would myself name the day. But I did not incline to accept this...
3To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 25 April 1800 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, April 25, 1800. Pickering’s endorsement on Hamilton’s letter to him dated April 24–25, 1800 , reads: “answd. 25th.” Letter not found. ]
4To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 1 July 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
The original of the inclosed letter to Genl. Pinckney was written by Major Mountflorence, whose character and situation I presume you know. Last Saturday I recd. a copy from the Genl. which he desired me to communicate to you. I am very sincerely yours I have sent another copy to Genl. Washington. ALS , Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress; copy, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston. James...
5To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 18 June 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
Mr. Rozier presented yesterday, your letter of the 13th; and, agreeably to my appointment, he called this morning and exhibited his cypher, and comparing with it his cyphered letters to Mr. Talleyrand which were taken in the Astrea and transmitted to me from Gibralter, I found in every passage examined, an exact correspondence with those letters written in words, copies whereof he gave me to...
6To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 8 April 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
You doubtless know General Eustace much better than I do. He mentions your name, as well as Mr. Jays, as of persons whom he respects. The inclosed extract from his news-paper publications of last August give his picture of your friend Mr King. In the same series of papers he undertakes the vindication of Fulwar Skipwith, our late consul general at Paris, as an excellent patriot and an upright...
7To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 25 February 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
This morning I have recd. your favour of the 21st. We have all been shocked and grieved at the nomination of a minister to negociate with France. There is but one sentiment on the subject among the friends of their country and the real supporters of the President’s administration. Pains have been taken to ameliorate the measure by throwing it into a Commission: but the President is fixed: the...
8To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 20 February 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
Since I wrote you on the 9th (which you acknowledge in a short letter, promising further communications) Dr. Stevens has been appointed Consul General of St. Domingo, and will probably embark before the close of next week. If you have written further to me in answer to my letter of the 9th the letter has miscarried, for I have recd. nothing. I must frame Dr. Stevens’s instructions in a few...
9To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 9 February 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
The law prohibiting intercourse with the French Dominions is renewed, and extended to the 3d of March 1800. The material variation from the former law consists in the authority given to the President to open the intercourse with any part of those dominions when the safety and interest of the U. States will admit of it. This authority is comprised in the 4th section, a copy of which I inclose....
10To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 4 September 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
I have recd. yours of yesterday. One or two new lawyers have settled in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, since I left it in 1791. I am not perfectly clear in recommending any of the old ones. I have it in my power to make enquiry which I believe may be satisfactory, and will inform you of the result. The town you refer to is not Wilkesburg or Wilkesborough, but Wilkesbarré—from Jno. Wilkes and...
11To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 23 August 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
Mr Mc.Henry has just handed to Mr. Wolcott & me his letter to the President on the subject of calling you and Genl. Knox into immediate service, together with General Knox’s letter to him in answer to the one inclosing his commission. Genl. Knox’s letter claiming the first rank, I see has been transmitted to you, and I was glad to see you, in your answer to the Secy. of War, tenacious of the...
12To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 21[–22] August 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
Not to miss the mail, I wrote you one line today, and inclosed a letter from I suppose General Miranda. If its contents give rise to any questions which it will be prudent for you to ask and for me to answer by the mail, it may be done, otherwise the information may be suspended till we meet. Just before I left Philadelphia, I received a letter from General Knox, in answer to one I had written...
13To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 22 August 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
In writing freely as I have done yesterday and to-day in the inclosed letter to you, disclosing what is contemplated respecting your military station, far from being apprehensive of justly incurring blame I consider myself as performing a hazardous duty: but I am not conscious that the risque of incurring the displeasure of any man ever deterred me from doing what I conceived to be my duty. My...
14To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 21 August 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Trenton, August 21, 1798. On August 21, 1798, Pickering wrote to Hamilton : “Not to miss the mail, I wrote you one line today.” Letter not found. ]
15To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 18 July 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
I have before me yours of yesterday. In the morning of yesterday Mc.Henry returned with Genl. Washington’s acceptance of the command of the armies, and a list, in the General’s own hand writing, in which the names of the Inspector General and Major Generals stand thus Inspector General, Alexander Hamilton. Major General, Charles C. Pinckney ditto Henry Knox ditto ditto Henry Lee } for the...
16To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 16 July 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
I have just received from Genl. Washington an answer to my letter which I showed you. The General appears to have contemplated attentively the nature of the impending war with France, and that the southern states (if any part of the Union) will be invaded. Admitting this idea to be correct, the General says, “the inference I am going to draw from placing Colo. Hamilton over General Pinckney,...
17To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 9 June 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, June 9, 1798. On June 9, 1798, Pickering wrote to Hamilton : “I dropped you a hasty line to-day.” Letter not found. ]
18To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 9 June 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
I dropped you a hasty line to-day, acknowledging the receipt of your letters of the 7th. & 8th. I now inclose a copy of the new British Instructions, with Mr. King’s remark upon them. These, I have not the least doubt, are the instructions which the American captains from the West Indies, by misconceptions, have represented to be so injurious to our commerce. Mr. Liston knows of no other; nor...
19To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 9 April 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
This morning the dispatches from our envoys are published, and I inclose a copy. In your letter of March 27th in answer to mine of the 25th just then received, you say, “I shall write again to-morrow.” I have received no letter from you since that of the 27th. which I mention on the presumption that you may have written, and because if you have, it is important on every account that it should...
20To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 25 March 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
I duly received your letter of the 17th. No apology will be necessary for a communication of your opinion at any time; and at the present crisis your opinion is peculiarly acceptable. Prior to the receipt of your letter, the President had determined to recommend the observance of a general fast; and had desired one or both the chaplains of Congress to prepare the draught of a proclamation....
21To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 25 March 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
The inclosed I wrote last evening for your information. This morning I received your open letter of the 23d. As soon as a vessel shall be dispatched for France with letters of recall to our envoys, I presume the President will communicate their letters to Congress—whether demanded or not. If the envoys or any of them should be found in France (of which there is a bare possibility) they are to...
22To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 3 January 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
I have to-day received your letter of the 1st inclosing a letter from Colo. Fleury, dated the 21st. of February last, with powers to receive & remit to Europe the amount of his dues from the U.S. which he hoped to receive in six months. He will be uneasy at not hearing from me in near eleven months, and will lose the benefits which the possession of the money might have yielded. These...
23To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 21 October 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, October 21, 1797. On the back of a letter which Hamilton wrote to him on August 27, 1797 , Pickering wrote: “returned the paper inclosed Oct. 21. 1797.” Letter not found. ]
24To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 29 April 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
In contemplating the idea suggested by you, of arming the merchant vessels of the United States for Defence only , a difficulty at once presented. This measure is incompatible with the right of a belligerent power to visit and examine neutral vessels, to ascertain whether they have on board contraband goods—&, where a treaty does not alter the law of nations, whether they are laden with...
25To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 5 April 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
I received your letter of the and accord with your opinion that the proposed publication of the intelligence from Genl. Pinckney should be omitted. The “emigrant” we conclude to be Perigord, formerly bishop of Autun. Sometime since, I was informed that he left this country with signs of enmity towards it; and the Directory would naturally place great confidence in his opinion: and yet it is so...
26To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 30 March 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
I believe I mentioned in my last, that I was going to sketch a state of facts relative to Mr. Pinckney’s mission for publication. I now inclose it. That the facts should be known to our citizens was deemed important. I thought it highly important that the Representatives should come together impressed with the sentiments of their constituents on the reprehensible conduct of the French...
27To Alexander Hamilton from Timothy Pickering, 26 March 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
On the 25th I was favoured with your letter of the 22d. The first measure of calling Congress together had been determined on by the President the preceding evening; and I had the draught of the proclamation inclosed, in my hand, to present to him, when I received your letter. Some other of the measures suggested had been contemplated; and all will receive attention from me & my colleagues. I...