To Alexander Hamilton from William Seton, 28 May 1792
From William Seton
New York 28th May 1792
My Dear sir
Your kind letter of the 23d,1 I did not receive till after the last post for the week was gone out; I have seen Mr. Cutting2 and informed him I was ready to pay the judgement against the Baron.3 He said he would make out the Account & call upon me. The amount will be upwards of £500. As our Bank Stock is now only at 28 ⅌ Cent premium I think it will be better to have the Note of 1200 Dollars you enclosed to me, discounted, as before its period of payment I think the Stock will be higher. Mr. Troup4 has endorsed it. I cannot however help expressing a regret, that the extreme delicacy of your feelings should induce you to part with a Stock so extremely more valuable than its present price in the Market.5 In virtue of your Power of Attorney, I have signed the Books for all your Dividends—Vizt
| Dividend on 1 Novr. 1790 | Dolls | 26.25 |
| Surplus Dividend 30 April 1791 | 186. | |
| Dividend on 1 May 1791 | 26.25 | |
| Dividend on 1 Novr. 1791 | 52.50 | |
| Dividend on 1 May 1792 | 30. | |
| Doll. | 321.— |
which Sum is carried to the credit of your Account, which was overdrawn before Dolls. 245⁷²⁄₁₀₀—so that the ballance now due to you in Bank is Dolls. 75.²⁸⁄₁₀₀.
I trust you cannot doubt of the pleasure it will ever give me to obey your Commands—& how much you gratify my feelings by employing me in any way that I can testify the sincere respect & esteem with which I am Dear sir
Your Obliged Obed Hble Ser
Wm Seton
ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. Letter not found.
2. Leonard M. Cutting was a New York City attorney.
3. In the Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress, is a bond signed by Baron von Steuben, dated January 18, 1790, in the amount of £700 18s. 11¼d., New York currency, payable with interest to Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crèvecœur (who sometimes referred to himself as J. Hector St. John), the wellknown author of Letters from an American Farmer, who had returned to France in 1790. With this bond is a statement of the judgment of debt in the Supreme Court of New York in the case of Crèvecœur v von Steuben. This statement is in the writing of Cutting, who was attorney for the plaintiff, and it reads as follows:
| “On the 20th October 1790 Settled the ballance due | |
| which inclusive of Costs amounted to | £454.16.8 3/4 |
| Wherein 7 pr Ct Interest is payable to this day | 51.16 3/4 |
| Amount due | £506.13 |
5th June 1792 Recd: of Alexander Hamilton by the hands of William Seton the sum of five hundred & Six pounds thirteen shillings the amount of the above mentioned demand which Mr Hamilton had assumed to pay on behalf of the abovementioned Defendt:”
4. Robert Troup.
5. At the time of the incorporation of the Bank of New York in 1791 H owned one and one-half shares of stock in the bank. The stock’s par value was five hundred dollars.