9781From George Washington to Gustavus Scott, 12 June 1797 (Washington Papers)
Encouraged by your ⟨former⟩ kindness, I take the liberty of sen⟨ding⟩ another letter of Messrs Reed a⟨nd Ford⟩ on the subject of the Share⟨s, due from them⟩ to me, in the Bank of Co⟨lumbia; and to re⟩quest the favour of you to ⟨enquire of Mr⟩ Smith, or at the said Bank, ⟨if any effici⟩ent measures are in train ⟨for trans⟩fering the remaining twenty n⟨ine shares⟩ to me, agreeably to their...
9782From George Washington to Gustavus Scott, 22 April 1797 (Washington Papers)
I should not have taken the liberty of giving you the trouble wch the enclosures must occasion, but for the request of Genl Lee who left this yesterday and is implicated in the business to which they relate. Messrs Reed & Fords obligation, paid me by Genl Lee to discharge in part a debt he owed me, the letter of the latter with Mr Lingans note (all of which are enclosed) will be sufficient I...
9783From George Washington to John Searson, 20 August 1797 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 2d instt came duly to hand, and I wish with all my heart you could meet with such employment as your talents are suited to; but if you cannot obtain this in Philadelphia where your character is best known, it is not likely you would succeed better where you are less acquainted, and in places less populous. There is none within my view, in this quarter, in any of the lines to...
9784From Alexander Hamilton to Theodore Sedgwick, 27 February 1800 (Hamilton Papers)
When will Congress probably adjourn? Will any thing be settled as to a certain Election? Will my presence be requisite as to this or any other purpose and when? I observe more and more that by the jealousy and envy of some, the miserlyness of others and the concurring influence of all foreign powers , America, if she attains to greatness, must creep to it. Well be it so. Slow and sure is no...
9785From Alexander Hamilton to Theodore Sedgwick, 29 August 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
Your letter of the 3. instant came seasonably to hand. Business & absence from this place have delayed the acknowlegement. The persons you mention have been correspondently placed before the Secretary at War. As to Military Affairs, they lag not a little. No appointments of Regimental Officers yet made. McHenry as you know is loaded beyond his strength. It was an obvious idea to derive aid...
9786From John Adams to Theodore Sedgwick, 16 July 1798 (Adams Papers)
Certain matters touching the public good requiring that the session of the Senate for Executive Business should be continued, and that the members thereof should convene on Tuesday the seventeenth day of July instant; You are desired to attend at the Senate Chamber in Philadelphia on that day, at ten o’clock in the forenoon, then and there to receive and deliberate on such communications as...
9787From Alexander Hamilton to Theodore Sedgwick, 21 February 179[9] (Hamilton Papers)
The step announced in your letter just received in all its circumstances would astonish, if any thing from that quarter could astonish. But as it has happened, my present impression is that the measure must go into effect with the additional idea of a Commission of three. The mode must be accommodated with the President. Murray is certainly not strong enough for so immensely important a...
9788From Alexander Hamilton to Theodore Sedgwick, 21 January 1801 (Hamilton Papers)
Being in a hurry to leave New York for this place, I comprised in a letter to Bayard some observations which had I had time I should have put in a reply to your last. I requested him to communicate it to you & I beg you as you love your country, your friends and yourself to reconsider dispassionately the opinion you have expressed in favour of Burr. I never was so much mistaken as I shall be...
9789From Alexander Hamilton to Theodore Sedgwick, [4 May 1800] (Hamilton Papers)
You have heard of the loss of our Election in the City of New York. This renders it too probable that the Electors of President for this State will be Antifœderal. If so, the policy which I was desirous of pursuing at the last Election is now recommended by motives of additional urgency. To support Adams & Pinckney , equally, is the only thing that can possibly save us from the fangs of...
9790From Alexander Hamilton to Theodore Sedgwick, [1–15 March 1798] (Hamilton Papers)
In my opinion these things— The President ought to make a solemn and manly communication to Congress the language grave and firm but without invective—in which after briefly recapitulating the progress of our controversy with France the measures taken toward accommodation & stating their degrading result—he ought to advert to the extremely critical posture of Europe the excessive pretensions...
9791From Alexander Hamilton to Theodore Sedgwick, 26 December 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York, December 26, 1797. “I beg your pardon for not having written to you sooner. Blame my excessive avocations & particularly my engagements with the Court of Chancery.… The declaration sent us by Van Shack has been examined and returned. We do not find, that our statute contains any provision.” Letter not found. ] ALS , sold by American Art Association-Anderson Galleries, March 3,...
9792From Alexander Hamilton to Theodore Sedgwick, 10 May 1800 (Hamilton Papers)
I am very sorry for the information contained in your letter of the 7th. But I am not intimate enough with Dexter to put myself upon Paper to him. If on his return I can catch him at New York I shall have a particular conversation with him. He is I am persuded much mistaken as to the opinion entertained of Mr Adams by the Fœderal party. Were I to determine from my own observation I should say,...
9793From Alexander Hamilton to Theodore Sedgwick, 25 January 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
The cold which I had when you were here increased after you left me & has a great part of the time confined me to bed. This is the chief cause that you have not heard from me in reply to your letter. I have perused the answer in Chancery & incline at present to the Opinion that we can at the ensuing term obtain a dissolution of the Injunction. I will shortly reperuse it & if I change my mind I...
9794From Alexander Hamilton to Theodore Sedgwick, 2 February 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
What, My Dear Sir, are you going to do with Virginia? This is a very serious business, which will call for all the wisdom and firmness of the Government. The following are the ideas which occur to me on the occasion. The first thing in all great operations of such a Government as ours is to secure the opinion of the people. To this end, the proceedings of Virginia and Kentucke with the two...
9795From Alexander Hamilton to Theodore Sedgwick, 22 December 1800 (Hamilton Papers)
I intirely agree with you, My Dear Sir, that in the event of Jefferson and Burr coming to the House of Represnetatives the former is to be preferred. The appointment of Burr, as President would disgrace our Country abroad. No agreement with him could be relied upon. His private circumstances render disorder a necessary resource. His public principles offer no obstacle. His ambition aims at...
9796From Alexander Hamilton to Theodore Sedgwick, 8 May 1800 (Hamilton Papers)
I thank you My Dear Sir for your letter of the 5th instant which was received yesterday. The measure you mention has been attempted but without much hope of success. Yet our friends are today in good spirits. The accounts from the Northward, apparently authentic, give us strong hope of still having a majority ⟨in⟩ our Legislature. But be this as it may, our welfare depends absolutely on a...
9797From George Washington to Ségur, 24 June 1797 (Washington Papers)
Apologies at best, are but indifferent things, although at times they are necessary. That is the case with me at present, for having suffered your obliging favour of the 4th of August last to remain so long unacknowledged, it is incumbent on me to assign the reasons for it now. The truth is, it was long on its passage, and arrived at a time when my official duties engrossed all my attention,...
9798From Thomas Jefferson to the Senate, 3 March 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieve with due sensibility the congratulations of the Senate on being called to the first Executive office of our government, and I accept with great satisfaction their assurances of support in whatever regards the honor & interest of our country. knowing no other object in the discharge of my public duties, their confidence in my future conduct derived from past events, shall not be...
9799From Thomas Jefferson to the Senate, 28 February 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
To give the usual opportunity of appointing a President pro tempore , I now propose to retire from the chair of the Senate: and as the time is near at hand, when the relations will cease, which have for some time subsisted between this honorable house & myself, I beg leave before I withdraw, to return them my grateful thanks for all the instances of attention & respect with which they have...
9800From John Adams to John Sevier, 6 March 1798 (Adams Papers)
I have received the Letter, you did me the honour to write me, on the 6th of February last. It is very certain, I have never given any orders, that will warrant or justify any proceedure, despotic or inimical to the Liberties of our Citizens but on the Contrary was entirely uninformed, untill I received your Letter, that any transaction of the kind you describe, had been practised or...
9801From George Washington to John Sevier, 31 January 1799 (Washington Papers)
In acknowledging the receipt of your letter of the 25th of December, I must observe, that as the law for raising a provisional Army was not acted upon during the recess of Congress, I presume, from its tenor, that it becomes void of course. And whether or not a similar law will be passed in the pressent session is very problematical. I have reason to beleive that the President has already made...
9802From John Adams to David Sewall, 23 October 1799 (Adams Papers)
I beg pardon for postponeing to this time an answer to your favor of the 30th. Sept. I have run over all the names, Hooper Lee, Orne, Gerry, Sewal, Otis and twenty others & if you prefer any of them you may give the name. But upon the whole, I have thought that Fort Fisherman would be better than any other. The twelve apostles were fishermen and Marblehead is chiefly inhabited by fishermen....
9803From John Adams to David Sewall, 16 September 1798 (Adams Papers)
Your address of the 4th of this month has been transmitted to me as you requested by one of my ancient and esteemed friends Judge Sewall. The mercenary views of the French Republick have been sufficiently maniffested for a course of years by their purchasing supplies without any thought of payment, by their continued depredations on our commerce & especially by the infamous law against all...
9804From John Adams to David Sewall, 16 September 1798 (Adams Papers)
Inclosed is a short answer to the address of the Grand jury transmitted in your letter from Pownallborough at Sept term 1798. It would have given me great pleasure to have seen you at Pownalborough as I did in 1764 but I shall never see Kennebeck river again most probably. Some coincidence or other of affaires I hope will one day enable me to take you by the hand once more I am dear Sir your...
9805Abigail Adams to William Smith Shaw, 20 March 1798 (Adams Papers)
I received your Letter of Jan’ry 23 d and was gratified to find your Hand writing improving. I know you are attentive to what is passing in the political World, indeed who can be an indifferent Spectator, in Times so critical, so allarming and so big with Concequences as the present? I send you a late publication under the signature of scipio, [ “ ]Reflections on Monroe’s view of the conduct...
9806Abigail Adams to William Smith Shaw, 25 January 1799 (Adams Papers)
I thank you my dear Nephew for your last agreable Letter. you have too sensible and feeling a heart not to participate in the pleasure which the Return of your cousin gives to his Parents and Friends. your account of his reception from his Father was too tender and interesting to my Heart, not to flow to my Eyes; I hope you will derive both instruction and improvement from him. you have a mind...
9807Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 7 December 1800 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your favor of the 3 d: inst t: and the newspapers enclosed. I will endeavor to comply with your request, that I communicate with you more frequently, but I will be free to confess to you, that every year of my life, I grow more selfish & less disposed to write letters, merely of friendship. You will experience the same thing in a few years, & I believe you assigned the true...
9808Abigail Adams to William Smith Shaw, 23 December 1798 (Adams Papers)
I was much obliged to you for sending me the answer to Barlows Letter. our Printers in Boston are very inattentive to many publications which would be usefull whilst they print very purile peices— Barlows Letter made its first appearence the last week in the Centinal. I design it shall be succeeded by the replie, tho I think it a very partial one and that it treats Barlow with much more...
9809Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 23 September 1800 (Adams Papers)
I inclose you the Aurora of this morning which is pretty rich in contents. For some time past it has been too flat & insipid to compensate the trouble of sending it to you. I observe that the pieces under the signature of Decius are ascribed to H. G Otis— I have read but a few of the numbers, but I have no doubt the Author is clearly & rightly designated. The story he tells in his No 15 of the...
9810Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 29 July 1799 (Adams Papers)
The 26 th: inst t: brought me yours of the 18 th: & the 28 th: that of the 21 st: with accompanyments— Accipe gratias et incepto permanete. You anticipated my request to be informed of how the rituals were this year performed at Alma mater. I am, among other pursuits, attempting to renew my acquaintance with school & College books, for which I own I had little relish while they occupied me as...