To Thomas Jefferson from Alexander Hamilton, 23 May 1793
From Alexander Hamilton
Treasury Department May 23. 1793.
Sir
I have the honor of your note, transmitting the copy of one from Mr. Genet of yesterday.
As our laws stand, no transfer of any part of her cargo from one vessel to another within our Ports, can take place ’till after a regular entry and the paying or securing the payment of the duties. You are sensible, Sir, that I have no discretion to dispense with their requisitions.
If the wines are be carried to any foreign port and there landed, a drawback of the duties, essentially, may be obtained, under the usual securities for their due transportation to the place for which they are destined. I have the honor to be very respectfully, Sir your obedient Servant.
Alex. Hamilton
PrC of Tr (DLC); in a clerk’s hand; at foot of text: “The Secretary of State.” Tr (DNA: RG 59, DL). Enclosed in TJ to Edmond Charles Genet, 24 May 1793.
TJ’s Note to Hamilton has not been found and is not recorded in SJL. The one of 22 May 1793 from Edmond Charles Genet, recorded in SJL as a letter of 23 May 1793 received that day, has also not been found, but it evidently concerned a cargo of wine belonging to the Philadelphia merchant James Vanuxem.