21From Alexander Hamilton to Colonel Timothy Pickering, [7 August 1781] (Hamilton Papers)
In the necessaries delivered for my corps, two days since, there were only two wall tents which were the number mentioned and required for the company officers. The field officers therefore are unprovided for. Will you be so good as to give an explicit order for two more? We also want a Regimental orderly book and some regimental paper. Will you be pleased to include these articles in your...
22From Alexander Hamilton to Colonel Timothy Pickering, 7 September 1782 (Hamilton Papers)
I this day received your letter of the 20th. of August. Mr. Morris has advised me of the Bills you desired and directed my purchasing them together with his notes and the bank notes with what money shall come in to my hands on public account. They are now beginning to collect the tax imposed for the use of the United States though I can as yet form no judgment with what success or expedition....
23From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, 7 January 1785 (Hamilton Papers)
New York, January 7, 1785. “I am mortified in being obliged to acknowlege to you my neglect of the business you committed to my care for your friend Mr. Holt. … I have applied to Mrs. Holt. I find she has some time since taken out letters of Administration with the will annexed during the absence of the Executors; a matter in which she never could have found any difficulty. It would indeed be...
24From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, 19 November 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
In the Estimate laid before Congress at their last Sessions, I included as an Anticipation of the late Superintendant of Finance the Amount of a draft issued by him in your favor on the late Receiver of Taxes for the State of New York for Fifty thousand Dollars no part of which appears to have been paid. The circumstances attending this Anticipation not being sufficiently known by the...
25From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, [13 May 1790] (Hamilton Papers)
The offer of your service as successor to Mr. Duer reached me in due time. I can with truth assure you, that you were one of a very small number who held a competition in my judgment and that had personal considerations alone influenced me, I could with difficulty have preferred another. Reasons of a peculiar nature, however, have determined my choice towards Mr. Tench Coxe, who to great...
26From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, 23 August 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, August 23, 1791. On August 26, 1791, Pickering wrote to Hamilton : “I have received … your letter of the 23d instant.” Letter not found. ] Pickering had been appointed Postmaster General on August 12, 1791.
27From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, 12 March 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
I have received the communication which you made to me with respect to a a part of the contingent expences of the general post office, and on comparing the sum you mention with the charges for similar objects, which have been necessarily sustained in this department, and in the public service in general I cannot perceive any thing in the arrangement you propose, but what appears consistent...
28From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, 2 January 1795 (Hamilton Papers)
Treasury Department , January 2, 1795. This letter is essentially the same as that which Hamilton wrote to Edmund Randolph on the same date. Copy, Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford. On January 2, 1795, Pickering succeeded Henry Knox as Secretary of War ( Executive Journal , I Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate (Washington, 1828), I. , 168–69). For the differences between...
29From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, 9 January 1795 (Hamilton Papers)
I have the honor to transmit to you, a Copy of a letter from the Commissioner of the Revenue to me, on the subject of Whiskey to be purchased for the use of the Army in the present year. It has been the custom heretofore, to receive the Whiskey at the Posts of Pittsburg, Whelen and Fort Washington—and as there are no places so convenient for the purpose, I would suggest the policy of...
30From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, 19 January 1795 (Hamilton Papers)
I have recd. your letter of this day. The estimate of the sum requisite for the Jersey Militia greatly exceeds what I had supposed to be necessary. There are two dangers attending so considerable advances on account without adequate data to guide—One that a good deal more money may be issued from the Treasury than is necessary with the inconvenience of a difficult & perhaps dilatory after...
31From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, 20 January 1795 (Hamilton Papers)
I have delayed placing the money required by your letter of the 8th. instant, in the Treasurers hands, upon the ground of the doubts intimated in my letter of yesterday concerning the New-Jersey troops. I observe that the first months pay roll is likely to be a bad criterion, as the Troops were successively much diminished before they left the field. I am ready however to do what to you on...
32[From Alexander Hamilton to William Bradford, Timothy Pickering, Edmund Randolph, and Oliver Wolcott, Junior], [28 July … (Hamilton Papers)
Hamilton, History John C. Hamilton, Life of Alexander Hamilton, a History of the Republic of the United States of America (Boston, 1879). , VI, 243. John Church Hamilton states that H wrote to members of George Washington’s cabinet on this date. No further evidence of this correspondence, however, has been found.
33From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, 20 November 1795 (Hamilton Papers)
I duly received your letter of the 17th. which needed no apology as it will always give me pleasure to comply with any wish of yours connected with the public service, or your personal satisfaction. Good men, in the idea of your appointment to the office of Secretary of State, will find many consolations for your removal from one in which your usefulness was well understood. I wish it was easy...
34From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, 26 December 1795 (Hamilton Papers)
Mr. Cutting has given to me a perusal of his papers, respecting his agency in revealing our seamen from British impress. He wished my opinion professionally respecting the validity of his claim, which I declined to give, because it would contradict certain maxims I have prescribed to myself with regard to public questions pending while I was part of the administration. But there are reasons...
35From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, [10 May 1796] (Hamilton Papers)
Inclosed is a letter which I will thank you to hand to its destination. While I have my pen in my hand, give me leave to mention a particular subject to you. Mr. Pinckney, it is said, desires to return to the U States. In this case a successor will be wanted. If we had power to make a man for the purpose, we could not imagine a fitter than Mr. King . He is tired of the Senate & I fear will...
36From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, [21 July 1796] (Hamilton Papers)
I communicated your letter to Mr. Jay & now give you our joint sense. Considering the nature of the transaction and what must necessarily have been presumed to be the intent, & that the authority is on a public subject & between two nations, we think that a decision by two out of three commissioners must be sufficient. We know nothing but an immediate personal interest in property which may be...
37From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, 21 September 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
Some time since Mr. McCormick spoke to me about the case of his Kinsman Mr. Pitcairn whom Mr. Monroe had prevented from exercising the functions of Consul. I can, in justice, inform you that this Gentleman is well considered in our City and that his political principles have been understood to be very friendly to the French Revolution; nor have we any doubt that his sentiments towards our own...
38From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, [23 January 1797] (Hamilton Papers)
I remember that very early in the day & prior to any act of Great Britain the French passed a decree violating with regard to all the neutral powers the principle of free ships free goods & I think making provisions liable to seizure. This decree was afterwards rescinded as to America—then again revived & then again revoked. I want copies of these decrees for a particular purpose useful to the...
39From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, [6 February 1797] (Hamilton Papers)
I duly received your letter of the 23 of Jany with its inclosure, for which I am much obliged to you. I have read it with great pleasure. It is a substantial satisfactory paper will do good in this Country & as to France I presume events will govern there. Is it not proper to call upon the Merchants to furnish your Department with statements & proofs of the spoliations which we have suffered...
40From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, [10 February 1797] (Hamilton Papers)
If I recollect right, Chancellor Livingston while Secy for foreign Affairs reported a censure upon Our Commissioners who made the peace with G Britain for not obeying their instructions with regard to France. Will you favour me in confidence with the real state of this business? I was at the time a member of Congress. It was immediately on the arrival of the provisional articles. I trust my...
41From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, [22 March 1797] (Hamilton Papers)
It is now ascertained that Mr Pinckney has been refused and with circumstances of indignity. What is to be done? The share I have had in the public administration added to my interest as a Citizen make me extremely anxious that at this delicate Crisis a course of conduct exactly proper may be adopted. I offer to your consideration without ceremony what appears to me such a course. First. I...
42From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, 29 March 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
The post of yesterday brought me your letter of the day before. I regret that the idea of a Commission extraordinary appears of doubtful propriety. For after very mature reflection I am intirely convinced of its expediency. I do not understand the passage you cite as excluding the reception of a special extraordinary Minister but of an ordinary resident Minister. It seems impossible that the...
43From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, [1 April 1797] (Hamilton Papers)
I have received your letter of the 30th. with the statement inclosed. I do not believe that its publication would have any influence upon the question of a rupture with France; but yet, as it seems that those who surround the President are not agreed in the matter—as an opinion is industriously circulated that too much fuel has been added by the publications of the Government—as it is...
44From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, [11 May 1797] (Hamilton Papers)
On my return here I found your letter of the 29th . The sitting of a Court of Chancery and important business there have unavoidably delayed a reply. Now, it must be much more cursory than I could wish. As to the mission, in some shape or other, the more I have reflected upon it, the more has it appeared to me indispensable. To accomplish, with certainty, a principal object of it—the silencing...
45From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, 13 May 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
Mr. Goodhue takes on with him a Boston paper, the printer of which states that he has obtained by a Ship just arrived, a London Paper of March 24th; mentionning in positive terms an account just received from the Emperor that in consequence of a combination between Prussia & France he is driven to the necessity of making an immediate peace for the safety of the Empire —that in consequence of...
46From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, [27 August 1797] (Hamilton Papers)
Sometime since I received the inclosed being directions concerning measures requisite to be pursued to obtain indemnification in cases of Captures by British Cruisers. I laid it by in haste & have since overlooked it. I do not recollect to have seen it in the news papers & yet it appeared to me necessary that it should be so. As it came to me from some one of our public characters in London, I...
47From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, [1 January 1798] (Hamilton Papers)
By some unaccountable delay the inclosed which came in a letter to me has been extremely postponed. I hope not injuriously for the interest of the party concerned. Do me the favour to acknowlege its receipt. Yrs. with esteem & regard ALS , Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston. For background to this letter, see the Marquis de Fleury to H, May 28, 1796 ; Oliver Wolcott, Jr., to H, September...
48From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, 17 March 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
I make no apology for offering you my opinion on the present state of our affairs. I look upon the Question before the Public as nothing less than whether we shall maintain our Independence and I am prepared to do it in every event and at every hazard. I am therefore of opinion that our Executive should come forth on this basis. I wish to see a temperate , but grave solemn and firm...
49From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, [23 March 1798] (Hamilton Papers)
I understand that the Senate have called upon the President for papers. Nothing certainly can be more proper; and such is the universal opinion here. And it appears to me essential that so much, as possibly can, be communicated. Confidence will otherwise be wanting—and criticism will ensue which it will be difficult to repel. The observation is that Congress are called upon to discharge the...
50From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, 27 March 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
I have this moment received your two favours of the 25th. I am delighted with their contents; but it is impossible for me to reply particularly to them so as to reach you tomorrow as you desire. I will therefore confine myself to one point. I am against going immediately into alliance with Great Britain. It is my opinion that her interest will ensure us her cooperation, to the extent of her...