From George Washington to Alexander Hamilton, 21 November 1796
To Alexander Hamilton
Philadelphia 21st Novr 1796
My dear Sir
Having written to you on Saturday the 11th instant (accompanying it with enclosures)1 without hearing any thing from you in the course of last week, or by the Mail of this day, I begin to have uneasy sensations for the fate of my letter. To this cause, & to my solicitude to have the Papers returned, you must ascribe the trouble of receiving this letter.
If my last got safe to your hands, & indisposition, business, or any other cause should have prevented your looking into the Papers; I wish, even under these circumstances, that they may be returned to me immediately; for I have no copies, and have but little time to digest, and to put the several matters therein contained into form, that the whole may be revised again and again, before it is presented.2 Among these Papers do not forget to place Sir John Sinclairs letter to me, as I am desirous of giving it an acknowledgment.3
You will perceive by the publication of Mr Adets letter to Colo. Pickering (in Claypools Gazette of this date) that the French Government are disposed to play a high game.4 If other proofs were wanting, the time, and indelicate mode & stile, of the present attack on the Executive,5 exhibited in this laboured performance—which is as unjust as it is voluminous—would leave no doubt as to the primary object it had in view;6 but what consequences it may ultimately produce, is not so accessible to human foresight, as it may depend upon various contingencies & events. I have not seen the writer7 since my return to the City8—nor is it presumable I shall do it under present circumstances, unless courted on my part.
The letter of Mr Adet having been committed to the keeping of Mr Bache, by him—Extracts having already been given to the public—and other parts promised to be eked out (as would, it is presumed, subserve the purposes in view) induced an opinion that it was best to give the entire letter to the Public from Authority, and without delay, that the well informed part of the Community might judge for themselves.9
The necessity of bringing the matter fully before Congress is now rendered indispensible—and through that Medium it is presumed it will make its way to the Public with proper explanations.10 I am, as you know me to be, always and sincerely Your Affectionate
Go: Washington
P.S. Since writing the above, your letter of the 19th with its enclosures have been sent to me. accept my thanks for them. On account of the other matter contained in this letter I forward it—being written. Your sentimts in this interesting crisis will always be thankfully received.
ALS, DLC: Hamilton Papers; ADfS, DLC:GW. GW wrote “Private” on the cover of the ALS.
1. In 1796, 11 Nov. fell on a Friday. GW probably refers to his most recent letter to Hamilton of Saturday, 12 Nov., which enclosed communications from cabinet members containing suggestions for GW’s annual message to Congress (see n.2 to that document).
2. For the final version of GW’s annual message to Congress, see GW to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 7 December. Hamilton had been preparing a draft of that speech (see Hamilton to GW, 10 Nov., and n.1 to that document).
3. GW refers to John Sinclair’s letter to him of 10 Sept., which GW enclosed with his letter to Hamilton of 2 Nov. (see n.10 to the latter document). GW acknowledged Sinclair’s letter when he wrote him on 10 December.
4. In his letter of 15 Nov. to Secretary of State Timothy Pickering, Pierre-Auguste Adet alleged that the United States had violated its treaties with France, and announced the suspension of his duties as French minister to the United States (see Hamilton to GW, 19 Nov., and notes 5 and 6 to that document). GW was mistaken about the newspaper that published Adet’s letter; the Frenchman’s lengthy missive appeared in Andrew Brown’s The Philadelphia Gazette & Universal Daily Advertiser for 21 Nov., and was not published in Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia) until 28 November. Pickering also had anticipated the publication of Adet’s letter in Brown’s newspaper on 21 Nov. (see Pickering to George Washington Craik, 19 Nov., and n.3 to that document).
David C. Claypoole (c.1757–1849) published Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser from 1796 to 1800. A longtime newspaper editor, Claypoole previously was involved in the publication of Philadelphia papers such as The Pennsylvania Packet (1780–90), The Mail; or, Claypoole’s Daily Advertiser (1791–93), and Dunlap and Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser (1793–95).
5. Following this word on the ADfS, GW wrote and then crossed out “government.”
6. Adet’s letter of 15 Nov., similar to his earlier letter to Pickering of 27 Oct., was published in an effort to influence the presidential election (see GW to Hamilton, 2 Nov., and n.2 to that document; and Hamilton to GW, 19 Nov., and n.5 to that document).
7. On the ADfS, GW wrote the preceding word above “Gentleman,” which he had struck out.
8. GW had returned to Philadelphia on 31 October.
9. The Gazette of the United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser for 16 Nov. printed an item headed “Remarks of the Aurora,” which was taken from an issue of Benjamin Franklin Bache’s Aurora General Advertiser. That item reads: “Mr Adet’s note [of 15 Nov.] communicating this determination [his recall] has been handed to us for publication. Its length prevents its immediate publication; but to satisfy the impatience of the public we shall give in a day or two a sketch of its contents. The dissatisfaction of the French government at the conduct of our executive … is the ground of the measure.” The same paper (Gazette of the United States) for 18 Nov. reported: “The Aurora of yesterday, after giving us citizen Adet’s valedictory, tells us that he has sent a note addressed to the Secretary of State [that of 15 Nov.], for publication, that its length prevented its insertion, but that the Aurora would give a sketch of it.” On 18 Nov., the Aurora published a summary of Adet’s letter, which was reprinted the same day in the Gazette of the United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser. For other extracts of Adet’s 15 Nov. letter that were taken from the Aurora, see Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy, or Worcester Gazette, 30 Nov. 1796.
In a letter of 26 Nov. to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the U.S. minister to France, Pickering wrote: “I ought to remark, that mr Adet’s long Note of the 15th of November was announced by mr Bache … on the morning after I received the original, as having been transmitted to him (certainly by mr Adet) for publication; but that its great length would prevent its immediate appearance. He however promised a sketch of its contents. This sketch was published. To prevent the misconceptions which might arise from a partial view of it … it was thought best not to wait his publication of the whole. A translation was therefore made from the original, and immediately published in the newspapers, from whence it has been printed in the pamphlet now inclosed, together with his former note and my answer” (DNA: RG 59, Diplomatic and Consular Instructions, 1791–1801).
By December, Bache printed a pamphlet titled Notes adressées par le Citoyen ADET … au Secrétaire d’Etat des Etats-Unis (Philadelphia, 1796). The tract presented, in French with accompanying English translations, Adet’s 27 Oct. and 15 Nov. letters to Pickering and other related documents. The Aurora General Advertiser (Philadelphia) for 17 Dec. announced the pamphlet’s publication at Bache’s “Office.”
10. GW later submitted to Congress Pickering’s letter of 16 Jan. 1797 to Pinckney, which countered Adet’s charges (see GW to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 19 Jan. 1797, and n.4 to that document; see also GW to Hamilton, 3 Nov., and n.1 to that document).