1To Alexander Hamilton from Colonel Otho H. Williams, 30 August 1780 (Hamilton Papers)
About the 23d. Instant I wrote my Friend Harrison from Salisbury giving him a very hasty, particular account of the Defeat of Genl. Gates’s Army at Suttons near Campden the 16th Instant. We were truly unfortunate and compleatly routed. The infamous Cowardice of the Militia of Virginia and North Carolina gave the Enemy every advantage over our few Regular troops whose firm opposition and...
2To Alexander Hamilton from Otho H. Williams, 24 September 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
The amount of the duties which have accrued in the district of Baltimore, from the 10th day of August to the 23d. Instant inclusive is two thousand six hundred and Seventy pounds, Sixteen Shillings and four pence according to the documents in my Office Vizt. Cash on hand £ 287.18.6 Bonds due @ 4 Months 1176.16.2 Ditto 6 Months 1206. 1.8 2670.16.4 Your Obedient Humble Servant ALS , Office...
3To Alexander Hamilton from Otho H. Williams, 8 October 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
I have received your Letter (Circular) of the 22d. ulto., and am to inform you that, from Cape Henry to the extreme branches of the Susquehanna, all inclusive, there is not, that I ever heard of, a single Light House, Buoy, Beacon or other artificial object for navigators to be governed by. Consequently there is no superintendant; no Expence. The pilots of the Chesapeak for this State are...
There is a species of information, which it will be convenient to you to obtain and which will be of important use to the Government: it respects the mode of Navigating of the several States; and of Foreign Nations. With a view to which I have framed a number of Queeries, to which as speedily as the requisite enquiries can be made, I request answers. Thought I do not consider it as a part of...
5To Alexander Hamilton from Otho H. Williams, 23 October 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
Your circular letter of the 2d. October Inst came to hand the 20th. and I will observe the contents as timely as possible. The difficulties that have occurred in the Execution of the laws respecting the Customs have been infinite, and present themselves daily. The System itself is the most complicated and embarrassing of anything that has employed my attention and the Want of Official forms...
6To Alexander Hamilton from Otho H. Williams, 26 October 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
In my letter of the 23d. Instant I took the Liberty to inclose a sketch of Journal entries as I now make them in my office for the purpose of keeping the public accounts. As that sketch was done in some haste, a further explanation may be necessary to its recommendation. A thousand causes combine to render the adjustment of the duties on a Cargo of Merchandize imported, immediately after the...
7To Alexander Hamilton from Otho H. Williams, 28 October 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
Baltimore, October 28, 1789. Acknowledges receipt of Hamilton’s “letter of the 15th. Instant, inclosing queries respecting the modes of Navigating.” ALS , Office of the Secretary, United States Treasury Department. “Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs,” October 15, 1789 .
8To Alexander Hamilton from Otho H. Williams, 29 October 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
Baltimore, October 29, 1789. Asks for a ruling on the cases of the British ship Polly and the American ship Sarah . ADfS , RG 53, “Old Correspondence,” Baltimore Collector, National Archives.
9To Alexander Hamilton from Otho H. Williams, 7 November 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
Baltimore, November 7, 1789. “With this letter, I inclose my Weekly return.… You will … greatly facilitate the Work and insure uniformity therein (I presume in every other Office as well as mine) if you will please to order printed forms to be furnished.… It may be consistent for me to mention that no appointments of Officers in the Department of the Customs reached this place before Saturday...
10To Alexander Hamilton from Otho H. Williams, 14 November 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
Baltimore, November 14, 1789. “Herewith I will transmit you my Weekly Return, in which you will notice that I have, in part of monies received, One thousand dollars in bank Notes; having exchanged Twenty three dollars, and forty-four Cents Specie to make the sum nett. The Notes are all small and their number makes it a business of too much hurry, and subjection to error to prepare them on...
11From Alexander Hamilton to Otho H. Williams, 18 November 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
You[r] letter of the 7th of November duly came to hand. The mode you have adopted for the delivery of the Bank Notes is under the circumstances the proper one. In mine of the 20th of October I directed the Quarterly Returns to be made up to the last of September. Of course those after that day will terminate at the end of every subsequent three Months; that is to say the next after that to the...
12To Alexander Hamilton from Otho H. Williams, 19 November 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
Baltimore, November 19, 1789. Encloses for Samuel Meredith one thousand dollars in “the previous parts of the Notes mentioned in the within list.” ALS , RG 53, “Old Correspondence,” Baltimore Collector, National Archives.
13From Alexander Hamilton to Otho H. Williams, 25 November 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
The last post brought me your letter of the 14th instant. The bill you inclosed will be presented by Mr Meredith for payment. Having drawn upon you for nearly all the Specie in your hands, I should have directed it to be returned, did I not Suppose that this might produce inconvenience to the parties. You are too sensible of the necessity of conformity to general regulations to make it...
14From Alexander Hamilton to Otho H. Williams, [25 November 1789] (Hamilton Papers)
I write you officially by this post; but there is a passage in your letter about which I cannot forbear saying something in a private letter. After remarking on the occasion which a departure from instructions might give to an inference that the accommodation of private interest might be the inducement, You add, “I should not mention the latter, if intimations of precautions (which are...
15To Alexander Hamilton from Otho H. Williams, 2 December 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
Baltimore, December 2, 1789. “Your private letter of the 25 Ulto. by the post, came safe to hand. The Words in my Letter, which you have taken Notice of, were intended merely as a reason for the appology which a deviation from the mode of remittance prescribed required; I regret that they escaped me, because they conveyed an allusion which was not designed as a reference to ‘any expression of...
16To Alexander Hamilton from Otho H. Williams, 3 December 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
Baltimore, December 3, 1789. Sends abstracts of all Maryland laws “related to Imposts , and Tonnage .” Promises to send all “Acts which relate to other branches of the revenue.” ALS , RG 53, “Old Correspondence,” Baltimore Collector, National Archives. This letter is in reply to “Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs,” November 25, 1789 .
17To Alexander Hamilton from Otho H. Williams, 3 December 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
Baltimore, December 3, 1789. “… not knowing whether it may not be expedient for you to draw for the Specie reported in my last weekly return, I have omitted, to remit the Bank Notes . If no Warrant from you should be presented in two days; I will remit the bank Notes by the next post.…” ALS , RG 53, “Old Correspondence,” Baltimore Collector, National Archives.
18To Alexander Hamilton from Otho H. Williams, 18 December 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
Baltimore, December 18, 1789. Acknowledges receipt of Hamilton’s circular letter of November 30. Discusses difficulty of reconciling exemption of tonnage charges and fees for vessels of less than twenty tons with Section 23 of “An Act for Registering and Clearing Vessels, Regulating the Coasting Trade, and for other purposes.” Again asks “ Whether two thirds of a Dollar be payable to the...
19To Alexander Hamilton from Otho H. Williams, 31 December 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
Baltimore, December 31, 1789. Plans to send to Hamilton copies of Maryland’s revenue laws, information “respecting the Commerce and Shipping of this state,” and the answers to Hamilton’s “demands upon the subject of the Impost Laws.” ADfS , RG 53, “Old Correspondence,” Baltimore Collector, National Archives. H had requested these laws in “Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the...
20To Alexander Hamilton from Otho H. Williams, 25 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
Baltimore, January 25, 1790. Discusses the official value of the rix-dollars of Denmark, Sweden, and various German states. ALS , Personal Miscellany, Otho H. Williams, Library of Congress.
21From Alexander Hamilton to Otho H. Williams, 30 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
Treasury Department, January 30, 1790. Informs Williams of regulations on payment of invalid pensions. LS , Columbia University Libraries. This is a duplicate of the letter sent to Jedediah Huntington on the same date.
22To Alexander Hamilton from Otho H. Williams, 2 February 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
I had, before the receipt of your circular letter of the 20th. Ulto, communicated to you “a statement of the amount of the emoluments which have accrued to the officers of this port respectively, under the existing regulations, up to the first of Jany.” I have communicated your letter to the Naval officer, and the Surveyor; and, that you may have the greater reliance on the statement, I will...
23Enclosure: [Abstract of Fees and Compensations Received and Paid], [2 February 1790] (Hamilton Papers)
To the Collector and the Naval Officer D. C to 12 September 1789. 233.23⅓ 17 October 364.26⅔ 3d. Decemr. 547.53⅓ 31 do. 273.26⅔ 709.15 } Dols. Cents 709.15 1,418.30 Surveyor to 24 August 9.66⅔ 2. Septr. 14.00.
24Enclosure: [Estimate of Emoluments of Collectors Office], [2 February 1790] (Hamilton Papers)
Upon a presumption the propriety of which ought to be admitted, that the Importations of the 10th. of August to 31 Decmr. are equal to half the business of the Year at this port, a just estimate of the emoluments of the Collectors Office will appear thus. in addn. 6.51 The Gross amount of duties is 56,995.62½ 57,002.13½ Deductions on UStates bottoms 3,268.98. } 293.34
25To Alexander Hamilton from Otho H. Williams, 6 February 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
Baltimore, February 6, 1790. Will “cheerfully execute the pleasure of the President respecting the payment of pensions to Invalids in this State.” Transmits “Account Current against the United States, with Bond account; both accompanied with Notes to explain the circumstance of their disagreeing from the Weekly returns heretofore transmitted.” ALS , RG 53, “Old Correspondence,” Baltimore...
26From Alexander Hamilton to Otho H. Williams, 8 February 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
I inclose you the extract of a letter from the Collector of the District of Chester. As I recollect nothing which authorises the practice he speaks of, I conclude there must be some misapprehension; but it is proper I should communicate the matter to you, and understand from you, what can have given rise to the representation. I remain, Sir, Your obedt. Servt. LS , Columbia University...
27To Alexander Hamilton from Otho H. Williams, 13 February 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
Baltimore, February 13, 1790. Discusses problems arising under Sections 7, 12, and 22 of “An Act for Registering and Clearing Vessels, Regulating the Coasting Trade, and for other purposes.” ADf , RG 53, “Old Correspondence,” Baltimore Collector, National Archives. 1 Stat. The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America (Boston, 1845). 55–65 (September 1, 1789).
28From Alexander Hamilton to Otho H. Williams, 15 February 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
Your favour of the 18th. of December duly came to hand. With regard to the difficulty of reconciling the total exemption of Vessels, under twenty tons burthen from tonnage, with the clause you quote from the 23d. Section: you have yourself given the true solution. The word such must be understood. Vessels above Twenty tons are spoken of in the first part of the section and must be supposed to...
29To Alexander Hamilton from Otho H. Williams, 20 February 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
Baltimore, February 20, 1790. Wishes “to know in what manner, and at what rate” the gauger is to be paid “for ascertaining the quantity of liquors, in bottles.” AL , RG 53, “Old Correspondence,” Baltimore Collector, National Archives.
30To Alexander Hamilton from Otho H. Williams, 3 March 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
Baltimore, March 3, 1790. States that in the Treasury circular of February 17, 1790, there is a discrepancy in the calculation of the discount for prompt payment of customs duties. AL , RG 53, “Old Correspondence,” Baltimore Collector, National Archives. The letter is incomplete.