31From Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Hamilton, [17–18 October 1801] (Hamilton Papers)
I have reached this place, my dear Eliza, after a very pensive ride, and not a little pain at the State in which I left you. I trust you will exert yourself to vanquish it & will only look forward to our reunion which I shall try to make as speedy as possible. While I [am] about I shall think certainly of you and my dear children and with the tenderest sentiments. Adieu best of women Yrs....
32From Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Hamilton, 21 October 1801 (Hamilton Papers)
I wrote to my beloved from Rhinebeck . Yesterday Evening I arrived here and found your family generally well. Your father’s leg is not quite cured but it continues in a good way & Stringer promises that it will soon be perfectly sound. I have not, myself, been in better health for a great while, and all I want to complete my happiness is that your health should be restored. Pray take care of...
33From Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Hamilton, [25 October 1801] (Hamilton Papers)
I was much relieved, My Dear Eliza by the receipt yesterday morning of your letter of Monday last. How it came to be so long delayed, I am unable to conjecture. But the delay gave much uneasiness in consequence of the imperfect state of health in which I had left you. Thank God you were better—for indeed my Eliza you are very essential to me. Your virtues more and more endear you to me and...
34From Alexander Hamilton to Jedediah Huntington, 12 November 1801 (Hamilton Papers)
I take the liberty to ask the favour of your aid in respect to the inclosed notice from the Supreme Court of the UStates in the affair of the Schooner Peggy. It is to be delivered to the Agents of the Ship Trumball, who are Messieurs Howland and Allen and upon a copy of it an affidavit must be made before the District Judge of the UStates (who I am told resides at New London) that the original...
35From Alexander Hamilton to James McHenry, 21 November 1801 (Hamilton Papers)
The Prince Bailli Ruspoli of the order of Malta, who will deliver you this letter was strongly recommended to me by Mr. King. He appears to me a very Gentlemanlike respectable man. As such I ask for him your civilities. Among these you can do nothing more grateful to him than to give him a letter of Introduction to some friend of yours at Washington. Adieu My Dr. Mac Yrs. ever ALS , Montague...
36The Examination Number I, [17 December 1801] (Hamilton Papers)
Instead of delivering a speech to the House of Congress, at the opening of the present session, the President has thought fit to transmit a Message . Whether this has proceeded from pride or from humility, from a temperate love of reform, or from a wild spirit of innovation, is submitted to the conjectures of the curious. A single observation shall be indulged—since all agree, that he is...
37The Examination Number II, [21 December 1801] (Hamilton Papers)
The next most prominent feature in the Message, is the proposal to abandon at once all the internal revenue of the country. The motives avowed for this astonishing scheme, are that “there is reasonable ground of confidence that this part of the revenue may now be safely dispensed with—that the remaining sources will be sufficient to provide for the support of government, to pay the interest of...
38The Examination Number III, [24 December 1801] (Hamilton Papers)
Had our laws been less provident than they have been, yet must it give us a very humble idea of the talents of our President as a statesman, to find him embarrassed between an absolute abandonment of revenue, and an inconvenient accumulation of treasure. Pursuing the doctrine professed by his sect , that our public debt is a national curse which cannot too promptly be removed, and adhering to...
39The Examination Number IV, [26 December 1801] (Hamilton Papers)
It is a matter of surprise to observe a proposition to diminish the revenue, associated with intimations which appear to contemplate war. The suggestions in the Message respecting the Barbary States, plainly enough imply, that treaties are found to be too feeble cords to bind them; and that a resort to coercive means will probably be requisite to enforce a greater sense of justice towards us....
40From Alexander Hamilton to Philip Schuyler, 28 December 1801 (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York, December 28, 1801. On Saturday, January 2, 1802, Schuyler wrote to Hamilton : “Your letter of Mondays date only reached me this Morning.” Letter not found. ]
41The Examination Number V, [29 December 1801] (Hamilton Papers)
In the rage for change, or under the stimulus of a deep-rooted animosity against the former administrations, or for the sake of gaining popular favor by a profuse display of extraordinary zeal for economy, even our judiciary system has not passed unassailed. The attack here is not so open as that on the revenue; but when we are told that the states individually have “ principal care of our...
42From Alexander Hamilton to Theophilus Parsons, 31 December 1801 (Hamilton Papers)
New York, December 31, 1801. Sends depositions to Parsons, who is “of Counsel for the Underwriters in a case of Insurance in which my Brother in law Mr. Church is concerned.” Proposes that “these depositions … be used in evidence in any suit which may be instituted between him and your Clients.” ALS , Boston Public Library. Parsons, a Federalist lawyer from Newburyport, Massachusetts, had an...
43The Examination Number VI, [2 January 1802] (Hamilton Papers)
In answer to the observations in the last number it may perhaps be said that the Message meant nothing more than to condemn the recent multiplication of Federal Courts, and to bring them back to their original organization: considering it as adequate to all the purposes of the Constitution; to all the ends of justice and policy. Towards forming a right judgment on this subject, it may be...
44The Examination Number VII, [7 January 1802] (Hamilton Papers)
The next exceptionable feature in the Message, is the proposal to abolish all restriction on naturalization, arising from a previous residence. In this the President is not more at variance with the concurrent maxims of all commentators on popular governments, than he is with himself. The Notes on Virginia are in direct contradiction to the Message, and furnish us with strong reasons against...
45The Examination Number VIII, [12 January 1802] (Hamilton Papers)
Resuming the subject of our last paper we proceed to trace still farther, the consequences that must result from a too unqualified admission of foreigners, to an equal participation in our civil, and political rights. The safety of a republic depends essentially on the energy of a common National sentiment; on a uniformity of principles and habits; on the exemption of the citizens from foreign...
46The Examination Number IX, [18 January 1802] (Hamilton Papers)
The leading points of the Message have been sufficiently canvassed, and it is believed to have been fully demonstrated, that this communication is chargeable with all the faults which were imputed to it on the outset of the Examination. We have shewn that it has made or attempted to make prodigal sacrifices of constitutional energy, of sound principle, and of public interest. In the doctrine...
47The Examination Number X, [19 January 1802] (Hamilton Papers)
The same Subject continued. As to Holland being the second power which acknowledged our Independence, and made a treaty with us, a step which involved her in war with Great Britain, it was deemed proper to treat her with a marked respect. Besides this, from the time of our revolution to the present, we have had large money concerns with her people. A trusty and skilful public agent was for a...
48Draft of a Resolution for the Legislature of New York for the Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, [29 … (Hamilton Papers)
Resolved , as the sense of the Legislature, that the following amendments ought to be incorporated into the Constitution of the United States as a necessary safeguard in the choice of a President and Vice President against pernicious dissensions as the most eligible mode of obtaining a full and fair expression of the public will in such election. 1st. That Congress shall from time to time...
49Alexander Hamilton and Richard Harison to Charles Williamson, 1 February 1802 (Hamilton Papers)
Albany, February 1, 1802. Urge Williamson to avoid litigation by settling his dispute with William Hornby and Patrick Colquhoun out of court. Copy, Rochester Public Library, Rochester, New York. For background to this letter, See Hornby to H, September 15, 1801 .
50The Examination Number XI, [3 February 1802] (Hamilton Papers)
The Message observes that “in our care of the public contributions entrusted to our direction, it would be prudent to multiply barriers against the dissipation of public money, appropriating specific sums to every specific purpose, susceptible of definition; by disallowing all applications of money varying from the appropriation in object, or transcending it in amount by reducing the undefined...
51From Alexander Hamilton to Edward Livingston, 10 February [1802] (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York ] February 10 [ 1802 ]. States that he is “of Counsel” in the case of Steinbach adm United States and asks Livingston for permission to examine the witnesses “ de bene esse .” ALS , Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress. Joaquim L. Steinbach was a New York City merchant and shipowner. An entry in H’s Law Register, 1795–1804, reads: “Steinbach adsm UStates
52Remarks on the Repeal of the Judiciary Act, First Version, [11 February 1802] (Hamilton Papers)
After some pause, Gen. Hamilton rose. He began with stating his own decided opinion, that the contemplated repeal of the late act, taken in connexion with the known and avowed object of that repeal , was an unequivocal violation of the constitution in a most vital part. However, he did expect that on that point, the gentlemen present would be unanimous. Neither had he any hope that any...
53Remarks on the Repeal of the Judiciary Act, Second Version, [11 February 1802] (Hamilton Papers)
He [Hamilton] confessed with seeming sincerity, he felt little zeal on the present occasion. He could prove that to repeal the judiciary law and to with-hold the salaries of the judges, would be an infringement of the constitution. He did not intend, however, to dwell on the constitutionality of the question. He allowed that gentlemen might have different opinions concerning it. His primary...
54Remarks on the Repeal of the Judiciary Act, Third Version, [11 February 1802] (Hamilton Papers)
To these remarks General Hamilton rose again to reply—he remarked in substance that he had fostered the hope, that on this occasion, by cautiously avoiding to say any thing on the point of the constitutionality of the proposed repeal, and stating only the opinion of the New-York bar on that of its inexpediency , there would have been but one sentiment—He regretted, deeply regretted, that on...
55The Examination Number XII, [23 February 1802] (Hamilton Papers)
From the manner in which the subject was treated in the fifth and sixth numbers of The Examination, it has been doubted, whether the writer did or did not entertain a decided opinion as to the power of Congress to abolish the offices and compensations of Judges, once instituted and appointed pursuant to a law of the United States. In a matter of such high constitutional moment, it is a sacred...
56From Alexander Hamilton to the New-York Evening Post, [24 February 1802] (Hamilton Papers)
We might well be excused from taking any notice of such a writer as the author of the leading article in the Citizen of this morning; but as in one instance he has pretended to state facts, in reply to what was said in the Evening Post, respecting the opinions held in the Convention by Mr. Hamilton and by Mr. Maddison, some answer may be expected. Mr. Hamilton had been charged with holding an...
57The Examination Number XIII, [27 February 1802] (Hamilton Papers)
The advocates of the power of Congress to abolish the Judges, endeavor to deduce a presumption of intention favorable to their doctrine, from this argument—The provision concerning the tenure of office (say they) ought to be viewed as a restraint upon the Executive Department, because , to this Department belongs the power of removal; in like manner as the provision concerning the diminution...
58From Alexander Hamilton to Gouverneur Morris, [29 February 1802] (Hamilton Papers)
Your letter of the 22d is the third favour for which I am indebted to you since you left N York. Your frankness in giving me your opinion as to the expediency of an application of our bar to Congress obliges me. But you know we are not readily persuaded to think we have been wrong. Were the matter to be done over I should pursue the same course. I did not believe the measure would be useful as...
59The Examination Number XIV, [2 March 1802] (Hamilton Papers)
In the course of the debate in the Senate, much verbal criticism has been indulged; many important inferences have been attempted to be drawn from distinctions between the words shall and may . This species of discussion will not be imitated, because it is seldom very instructive or satisfactory. These terms, in particular cases, are frequently synonymous, and are imperative or permissive,...
60The Examination Number XV, [3 March 1802] (Hamilton Papers)
It is generally understood that the Essays under the Title of the Federalist, which were published at New York, while the plan of our present Federal Constitution was under the consideration of the people, were principally written by two persons James Madison, now Secretary of State, Alexander Hamilton, formerly Secretary of the Treasury. who had been members of the Convention which devised...