Alexander Hamilton Papers
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Enclosure: John Donnaldson to Thomas Mifflin, [1 June 1791]

[Enclosure]
John Donnaldson to Thomas Mifflin2

[Philadelphia, June 1, 1791]

Sir

As the time for subscribing the State Certificates to the loan of the United States has arrived, I think it my duty to submit to the consideration of your Excellency a plan of arrangement that may probably expedite the business & furnish the proper checks to the State Officer with but little trouble to the Creditors of this State intitled to the benefit of the Act of the 9th April last.3

The form already prescribed by the Treasury of the United States requires that such State Certificates proposed to be loaned shall be particularly described as to number, date, payee, period to which interest hath been paid & by whom loaned.

In addition to which I beg leave to propose:

That the Secretary to the Treasury be requested to direct That the Certificates to be issued for the proportional part of said loan in 3 ⅌ Cent & deferred debt, express by endorsement or otherwise the number of the receipt given at the time of subscribing.

That the Creditors holding said receipts to enable them to receive the compensation proposed by the Act of the 9th of April must produce the said receipt to this office where they shall be credited (in Books to be kept for the purpose) with the proportion of 3 ⅌ Cent & deferred debt on which they will be entitled to receive a further allowance from the State & on presenting the Certificates of the United States for the same they shall receive by themselves or their Attornies a Certificate or Certificates payable at the Treasury agreeably to said Act.4

I am with great respect &c.

J.D.

Tho. Mifflin Esq.
Governor

2LC, Division of Public Records, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

3“An Act Granting Relief to Certain Creditors of the State and for Repealing Part of an Act, Entituled ‘An Act for Furnishing the Quota of This State Toward Paying the Annual Interest of the Debts of the United States, and for Funding and Paying the Interest of the Public Debts of This State’” (Pennsylvania Statutes description begins James T. Mitchell and Henry Flanders, eds., The Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania from 1682 to 1801 (Harrisburg, 1896–1908). description ends , XIV, 76–79).

4The Pennsylvania act of April 9, 1791, provided in part “That every creditor of this state, who shall subscribe to the said loan, proposed by congress … shall, besides the certificate or certificates which such creditor is thereupon entitled to have and receive from the United States,… be also entitled to have and receive from the comptroller-general and register-general, or other proper officers, who are by law authorized to issue certificates for claims against the commonwealth, certificates [pur]porting that the state stands pledged, from the first of January next, to pay six per cent. interest, annually, on that part of the subscribed debt which is termed the deferred debt, until the United States shall make provision for the payment of the said interest, and also that the state stands further pledged to pay an additional interest of three per cent. annually, from the first day of January next, on that part of the subscribed debt which bears an interest of three per cent., which said three per cent. shall continue to be paid, half yearly, by the state treasurer, unless the United States shall at any time, hereafter, increase the rate of interest of the said three per cent. stock; in which case the interest to be paid by the state shall be proportionately reduced, and the said six per cent. interest on that part termed the deferred debt, shall continue to be paid, half yearly, until the United States shall provide for the payment of the interest on the said deferred debt; and the said last mentioned certificate or certificates the said comptroller and register-general, or other proper officers aforesaid, are hereby authorized and directed to issue in like form and manner as other public certificates are issued, upon the application of every such creditor, and satisfactory proof being given, that the subscription to the said loan, proposed by congress as aforesaid, has been made and effected according to the provisions, true intent and meaning of this act” (Pennsylvania Statutes description begins James T. Mitchell and Henry Flanders, eds., The Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania from 1682 to 1801 (Harrisburg, 1896–1908). description ends , XIV, 76–77).

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