1From Alexander Hamilton to James Brice, 4 April 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
I was duly honored with your letter relative to the arrears of pay due to sundry Officers and Soldiers of the Maryland line of the late Army. The payments of arrears due to the lines of Virginia and North Carolina were made in the States under the special injunction of an Act of Congress which did not extend to Maryland or any other State. This circumstance will prevent the allowance of any...
2From Alexander Hamilton to Nathan Keais, 4 April 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, April 4, 1792 . On April 26, 1792, Keais wrote to Hamilton : “I this Day was Honored with the Receipt of your Letter … of the 4th.” Letter not found .]
3Meeting of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, 4 April 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
At a meeting of the Trustees of the Sinking Fund, at the house of the Vice President of the United States, on the 4th day of April, 1792, Present: The Vice President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Attorney General. Resolved , That the Secretary of the Treasury be authorised to cause to be applied so much of the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, directed to...
4From Alexander Hamilton to William Seton, 4 April 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
The post of this day brought me a letter from you. I am pained, beyond expression, at the picture you and others give me of the situation of my fellow Citizens—especially as an ignorance of the extent of the disorder renders it impossible to judge whether any adequate remedy can be applied. You may apply another 50 000 Dollars to purchases at such time as you judge it can be rendered most...
5From Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, 4 April 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
The Secretary of the Treasury presents his respects to the President of the United States. He was informed yesterday, by the Attorney General, that his opinion concerning the constitutionality of the Representation Bill was desired this morning. He now sends it with his reasons but more imperfectly stated than he could have wished—through want of time. He has never seen the bill, but from the...
6II: From Alexander Hamilton, 4 April 1792 (Washington Papers)
The Secretary of the Treasury presents his respects to the President of the United States. He was informed, yesterday, by the Attorney General, that his opinion concerning the constitutionality of the Representation Bill was desired this morning. He now sends it with his reasons but more imperfectly stated than he could have wished—through want of time. He has never seen the bill, but from the...
7III: From Thomas Jefferson, 4 April 1792 (Washington Papers)
The Constitution has declared that “Representatives & direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers,” that “the number of representatives shall not exceed one for every 30,000, but each state shall have at least one representative; & until such enumeration shall be made, the state of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse 3. Massachusets...
8IV: From Edmund Randolph, 4 April 1792 (Washington Papers)
The attorney general of the U.S. has the honor of reporting to the President of the U.S., on the representation-bill, as follows: The points, which involve the question of constitutionality, are three: The bill does not announce in terms the principle of proceeding, either in the establishment of the total number of 120, or its apportionment among the states. Some principle, however, it must...
9V: Tobias Lear’s Notes on the Opinions of the Cabinet, c.4 April 1792 (Washington Papers)
The opinion of the Secretary of State declares the bill unconstitutional—for it does not apportion the Representatives among the states strictly according to their numbers. It provides for fractions—which the Constitution never intended. It leaves the dertermination of apportioning the Representatives without any fixed principle—which may hereafter be productive of great evil, and admits of...
10To George Washington from Bryan Fairfax, 4 April 1792 (Washington Papers)
Your Favor of the 19th of March I received in due time, and have written to Mr Potts, to inform him, that no Money had been received—that there had been a great Remissness in the Prosecution of the Suit—that a few days before I had received Your Letter I had been speaking to a Gentleman of the Law whom I engaged last Summer to join with the one who had been before employed in the Room of one...