Alexander Hamilton Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-03-02-0553

From Alexander Hamilton to Richard Varick, [1 September 1786]

To Richard Varick

[New York, September 1, 1786]

Mrs. Hamilton insists on my dining with her to day as this is the day of departure1 and you (who are not a prophane batchelor like Benson)2 will know that in such a case implicit obedience on my part is proper. This deprives me of the pleasure of dining with you.

Yr. friend & serv

A Hamilton

ALS, Mr. William N. Dearborn, Nashville, Tennessee.

1On this date H left to attend the Annapolis Convention to which he had been appointed a commissioner by the New York legislature on May 5, 1786. The Convention was scheduled to meet on the first Monday in September at Annapolis, both the place and the date having been chosen by the Virginia commissioners. Annapolis was selected, James Madison said, because “It was thought prudent to avoid the neighborhood of Congress and the large commercial towns, in order to disarm the adversaries to the object of insinuations of influence from either of these quarters” (Madison to Thomas Jefferson, March 18, 1786, Letters and Other Writings of James Madison [Philadelphia, 1867], I, 225–26).

After stopping in Philadelphia, H reached Annapolis on or before September 8.

2Egbert Benson.

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