From Alexander Hamilton to Edward Carrington, 21 March 1791
To Edward Carrington
[Philadelphia, March 21, 1791. “The compensation annexed to that office1 is to consist of a Salary of One Thousand dollars per Annum and one per Cent of the product of the duties on the Spirits which shall be distilled within your district.… The subdivision of your district into surveys of Inspection has been deferred by the President, to be done, in the course of his journey. He will write to you from Georgetown fixing a period at which you are to meet him at Richmond.… The law2 contemplates three descriptions of Officers; a Supervisor, who is to have chief direction within a district, Inspectors, who under him are to manage the business within certain Surveys.” Letter not found.]3
LS, sold by the American Art Association, November 24, 1924, Lot 331.
1. Carrington had been appointed supervisor of the District of Virginia.
2. See Section 4 of “An Act repealing, after the last day of June next, the duties heretofore laid upon Distilled Spirits imported from abroad, and laying others in their stead; and also upon Spirits distilled within the United States, and for appropriating the same” ( 199–200 [March 3, 1791]).
3. Text taken from an extract in the dealer’s catalogue.