Alexander Hamilton Papers
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Thomas Jefferson to Alexander Hamilton and Henry Knox, [19 June 1793]

Thomas Jefferson to Alexander Hamilton
and Henry Knox

[Philadelphia, June 19, 1793]

Th: Jefferson has the honor to inclose to the Secretaries of the Treasury & war, draughts of two letters of this day’s date to the Ministers of France & England.1 He confesses himself not satisfied with the latter altogether, as it has somewhat of the appearance of evasion. The gentlemen will be pleased to propose any alteration either may desire, handing the letters round to him to be finally submitted to the President.2

AL, letterpress copy, Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress; copy, Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress.

1Jefferson wrote two letters to George Hammond on this date, one concerning French privateers, the other dealing with the retention of the western posts by the British government (ALS, letterpress copies, Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress). It is uncertain which of these letters was submitted to H and Knox. The letter to Edmond Charles Genet enclosed for H’s and Knox’s approval is identified by Paul Leicester Ford as a draft of a letter from Jefferson to the French Minister concerning privateers which contains suggested alterations in H’s handwriting (Ford, Writings of Jefferson description begins Paul Leicester Ford, ed., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (New York, 1892–1899). description ends , VI, 313). It should be noted, however, that the manuscript of the letter cited by Ford, which is in the Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress, is undated, and it appears from the contents that it was written after June 19. A letter to Genet concerning the French debt (ALS, letterpress copy, Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress) is the only letter noted by Jefferson in his “Summary Journal of Letters” as having been written to Genet on this date (Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress).

2H and Knox each wrote at the bottom of Jefferson’s letter “Approved.”

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