1To John Adams from Richard Peters, 28 May 1789 (Adams Papers)
Until I met with your Letter to Day I could not conceive I had been so remiss as not before this Time to have acknowledged the Favour of it. It lay in Town for some Days & I was mortified at not receiving it soon enough to pay the wished for Attention to M r Beal who left the Letter at a Friend’s House in the City & tho’ I made every Enquiry after that Gentleman I had not the Pleasure of...
2To John Adams from Richard Peters, 15 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
I am honoured with yours of the 5 th. instant I thank you for your kind & polite Offers of Hospitality. Experience has convinced me of your Friendship on this Head— I find from the Reflexions occasioned by the just Observations in your Letter that I have expected too much & am therefore not entitled to the Right of complaining under Dissappointment. Tho’ placed in a new Situation, we are the...
3To Alexander Hamilton from Richard Peters, 16 September 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
[ September 16, 1789. On October 11, 1789, Hamilton wrote to Peters : “I duly received yours of the 16 of September.” Letter not found. ] Peters, who had served as secretary and president of the Board of War during the American Revolution, was speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly when this letter was written. He had recently declined the office of comptroller of the Treasury. In April, 1792,...
4To Alexander Hamilton from Richard Peters, 25 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
I should sooner have acknowledged the Reciept of your kind Letter respecting Mr Smith but I hope not to draw you into any useless Correspondence when your Hands must be full of Matters of more general Consequence. I hoped to get Mr. S. employed here & had nearly succeeded but his Friends were culpably sure of Success & by a sudden Compromise he lost the Appointment of Treasurer to the State by...
5To Alexander Hamilton from Richard Peters, 24 March 1795 (Hamilton Papers)
Philadelphia, March 24, 1795. “From your Position at Albany you might attack DeWit in Front Flank & rear ’till he yields in the Point of giving us the Deed from him for the Lands bought by Mr. Duane for my Father….” ALS , Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress. This letter, like that of Peters to H, February 18, 1795 , deals with Peters’s attempt to settle his father’s claim to George Croghan’s...
6To Alexander Hamilton from Richard Peters, 18 February [1795] (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia ] February 18 [ 1795 ]. “Begin your legal Career at New York by obliging an old Friend … to settle the Affair of Croghan’s Lands…. Wm. Peter’s Judgment is the first Incumbrance….” ALS , Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress. Peters was judge of the United States District Court of Pennsylvania from 1792 to 1828. George Croghan had been a land speculator and an Indian agent and...
7To Alexander Hamilton from Richard Peters, 27 August 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
I send you the best Answer to your Enquiries on the Agricultural Subject I can at present think of. I thought it best to draw it up in the form of an Account tho’ I have filled up the columns you sent me. The manner I have pursued will furnish you with every thing you require, tho’ much of it may be useless to you & inapplicable perhaps to your immediate Object. If any thing is deficient...
8To Thomas Jefferson from Richard Peters, 13 March 1794 (Jefferson Papers)
Permit me to present you with the Plan I send you for a State Society of Agriculture. I drew it up at the Request of our Philada. Society and have Hopes that I shall get it thro’. It is only the Beginning of a Plan I have in View in which, at some future Day, I will attempt embarking our Government. At present I keep it out of View. I wish every State would do something in this Way as the...
9To Thomas Jefferson from Richard Peters, 20 June 1790 (Jefferson Papers)
I was happy that even the troublesome Affair of Capitaine brought me a Letter from you. I have written to Nourse to enquire into the Matter and inform me what to do. I thought I had done with the Bussiness when I sent him the Money thro’ you and tho I had much Trouble in his Affair I have not received a Scrape of a pen from him in Acknowledgment. I will however do all I can for him pour...
10To Thomas Jefferson from Richard Peters, 14 January 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
I waited on you in Consequence of percieving that I am appointed District Judge for this District. Not knowing what is the proper Channel thro’ which I am either to be informed officially or to whom I must make my Intentions known I wished your advice as a Friend. It is a sudden Thing and the Members of the Senate wish me to stay with them as long as I can. I therefore wished to delay my...
11To Thomas Jefferson from Richard Peters, 28 January 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you for the friendly Attention you paid to my Request of witholding the Commission ’till this Time. I had fixed the Matter so as to resign the Chair of the Senate on Tuesday Morning but I will do it on Monday Afternoon. On Tuesday the House will of Course choose a Speaker and when this is done I will resign my Seat as a Senator which cannot be done before the Senate is perfect in its...
12To Thomas Jefferson from Richard Peters, 26 June 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
Almost as soon as I saw you advertized in a New York News Paper your Return was announced in one of ours. I have been in Town twice since I left the Assembly and once I called to enquire after you but you had eloped. My Strawberries are gone and I have no Temptations to offer you. Come then from disinterested Motives when you wish for a little Country Air and you will get it pure. Should it...
13To James Madison from Richard Peters, 4 February 1796 (Madison Papers)
I enclose you the Memorial I troubled you about which I should sooner have sent but that I thought it best to accompany it with a Translation. It is addressed under a mistaken Idea of the old Arrangement of Congress. But this will not affect the Substance. This young Man never had a Commission tho’ he did the Duty he mentions. He came to this Country & left it with the Marquis. The Facts he...
14To James Madison from Richard Peters, 31 December 1792 (Madison Papers)
I percieve, by the News Papers, that Congress are about establishing Fees in the Admiralty Side of the District Court. I have heard that considerable Deductions have been made from the Fees as mentioned in the Bill first brought forward by Mr Smith of S. C. I saw that Bill & objected both to the Clause embarrassing the Seamen in their Lien upon the Ship, & to the Quantum of Fees. The first I...
15To James Madison from Richard Peters, 31 March 1790 (Madison Papers)
I know your Time is so much occupied that unless on some very important Occasion it ought not to be interrupted. I send you a Pamphlet given to me by a Member of our House Mr Herman Husbands. As he reprobates the System of Finance it will not be the less pleasing to you on that Account. Having drawn the Principles of the federal Government from higher Sources than we ever thought of he must be...
16To James Madison from Richard Peters, 20 July 1789 (Madison Papers)
It is but within a Day or two that I recieved yours of the 14th. in which you very properly leave me as you found me on the Subject I rambled into. But I will revenge myself by sending you a Copy of an old Fable which I have in a curious Collection I keep by me entitled “ Aunciente connynge Balladdes .” I am chained to my Chair by my old Tormentor the Piles & I maliciously wish not that all my...
17To James Madison from Richard Peters, 26 February 1793 (Madison Papers)
Always attentive to your Requests I have looked over & considered the Bill about which you spoke to me. Time is too short to correct it. Yet I rather retract this Idea, not being in the Predicament of one of our State Circuit Judges, who wrote, a few Weeks ago, a long Letter to our Assembly, & told them “his Time was so prodigiously taken up that he had not Leisure to shorten his Letter.” I...
18To James Madison from Richard Peters, 24 August 1789 (Madison Papers)
I have to acknowledge your Favour of the 19th. I am obliged by your Information & acknowledge that some of your Reasons are the best that can be given. They are such therefore as I knew you could give. But many of them are founded on Apprehensions which forgive me for saying I think too highly wrought. I believe that a Firmness in adhering to our Constitution ’till at least it had a longer...
19To James Madison from Richard Peters, 5 July 1789 (Madison Papers)
It is better to be late in thanking you for your Present of Tobacco by Mr Delany than not to do it at all. You have given me the Quid but as to the pro quo you must find it in the Satisfaction you enjoy in doing civil Things. I am in the Midst of a popular Assembly of Mowers & Haymakers & my Harvest will overtake me before I am ready for it. You are in the Midst of a popular Assembly of...
20Enclosure: Richard Peters to Edmund Randolph, 7 October 1794 (Washington Papers)
Not having at the time of the receipt of your letter requesting me to proceed to the westward, when it would be practicable for me to sett off consistently with my duty here, I forbore answering it till now—I shall begin the journey tomorrow or the next day at furthest. I depend on every facility being given by the proper orders to the commanding officers of the troops, when it shall be found...
21To George Washington from Richard Peters, 30 November 1792 (Washington Papers)
R. Peters’s respectful Compliments to The President & returns the Pamplet on the Foo⟨t⟩ Plough with Thanks for the Perusal. R.P. thinks there are many good & useful Observations in the Book, but he cannot prefer the Plough to the Bar Share Plough in Use among good Farmers here. The Idea of accomodating one Plough to many & different Operations may be well executed. But he would rather have...
22To George Washington from Richard Peters, 2 August 1790 (Washington Papers)
Averse as I am from a Desire to trouble you on such Subjects my Anxiety on Account of the Situation in which a worthy character is unfortunately placed has induced me to take the Liberty of mentioning to you the unhappy Predicament in which General Wayne stands—As Matters have turned out he was cursed with a Present from the State of Georgia of a Rice Plantation which they gave him with very...
23To George Washington from Richard Peters, 20 June 1792 (Washington Papers)
I shall be happy if I can assist in solving Mr Young’s Queries; but the Time will not admit either of Accuracy or the Combinations necessary to form the Average of Labour, Building & Improvement applicable to the State at large. From Mr Y’s Calculations, formed I presume upon Communications from you, I am surprized to find that the Prices of Labour & Quantity of Product are, in a great Degree,...
24To George Washington from Richard Peters, 16 July 1794 (Washington Papers)
The Accounts given to the British Board of Agriculture are in general drawn up in a masterly Manner; so, as I should suppose (especially after being circulated for Correction) fully to answer the Expectations formed in the excellent Plan which produced them. They exhibit as well beneficial Practices, as Defects in Agriculture. They contain a Fund of Information, useful in political Œconomy &...
25To George Washington from Richard Peters, 17 May 1793 (Washington Papers)
I was from Hence when your Letter enclosing Mr Young’s Queries & Observations arrived or I should have acknowledged the Honour of recieving it. I will with Pleasure take an Opportunity of complying with your Request. I do not wonder that Mr Young is embarrassed in his Endeavors to account for the actual State of Things in the agricultural Branch in this Country. The Results are I believe...
26To George Washington from Richard Peters, 12 May 1796 (Washington Papers)
I have so long waited for the Answers to a Number of Queries, I proposed to several of our most intelligent Farmers, on the subject of Manures, & particularly the Gypsum; & have been so much disappointed in not receiving the requisite Information, that I cannot longer trespass on your Patience, by detaining Sr J. Sinclair’s Communications which I now return to you. Many of the Subjects are too...
27To George Washington from Richard Peters, 14 April 1794 (Washington Papers)
Your Note lay, without my Knowledge, on my Table, ’till last Evening, or I should have sent the Agricultural Papers before this Time. I am much obliged & gratified by the Perusal of them. I had formed a Plan of abstracting Parts of these Papers for Observation, & Part for Publication. But there seems a Fatality attendant on my Plan, for I have met with Interruptions in every Attempt I have...
28To George Washington from Richard Peters, 5 December 1793 (Washington Papers)
The Office of Comr of Loans for Pennsilvania is vacant by the Decease of Mr Smith who married my Sister & has left little or Nothing behind him but a good Name, many Friends & a Wife & seven Children several of whom are in their Minority. On hearing of his Death I thought of Nothing on the Subject but lending my Assistance from my own Resources towards the Support of that Part of the Family...
29To George Washington from Richard Peters, 20 June 1793 (Washington Papers)
I had prepared the enclosed a considerable Time ago but have waited for a Communication from a Person who does the most in the Grazing Line of any Person I have heard of. But he has not made the Communication from a silly Belief that it is not for a public Purpose but a private one that I wish to get the Acct from him[.] I therefore delay no longer to send you the best Answer to Mr Y.’s Query...
30To George Washington from Richard Peters, 22 June 1792 (Washington Papers)
I was ashamed to send you so hasty & desultory a List of Observations on Mr Young’s Letter & on Reflection I find I have not paid sufficient Attention to some material Parts of it. By the Desire I had of speedily complying with your Request I have in a great Degree defeated the Object of the Trouble you were pleased to take in making it. It will however be now too late to do anything more, as...
31To George Washington from Richard Peters, 23 July 1794 (Washington Papers)
By Mistake I did not send the Papers herewith returned when the Rest of Sr J. Sinclair’s Agricultural Communications were returned to you. I have glanced over them again & see Nothing necessary (with Deference to your better Opinion) for you, Sir, to answer but a general Acknowledgment & some approbatory Remarks, as general as may be. To descend into Particulars would take up much of your Time...
32To George Washington from Richard Peters, 8 February 1793 (Washington Papers)
I send you the best Answers I can make to Sr J. St. Clair’s Queries. Had I supposed you wished them sooner I should have paid earlier Attention to them. I return the Book which I have not had Leisure enough to read with the Care it appears to merit. I have the Honour to be with the most respectful Esteem Your very obedt Servt ALS , DLC:GW . GW wrote Sir John Sinclair on 20 Oct. 1792 that he...
33To George Washington from Richard Peters, 26 January 1797 (Washington Papers)
I have endeavoured to find out the Prices of Land at & near Philadelphia & from thence to Lancaster on & near the Route to that Place. But these Prices are so various that I am not able to fix on any Average. £100 ⅌ Acre is offered for Land on the West Side of Schuylkill near the Bridge —Near £60 this Currency were given last year for Land a Mile further West—I would not take this Sum for my...
34To George Washington from Richard Peters, 14 February 1794 (Washington Papers)
I have returned, under a Hope of seeing them again when they have gone their rounds, the Papers you were so good as to lend me on Agriculture. I have not had sufficient Leisure to peruse them with the Attention they deserve. I have a great Desire to read them with Care. I see no precise Object S[i]r J. has requiring more than a bare Acknowledgment of their reciept from you —I have sent a Dozen...
35Alexander Hamilton, Richard Peters, and William Rawle to David Lenox, 11 November 1794 (Hamilton Papers)
Altho’ we have uniformly during the present Operation received perfect Satisfaction from your Firmness & Exertion in the Duties of your Office, yet we have, with sincere Sympathy, observed the Torture of your Mind, agitated between a Sense of public Duty & your private Affections, owing to the unpleasant Accounts you have received repeatedly of Mrs. Lenox’s Illness. We cannot withold longer...
36Enclosure: [Account on the State of Argriculture], 27 August 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
The farms I have selected keep on an average 16 head horned Cattle, 4 horses, 12 Sheep & 12 Swine. Dr. Farm To annual Int: on capital 200 a[cre]s £ 8 ⅌ acre £1600 @ £ 6 ⅌ cent £ 96. 0. 0 Stock and implements. { 4 horses at £ 15 each £60. 0. 0