To Alexander Hamilton from Robert Troup, [24 August 1792]
From Robert Troup1
[New York, August 24, 1792]
My dear friend
I have just recd. yours enclosing a note for discount.2 I have endorsed it & enclosed it to Mr. Seton.3 It is dated the 20th Augt. inst & will be discounted on Tuesday.
I am this moment setting off for the Dutchess Circuit & have not time to be particular although I much wish it. I have as you have learnt taken a very active part abt the wicked & abominable decision of the canvassers.4 I think & have always thought, my good friend, this decision to be subversive of the most sacred right that can be enjoyed under any government. Quickly therefore to submit to it would argue a poverty of spirit & an indifference to the principles of freedom which would fix an indelible stigma upon our characters. I have always imagined & now see no reason for imaging otherwise that we should not obtain redress. My object has been to make a strong impression upon the public mind of the deep corruption of Clinton & his party and thus to render him odious. We have pretty well succeded in this object & I trust our sucess will be more complete. I have no apprehension that we shall endanger the political ship. It is the interest of us all that she should be kept in her present course with a fair wind &c. Be not therefore uneasy—but at the same [time] do not forget that allowances should be made for the keen anguish we suffer from the wound we have received.
God bless you
ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. Troup, a New York lawyer, and H had been undergraduates together at King’s College before the American Revolution. When Troup wrote this letter he was serving as clerk of the Federal court for the District of New York.
2. Letter not found.
3. William Seton, cashier of the Bank of New York.
4. Troup is referring to the decision of the majority of the joint committee of canvassers appointed by the New York legislature which declared that George Clinton had been elected over John Jay in the April, 1792, New York gubernatorial election. Troup had proposed the resolutions adopted by the meeting on June 18, 1792, of those New York electors who opposed the decision of the canvassers and who referred to themselves as the “Friends of Liberty.” See H to Rufus King, June 28, 1792, note 1. For other information on this election, see Philip Schuyler to H, May 9, 1792, note 4; H to John Adams, June 25, 1792, note 2; H to King, June 28, July 25, 27, 1792; King to H, July 10, 29, 1792; William Lewis to H, July 21, 1792.
5. H endorsed this letter: “filed No answer necessary.”