1From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Jr., 10 August 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
I imagine, My Dear Sir, by the letter which the post of yesterday brought me from you, that you have supposed that something not quite satisfactory to me had occurrd in relation to the erection of a Hospital at Rhode Island. This I assure you has not been the case, nor has any thing come under my view, which could lead me to think that there has been cause for blame in any quarter. It happened...
2From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 15 June 1795 (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York, June 15, 1795. On June 18, 1795, Wolcott wrote to Hamilton : “I have recd. your Letters of June 13th. & 15th.” Letter of June 15 not found. ]
3From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 8 October 1794 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Carlisle, Pennsylvania, October 8, 1794. On October 11, 1794, Wolcott wrote to Hamilton : “I have recd. your favour dated 7: & 8: inst.” Letter of October 8 not found. ]
4From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 19 August 1800 (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York, August 19, 1800. On September 3, 1800, Wolcott wrote to Hamilton : “I am favoured with your Letters of the 3d. and 19th.” Letter of August 19 not found. ]
5From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 17 December 1800 (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York, December 17, 1800. On December 25, 1800, Wolcott wrote to Hamilton : “I have recd. your favours of the 16th. & 17th.” Letter of December 17 not found. ]
6From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 30 September 1794 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia ] September 30, 1794 . On October 2, 1794, Wolcott wrote to Hamilton : “I have recd. your letter of Sept. 30th.” Letter not found. ]
7From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 20 December 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York, December 20, 1798. On December 21, 1798, Wolcott wrote to Hamilton : “I have recd. your favour of the 20th.” Letter not found. ]
8From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 7 October 1794 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Carlisle, Pennsylvania, October 7, 1794. On October 11, 1794, Wolcott wrote to Hamilton : “I have recd. your favour dated 7: & 8: inst.” Letter of October 7 not found. ]
9From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 2 July 1795 (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York, July 2, 1795. On July 10, 1795, Wolcott wrote to Hamilton : “I have recd. your several Letters dated June 22d. 26th. 30th. & the 2nd. current.” Letter of July 2 not found. ]
10From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [17 February 1797] (Hamilton Papers)
I groan My Dr. Sir at the disgraceful course of our affairs. I pity all those who are officially in their vortex. The behaviour of Congress in the present crisis is a new political phœnomenon. They must be severally arraigned before the Bar of the Public. How unfortunate that our friends suffer themselves by their passiveness to be confounded in the guilt. Yrs. truly ALS , Connecticut...
11[From Alexander Hamilton to William Bradford, Timothy Pickering, Edmund Randolph, and Oliver Wolcott, Junior], [28 July … (Hamilton Papers)
Hamilton, History John C. Hamilton, Life of Alexander Hamilton, a History of the Republic of the United States of America (Boston, 1879). , VI, 243. John Church Hamilton states that H wrote to members of George Washington’s cabinet on this date. No further evidence of this correspondence, however, has been found.
12From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 25 June 1794 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, June 25, 1794. On July 7, 1794, Wolcott wrote to Hamilton : “In obedience to your Letter of June 25.” Letter not found. ]
13From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 18 September 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York, September 18, 1798. On September 19, 1798, Wolcott wrote to Hamilton and referred to “your Letter of yesterday.” Letter not found. ]
14From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 27 October 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
Your letter of the 17th instant found me at Albany attending the Supreme Court. I have no copy of the Treaty with G B at hand, but I am well satisfied from memory that the true interpretation of that Treaty, enforcing in this respect the true Rule of neutrality, forbids our permitting the sale of a prize taken & brought in by a French National Ship, equally as if by a Privateer —and that the...
15From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [29 June 1798] (Hamilton Papers)
I have this moment seen a Bill brought into the Senate intitled a Bill to define more particularly the crime of Treason &c. There are provisions in this Bill which according to a cursory view appear to me highly exceptionable & such as more than any thing else may endanger civil War. I have not time to point out my objections by this post but I will do it tomorrow. I hope sincerely the thing...
16From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 28 October 1795 (Hamilton Papers)
I have seen with pleasure your reply to the calm observer. I believe it is as far as you ought to go but more particular explanation will be useful & from me now a private man intirely proper. I therefore hope to receive as soon as may be the statements I requested. Yrs. ALS , Dartmouth College Library. For background to this letter, see H to George Washington, October 26, 1795, note 1 . For...
17From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 28 December 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
I received yesterday your’s by Post, which I communicated immediately to the Directors of both Banks, that is, so much as concerned each party. It has been very consolatory to the Bank of New York & will do good. All will be well. Mr. Alexander McComb applied, while I was in Office, respecting some land he & Edgar had purchased of the Public and on which they had made a partial payment which...
18From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [28 July 1796] (Hamilton Papers)
I have not lost sight of the negotiation with the Bank though it labours & I have thought it best to let it lie bye till the President returns. Mc.Cormick is violent against it & plays on little jealousies, & what is still more efficacious private interests; representing the consequent inability of the Bank to accommodate the Merchants, many of whom from the unfortunate issue of some late...
19From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 30 July 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
I had written you a short line previous to the Receipt of your letter of the 26th to which indeed I can add nothing material. It will, as things stand, be imprudent to push the point of a further loan till the President arrives —for though a majority of the Directors are well disposed to the thing, they are afraid of McCormick’s clamours and want the sanction of the President to controul &...
20From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [6 August 1798] (Hamilton Papers)
You are probably apprised that in announcing to the General Officers their appointments, they are told that the emoluments are to be suspended until called into actual service and that as a consequence of this plan they are to remain inactive. The project suits admirably my private arrangements, by leaving me to pursue in full extent my profession. But I believe it accords neither with the...
21From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 30 June 1795 (Hamilton Papers)
Doctor Livingston sometime since left with me a bundle of vouchers relating to the questions between Phil Livingstons estate & the public. There was among other things a little Register or book with a marble cover doubled up. I do not find it among my papers & if my memory does not deceive me it was sent on breaking up at Philadelphia to one of the Offices of the Treasury. Mr. Jones may know...
22From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [7–10 March 1796] (Hamilton Papers)
Inclosed are two letters which I will thank you to hand on. I have just seen Livingston’s Motion concerning Instructions &c. My first impression is that the propriety of a compliance with the call, if made, is extremely doubtful. But much careful thought on the subject is requisite. Yrs truly PS. I hand you also a letter from Mrs. Church to Mr. Beametz —which I will thank you to send to Mr....
23From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [5 August 1796] (Hamilton Papers)
The Bank of New York is willing to make the loan of 324 000 Dollars to you (I mean the exact sum of about this amount, if you desire it, which one of the laws you mentioned authorises to borrow) on these terms to advance all but two hundred thousand Dollars when you please—to advance the two hundred thousand Dollars, by way of reloan, when that sum, payable in October, becomes due. The term of...
24From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [20 November 1797] (Hamilton Papers)
Give me leave to remind you of your promise to send me the documents and information which authenticate the situation of Mr. Beaumarchais as to the unaccounted for Million . Allow me also to mention to you another point. I hear there is a plan among the Directors of the Bank to transfer the management of their concerns from the House of Cazenove to that of Baring. When the arrangement was...
25From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [8 June 1797] (Hamilton Papers)
I have received your two letters of the 6th & 7. The last announces to me no more than I feared. Nor do I believe any sufficient external impulse can be given to save us from disgrace . This however will be thought of. I regret that you appear remote from the idea of a house tax simply without combining the land. I do not differ from your general principle. The truth is a solid one, that the...
26From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 3 October 1802 (Hamilton Papers)
I lately received a letter from you, transmitting a pamphlet. The latter, I have read with much pleasure. If party spirit admitted of candor, I should say that it was calculated to satisfy candid men of whatever party. Pains will be taken to disseminate it. You may remember that when you were last in this City, I spoke to you about some lands which I owned in the Ohio Company tracts. Inclosed...
27From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [30 May 1796] (Hamilton Papers)
I perceive Congress are invading the Sinking Fund system. If this goes through & is sanctionned by the President the fabric of public Credit is prostrate & the Country & the President are disgraced. Treasury Bills & every expedient however costly to meet exigencies must be preferable in the event to such an overthrow of system. Yrs truly ALS , Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford; copy,...
28From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 29 September 1794 (Hamilton Papers)
Being about to leave the seat of Government for a few Weeks to accompany the Army on its march against the Western Insurgents of Pennsylvania, I commit to you during my absence the management of those matters which are reserved to my superintendance under the constitution and regulations of the Department, especially the receipts and expenditures of money, and I rely upon your deligence and...
29From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 5 August 1795 (Hamilton Papers)
I have received yours of 3d instant. You make no mention of having received one from me inclosing another for the Attorney General in which I tell him that I will attend the cause which involves the question respecting direct taxes when notified of the time it will come on. The silence of your letter makes me fear it may have miscarried. I do not wonder at what you tell me of the author of a...
30From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [8 July 1796] (Hamilton Papers)
I have just received your letter of the 6th. The idea of selling Bank Stock is the worst of all & can only be urged on a plan of private speculation. Acquiescence may tempt the Bank to oppress hereafter for speculation purposes. I have talked to some Directors of the Bank of New York conformably to your first suggestion, respecting the deposit of Stock & it will not be expedient to change...
31From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 21 August 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
Your two letters of the 9th. reached this place during an absence on necessary business which only terminated on Saturday. Our friend McHenry has adopted the ideas suggested to him. And you may rely on my effectual cooperation. At the same time, as a total dislocation of residence, to fulfil in all its extent the idea you intimate, would be unqualified ruin to me, I must endeavor to avoid it....
32From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 2 May 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
When lately in Philadelphia, I mention’d to you that the Secretary of War had given me to expect some Communication from you previous to the Execution of an Order which he has given me respecting a Military Escort to protect the marking of an Indian boundary line. This is intended to remind you of the matter and to repeat to you that I wait for this Communication. With great respect I have...
33From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [September] 1803 (Hamilton Papers)
The necessity of purchasing a quantity of land, which I did not intend, in consequence of a mortgage that comprehended a tract I had before purchased, has so far disconcerted my pecuniary arrangements as to require that I should obtain some further Bank accommodations, instead of gradually extinguishing those I had already procured. It is therefore my wish to obtain from the Merchants Bank a...
34From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 30 September 1793 (Hamilton Papers)
I have thought it adviseable to establish during my absence a substitute for the mode of transferring Stock from Office to Office heretofore in practice at the Treasury. The inclosed letters by duplicates to the respective Commissioners of Loans from Jersey inclusively to Georgia specify it. Please to have the blanks filled with the names of those Commissioners severally and have the letters...
35From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [28 June 1798] (Hamilton Papers)
Col Burr sets out today for Philadelphia. I have some reasons for wishing that the administration may manifest a cordiality to him. It is not impossible he will be found a useful cooperator. I am aware there are different sides but the case is worth the experiment. He will call on McHenry upon going to the City. Yrs. truly ALS , Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford. H and Aaron Burr were...
36From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [15 July 1796] (Hamilton Papers)
The application for a loan from the Bank of New York though powerfully supported by some of the leading directors labours; owing to the jealousy & narrowness of certain ones who see in it a plan to increase the active capital of the Branch Bank & put them in its power. Unluckily the President suddenly went off to R Island with his wife & some sick Children. I pursue the affair & I hope still...
37From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 22 August 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
No one knows better than yourself how difficult and oppressive is the collection even of taxes very moderate in their amount if there be a defective circulation. According to all the phœnomena which fall under my notice this is our case in the interior parts of the Country. Again Individual Capitals & consequently the faculty of direct loans is not very extensive in the U States. The Banks can...
38From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 18 March 1793 (Hamilton Papers)
The XXXIV Section of the Collection law provides that certain rates per Cent . shall be allowed for the Tares of Coffee Pepper and Sugar, other than loaf Sugar. Upon this provision, a doubt has existed whether the per centage ought not, in certain cases to be computed on the Cwt. or long hundred; or ought in all cases to be computed on the 100 lb or short hundred. The practice at different...
39From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [3 November 1796] (Hamilton Papers)
I have more carefully examined our Treaty with G Britain & I return to the opinion given you from Albany. My hesitation yesterday arose from the terms of the 24th article which were confined to privateers , a word that has an appropriate sense, meaning ships of private persons commissioned to cruise . But the following article contains the equivalent one to that with France, upon which we...
40From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [13 September 1789] (Hamilton Papers)
It is with pleasure I am able to inform you that you have been appointed Auditor in the Department of the Treasury. The salary of this office is 1500 Dollars. Your friends having expressed a doubt of your acceptance, I cannot forbear saying, that I shall be happy to find the doubt has been ill founded; as from the character I have received of you, I am persuaded you will be an acquisition to...
41From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 16 June 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
It appears to me material under our present prospects to complete the three frigates without delay. They may be useful with reference to the Algerines—they may be useful to convoy our vessels out of the reach of pickeroon privateers hovering on our Coast. I know you want money but could not the Merchants by secret movements be put in motion to make you a loan. I think something of this kind...
42Jeremiah Olney to Alexander Hamilton and Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 23 April 1800 (Hamilton Papers)
Permit me to recommend to your Civilities the Reverend Doctr. Enos Hitchcock, who is appointed a Deligate from this State Society to attend the Meeting of the Genl. Cincinnati to be held at Philadelphia on the first Monday in May next. He is a Gentleman of real merit—possessing all the requisites to render an acquaintance with him Valuable, and is a genuine Federalist—well attached to the...
43From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 27 October 1795 (Hamilton Papers)
I wish the statements requested in my letter of yesterday may contain each particular payment not aggregates for periods. It runs in my mind that once there being no appropriation I procured an informal advance for The President from the bank—if this is so let me know the time & particulars. If the Account has been wound up to an exact adjustment since the period noticed by the calm observer,...
44From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 21 March 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
I hope you will have understood that I did not mean by any thing in my late letter to blame the plan pursued with regard to vessels arriving contrary to the Non-Intercourse laws. I mean only to give you testimony of the character of an Individual & to place before you my professional ideas of the defective wording of the law as a kind of caution in the execution. I agree with you that the...
45From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 26 September 1800 (Hamilton Papers)
As I hinted to you some time since, I have drafted a letter which it is my wish to send to influential individuals in the New England States. I hope from it two advantages the promoting of Mr. Pinckney’s election and the vindication of ourselves. You may depend upon it a very serious impression has been made on the public mind by the partisans of Mr. Adams to our disadvantage; that the facts...
46From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 28 December 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
I have embraced every opportunity since the receipt of yours of the 21st to obtain light on the subject of the loan. But my research has been essentially fruitless. Opinions are as various as they are vague. You must therefore conjecture, and you ought to act on the sure side for selling the loan. For my part, I retain the opinion that the loan ought to be upon eight per Cent Interest, the...
47From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 8 April 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
I send you in confidence the copy of a letter of this date to the Secretary of War and of the plan to which it refers. Consider it well. Make the Secretary of War talk to you about it, without letting him know that I have sent it to you—And urge the establishment of some plan which will effectually organise this important branch of our Military service. The proper course in the interior of the...
48From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [30 March 1797] (Hamilton Papers)
Every one who can properly appreciate the situation of our Affairs at this moment, in all the extent of possible circumstances, must be extremely anxious for such a course of conduct in our Government which will unite the utmost prudence with energy. It has been a considerable time my wish that a Commission extraordinary Madison Pinkney Cabot should be constituted to go to France to explain...
49From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [23 December 1796] (Hamilton Papers)
I wrote to you two days ago on the subject of obtaining an instruction from the Bank of the U States to the Direction of the Office here to prevent a speedy repetition of their call on the Bank of New York. This Bank has so large a proportion of its whole Capital in the power of the Office that if it be not tranquillized on the subject of demands from that quarter, it will be driven to such...
50From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [13 April 1797] (Hamilton Papers)
The post of today brought me a letter from you. I am just informed that an order is come to the Custom House not to clear out any Vessel if armed , unless destined for the East Indies. Under the present circumstances I very much doubt the expediency of this measure. The excesses of France justify passiveness in the Government and its inability to protect the Merchants required that it should...