From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [September] 1803
To Oliver Wolcott, Junior
New York [September] 1803
Dear Sir
The necessity of purchasing a quantity of land,1 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 Bank2 a durable loan (by discounts and renewals in the ordinary mode) of 5000 Dollars including the 1000 already had.
This will place my affairs in a situation that from the average gains of my profession, I can discharge floating demands and pay off, by small but regular installments, the sum I owe to each Bank.3 As my lands are beginning to settle, the proceeds as received will be applied in the same way and will accelerate the reimbursement.4
I will be obliged to you for your opinion whether I may venture to count upon the accommodation I have mentioned, as I should be unwilling that my paper should be presented, if there was even a prospect of hesitation. I shall not stand in need of the sum mentioned immediately, but shall call for it by parcels in the course of four or five months. With true esteem & regard.
Yrs. always
A Hamilton
Ol Wolcott Esq
ALS, Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford.
1. This is a reference to the purchase from Jacob Mark of additional land in Scriba’s Patent that H, John Laurance, and John B. Church made in August, 1802. See “Mortgage by Laurance, Church, and H to Robert Gilchrist,” August 21, 1802.
3. For H’s transactions with the Bank of New York and the New York branch of the Bank of the United States, see his Cash Book, 1795–1804 (AD, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress).
4. For the sale of H’s lands, see H to John V. Henry, March 20, 1803; H to John B. Graves, June 9, 1803.