1From 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...
2From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 9 June 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
I called at your house the morning of my departure but you was not then up. While I was in the City we had a little conversation concerning an affair of an arrangement with Swan for effecting a remittance to Holland. I intended to have resumed it for two reasons, one because it has been represented to the disadvantage of the Conduct of the Treasury, another because Swan who lodged at the same...
3From 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. ]
4From 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...
5From 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...
6From 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...
7From 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 &...
I wrote you yesterday for a statement of the advances & appropriations for the Department of State. I am very anxious that Fauchet’s whole letter should appear just as it is —strange whispers are in circulation of a nature foreign to Truth & implicating honest men with Rascals. Is it to come out? Can’t you send me a copy? I will observe any conditions you annex. The secret Journals & other...
9From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [21 December 1796] (Hamilton Papers)
I did not understand by your letter of the 17th. of November whether you meant or not to authorise the immediate commencement of the sale of Stock. If you think this measure will become indispensable, it may be well to anticipate the execution; though indeed sales of Stock are at this juncture nearly impracticable. Yet I imagine it will be agreeable to the Bank to have permission to...
10From 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...
11From 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....
12From 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. ]
13From 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...
14From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 26 June 1795 (Hamilton Papers)
I have direct information in confidence, that the Minister of France by a letter received yesterday has ordered a fast sailing vessel for France to be prepared at this port. No doubt this has connection with the Treaty with England. I presume with the reserves that decorum requires he is apprised of the contents of that Treaty. This ought at least to go so far as to satisfy him that there is...
15From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 20 April 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
I have received your letter of the 18th. instant. The money paid me for you shall be placed to your Credit in the Office of Discount & Deposit as you desire. The British Ministry are as great fools, or as great rascals, as our Jacobins—else our Commerce would not continue to be distressed as it is by their Cruisers, nor would the Executive be embarrassed as it now is by the new proposition....
16From 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,...
17From 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...
18From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 3 October 1795 (Hamilton Papers)
I have received your letter of the and thank you for the information. As to Randolph, I shall be surprised at nothing—but if the facts come out, his personal influence is at all events damned. No colouring will remove unfavourable impressions. To do mischief he must work in the Dark. What you say respecting your own department disquiets me; for I think we shall for the present weather all...
19From 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...
20From 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...
21From 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. ]
22From 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...
23From 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...
24From 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...
25From 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...
26From 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...
27From 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...
28From 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,...
29From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [15 June 1796] (Hamilton Papers)
The post of today brought me a letter from you. From some recent information which I have obtained here, I have scarcely a doubt that the plan of the French is—1 to take all enemy property in our Ships contrary to the Treaty between the two Countries 2 to seize and carry in all our vessels laden with provisions for any English Port. Among this all that they choose to think enemy property will...
30From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 22 June 1795 (Hamilton Papers)
I have received your letter of the 18th instant. I will reply to one or two points now and to the rest hereafter. With regard to the measure of receiving Dutch bonds here to be exchanged, as is usual, it has different sides. To do it may be in some measure necessary to effectuate the main object; as there may be many individuals who from circumstances might not think themselves safe in...