To George Washington from Alexander Hamilton, 24 June 1793
From Alexander Hamilton
Treasury Depmt 24th June 1793.
Sir
Pursuant to your requisition of the 20th inst. I have the honor to submit a statement of the application of the whole of the monies borrowed by virtue of the Acts of the 4. & 12. of August.1 The precise accuracy of this statement cannot be warranted, ’till there shall be a settlement at the Treasury of all the accounts on which it depends (a business now in train). But the items generally are so well ascertained, as to leave no possibility of any material error.
That the 200,000 Dollars, for the first installment of the Debt to the Bank of the United States, is properly chargeable to the foreign funds, will be seen by a recurrence to the act of the 2d of March last, authorising the payment of that installment;2 which Act expressly directs that it shall be made out of the monies borrowed pursuant to the 4. Section of the Act entitled “An Act making provision for the reduction of the Public debt,” which is the Act of the 4. of August 1790, authorising the borrowing of 2,000,000 of Dollars in order to puchases of the Debt.3
The 284,901 Dollars & 89 Cents, is equally a charge on the same fund. It appears in no report to Congress at the last Session, or at any other time, as appertaining to the Domestic fund on surplus revenue. On the contrary, that sum is expressly stated to have been issued out of foreign funds, in my third letter to the House of Representatives, dated February 13. 1793 (page 55 of the printed copy herewith sent). For the more complete elucidation of this fact, a certificate of the Register of the Treasury [(]see page 246[)] is annexed, shewing that the sum in question was originally carried, in the Books of the Treasury, to the account of the foreign fund.4
In my report of the 15 inst:5 I stated that on the supposition of full payment to France, of the installments of September & November next, with interest, which would absorb the unapplied balance of the foreign fund⟨,⟩ “There would remain to be borrowed for the purpose of purchases of the Debt Dollars 1.715.098 & 11 Cents.” This remainder is found by deducting the above mentioned sum of 284.901 Ds & 89. Cents (the sum expended in purchases out of the foreign fund) from 2,000,000 of Dollars, the whole sum authorised to be borrowed for that purpose.
This Sum then, of 1.715.098 Dollars and 11 Cents, is the sum still to be procured to complete the views of the Legislature with regard to purchases; and if the present European War continues, may, in all probability, be invested with advantage as fast as it can be commanded. I have the honor to be &c.
Alexandr Hamilton
LB, DLC:GW.
1. See “An Act making provision for the [payment of the] Debt of the United States,” 4 Aug. 1790, and “An Act making Provision for the Reduction of the Public Debt,” 12 Aug. 1790, ., 138–44, 186–87. Hamilton submitted the following statement of 22 June in response to GW’s letter of 20 June 1793:
| “Dr | Accot. of Loans made pursuant to the Acts of the 4. & 12. of August 1790. |
|
| Total amount of Loans 19,550,000 guilders, equal, at 36 4/11 ninetieths ⅌Guilder, to |
7.898.989.88. | |
| Deduct amount of original charges respecting Contracts 872,000 Guilders at 36 4/11 |
352,323.24. | |
| Nett produce | 7,546.666.64. | |
| Contra | Cr. | |
| Amount heretofore stated to have been transferred to the United States |
2.965.643.47. | |
| Amount of payments made to France in Europe, & charges on the same, 10,083,116 Guilders & 9 stivers equal to |
4.073.986.46. | |
| Debt to Spain in a course of payment estimated at 680,000 florins—or |
274.747.46. | |
| Interest on debt to foreign officers, directed to be paid at Paris 105,000 guilders—or |
42,424.24. | |
| Paid in Holland in premiums & gratuities on old Loans, commissions & other extra charges |
189.865.01. | |
| 7.546.666.64 | ||
| *The sum paid on these different objects is computed to exceed the sum stated by 72,265 florins constituting a balance of so much in favor of the Commissioners” (DLC:GW). | ||
2. See “An Act providing for the payment of the First Instalment due on a Loan made of the Bank of the United States,” 2 Mar. 1793, ibid., 338. On this payment, see Hamilton to GW, 12 Mar. 1793, and notes 2–3.
3. Section 4 of the act of 12 August, rather than that of 4 Aug., authorized this loan.
4. Hamilton has taken this sum from Joseph Nourse’s certificate of 24 June 1793, which reads: “These are to Certify that the Sum of Two hundred and Eighty four thousand Nine hundred and One Dollars Eighty Nine Cents is the Amount which has been paid by the Treasurer of the United States during the present Year to the Trustees for the Reduction of the Public Debt out of the Monies arising from Loans made in Holland, vizt
| Warrant No. | 2454 for 50.000. |
| 2482 “ 234.901.89/100 | |
| Dollars 284.901.89/100 |
And for which warrants were originally issued payable out of the above mentioned Fund.
“And I do further Certify that the said Amount has been applied according to Law by the said Trustees towards the Reduction of the Public Debt.
Dollars 284.901 89/100” (DNA: RG 53, Estimates and Statements by the Register of the Treasury, Vol. 135-T). The reference to page 246 identifies the location of the copy of this certificate in a letter-book at the DLC.
For Hamilton’s third letter of 13 Feb. 1793, see his “Report Relative to the Loans Negotiated Under the Acts of the Fourth and Twelfth of August, 1790,” , 14:26–67. The enclosed pamphlet, in which this letter is printed, is Communications from the Secretary of the Treasury, to the House of Representatives of the United States. Printed Agreeably to a Resolution of the House, of the 2d of March 1793 (Philadelphia, 1793).
5. See Hamilton’s “Report on Obtaining a New Foreign Loan,” 15 June 1793, which Hamilton enclosed in his letter to GW of the same date.