Alexander Hamilton Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-17-02-0357

To Alexander Hamilton from Henry Knox, 17 November 1794

From Henry Knox

Philadelphia 17 Novr 1794

My dear sir

By the arrangement of the New Contract,1 a Commissary will be required. I know not of any person in whose integrity I would have more confidence than Major I Craig2 of Fort Pitt provided he would repair to Fort Washington. Will you consider of this point, and if you approve, will you offer it to him?3 No time can be lost upon this subject.

Mr Jay will satisfactorily arrange all the points of dispute between Great Britain & the US. How happy are we! His communications are to the 14th Sept.4

Yours affectionly

Colo Hamilton

ADf, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston.

1This is a reference to a contract for provisioning the Army in 1795 which Tench Coxe, commissioner of the revenue, and Alexander Scott and Matthew Ernest signed on October 10, 1794 (copy, Isaac Craig Papers, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). The contract provided that “the Quarter Master General will have to transport the provision to the posts advanced from Fort Washington and also from Pittsburgh” (Knox to Anthony Wayne, December 5, 1794 [Knopf, Wayne description begins Richard C. Knopf, ed., Anthony Wayne: A Name in Arms; Soldier, Diplomat, Defender of Expansion Westward of a Nation; the Wayne-Knox-Pickering-McHenry Correspondence (Pittsburgh, 1960). description ends , 367]).

2Isaac Craig was deputy quartermaster general of the United States Army and storekeeper at Pittsburgh. See “Deposition of Francis Mentges,” August 1, 1794, note 2.

3On November 9, 1794, Knox wrote to Craig to offer him the position of commissary, which Craig refused (Knox to Craig, November 9, December 18, 1794 [LC, Isaac Craig Papers, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]). In a letter to Craig on December 27, 1794, Knox stated: “I hope nothing will prevent Major [Abraham] Kirkpatrick executing the duties of Commissary according to your intimation. His instructions will not be ready until next post, when he will I hope be fully prepared to descend instantly upon the receipt of them” (LS, Isaac Craig Papers, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). See also “Deposition of Francis Mentges,” August 1, 1794, note 2.

4John Jay’s dispatches may be found in RG 59, Despatches from United States Ministers to Great Britain, 1791–1906, Vol. 1, April 19, 1794–June 1, 1795, National Archives. They are printed in ASP description begins American State Papers, Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States (Washington, 1832–1861). description ends , Foreign Relations, I, 475–96.

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