To Alexander Hamilton from Jeremiah Olney, 31 May 1792
From Jeremiah Olney
Providence, May 31, 1792. “Permit me to introduce to your Friendly Notice and Acquaintance the Bearrer Colo. Ephrm. Bowen1 a Gentleman of Fair character and veracity, Connected in a Ginn & Rum distillery with Messrs Clark & Nightingale2 of this Town, Merchants, He is bound to Baltimore and proposes on his arrival at Philadelphia to have an Interview with you on the Subject of a Seizure lately made at the former Place.…”3
ADfS, Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence.
1. During the American Revolution Ephraim Bowen had served as deputy quarter-master general.
2. The firm of John Clark and Joseph Nightingale.
3. The sloop Ceres and its cargo had been seized at Baltimore for fraud. The cargo of rum made in Rhode Island had been placed in West Indian casks “to do away [with] the prejudice that has heretofore opperated to the disadvantage of home distilled spirits, and … in order to promote the sale of it” (, 262, 265).