51Théophile Cazenove to Egbert Benson and Alexander Hamilton, 29 May 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
Philadelphia, May 29, 1797. “The enclosed extract of a Letter lately received from General Schuyler will create much uneasiness amongst the Dutch proprietors who have obtained the faculty to hold their Lands in the state of New York ’till the 11th. April 1803. A Law passed in the last Session extends that faculty ’till 1816. provided the Dutch Proprietors shall interest themselves as...
52Jacob Mark and Company to John B. Church, Alexander Hamilton, and John Laurance, 30 May 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
We are sorry to find that owing to the embarrassed situation of the Land You purchased from us last Year so great an inconvenience and loss shou’d arise to You as well as ourselves in being retarded in the settlement; and as we are particularly anxious to remove the most distant hard thought from You towards us, we think it proper to make You such proposals as are not only founded on fair and...
53To Alexander Hamilton from Robert Morris, 2 June 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
Your letter of yesterday is this moment recd and I take my pen upon the first impulse to tell you not to be uneasy, I will pay you every farthing principal & interest, have patience for my measures to operate & rely yourself with Confidence. The Nature of your debt ties me at all events & it shall be paid. As to Mr Church’s Security how can it be doubted. I told you before that Mr Marshall is...
54To Alexander Hamilton from John Laurance, 3 June 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
I have received your letter of the first Instant, with a Copy of a Letter from J Mark & Co. We gave for the Land about one dollar and seventy eight Cents per acre, since which, we have paid for surveying it, into Lots, near 2 Cents per Acre, to these sums must be added the Interest on the Money we have paid, which, I suppose, will make the price, at present, near 2 dollars per acre. Township...
55To Alexander Hamilton from William North, 4 June 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
Duanesburg [ New York ] June 4, 1797 . “The necessary papers respecting our Contest with Voght, will I hope be forwarded to you.… Our situation with respect to this business is not pleasant, As it is Our firm belief that the farms in dispute are our property, it is disagreeable to see them in a situation from which we can neither derive benefit, nor prevent Waste & Spoil.… We rely on your...
56To Alexander Hamilton from Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 6 June 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, June 6, 1797. On June 8, 1797, Hamilton wrote to Wolcott : “I have received your two letters of the 6th and 7.” Letter of June 6 not found. ]
57To Alexander Hamilton from John Williams, 7 June 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
We shall be this day be engaged on the Subject of Regulating the Arming of Merchantmen. A dificualty ariseth with me respecting the Construction of our Treaty with France. Our Vessels will Claim a right as the Treaty with France expresseth. The French will exact the Decree of 2d March last —hence both will be Authorized by their respective Nations and which will be diametrically Oposite each...
58To Alexander Hamilton from Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 7 June 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, June 7, 1797. On June 8, 1797, Hamilton wrote to Wolcott : “I have received your two letters of the 6th and 7.” Letter of June 7 not found. ]
59To Alexander Hamilton from Robert Morris, 10 June 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
I hold ten Shares in the Western Canal Navigation of new york on which there has been paid $1070, and a Call of $25 ⅌ Share was due the 1st May last & remains to be paid with 6 ⅌ Ct Interest from that time. I don’t know what State of Credit these Shares stand at present, but am confident they will be a most productive property hereafter. If you will take these Shares credit me for the amot I...
60To Alexander Hamilton from Elihu Chauncey Goodrich, 12 June 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
Claverack [ New York ] June 12, 1797 . “Scarcity of Money (at this time) is such that I cannot without a very material Injury to my property and Credit raise the amount which you as attorney for Mr. James Bryson have received against Me as Endorser of a Note.… However previous to the first day of November next it will undoubtedly be in my power without much inconvenience to make the full...
61To Alexander Hamilton from Barbara Moland, 19 June 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
St. Vincent [ Windward Islands ] June 19, 1797 . “I hope you will excuse the liberty I take in addressing this to you, but … your former attention to the late M Joseph Moland in the business between Mr John Stephens and him on a Bond Sent by Sir John St Clair to Mr Moland—Induces me to hope you will let me know; if by the last treaty with Great Britain, whether I can get the lands that was...
62To Alexander Hamilton from James Thompson, [22 June 1797] (Hamilton Papers)
Neither remoteness of Situation, nor lapse of time can efface from my Recollection the Obligations which I was under to you in the earlier part of my Life. That I have not before acknowledged them you are freely at liberty to attribute to any Cause—but want of Gratitude—for whatever may be my Vices Ingratitude cannot be included in the Catalogue. You may believe me when I assure you that...
63To Alexander Hamilton from Rufus King, 27 June 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
Lord Malmesbury will leave London in three or four Days for Lille where the conferences between this Country and France are to be held. Opinions fluctuate concerning the Probability of peace. A Struggle evidently exists in France between the Directory & the Legislature, in the latter of which Bodies it is supposed there is a sincere desire of Peace. Some late proceedings in the Legislature, or...
64To Alexander Hamilton from Robert Morris, 2 July 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
I cannot account for your not having Answered the letter of which the preceeding is a Copy, in any other way than by supposing it did not get to your hands, it was written so long since as the 23d of May last & sent by Post, and is of so important a nature that I waited with Anxiety supposing however that the papers were preparing and that you delayed writing untill they were ready. I am...
65To Alexander Hamilton from Oliver Wolcott, Junior, [3 July 1797] (Hamilton Papers)
I inclose you the pamphlet. You will see that the subject is but partially represented with a design to establish an opinion that you was concerned in speculations in the public funds. As my name is mentioned I have been repeatedly called on for explanations. What I have said is substantially as follows. That I was informed at the time, of the whole transaction, & that though Munroe...
66Théophile Cazenove to Egbert Benson and Alexander Hamilton, 5 July 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
Philadelphia, July 5, 1797. States: “Mr. Benson’s absence retarding the answer upon my letter of the 29 May, which answer I have sollicited from your friendship, permit me to add to that letter some observations relative to the same Subject.” Asks if the Holland Land Company “is allowed to sell at 10 & 12 years credit;… will She be allowed to hold the mortgage upon the Land as a pledge for the...
67To Alexander Hamilton from Benjamin Walker, 6 July 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
Fort Schuyler [ New York ] July 6, 1797 . “I will thank to advise what is best to be done to bring the business with Colo Smith to a conclusion—it was referred to Judge Lewis and John Murray as Arbitrators. The former kept the papers a long time and then, Mr Murray informed me, he declined Acting. The arbitration bonds expired and Mr James Smith got a new one executed by his brother extending...
68To Alexander Hamilton from Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 7 July 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
I send you the residue of the pamph[l]et. I am astonished at the villany of Munroe—a more base, false, & malignant suggestion than is contained in his Note of Jany 2d 1793. was never uttered. I am yrs ALS , Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress. For background to this letter, see the introductory note to Wolcott to H, July 3, 1797 . Wolcott enclosed pamphlet No. VI by James Thomson Callender....
69To Alexander Hamilton from Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 7 July 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
I have recd. your Letter with the enclosures. By what I last sent you, you will see the perfidy of at least Munroe. I will attend to your request as soon as possible, but all my time this day will be taken up, and perhaps tomorrow. yrs. ALS , Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress. For background to this letter, see the introductory note to Wolcott to H, July 3, 1797 . Letter not found. The...
70To Alexander Hamilton from Abraham B. Venable, 9 July 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
I have received your letter of the fifth instant by the hands of Mr Wolcott. I had heard of the pamphlet you mentioned some days before, but had not read it. I am intirely ignorant of the Editor, and of the means by which he procured the papers alluded to. I have had nothing to do with the transaction since the interview with you, I do not possess a copy of the papers at present, nor have I at...
71To Alexander Hamilton from James Thomson Callender, [10 July 1797] (Hamilton Papers)
I have seen your letter of the 6th inst. in Mr. Fenno’s Gazette. An answer seems requisite. It shall be as concise as possible. With regard to the anecdote of the Minerva, you affirm it to be Wholly False . Information, which I sincerely credit, states it as being strictly true. There the story may rest. As for what you say of the papers signed by Messrs. Muhlenberg, Venable, and Munroe, I...
72To Alexander Hamilton from James Monroe, [10 July 1797] (Hamilton Papers)
Mr. Monroe readily consents to an interview with Colo. Hamilton tomorrow at ten in the morning at his lodgings with Mr. Knox in Wall Street. He will bring whom he pleases. AL , Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress. For background to this letter, see the introductory note to Oliver Wolcott, Jr., to H, July 3, 1797 ; H to Monroe, July 10, 1797 . Thomas Knox, a New York City merchant, lived at 46...
73To Alexander Hamilton from Frederick A. C. Muhlenberg, 10 July 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
As I do not reside in the City at present, Your Letter of the 5th. inst did not reach me time enough to answer by Saturdays post. Whilst I lament the publication of the papers respecting the Affair of Reynolds (of which I hope I need not assure you that I had neither Knowledge or Agency, for I never saw them since the Affair took place, nor was I ever furnished with a Copy) I do not hesitate...
74To Alexander Hamilton from Abraham B. Venable, 10 July 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
I had written you yesterday in answer to your letter of the fifth, in which I informed you that I had no copy of the papers in question, the transaction took place at Mr Monroes, where I left the papers, since which I have not seen them. The paper alluded to as well as I can recollect was in the nature of a memorandum for our own use, to refresh our memories in case we Should ever be called...
75To Alexander Hamilton from John B. Church, 12 July 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York, July 12, 1797. On July 13, 1797, Church wrote to Hamilton : “I wrote you a few Lines hastily Yesterday at the Post Office.” Letter not found. ]
76To Alexander Hamilton from John B. Church, 13 July 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
I wrote you a few Lines hastily Yesterday at the Post Office just as the Post was setting out I am this Instant Return’d from your House, Eliza is well she Put into my Hand the Newspaper with James Thomsonn Callender’s Letter to you, but it makes not the least Impression on her, only that she considers the whole Knot of those opposed to you to be ⟨Scoundrels⟩, the Postman brought to your House...
77To Alexander Hamilton from William Constable, 13 July [1797] (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York ] July 13 [ 1797 ]. Requests Hamilton’s opinion on whether he and his associates “are liable to the penalty of the Bond” signed as security for a deed of sale of Georgia lands. LC , MS Division, New York Public Library. This letter deals with the controversy over the Georgia Yazoo lands. For information on these land grants and their revocations, see H to James Greenleaf, October 9,...
78To Alexander Hamilton from James Monroe, [16 July 1797] (Hamilton Papers)
Mr. Monroe has the honor to inform Colo Hamilton that he arrived in this city yesterday abt. 12.—that Mr. Muhlenburg & himself are to have a meeting this morning upon the subject which concerns him, & after wh. Colo. Hamilton shall immediately hear from them. AL , Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress. This letter is document No. XXXII in the appendix to the printed version of the “Reynolds...
79To Alexander Hamilton from Samuel Dexter, 17 July 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
New York, July 17, 1797. Asks advice concerning notes he endorsed for James Greenleaf for which Greenleaf provided encumbered lands in upstate New York as security. Encloses fifty dollars as a retainer. ALS , Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress. Dexter was a Boston attorney who had been a Federalist member of the United States Senate from 1793 to 1795. He subsequently served as Secretary of...
80To Alexander Hamilton from James Monroe and Frederick A. C. Muhlenberg, 17 July 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
It was our wish to have given a joint answer with Mr. Venable to your favor of the 5th. instant concerning the publication of the proceedings in an enquiry in which we were jointly engaged with him in 1792, respecting an affair between yourself & Mr. Reynolds & into which, from the circumstances attending it, we deemed it our duty to enquire. His departure however for Virginia precludes the...
81To Alexander Hamilton from James Monroe, 17 July 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
It is impossible for me to trace back at this moment, occupied as I am with other concerns, all the impressions of my mind at the different periods at which the memoranda were made in the publication to which you refer in your favor of today, but I well remember that in entering the one which bears my single signature, altho’ I was surprised at the communication given, yet I neither meant to...
82To Alexander Hamilton from James Monroe, 18 July 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
I can only observe that in entering the note which bears my single signature I did not convey or mean to convey any opinion of my own, as to the faith which was due to it, but left it to stand on its own merits reserving to myself the right to judge of it, as upon any fact afterwards communicated according to its import & authenticity. with due respect I am Sir yr. very humble servt ALS ,...
83To Alexander Hamilton from James Monroe, 21 July 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
Your favor of yesterday (to use your own language) gives an indelicate and improper coloring to the topic to which it refers. I will endeavor in a few words to place the points in discussion where they ought to stand. It was never our intention other than to fulfill our duty to the publick, in our enquiry into your conduct, and with delicacy & propriety to yourself, nor have we done otherwise....
84To Alexander Hamilton from William Jackson, 24 July 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
In compliance with your request I waited upon Mr. Monroe, on saturday morning, and delivered your letter to him —telling him, at the same time, that, in consequence of Mrs. Hamilton being in the last stage of pregnancy, you were under the necessity of going immediately to New York, but would return to Philadelphia in about a fortnight. Having read the letter, he said “it is very well, I shall...
85To Alexander Hamilton from William Jackson, 25 July 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
In consequence of a conversation with Dr McHenry, to whom I shewed my letter to you of yesterday, I believed it proper to see Mr. Monroe this morning. He says he shall write to you tomorrow. His letter will form a better rule for further proceeding than any thing I have said, or can say. My letter of yesterday was too late for the mail, and will be received at the same time with this. But Mr....
86To Alexander Hamilton from James Monroe, 25 July 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
I received your Letter of the 22d. instant by Major Jackson and have paid it the attention it merits. Always anxious to do justice to every one it would afford me pleasure could I answer it in a manner satisfactory to your feelings: but while the respect which I owe to myself forbids my replying in that harsh stile which you have adopted, that same respect with an attention to truth, according...
87To Alexander Hamilton from Edward Jones, [29 July 1797] (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, July 29, 1797. On July 30, 1797, Jones wrote to Hamilton and referred to “my letter of yesterday.” Letter not found. ] Jones was a clerk in the Treasury Department.
88To Alexander Hamilton from Edward Jones, 30 July 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
In my letter of yesterday, I mentioned an interview which I was to have with a person on the subject of the Conspirators. This interview has taken place. The person alluded to proves to be a Mr. Folwell by profession a printer, and whose character I am told stands sufficiently fair to give weight to his testimony. The facts which he offers to substantiate are as follows—The improper conduct of...
89To Alexander Hamilton from William Jackson, 31 July 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
Your letter to Mr. Monroe, which I received under cover on Saturday last, was delivered to him on that day—he said he should not leave Philadelphia until thursday, and gave me to understand that he would write to you. It appears to me that your publication must go on, as Mr. M did not seem willing to grant the certificate, and I confess I should be unwilling to recommend any compromise short...
90To Alexander Hamilton from James Monroe, 31 July 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
Your letter of the 28th which I have recd. claims a short answer. I have always stated to you that I had no wish to do you a personal injury. The several explanations wh. I have made accorded with truth & my ideas of propriety. Therefore I need not repeat them. If these do not yield you satisfaction I can give no other, unless called on in a way which always for the illustration of truth, I...
91To Alexander Hamilton from Jeremiah Wadsworth, 2 August 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
your favor of the 28th July arrived late last evening. I have not the least knowledge of Mrs. Reynolds’s hand writing nor do I remember ever to have recd a line from her if I did they were destroyed but a letter or two for you which by Your request I returned to her or destroyed. The first time I ever saw or heared of her She came to my lodgings one Morning —and stated the Situation of her...
92To Alexander Hamilton from William North, 3 August 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
Duanesburg [ New York ] August 3, 1797 . “I had the honour to write to you on the subject of an dispute with Voght some time since.… You knew how much less calculated We are to combat our adversaries than Mr Duane was, & consequently how much more we must lean on you for support. If the thing could be arranged for the week after the Supreme Court in Octr, it would save us some expense …, & it...
93To Alexander Hamilton from Egbert Benson, 4 August 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York ] August 4, 1797 . “I take the first leisure moment to write to you on the Subject you mentioned to Me on Tuesday last, as to the Probability, whether after the Expiration of the seven Years granted by the first Law, the Legislature would prolong the Term for which the Dutch Gentlemen might hold the Lands they have purchased in our State? For four successive Sessions of the...
94To Alexander Hamilton from Alexander Hamilton, 4 August 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
I am about to introduce to your acquaintance a cousin & a namesake, by the desire of my father, Mr. William Hamilton; who received the honor of your letter of the 2d. May, & being little in the habits of writing has given it to me to answer, by returning our United thanks for the information it conveyed relative to a person, whose conduct & character have acquired him a degree of reputation,...
95To Alexander Hamilton from William Jackson, 5 August 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
Immediately on the receipt of your Letter this morning, I waited on Colonel Monroe and observing that “Colonel Hamilton considering your letter as an overture to a personal meeting, has directed me to deliver this letter from him to you —and I have further to inform you that I am prepared to give effect to the purpose of his letter.” Mr. Monroe received the letter, and then asked me if it was...
96To Alexander Hamilton from Rufus King, 6[–10] August 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
No satisfactory Opinion can yet be formed concerning the termination of the negotiations for Peace. Even those who are supposed to have the best information are without confidence—on the one Hand peace may be concluded sooner than any one thinks probable, on the other the negotiations at Lisle and montebello may be suddenly broken off, and France again engaged with austria as well as England....
97To Alexander Hamilton from James Monroe, 6 August 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
I do not clearly understand the import of your letter of the 4th. instant and therefore desire an explanation of it. With this view I will give an explanation of mine which preceded it. Seeing no adequate cause by any thing in our late correspondence, why I shod. give a challenge to you, I own, it was not my intention to give or even provoke one by any thing contained in those letters. I meant...
98To Alexander Hamilton from William Jackson, 7 August 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
I have informed Mr. Dawson, who called on me yesterday, on the part of Mr. Monroe, that, as you had expressly told Mr. M in one of your letters, that you thought the motives of his conduct towards you had been “malignant and dishonorable,” I had advised you against throwing the affair into a more formal challenge, it resting, in my opinion, with Mr. Monroe either to submit to, or to resent...
99To Alexander Hamilton from William Jackson, 7 August 1797 (Hamilton Papers)
Mr. Dawson (of Virginia) called upon me yesterday morning to shew to me a letter from Mr. Monroe to you, wherein he says “that if you considered his last letter as a challenge, he will frankly acknowledge that you were mistaken—that he meant not to give but to be prepared to receive one—that he admits, if any one has been injured in the correspondence between you, it has been you—and, if your...
100To Alexander Hamilton from James McHenry, [7 August 1797] (Hamilton Papers)
I have recd and read the enclosed. I think the advice contained in the last paragraph ought to be adopted. Mr J—— will say to Dawson “that inasmuch as you have expressly told Mr M—— that in your opinion his motives were malignant and conduct dishonorable, that he would advise you against throwing it into a more formal challenge, it resting with Mr Munroe to submit it to the expressions or...