From Alexander Hamilton to Edmund Randolph, 25 January 1795
To Edmund Randolph1
Treasury Department
January 25. 1795.
Sir
Agreeably to your request I have made inquiry concerning the copper of which an offer was some time since made for the use of the Public by the proprietors or Managers of a Mine in New Jersey.
The result appears in the inclosed papers.2
On more particular examination, I found that The Director of the Mint3 is expressly charged with procuring Copper for its use.4 This discovery terminates my operations & induces me to content myself with sending you the information which has been obtained.
With great respect & esteem I am sir
The secretary of State
ADf, Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford; LS, RG 104, Records of the Bureau of the Mint, National Archives.
1. For background to this letter, see Jacob Mark and Company to H, December 11, 1794, January 21, 1795; Randolph to H, December 23, 1794.
2. The enclosures are Jacob Mark and Company to H, January 21, 1795, and Peter Colt to H, January 11, 1795. See Colt to H, January 11, 1795, note 2. On a page attached to the draft of the letter printed above H wrote: “Give copy of Mr. Colt’s letter with the other.”
3. David Rittenhouse.
4. See “An Act establishing a Mint, and regulating the Coins of the United States” ( 246–51 [April 2, 1792]) and “An Act to amend an act intituled ‘An act establishing a Mint, and regulating the coins of the United States,’ so far as respects the coinage of copper” ( 299 [January 14, 1793]).