From Alexander Hamilton to Martha Walker, 2 July 1791
To Martha Walker1
Pha July 2d. 1791
Madam
Mr. Ames2 has conveyed to me your letter of the 9th of May.3
Hitherto it has not been in my power to consider the merits of your application to Congress but you may be assured of its being done so as to admit of a Report at the Commencement of the ensuing session.4
While I do not encourage any expectation & while my conduct must be determined by my view of official propriety & duty I may with great truth say that I shall enter upon the Examination with every profession which can be inspired by favorable impression of personal merit & by a sympathetic participation in the distresses of a Lady as deserving as unfortunate. With great consideration I am Madam your obednt Sert
A H.
Copy, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. An entry in the Journal of the House for May 4, 1789, mentions a “petition of Martha Walker, of Boston … praying that some relief may be granted her, as the distressed widow of Thomas Walker, Esq. late of Boston, who, at the commencement of the late Revolution, abandoned a very considerable property in the province of Quebec, and attached himself to the interests and fortunes of the United States” (, 27).
2. Fisher Ames, Federalist Representative from Massachusetts in the House of Representatives.
3. Letter not found.
4. On May 4, 1789, the House tabled Mrs. Walker’s petition, and on September 25, 1789, referred it “to the Secretary of the Treasury, to report thereupon … to the next session of Congress” (, 27, 123). No record that H ever made a report on this petition has been found.