To Alexander Hamilton from Peter Colt, 18 July 1793
From Peter Colt1
Paterson [New Jersey] July 18. 1793
Sir,
Herewith you have your a/c with the Society for establishing useful Manufactures, the Balance due you One thousand, Eight Hundred & Eleven Dolls ten Cents—for which I am to request that you draw on Abijah Hammond Esqr of New York, as cashier to Said Society. He is only notified of the Balance, & that the Board of Directors have directed this mode of payment.
The Board of Directors have at their last meeting discharged Mr. Hall from the Service of the Society2 altogether; and of course everything that respected the printing Department is for the present at a Stand. Mr. Pearce’s3 Spinners & Weavers are also discharged; & indeed all useless hands, that is, all who are not absolutely necessary for compleating the Machinery for Marshalls4 Mill, & Pierces hand Spinning. We are at work at the Canal & Dam, & have begun Marshalls Mill—& presume we Shall have the water at the Mill this fall.
I am very respectfully Sir Your most obet humble Servant
P. Colt
Hone Alexr. Hamilton Esqr.
ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. For background to this letter, see Colt to H, February 28, March 27, May 7, 1793; H to Colt, April 10, 1793.
2. On July 16, 1793, the board of directors of the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures “Resolved That the Superintendant pay to William Hall his Salary at the rate of Three hundred pounds Sterling pr. Annum up to this day … and that the said Hall be discharged from the service of the Society” ( 87). See also Colt to H, March 27, 1793.
3. William Pearce. See Colt to H, February 28, 1793, note 2.
4. Thomas Marshall had been hired by the society to superintend its projected cotton mill.