From Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, 5 April 1792
To George Washington
Treasury Departmt. 5th. April 1792.
The Secretary of the Treasury has the honor respectfully to represent to the President of the United States, that an application has been made at the Treasury by the honble Mr. Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania1 in behalf of the Administratrix of Nicholas F. Westphal2 deceased, for the discharge of a Claim due to the Estate of her late husband in virtue of the last clause of “An Act for the relief of certain widows, Orphans, Invalids and other persons,”3 of which a copy is enclosed. The Secretary begs leave to suggest that this claim being payable out of the unexpended appropriations to the contingent charges of Government, it appears to require a special order of the President.
A. Hamilton
Secy. of the Treasury
LC, George Washington Papers, Library of Congress.
1. Frederick Muhlenberg, a member of the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, was the Speaker of the House in the first and third Congresses.
2. On February 6, 1791, the House of Representatives received “A petition of Nicholas Ferdinand Westfall … praying a gratuity of lands and other advantages, promised by the late Congress to those who should quit the British service, in consideration of his having left that service and joined the American Army, during the late war” (, 380).
3. The last section of “An Act for the relief of certain Widows, Orphans, Invalids, and other persons” reads as follows: “And be it further enacted, That there be granted to Nicholas Ferdinand Westfall, who left the British service and joined the army of the United States, during the late war, one hundred acres of unappropriated land in the western territory of the United States, free of all charges, and also the sum of three hundred and thirty-six dollars, out of any money appropriated to the contingent charges of government” (6 Stat. 7 [March 27, 1792]).