60501From Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, 5 December 1794 (Hamilton Papers)
Treasury Department, December 5, 1794. “The Secretary of The Treasury has the honor to submit to the President a letter from the Commissioner of The Revenue of the 3d. instant.… The present offer appears admissible. If the President thinks so—his approbation noted on the letter of the Commissioner of the revenue, will put the business in execution.” LC , George Washington Papers, Library of...
60502From Alexander Hamilton to Thomas Butler, 22 June 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
I have your letter of the fifth instant acknowledging the receipt of mine of the 2d. ultimo. You are right in supposing that it went to you thro’ mistake; my Agency in the southern district being confined to the recruiting service With great consideration & (Copy, in the handwriting of Ethan Brown, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress).
60503From Alexander Hamilton to the Convention of the Representatives of the State of New York, [14 September 1776] (Hamilton Papers)
I do hereby certify that Wm. Douglass, the bearer hereof, faithfully served as a matross in my company till he lost his arm by an unfortunate accident, while engaged in firing at some of the enemy’s ships. He is therefore recommended to the attention of those who have been appointed to carry into execution the late resolve of the Continental Congress, by which provision is made for all persons...
60504From Alexander Hamilton to Samuel Hodgdon, 4 March 1800 (Hamilton Papers)
You will furnish, to the Order of Major Freeman of the first regiment of Artillerists, Clothing for a full company. — This officer is now at Fort Johnston in S Carolina. You will inform me of the Arrangement which you may take for fulfilling the object of this letter— A regiment of Artillerists consisting of four Sergeant Majors, four Quarter Master Sergeants, sixty four sergeants, sixty four...
60505From Alexander Hamilton to James McHenry, 25 October 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
It was not my intention, in my letter of the twenty third instant, to represent the application of Captain Elliot to you as irregular, but merely to intimate that it would be imprudent inconvenient to give effect to such an application in derogation from a general arrangement. You will perceive from the enclosed letter the order which has been given addressed to the commanding officer of Fort...
60506From Alexander Hamilton to John F. Mercer, 1 March 1793 (Hamilton Papers)
You will readily comprehend, without explanation, the occasion of my having left your letter of the 31 of January unanswered, ’till this time. You acknowlege that what Mr. Key states is the fact, as far as he states facts; and that in general the Conversation related by Mr. Campbell is such as really passed; though you recollect to have declared, that you never had said, or thought, that I was...
60507Lease of College Lots, 10 March 1787 (Hamilton Papers)
New York, March 10, 1787. On this date Hamilton and six others signed a lease to Frederick Rhinelander for “eleven water lotts adjacent to those he now occupies.” DS , Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress. In 1787 Columbia College held ninety-one lots of which seventy-eight were leased.
60508From Alexander Hamilton to James Wilkinson, 12 November 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
Untill some person shall be appointed to fill the Office of Clothier General to the Western Army the duties will of the station, it is expected, will be performed by the Deputy Pay Master General. With great consn I am, Sir In this capacity all estimates & returns of Clothing wanted will come from him—All returns of Clothing will be addressed to him and he will overlook the distribution— With...
60509From Alexander Hamilton to William Ellery, 13 August 1794 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, August 13, 1794. On August 25, 1794, Ellery wrote to Hamilton and referred to “Your letter of the 13th. of this month.” Letter not found. ] Although this letter has not been found, it was similar in content to H to Jeremiah Olney, August 13, 1794 . See Ellery to H, August 25, 1794 , and Olney to H, August 25, 1794 .
60510From Alexander Hamilton to Thomas FitzSimons, [15 September 1790] (Hamilton Papers)
The hurry of business has prevented my thanking you sooner for your letter of the 6th and the trouble you have been so obliging, as to take towards providing me with a house. I doubt not the one obtained will answer very well my purpose. Its proximity to my office is a great recommendation of it. Inclosed is an order on your bank of the Treasurer in favour of for four hundred dollars, for the...
60511To George Washington from Alexander Hamilton, 22 September 1792 (Washington Papers)
I have been duly honored with your Letters of the 7th and 17th instant, and perceive with much pleasure a confirmation of the expectation which your former communications had given that your view of the measures proper to be pursued respecting the proceedings therein referred to, would correspond with the impressions entertained here. I flatter myself that the Proclamation will answer a very...
60512From Alexander Hamilton to James Madison, [3 April 1788] (Hamilton Papers)
I have been very delinquent My Dear Sir in not thanking you sooner for your letter from Philadelphia. The remarks you make on a certain subject are important and will be attended to. There is truly much embarrassment in the case. I think however the principles we have talked of, in respect to the legislative authorities, are not only just but will apply to the other departments. Nor will the...
60513From Alexander Hamilton to William Webb, [1791–1792] (Hamilton Papers)
[ 1791–1792. The description of this letter in the dealer’s catalogue reads: “In regard to ‘expenses incurred in consequences of the action against Jonathan Williams.’” Letter not found. ] LS , sold at Goodspeed’s Book Shop, Boston, Catalogue 174, Item 4819B. Webb was collector of customs at Bath, District of Maine. The “expenses” mentioned in the description printed above were the costs to...
60514From Alexander Hamilton to Jean Antoine Joseph Fauchet, 31 May 1794 (Hamilton Papers)
The sum of 400,000 livres tournois mentioned in the letter which you have done me the honor to write me, is more considerable than I understood it to be, when you spoke of it to me personally the other day. All that is legally in my power concerning it is to facilitate its reception and exchange at the Mint. If it shall be sent to Philadelphia and deposited at the Mint, there shall be an...
60515From Alexander Hamilton to Jeremiah Olney, 30 June 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
I am obliged to you for the information contained in your letter of the 23d. Instant. It will be agreeable to me, that you purchase Scales, & Weights, for the use of the Port of Providence. I have permitted small Sail Boats fit for harbor service to be purchased or built by some of the Collectors, & will not object to one for the purpose mentioned in your letter. These purchases will no doubt...
60516From Alexander Hamilton to John Chaloner, [22 November 1786] (Hamilton Papers)
I received your letter with the draft on Mr Ray which I presented immediately. He would not accept it payable in specie. I did not protest because by your letter it appears to be an affair of accomodation and that you retain the money in your hands. Nor do I now return the draft because Mr. Ray tells me endeavours are making to turn paper into specie for the payment of it; if these do not...
60517From Alexander Hamilton to Daniel Jackson, 28 September 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
There is a soldier in Captain Stoddard’s company of Artillerists whose discharge is sollicited by his father on the condition of procuring a substitute. The Secretary of war instructs me to have the person discharged, and you will take measures accordingly. Be careful that an eligible substitute is produced, & that the US be completely indemnified for any expence to which they may have been...
60518From Alexander Hamilton to Benjamin Lincoln, 12 November 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
I have received your letter of the 4th Ultimo, inclosing a duplicate receipt, No 345, of the Bank of Massachusetts for a payment of twenty five thousand Dollars, made by you into that Bank. With regard to the boatmen, I fully approve of your idea, upon the strength of what you suggest, that the service will not suffer by dismissing three of them during the winter season. I am, Sir, with great...
60519From Alexander Hamilton to Joseph Whipple, 4 February 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia, February 4, 1792. On February 28, 1792, Whipple wrote to Hamilton: “Your letter of the 4th. instant I had the honor to receive.” Letter not found. ]
60520From Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Hamilton, [1782] (Hamilton Papers)
Engrossed by our own immediate concerns, I omitted telling you of a disagreeable piece of intelligence I have received from a gentleman of Georgia. He tells me of the death of my brother Levine. You know the circumstances that abate my distress, yet my heart acknowledges the rights of a brother. He dies rich, but has disposed of the bulk of his fortune to strangers. I am told he has left me a...
60521From Alexander Hamilton to John F. Hamtramck, 9 November 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
Your different letters of the 19th and 27th of September, of the 5th. 11th and 18th of October, and of the first of November have been duly received. I am much obliged to you for the particular information which they contain concerning the several posts that you have visited, and for the attention which you have given in correcting the different defects that occurred to your observation. You...
60522From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 25 January 1795 (Hamilton Papers)
I have examined the points of which you delivered me a memorandum for consideration. There is no doubt that the monies arising from foreign loans which have been invested in the purchase of Domestic Debt are to be placed to the account of the loan of 2000000 authorised to be made by the Act of the 12th of August 1790 and will exhaust pro tanto the authority thereby given. It is equally clear...
60523From Alexander Hamilton to Nathan Rice, 22 August 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
I have received a letter from Cn. Ashmun of your regiment in which he informs me that he has sent Samuel Woolcott, a deserter from the first regiment of Artillerists to the commanding officer of the district at Springfield. You will immediately send this deserter under the guard of a corporal and file of men to Major Tousarde at Rhode Island. With great consideration Df , in the handwriting of...
60524From Alexander Hamilton to John Chaloner, 15 January 1784 (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York, January 15, 1784. On January 21, 1784, Chaloner wrote to Hamilton : “I have before me yours of the 8th. & 15th Instt.” Letter of January 15 not found. ]
60525Receipt to Baron von Steuben, [12 December 1788] (Hamilton Papers)
I certify that William Constable hath delivered me for the Baron De Steuben by way of loan One Hundred pounds December 12th 1788. ADS , anonymous donor. Constable, a native of Ireland, was a prominent New York City merchant. In 1784 he became a partner with John Rucker of New York in the firm of Constable, Rucker, and Company. Rucker died in 1788, and Constable continued the firm under the...
60526From Alexander Hamilton to Robert Morris, 7 July 1795 (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York, July 7, 1795. On July 20, 1795, Morris wrote to Hamilton and referred to “your letter of the 7th of July.” Letter not found. ]
60527From Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, 3 May 1794 (Hamilton Papers)
Treasury Department, May 3, 1794. Encloses “a letter from the Commissioner of the Revenue of the 30th of April, with his opinion that it is adviseable to confirm the purchase of Oil to which it relates.” LC , George Washington Papers, Library of Congress. Tench Coxe to H, April 30, 1794 . Washington approved this purchase on May 3, 1794 ( JPP “Journal of the Proceedings of the President,”...
60528From Alexander Hamilton to Thomas Parker, 3 May 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
I have received two four letters from you dated the 12th. and 18th. 22 & 25th of April last month. The very great delay which attended my letter in its passage to General Lee led me to adopt provissionally another to a the plan which on comparison I find to differ in many for dividing the state of Virginia into districts and subdistricts different which you have received. I observe that it...
60529From Alexander Hamilton to William Seton, 25 June 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
You will find from my Letter of the 23rd instant that I have extended the sum that may be received by the Bank of New York of persons intending to become subscribers to the Bank of the United States as far as 100,000 Dollars, which supercedes in a degree the requisition with regard to the Notes of your institution. I could not engage in the arrangement proposed by means of that paper because I...
60530From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 27 May 1796 (Hamilton Papers)
The Patterson manufactory being defunct, the persons heretofore employed are thrown out of business and among them Mr. Marshall who erected & directed the Cotton Mill. As this man has proved that he understands himself & is a discreet well-moralled man I am loth that he should be under the necessity of leaving the Country. He is a man of some education. Besides a considerable knowlege of...
60531From Alexander Hamilton to Samuel Hodgdon, 28 September 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
I send you for your information an extract from Col. Bentley’s letter of the nineteenth of this month— “The Pay Master General informs Me of the receipt of a Hhd containing two hundred coats without either letter or invoice. It must have been a Considerable length of time in it’s Passage, as it appears to have touched at Baltimore and at Petersburg”— With great consn I am ( Df , in the...
60532New York Ratifying Convention. Notes on Debates, [27 June 1788] (Hamilton Papers)
Mel Smith Powers ought to be precisely defined— Peculiarly so in a government of the particular kind. Ought to rest as well for operation as organisation— Harmony . Money necessary to existence of both— Interference or clashing of power— And one must fall a sacrifice to the other. No limitation to discretion of legislature— State Governments & G Government have concurrent jurisdiction in all...
60533To George Washington from Alexander Hamilton, 14 April 1794 (Washington Papers)
The present is beyond question a great, a difficult & a perilous crisis in the affairs of this country. In such a crisis it is the duty of every man, according to situation, to contribute all in his power towards preventing evil and producing good. This consideration will I trust be a sufficient apology for the liberty I am about to take of submitting without an official call the ideas which...
60534From Alexander Hamilton to Elias B. Dayton, 21 February 1800 (Hamilton Papers)
I have received your letter of the twentieth instant. As the arrangement with respect to Wood has received the sanction of Colonel Smith, I shall not withhold from it mine. I can not however help observing that the price appears to me to be extremely high altogether excessive, especially as Colonel Ogden had informed me as an inducement previously to the purchase of the ground on which the...
60535From Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Hamilton, [8 January 1783] (Hamilton Papers)
⟨The post my⟩ angel has met with some interruption (I suppose by the river being impassable) which deprives me of the pleasure of hearing from you. I am inexpressibly anxious to learn you have began your journey. I write this for fear of the worst, but I should be miserable if I thought it would find you at Albany. If by any misapprehension you should still be there I entreat you lose not a...
60536Report on the Petition of Elias Hasket Derby, [2 March 1791] (Hamilton Papers)
The Secretary of the Treasury in obedience to an order of the House of Representatives of the 26th. Ulto. relative to the petition of Elias Hasket Derby, of the town of Salem Merchant; Respectfully reports That he has duly considered the allegations contained in the said petition, and the prayer thereof. That he finds an insuperable difficulty in recommending to the consideration of the House,...
60537From Alexander Hamilton to Otho H. Williams, 30 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
Treasury Department, January 30, 1790. Informs Williams of regulations on payment of invalid pensions. LS , Columbia University Libraries. This is a duplicate of the letter sent to Jedediah Huntington on the same date.
60538From Alexander Hamilton to Thomas FitzSimons, 10 July 1795 (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York, July 10, 1795. On July 14, 1795, FitzSimons wrote to Hamilton : “I ought to have answered your favor of the 10th sooner.” Letter not found. ]
60539From Alexander Hamilton to Richard Harison, 26 April 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
You have been advised of the application of Samuel Dodge to the President for a Pardon. You know also that he is convicted upon the 26th section of the last Collection Law. A question arises concerning the extent of the power to pardon. There is a general rule that a power to pardon cannot be exercised so as to divest Individuals of a right of action for their sole benefit, or of a vested...
60540From Alexander Hamilton to Timothy Pickering, 26 December 1795 (Hamilton Papers)
Mr. Cutting has given to me a perusal of his papers, respecting his agency in revealing our seamen from British impress. He wished my opinion professionally respecting the validity of his claim, which I declined to give, because it would contradict certain maxims I have prescribed to myself with regard to public questions pending while I was part of the administration. But there are reasons...
60541From Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, 2 May 1780 (Hamilton Papers)
I am extremely sorry your Excellency has been troubled with the affair to which the papers transmitted in your letter of this morning relate. Admitting the possibility of Doctor Gordons not being the author of what I must always call a calumny, and had he not been an irreconcileable enemy to plain dealing, the matter might have been brought to a very easy issue, without the necessity of an...
60542From Alexander Hamilton to James McHnery, 8 September 1798 (Hamilton Papers)
Yours dated by mistake Augt. 6th. I received yesterday. I postponed a reply ’till to day because I wished first to reflect maturely. My mind is unalterably made up. I shall certainly not hold the commission on the plan proposed, and only wait an official communication to say so. I return you the inclosures in your letter. You may depend on my fidelity to your friendly confidence. I shall...
60543From Alexander Hamilton to Colonel Otho Williams, [12 June 1779] (Hamilton Papers)
The Genl sends you four fresh horsemen to enable you to transmit him intelligence. The General will take the road you marched to your quarters. Mind your eye my boy, and if you have an opportunity, fight damned hard! Yr. friend & serv ALS , Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Both J. C. Hamilton ( JCHW John C. Hamilton, ed., The Works of Alexander Hamilton (New York, 1851). , I,...
60544From Alexander Hamilton to John F. Hamtramck, 12 May 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
In the same expectation, which has dictated preceding letters to you; namely that Brigadier General Wilkinson has left his station for the seat of Government & that the command in his absence has devolved upon you, I send you the copy of a letter from the Secy of War to me of the 11 of April last and of the inclosures to which it refers respecting the marking of the Indian Boundary line, also...
60545From Alexander Hamilton to James McHenry, [19 January 1797] (Hamilton Papers)
This will probably be handed you by Mrs De Neuville widow of Mr. De Neuville of Holland a Gentleman who embarked very zealously and very early in the cause of this country—was instrumental in promoting it and as I understand an object of persecution in consequence of it, which was a link in the chain of his pecuniary ruin. I think his widow has a strong claim upon the kindness of our country...
60546From Alexander Hamilton to Tench Coxe, 8 January 1795 (Hamilton Papers)
The Secretary of the Treasury requests the Commissioner of the Revenue to take measures with District Attorney for arresting proceedings against the stills which have been seized in the fourth survey of the District of Pensylvania till some definitive plans shall have been adopted. AL , RG 58, Records of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, General Records, 1791–1803, National Archives. Survey No....
60547From Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Hamilton, 4 October 1801 (Hamilton Papers)
This morning, My beloved Eliza, I arrived here to pay a visit to your father, in the interval of the postponement of our causes, as I mentioned in a letter which I wrote you on Friday from Claverack. Your father’s wound is much better and your mother in good health. Your sisters are both on a visit to Rensselaer; but expected back to day or tomorrow. In the morning I return to Claverack. I am...
60548From Alexander Hamilton to Colonel Timothy Pickering, 12 April 1781 (Hamilton Papers)
[ New Windsor, New York ] April 12, 1781 . States that “the General has ordered the block house in the Clove to be continued.” ALS , RG 93, Miscellaneous Records, National Archives.
60549From Alexander Hamilton to William Short, 7 October 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
I think it probable you will have learnt, through other channels, before this reaches you, my appointment as Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. In this capacity the debt due from us to France will of course constitute one of the objects of my attention. Except with regard to a few laws of immediate urgency, respecting commercial imposts, and navigation, the late session of...
60550From Alexander Hamilton to William Seton, [22 October 1792] (Hamilton Papers)
I will thank you to forward me, as soon as convenient, copies of all the letters you have received from me, respecting the purchase of public Debt. In the hurry of dispatching some of them, no copy was kept. And some incidents of late require, that I should carefully review the ground. I regretted to have been obliged to draw lately a portion of my intended deposits from your Bank; but I hope...