To Alexander Hamilton from Joseph Clay, 30 December 1789
From Joseph Clay1
Savannah, December 30, 1789. “I received your very obliging favour of the 2d. Octr last2 respecting a claim of the United States on me for a sum of money of the new emission & tho’ under the peculiar circumstances of this business I can’t think myself responsible yet ’tis my wish to see the United States secured in the same as soon as possible & shall do every thing in my power for that purpose. The person who received the money and appropriated it to his own use3 (as he says prompted by penury & want) is I am told at this time in very good circumstances & writes that he only waits to know what money will be received in payment & at what rate.…”
LC, Georgia Historical Society, Savannah.
1. Clay was a Savannah merchant and planter who had served as paymaster general of the Continental Army in the Southern Department.
2. Letter not found.
3. A detailed account of this affair may be found in Clay to _____, August 9, 1789 (“Letters of Joseph Clay, Merchant of Savannah, 1776–1793,” Collections of the Georgia Historical Society [Savannah, 1913], VIII, 216–22).