To Alexander Hamilton from Horace and Seth Johnson and Company, 9 April 1795
From Horace and Seth Johnson and Company1
New York, April 9, 1795. “Mr Harison2 acquaints us that it is ⟨y⟩our intention to resume the practice of the Law in this State. One A Craigie,3 & ourselves wishing to retain you as our counsel, we inclose a Bank note for $100.”4
LS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. Horace and Seth Johnson were New York City merchants.
2. Richard Harison, United States attorney for the District of New York, was a close friend of H.
3. Andrew Craigie. See H to Robert Morris, March 18, 1795, note 19. In the seventeen-nineties Craigie and the Johnsons were partners in stock and land speculation. See H to John Holker, January 29, 1789; William Short to H, November 30, 1789, January 28–31, 1790; Fisher Ames to H, August 15, 1791. For information on the joint activities of Craigie and the Johnsons, see , I, 124–338.
4. H endorsed this letter: “Answer. No objection, if under no opposite engagement which a minute of the cause from Mr. Harrison will enable me to judge.” H’s reply has not been found.
An entry in the “Memoranda of Retainers” in H’s Law Register, 1795–1804, under the date of April 22, 1795, states that the Johnsons sent H fifty dollars (D, partially in H’s handwriting, New York Law Institute, New York City; also in
, forthcoming volumes).