1. In PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , XI, this letter is listed as a “letter not found.”

The letter printed above was written two days before Duer was imprisoned for debt.

The Panic of 1792, of which Duer was both a major cause and a principal victim, was the product of many complex developments. In part the fervid speculation in the Government funded debt which drove the New York securities market to new highs in January, 1792, was merely an intensification of the speculative binge in the last months of 1791 (ASP description begins American State Papers, Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States (Washington, 1832–1861). description ends , Finance, I, 231; PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends XIV, 121–27; Davis, Essays description begins Joseph Stancliffe Davis, Essays in the Earlier History of American Corporations “Harvard Economic Studies,” XVI [Cambridge, 1917]). description ends , I, 210). A further impetus to speculation arose out of the efforts of various businessmen and speculators to create three new banks in New York City in one week in January, 1792 (H to William Seton, January 18, 1792 (PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , X, 525–26); Seton to H, January 22, February 6, 1792 [PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , X, 528–30; XI, 17–19]). Also, many of the principal speculators in securities were involved and overextended in several other enterprises. For example, Duer at the time had a contract to supply the United States Army, was mixed up in the new banking ventures, and had plunged heavily in numerous other land speculations. Further, almost all the New York directors of the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures, including Duer, were leading speculators in securities who as a result of the panic went into bankruptcy or avoided it by a variety of subterfuges. Among the leading speculators in the Federal funded debt in addition to Duer were Alexander Macomb, Richard C. Platt, John Pintard, Isaac Whippo, Brockholst Livingston, and John R. and Edward Livingston. These men and many others were at times bound to each other by their cooperation in other business undertakings and by debts and endorsements of notes. Other times, they found their interests in conflict, as when the three Livingstons were “bears” and Duer and his associates, including Walter Livingston, were “bulls.”

Duer had the unhappy distinction of being more responsible than any other individual for precipitating the Panic of 1792. On or shortly after March 9, he was “obliged to stop payment of a Certain Description of Notes” (Duer to Jeremiah Wadsworth, March 12, 1792, quoted in Davis, Essays description begins Joseph Stancliffe Davis, Essays in the Earlier History of American Corporations “Harvard Economic Studies,” XVI [Cambridge, 1917]). description ends , I, 289), and by March 15 securities on the New York exchange had declined to such an extent that he was unable to meet his numerous and enormous obligations.

Duer’s final collapse, however, occurred not because of his personal debts, but rather because of his obligations to the Federal Government. On March 12, 1792, Oliver Wolcott, Jr., comptroller of the Treasury, wrote to Richard Harison, United States attorney for the District of New York, that there were two unbalanced charges against Duer dating back to his service as Secretary to the Board of Treasury. Wolcott instructed Harison that if Duer could not balance his accounts or provide evidence that he could and would do so, he should be sued (copy, Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford). When Duer failed to meet the requirements set by Wolcott, he was arrested on March 23, 1792, and sent to prison.

The progress, if any, of the Government’s suit against Duer has remained a mystery, but see ASP description begins American State Papers, Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States (Washington, 1832–1861). description ends , Claims, I, 259–62; U. S., Congress, House, Committee of Claims, Rep. No. 133, 29th Cong., 1st sess., January 27, 1846; H to Duer, March 14, 1792, note 2 (PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , XI, 132). For an example of an individual’s suit against Duer, see Jonathan Williams to H, June 8, 1796 (PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , XX, 217–18).

For an outstanding account of the Panic of 1792 and Duer’s role in it, see Davis, Essays description begins Joseph Stancliffe Davis, Essays in the Earlier History of American Corporations “Harvard Economic Studies,” XVI [Cambridge, 1917]). description ends , I, 278–315. See also Duer to H, March 12, 1792 (PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , XI, 126–27); H to Duer, March 14, 1792 (PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , XI, 131–32); Robert Troup to H, March 19, 1792 (PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , XI, 155–58).

2. Printed in PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , XI, 131–32.

3. Louis Vanden Benden was one of the largest landholders in the French settlement of Gallipolis on the Ohio River (Carter, Territorial Papers description begins Clarence E. Carter, ed., The Territorial Papers of the United States (Washington, 1934–1952). description ends , II, 425, 428).

4. This sentence and the remainder of this letter concern the Scioto Company, which was an offshoot or product of the negotiations that secured a land grant for the Ohio Company. The Ohio Company had been organized in Boston in 1786 by Benjamin Tupper and Rufus Putnam. As a result of the efforts of the Reverend Manasseh Cutler, Congress on July 23, 1787 (JCC description begins Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, 1904–1937; Reprinted, New York, 1968). description ends , XXXII, 311–13; XXXIII, 399–401), approved an arrangement under which on July 27, 1787, the Board of Treasury, of which Duer was Secretary, sold to the Ohio Company almost one million eight hundred thousand acres in the Ohio country for one million dollars. In addition, provision was made for an option on approximately five million acres. This option was then assigned to the Scioto Company, a group of speculators headed by Duer. The trustees of the company were Duer, Royal Flint, and Andrew Craigie. The company sent Joel Barlow to France to sell land, but he was generally unsuccessful, and the only settlement in the lands owned by the Scioto Company was Gallipolis, which was settled by Frenchmen in 1790. The Scioto Company went down in the Panic of 1792, for its directors were unable to meet their obligations and defaulted on their contract with the Government. See Davis, Essays description begins Joseph Stancliffe Davis, Essays in the Earlier History of American Corporations “Harvard Economic Studies,” XVI [Cambridge, 1917]). description ends , I, 124–50, 213–53. See also H to Duer, April 4–7, 1790 (PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , VI, 346–47); William Short to H, April 4, 1790, note 6 (PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , VI, 349–52); H to Arthur St. Clair, May 19, 1790 (PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , VI, 421–22); H to George Washington, August 28, 1790 (PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , VI, 577–78); Benjamin Walker to H, December 28, 1790 (PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , VII, 388–89); William Playfair to H, March 30, 1791, September-December, 1791 (PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , VIII, 227–33; IX, 253–55).

5. As might be expected, this was a not altogether accurate description. In the winter of 1791–1792, the French settlers had had to depend “on outside sources for their supplies” (Theodore T. Belote, “The Scioto Speculation and the French Settlement at Gallipolis,” University Studies Published by the University of Cincinnati, III, No. 3 [September-October, 1909], 55).

6. Marietta was the principal settlement in the lands owned by the Ohio Company.

7. For the Symmes purchase in the Ohio country, see H to William Rawle, January 6, 1793, note 2 (PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (New York and London, 1961– ). description ends , XIII, 472).