From James Madison to Alexander Hamilton, 9 June 1788
To Alexander Hamilton
Richd. June 9. [1788]
Dr Sir
The Heat of the weather &c. has laid me up with a bilious attack: I am not able therefore to say more than a few words.
No material indications have taken place since my last.1 The chance at present seems to be in our favor. But it is possible things may take another turn. Oswald of Phila. came here on saturday; and has closet interviews with the leaders of the Opposition.2 Yours Affely.
Js. Madison Jr
RC (DLC: Hamilton Papers). Addressed in an unidentified hand and franked. Docketed by Hamilton.
1. Letter not found.
2. British-born Eleazer Oswald (ca. 1755–1795) had served in the Continental army as an officer in an artillery unit commanded by John Lamb, with whom he made a lasting friendship. After resigning from the army following a quarrel over rank, Oswald went into the printing business and maintained his ties with the Clintonians in New York through his connections with the N.Y. Journal. In 1788 he was an ardent Antifederalist and publisher of the Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer (Isaiah Thomas, History of Printing in America … [2 vols.; Worcester, Mass., 1810], II, 310; Frank L. Mott, American Journalism: A History, 1690–1960 [3d ed.; New York, 1962], p. 176 and n.).