From George Washington to Alexander Hamilton, 23 March 1793
To Alexander Hamilton
United States [Philadelphia] March 23d 1793.
Pay, or cause to be paid to the Secretary of State or to his order, the sum of Thirty nine thousand five hundred Dollars, which, in addition to five hundred Dollars furnished to Colo. Humphreys on the 14th of Augt 1790, will complete the sum of forty thousand Dollars for the third year’s allowance under the Act concerning intercourse with foreign Nations.1
Geo: Washington
LB, DLC:GW.
1. Thomas Jefferson enclosed this letter in his second letter to Hamilton of this date ( 14:240). For Jefferson’s original request for this money and a brief account of the expenditure of these funds, including those to David Humphreys, see Jefferson to GW, 23 March. Section 1 of “An Act providing the means of intercourse between the United States and foreign nations,” 1 July 1790, authorized the president “to draw from the treasury of the United States, a sum not exceeding forty thousand dollars annually . . . for the support of such persons as he shall commission to serve the United States in foreign parts” ( 128). “An Act to continue in force for a limited time, and to amend the act intituled ‘An Act providing the means of intercourse between the United States and foreign nations,’ ” 9 Feb. 1793, required that all such expenditures be made publicly and through official requests from the secretary of state (ibid., 299–300).