From George Washington to Alexander Hamilton, 8 August 1793
To Alexander Hamilton
[Philadelphia, 8 August 1793]
You having stated to me that there will be due & payable on the first of June next on account of the Loans heretofore made by the United States in Holland the sum of one million of Florins.1
I do therefore hereby direct & require that you will take measures for procuring in due time by way of Loan the said sum of one million of florins, to be applied to the payment of the aforesaid installments.
Provided always that the terms & conditions of the said Loan or Loans be according to Law.2
Given under my hand at Philada the Eighth day of August 1793.
Go. Washington
LB, DLC:GW.
1. For Hamilton’s statement showing the money due on 1 June, see note 1 of the enclosure in Hamilton to GW, 15 June 1793. This payment was the first installment on the Dutch loan approved by Congress on 14 Sept. 1782 ( , 23:575–80). For a summary of the several foreign loans obtained by the United States before 1793, see , 17–26.
2. Section 2 of “An Act making provision for the [payment of the] Debt of the United States,” 4 Aug. 1790, authorized the President “to cause to be borrowed on behalf of the United States, a sum or sum, not exceeding in the whole twelve million dollars … to the paying off the whole of the said foreign debt” ( ., 138–44). Hamilton arranged a new loan, dated 1 Jan. 1794, with the Dutch banking firm of Willink, Van Staphorst & Hubbard ( , 15:231–32, 593–96).