From George Washington to Alexander Hamilton, 6 June 1793
To Alexander Hamilton
Philadelphia 6. June 1793.
Sir,
Upon a mature consideration of your communication to me of the 3d instant, recommending a still further Loan in Holland, if obtainable, to the amount of 3,000,000 florins—and stating, that in case the recommendation should meet my ideas, my special approbation thereof would be proper, I have thought it necessary, in order to make the subject clear to my mind before any steps are taken in it, to request you to give me information on the following points1—vizt.
1st—whether all the monies, borrowed under the Acts of the 4. & 12. of Augt 1790,2 have been expended, on their respective objects? If not, what is the balance?
2d—Under which of the two Laws do you propose that a loan should be opened?
3d—If under one, or the other, or both, what is the balance remaining unborrowed, of the two sums allowed to be borrowed?
4th. To what use is the money, proposed to be borrowed, to be applied?3
Go. Washington.
LB, DLC:GW.
1. GW had enclosed Hamilton’s letter of 3 June in a letter to Thomas Jefferson of 4 June. After receiving, on 5 June, Jefferson’s reaction to the proposed loan, GW later that date submitted both Hamilton’s proposal and Jefferson’s opinion to Attorney General Edmund Randolph for his assessment, which GW received on 6 June (Jefferson to GW, 5 June, and enclosure; , 160–61, 163). Randolph’s opinion has not been identified.
2. See “An Act making provision for the [payment of the] Debt of the United States,” 4 Aug. 1790, and “An Act making Provision for the Reduction of the Public Debt,” 12 Aug. 1790, ., 138–44, 186–87.
3. For Hamilton’s reply, see his letter to GW of 15 June and the enclosed report of that date.