Alexander Hamilton to Tobias Lear, 25 May 1793
Alexander Hamilton to Tobias Lear
[Philadelphia] 25th May 1793.
Dear sir,
The proper fund for the payment of the enclosed is the 10,000 Dollars for defraying the contingent Expences of the Government.1 Will you add a few words directing it to be paid out of that fund.2 Yours
A: Hamilton
LB, DLC:GW.
1. This enclosure, which has not been found, was from Richard Harrison, auditor of the U.S. Treasury, and concerned the reimbursement of James Seagrove for the expenses he had incurred during a diplomatic mission to St. Augustine, Fla., in 1791 to secure the return of runaway slaves ( 149). For this mission and the agreements reached by Seagrove with Juan Nepomuceno de Quesada, the Spanish governor of East Florida, see GW to Seagrove, 20 May 1791, and notes; the enclosures in Jefferson to Charles Pinckney and Edward Telfair, 15 Dec. 1791, 22:407–8. For the U.S. government’s contingency fund, see Hamilton to GW, 24 Jan. 1793, and note 1.
2. Lear produced a certificate verifying that Seagrove had gone to St. Augustine on the orders of GW, and Seagrove was paid $140 from the contingency fund on 29 May ( 149, 155).