51To Alexander Hamilton from Thomas Mifflin, 28 December 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
[ New York, December 28, 1789. On December 31, 1789, Hamilton wrote to Mifflin : “I have the honor of your letter of the 28th instant.” Letter not found. ]
52To Alexander Hamilton from Meletiah Jordan, 29 December 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
Frenchman’s Bay [ District of Maine ] December 29, 1789 . Repeats information contained in his letter of December 24, 1789. LC , RG 56, Letters to Collectors at Gloucester, Machias, and Frenchman’s Bay, National Archives.
53To Alexander Hamilton from John Lee, 29 December 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
Penobscot [ District of Maine ] December 29, 1789 . Describes in detail the Penobscot customs district and the problems peculiar to it. LS , Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford. Lee was collector of customs at Penobscot.
54To Alexander Hamilton from Wilhem and Jan Willink, Nicholaas and Jacob Van Staphorst, and Nicholas Hubbard, 29 December … (Hamilton Papers)
[ Amsterdam, December 29, 1789. On January 25, 1790, Willink, Van Staphorst, and Hubbard wrote to Hamilton : “We had the Honor to address you the 29 Ulto.” Letter not found. ]
55To Alexander Hamilton from Peter Anspach, 30 December 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
New York, December 30, 1789. Transmits an account of the debt owed by the United States to the creditors of the quartermaster general’s department. ALS , Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts; ALS , Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston; ADfS , RG 93, Miscellaneous Records, National Archives. For background to this letter, see H to Anspach, December 5, 1789 ; Timothy Pickering to H, November...
56To Alexander Hamilton from Joseph Clay, 30 December 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
Savannah, December 30, 1789. “I received your very obliging favour of the 2d. Octr last respecting a claim of the United States on me for a sum of money of the new emission & tho’ under the peculiar circumstances of this business I can’t think myself responsible yet ’tis my wish to see the United States secured in the same as soon as possible & shall do every thing in my power for that...
57To Alexander Hamilton from Nathaniel Fosdick, 30 December 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Portland, District of Maine, December 30, 1789. On February 8, 1790, Hamilton wrote to Fosdick “Your letter of the thirtieth of December, 1789.” Letter not found. ] Fosdick was collector of customs at Portland and Falmouth.
58Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 30 December 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
In my Circular letter of the 31st. of October last I directed you to claim the duties which had arisen on Imports since the first day of August last, and prior to the organisation of the Customhouses in the respective districts, and if the same was controverted by the parties liable thereto to prosecute this claim to a legal determination. As the decision in one case will probably form a rule...
59To Alexander Hamilton from Charles Lee, 31 December 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Alexandria, Virginia, December 31, 1789. On February 12, 1790, Hamilton wrote to Lee : “Your letter of the 31st. of December came duly to hand.” Letter not found. ]
60From Alexander Hamilton to Thomas Mifflin, 31 December 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
I have the honor of your letter of the 28th instant, inclosing one to you from the Comptroller General of your State. I can only regret, that my delay has accrued, and take it for granted, that the business will receive all the dispatch which may be practicable. I shall be sorry if any inconvenience results to the public Creditors of your state from the cessation of the payment of Indents...
61To Alexander Hamilton from Otho H. Williams, 31 December 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
Baltimore, December 31, 1789. Plans to send to Hamilton copies of Maryland’s revenue laws, information “respecting the Commerce and Shipping of this state,” and the answers to Hamilton’s “demands upon the subject of the Impost Laws.” ADfS , RG 53, “Old Correspondence,” Baltimore Collector, National Archives. H had requested these laws in “Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the...
62From Alexander Hamilton to ———, [1789–1795] (Hamilton Papers)
[ 1789–1795 .] Encloses the decision of the Federal District Court of Connecticut on the petition of Captain Timothy Savage. Suspects Savage of intent to defraud. LS , Yale University Library. The MS is a fragment without date or place.
63To Alexander Hamilton from Benjamin Lincoln, [1789] (Hamilton Papers)
[ Boston, 1789. ] Discusses the difficulty of distinguishing between goods on which duties have been paid and those on which they have not been paid. Proposes a system of branding casks, chests, and boxes, and marking bales to prevent smuggling. LC , RG 36, Letters from the Treasury and Others, 1789–1818, Vol. 11, National Archives.
64From Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, [1789–1795] (Hamilton Papers)
Mr. Hamilton will with pleasure execute the command of the President by the time appointed and have the honor of waiting upon him. AL , Photostat, George Washington Papers, Library of Congress.
65To Alexander Hamilton from Michael Dawson, 1 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
Philadelphia, January 1, 1790. Applies for the contract for the maintenance of the buoys and beacons in Delaware River and Bay. LS , RG 26, Early Lighthouse Letters, National Archives. Dawson was a Delaware River pilot who had been employed by Pennsylvania to maintain the aids to navigation in the Delaware River.
66To Alexander Hamilton from John Davidson, 2 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Annapolis, January 2, 1790. On January 22, 1790, Hamilton wrote to Davidson : “I am favored with your letter of the 2d Instant.” Letter not found. ]
67To Alexander Hamilton from John Jay, 2 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
I have now the honor of transmitting to you herewith enclosed the extracts requested in your letter to me of the 2d. November last, and am with great respect and esteem &c. LC , Papers of the Continental Congress, National Archives. At the bottom of this letter is the following: “List of papers mentioned in, and transmitted with the aforegoing letter. No. 1. Abstracts and Extracts from the...
68From Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, [3 January 1790] (Hamilton Papers)
The Secretary of the Treasury having, in consequence of the Act for the Establishment and support of Light houses, directed his Enquiries to that object begs leave most respectfully to submit the result to The President of the United States of America New Hampshire. In this State is only one Light house situated on a point of land on the Island of New-Castle, three miles from Portsmouth,...
69To Alexander Hamilton from George Washington, [4 January 1790] (Hamilton Papers)
I feel myself very much obliged by what you sent me yesterday. The letter from Governor Johnston I return—much pleased to find so authentic an acct. of the adoption by No Carolina of the Constitution. Yrs. sincerely & affectly Monday Morng 4th. Jany. } 1789 ALS , Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress. Samuel Johnston, governor of North Carolina. North Carolina ratified the Constitution on...
70To Alexander Hamilton from Tobias Lear, 5 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
By direction of the President of the United States, I have the honor herewith to transmit to you a letter from the Governor of Virginia, dated December 18th, 1789, enclosing an Act (which is likewise sent you) of the general Assembly of that Commonwealth, passed Novr. 13th. 1789, to convey to the United States in Congress assembled certain Land for the purpose of building a Light House on Cape...
71To Alexander Hamilton from William Allibone, 7 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
Philadelphia, January 7, 1790. Has received Hamilton’s letter of December 21, 1789 , and the necessary funds to maintain the aids to navigation in the Delaware River. LS , RG 26, Lighthouse Letters Received, Vol. “A,” Pennsylvania and Southern States, National Archives. Letter not found.
72From Alexander Hamilton to Angelica Church, [7 January 1790] (Hamilton Papers)
Inclosed My Dear friend is a letter from your sister; which she has written to supply my deficiency. Tomorrow I open the budget & you may imagine that today I am very busy and not a little anxious. I could not however let the Packet sail without giving you a proof, that no degree of occupation can make me forget you. We hope to hear shortly that you are safe arrived & that every thing is to...
73To Alexander Hamilton from Sharp Delany, 9 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia ] January 9, 1790 . “By this post I forward my Cash Acct for the last week.… A Vessell enters—and pays tonnage or does not pay—she is sold, or intends for another Port in the United States, and demands a License. Quere, should another Tonnage for the Year be demanded & paid?” LC , Bureau of Customs, Philadelphia.
74To Alexander Hamilton from Jeremiah Hill, 9 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
Biddeford [ District of Maine ] January 9, 1790 . Forwards “a Copy of the Certificates of Registry granted in this Office to the 31st. Ultimo.” Complains that the Boston collector of customs has not answered repeated requests for registry blanks. Copy, RG 36, Collector of Customs at Boston, Letters from the Treasury and Others, 1789–1809, Vol. 1, National Archives. Hill was collector of...
75To Alexander Hamilton from Jedediah Huntington, 9 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
[ New London, Connecticut, January 9, 1790. On January 25, 1790, Hamilton wrote to Huntington : “I am favored with your letter of the 9th. instant.” Letter not found. ]
76Introductory Note: Report Relative to a Provision for the Support of Public Credit, [9 January 1790] (Hamilton Papers)
Sources for the ideas expressed by Hamilton in his Report Relative to a Provision for the Support of Public Credit are both varied and difficult to assess. Public credit, or the terms on which a state may borrow, had been discussed in Europe by philosophers, government officials, and political pamphleteers for almost a century before Hamilton drew up his famous Report. Many Americans had also...
77Report Relative to a Provision for the Support of Public Credit, [9 January 1790] (Hamilton Papers)
[To the Speaker of the House of Representatives] The Secretary of the Treasury, in obedience to the resolution of the House of Representatives, of the twenty-first day of September last, has, during the recess of Congress, applied himself to the consideration of a proper plan for the support of the Public Credit, with all the attention which was due to the authority of the House, and to the...
78Enclosure: Schedule A, [9 January 1790] (Hamilton Papers)
SCHEDULE A Supposititious Statement of Accounts Between the United States and Individual States. States. Ratio. Balances due to the states respectively. Proportion of each state of the aggregate of those balances according to the ratio. Balances against certain states. Balances in favor of certain states. Proportion of each state in the aggregate of the balances against certain states....
79Enclosure: Schedule B, [31 December 1789] (Hamilton Papers)
SCHEDULE B A General Statement of the Foreign Loans, Shewing in Abstract, the Capital Sums Borrowed, and the Arrearages of Interest to the 31st December, 1789. Capital sums borrowed Livres. Dollars. Cts. Of the Royal French Treasury, on Interest at 5 per cent. 24,000,000 In Holland, guaranteed by the French Court, at 4 per cent. 10,000,000 Livres , 4,000,000 6,296,296 Of the Royal Spanish...
80Enclosure: Schedule C, [3 March 1789] (Hamilton Papers)
SCHEDULE C Abstract of the Liquidated and Loan-Office Debt of the United States, on the 3d March , 1789. Dollars. 90ths. Registered Debt, 4,598,462. 78 Credits given to sundries on the treasury books, by virtue of special acts of Congress, which are not yet put on the Funded Debt, 187.578. 65 Certificates issued by the commissioner of army accounts, deducting those which have been...
81Enclosure: Schedule D, [31 December 1789] (Hamilton Papers)
SCHEDULE D An Estimate of all the Interest Which Will Accrue on the Domestic Debt of the United States, From Its Formation to the 31st December 1790, of Such Partial Payments As Have Been Made on Account Thereof, and of the Balance Which Will Remain to be Provided for, to Pay Up the Interest Fully to That Period. Dollars. Cts. The total amount of interest arising on the loan-office debt,...
82Enclosure: Schedule E, [9 January 1790] (Hamilton Papers)
SCHEDULE E Abstract of the Public Debt of the States Undermentioned, Agreeably to Statements Transmitted in Pursuance of the Resolution of the House of Representatives of the 21st of September, 1789. Massachusetts Dollars. Cents. Principal with interest to the 1st day of Nov. 1789. £. 1,548,040 7 9 Lawful. Due to sundries for which no certificates have yet been issued, 20,000 Total,...
83Enclosure: Schedule F, [9 January 1790] (Hamilton Papers)
SCHEDULE F Table Shewing the Annuity Which a Person of a Given Age, Would be Entitled to During Life, From the Time he Should Arrive at a Given Age, Upon the Present Payment of a Hundred Dollars, Computing Interest at Four Per Cent. Age at the time of payment. Age when entitled. Annuity. Age when entitled. Annuity. Age when entitled. Annuity. Age when entitled. Annuity. 1 21 23.453 31 42.625...
84EnclSchedule G, [9 January 1790] (Hamilton Papers)
SCHEDULE G Table Shewing What Annuity Would be Enjoyed by the Survivor of Any Two Persons Of Certain Ages, for the Remainder of Life, After the Determination of the Life in Expectation, Upon The Present Payment of One Hundred Dollars, Computing Interest at Four per Cent. Per Annum, And the Duration of Life According to Doctor Halley’s Tables. Age of the youngest. Age of the eldest. Annuity of...
85Enclosure: Schedule H, [9 January 1790] (Hamilton Papers)
SCHEDULE H Table for a Tontine of Six Classes, the Number of Lives in Each Class Being Indefinite, Calculated on a Payment of Two Hundred Dollars by Each Subscriber, and at a Rate of Interest of Four Per Cent. The Computation on the Best Life in Each Class, And on the Supposition that the Subscribers to Each Class Will not be Less Than the Respective Numbers Specified in the First Column....
86Enclosure: Schedule I, [9 January 1790] (Hamilton Papers)
SCHEDULE I General Estimate for the Services of the Current Year. Civil List, as per No. 1, 254,892.73 War department, No. 2, 155,537.72 Military Pensions, No. 3, 96,979.72 Dollars, 507,410.17 With an eye to the necessary provisions for the foreign department, and to other arrangements which may be found requisite, it appeared advisable to state in the report, to which this is annexed, a sum...
87Enclosure: Schedule K, [9 January 1790] (Hamilton Papers)
SCHEDULE K Estimate of the Probable Product of the Funds Proposed for Funding the Debt and Providing for the Current Service of the United States, Including the Present Duties on Imports and Tonnage. Dollars , Probable product of the duties on imports and tonnage, according to the acts of the last session, Including the State of North-Carolina, this estimate may be said to correspond with the...
88Enclosure: [An Act Repealing Duties Laid Upon Distilled Spirits Imported], [9 January 1790] (Hamilton Papers)
An ACT repealing, after the last day of next, the Duties heretofore laid upon distilled Spirits imported from abroad, and laying others in their stead, and also upon Spirits distilled within the United States, as well to discourage the excessive use of those Spirits, and promote Agriculture, as to provide for the support of the Public Credit, and for the Common Defence and General Welfare. I....
89Draft of an Act Imposing Certain Inland Duties on Foreign Wines, [9 January 1790] (Hamilton Papers)
An act imposing certain Inland duties on foreign Wines. A A Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled That in addition to the duties heretofore laid—on Wines imported into the United States from any foreign Port or Place there shall be paid for the use of the U States upon all Wines which shall be so imported after the last...
90To Alexander Hamilton from Gaspard Joseph Amand Ducher, 10 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
Les representants du peuple de la caroline du nord assemblés a fayetteville ont adoptée la nouvelle constitution; comme vous connoissez mon attachement pour les americains, j’espere que vous me rendez la justice de croire que je vois avec plaisir tout ce qui peut concourir à leur union et à leur prosperité. Dès que ma Santé sera rétablie je me propose de faire un précis des nouvelles loix...
91To Alexander Hamilton from Sharp Delany, 11 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia ] January 11, 1790 . “Inclosed is the Total amount of goods imported & the duties arising to the first Inst.… My Accts are ready for settlement and I intend as soon as the river shuts as business grows slack to carry them myself.” LC , Bureau of Customs, Philadelphia.
92To Alexander Hamilton from John E. Howard, 11 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Annapolis ] January 11, 1790 . Encloses a statement of Maryland’s public debt. ALS , RG 56, Letters 2d Comptroller, 2d Auditor, Executive of Maryland and Georgia, 1789–1823, National Archives. This letter was written in reply to “Treasury Department Circular to the Governors of the States,” November 21, 1789 . Howard was governor of Maryland.
93To Alexander Hamilton from Beverley Randolph, 11 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
Richmond, January 11, 1790. Encloses a statement from Virginia’s auditor which shows how the abstract of the state debt was calculated. LC , Archives Division, Virginia State Library, Richmond.
94To Alexander Hamilton from Nathaniel Fosdick, 12 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Portland, District of Maine, January 12, 1790. On February 8, 1790, Hamilton wrote to Fosdick : “I have received your letter of the twelfth of January.” Letter not found. ]
95To Alexander Hamilton from Aaron D. Woodruff, 13 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
Trenton, January 13, 1790. “In the Action of Carter agt. Kearney … I have repeatedly pressed the Sheriff on the Business & have recd. for Answer that you have consented to a Stay of the Execution.… I am inclined to doubt the Truth of the Assertion & shall be obliged to you to know how far this Indulgence has been given & whether I am at Liberty to order the Sheriff to proceed on the...
96To Alexander Hamilton from Charles Lee, 15 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Alexandria, Virginia, January 15, 1790. On February 18, 1790, Hamilton wrote to Lee : “Your Letter of the 15th of January last duly came to hand.” Letter not found. ]
97To Alexander Hamilton from Tobias Lear, 16 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
By order of the President of the United States, I transmit you the copy of a Report from the Post Master General accompanyed with the Draft of a bill respecting the establishment of the Post Office, to the end that the same may be laid before the house of representatives, with any remarks or suggestions, which may appear to you proper, in relation to the Finances. I have the honor to be with...
98To Alexander Hamilton from Sharp Delany, 18 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
[ Philadelphia ] January 18, 1790 . “… There is one branch of Revenue which if it did not interfere too much with some of the states would produce 100,000 Dollars ⅌ annm. I mean 2 ⅌ Ct on Sales at public Auction. This has no doubt fell under your knowledge, but if not you will give it a due decision.” LC , Bureau of Customs, Philadelphia.
99To Alexander Hamilton from Tobias Lear, 18 January 1790 (Hamilton Papers)
By order of the President of the United States, I do myself the honor to transmit you a letter from His Excellency Thomas Jefferson The Secretary for Foreign Affairs to the United States, dated at Paris Augt. 27th. 1789.—and likewise the Copy of a letter from Messrs. Wilhem & Jan Willinck, N & J. Van Staphorst & Hubbard to Mr. Jefferson, dated at Amsterdam 13th. Augt. 1789.—both of which the...
100Enclosure: Thomas Jefferson to John Jay, 27 August 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
I am honoured with your favor of June 19. informing me that permission is given me to make a short visit to my native country, for which indulgence I beg leave to return my thanks to the President, and to yourself, Sir, for the expedition with which you were so good as to forward it after it was obtained. Being advised that October is the best month of the autumn for a passage to America, I...