From Alexander Hamilton to Rufus King, [23 April 1796]
To Rufus King
[New York, April 23, 1796]
Dr. Sir
I have received your two letters1 & shall this day attend to the one which requires it.2 I see however no objection to it as it stands & I do not now perceive how the further object you aim at could be accomplished in the manner you seem to desire.
I have written to Ames this day concerning the course of things in our City.3 He will communicate to you as, I have not time to repeat. We are decidedly well. But it is intended today to continue the Petition in circulation & tomorrow it will be sent.4 I thought it adviseable to publish an extract from your letter without naming you.5
Yrs. truly
A Hamilton
R King Esqr
ALS, New-York Historical Society, New York City.
2. This is a reference to King to H, April 17–18, 1796.
3. H’s letter to Fisher Ames has not been found.
4. See H to King, April 20, 1796, note 2. On April 25, 1796, the House of Representatives received “the petitions of sundry traders and other inhabitants of the city of New York, praying for a complete execution of the treaties with Great Britain, Spain, and Algiers” (, II, 521).
5. The extract from King’s letter of April 17–18, 1796, which is entitled “Extract of a letter from a well informed character, in Philadelphia, dated 17th April, 1796,” was published in the [New York] American Minerva: An Evening Advertiser on April 19, 1796. It reads: “The merchants & traders Petition is signed with unexampled unanimity—Baltimore have prepared a similar petition, which will be very generally signed—General Smith, who is now there, writes that the Treaty has gained many friends—that they are next to unanimous in favor of its execution—that Annapolis is likewise unanimous, and that he thinks that nine tenths of the State are for carrying it into effect. He adds that a memorial has been drawn up, and signed by most of the respectable People in Baltimore, approving the President’s conduct in refusing the papers.”