II. George Washington to Alexander Hamilton, 3 June 1793
II. George Washington to Alexander Hamilton
June 3. 1793.
Sir
The question of admitting modifications of the debt of the US. to France having been the subject of a consultation with the heads of the departments and the Attorney general, and an unanimous opinion given thereon which involves the inclosed propositions from the French minister, you will be pleased, under the form of a report to me, to prepare what may serve as an answer, making it conformeable to the opinion already given. If however the instalments of the present year can be made a matter of accomodation, and it be mutual, their near approach may perhaps admit it within the spirit of the opinion given.
PrC of Dft (DLC); entirely in TJ’s hand, unsigned; at foot of text: “The Secretary of the Treasury.” Entry in SJPL: “draught of a lre from G.W. to A.H. on paiments to France.” Enclosed in Document I above.
TJ submitted the above letter to the President this day. Washington omitted the final sentence in the text he sent to Hamilton (xxxii, 485). For the unanimous opinion of the Cabinet against a similar request by William Stephens Smith, see Cabinet Opinion on the American Debt to France, 2 Mch. 1793.
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