To George Washington from Alexander Hamilton, 21 November 1791
From Alexander Hamilton
Treasury Department, Philadelphia, 21 Nov. 1791. Submits two contracts: one between the collector of New London, Conn., and Nathaniel Richards for supplying the lighthouses in that district for one year, to end on 1 Oct. 1792, the terms of which were somewhat more favorable than those of the preceding year; and another between the collector of New London and the keeper of the lighthouse there, “which being as low as that for the preceding year & being among the most moderate of those compensations, the Secretary does not perceive any ground of exception against it.”1
LB, DLC:GW.
1. A note at the bottom of the page states that GW approved on 23 Nov. both contracts signed by collector Jedediah Huntington, copies of which are in DNA: RG 26, Lighthouse Deeds and Contracts, Vol. A, 23–24. Daniel Harris was the keeper of the lighthouse at New London. On 22 Nov. Alexander Hamilton submitted to GW a contract made on 1 July by the collector of Portsmouth, N.H., Joseph Whipple, with Titus Salter for keeping and supplying the lighthouses at the mouth of that harbor for six months, noting: “The conditions of it are the same as those of the preceding Contract, provided the supply be made in Hake oil, & the extra expence of Sperm a ceti Oil, if it should be found necessary, does not appear liable to exception.” According to a clerical notation on the letter-book copy, GW approved this contract, too, on 23 Nov. (DLC:GW). A copy of it is in DNA: RG 26, Lighthouse Deeds and Contracts, vol. A, 6–7.