To Alexander Hamilton from Catharine Greene, 10 May 179[4]
From Catharine Greene1
Your letter dated the 3 Sep 1793 arrivd here 20th of April and the moment I received it, I got into my boat, and hastened to town with all possible Speed, having no person here before whom I could legally swear to the enclosed facts, as nearly as I can recollect them.4 Judge Pendleton5 was then in Court; I did not hesitate to send for him and told him the wretched Situation I was in on your account; and after a little raillery he consoled me by telling me that your affair had some time since been Settled very much to your honor and that now my deposition would be of no use—the fact being produced in the public prints only could induce me to delay it a moment.
I send it therefore now not with an expectation that it will be of the least consequence but only to shew you that I can never be in-grateful to a man whose perfections are the only Sourse of Malicious Calumny—and whose goodness to me will never be forgotten.6
It is now more than a year since I ordered Mr Ward of New York (my agent there)7 to pay you the Sum you were so good as to lend me in my distress—and I will thank you to write me one line to let me know if you have received it.
I am and ever shall be your devoted affectionate and Grateful
Cathe Greene.
Mr Miller8 has just returned from Augusta and tells me that the money has not been paid according to my order as the certificates which was lodged for that purpose have not been sold—but that he will make other arrangements to have it paid.
C G
ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. For background to this letter, see Andrew G. Fraunces to H, May 16, 1793, note 9. See also William Willcocks to H, September 1, 5, 1793; H to Jeremiah Wadsworth, September 3, 1793; Wadsworth to H, September 13, 1793; Robert Affleck to H, September 7, 1793; Joseph Nourse to H, November 29, 1793; Robert Troupe to H, December 25, 1793; John Laurance to H, December 25, 1793.
Catharine Greene was the widow of Major General Nathanael Greene.
2. “Mulberry Grove” was the name of the Georgia plantation which had been given to General Greene by the state in appreciation of his services during the American Revolution.
3. This letter is incorrectly dated “1793.”
4. The affidavit, dated May 9, 1794, may be found in the Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
5. Nathaniel Pendleton was United States judge for the District of Georgia.
7. Probably Richard Ward, a New York City merchant.
8. Phineas Miller, who was a tutor to the Greene children, married Catharine Greene in 1796.