To Alexander Hamilton from Walter Livingston, 20 November 1790
From Walter Livingston
New York Novr. 20. 90
Sir
Mr. Sands1 informs me that you promised him to procure the Opinion of the Attorney General of the Union2; Whether the powers of the Comptroller3 extended to the Settlement of the Demand exhibited by Sands Livingston & Co. against the united States and by them, with the consent of the Parties submitted to Referrees. Our Claim is of such magnitude, that few persons can submit, without very great inconvenience to the (perhaps unavoidable delays on the part of government,) to be ranked among those chosen for your Claimants have not the smalest pretensions, If the Attorney General is in Philadelphia we are persuaded no unnecessary delay will take place. If not we must perforce wait for justice.4
I am Sir your H St.
The Honble Alexr Hamilton Esqr.
Philadelphia
LC, New-York Historical Society, New York City.
1. At the time this letter was written Comfort Sands was a director of the Bank of New York, which he had helped to found in 1784.
2. Edmund Randolph.
3. Nicholas Eveleigh.
4. For information concerning the claims of Sands, Livingston, and others against the United States Government, see “Report on the Petition of Comfort Sands and Others,” February 24, 1791 (, VIII, 138–41).