RC (DLC); in a clerk’s hand except for signature; addressed: “The Secy. of State”; endorsed by TJ as received 14 Dec. 1792 and so recorded in SJL with note: “(coverg. Vase and Waters’ lrs.).” Enclosures: (1) Ambrose Vasse to Hamilton, Philadelphia, [21 Nov. 1792], complaining of the refusal of the French consul general in Philadelphia to pay bills drawn on that official by the government of Saint-Domingue for the purchase of supplies from Vasse and asking Hamilton to use his influence with the French minister to prevail on the consul to pay the drafts. (2) James Waters to Hamilton, Baltimore, 6 Dec. 1792, lodging the same complaint against the French consul general and the French minister in Philadelphia. (3) Hamilton to Waters, 10 Dec. 1792, regretting his inability to offer relief and stating that “it is presumed that the refusal to pay the Bills in question, is the effect of circumstances too imperious to be controuled, and not to be remedied by any interference which could at present take place.” (4) Hamilton to Vasse, 14 Dec. 1792, conveying the same message as the letter to Waters and adding that he had “inclosed a Copy of your letter to the Secy. of State, to whose Department the object of your application more immediately relates—but I do not perceive that any thing will be in his power” (Trs in DLC; printed in Syrett, Hamilton description begins Harold C. Syrett and others, eds., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, New York, 1961–87, 27 vols. description ends , xiii, 211–12, 292, 305, 325–6).

For the problems caused for American merchants by the refusal of Ternant and La Forest to honor any bills drawn on them by the government of Saint-Domingue after 9 Sep. 1792 for the purchase of American supplies in the colony, see Syrett, Hamilton description begins Harold C. Syrett and others, eds., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, New York, 1961–87, 27 vols. description ends , xiii, 443–5.