P. S. Should the reasoning of the Virginia Assembly be just, the law of Congress ought to be amended, otherwise the command of the army will be filled by the State Government sending into the field the oldest officer, and not by the Chief Magistrate of the Union, who is responsible to the people for the conduct of militia called into the field by his order. DELANY TO HAMILTON. PHILADELPHIA, January 12, 1795. DEAR SIR: Among that class of your fellow-citizens, who truly lament your intended resignation, we also, as officers of the revenue of this district, beg leave to assure you, we feel it in the most sensible degree. And if the warmest heartfelt sentiments of your conduct, as a statesman and in your official duties, can be pleasing or useful to your feelings, we in the most explicit sense now offer them. These sentiments, sir, and opinions, are founded on experience and due consideration in every instance that we know or recognize throughout your whole administration. We also sincerely hope you will meet in future the just and happy fruits of an upright and virtuous conduct, in the grateful sentiments of a free and enlightened people-for, if such is the portion of an impartial and steady operation in office to insure happiness and security agreeably to the Constitution and Laws, you must certainly meet it. We are with unfeigned esteem and great respect your obedient and most humble servants, SHARP DELANY, Collector. DEAR SIR: EDMUND RANDOLPH TO HAMILTON. PHILADELPHIA, February 17, 1795. I had intended to have paid my respects to you this morning; but being deprived of that pleasure by a bad cold, and bad weather, I beg leave to offer to yourself, Mrs. Hamilton and family, my best wishes for your and their happiness; and to assure you of the true esteem and regard with which I am, Dear Sir, Your most obedient servant, EDM. RANDOLPH. MCHENRY TO HAMILTON. MY DEAR HAMILTON: NEW BALTIMORE, February 17, 1795. The tempest weathered and landed on the same shore, I may now congratulate you on having established a system of credit, and having conducted the affairs of our country upon principles and reasoning, which ought to insure its immortality, as it undoubtedly will your fame. Few public men have been so eminently fortunate as voluntarily to leave so high a station with so unsullied a character, and so well assured a reputation; and still fewer have so well deserved the gratitude of their country, and the eulogiums of history. Let this console you for past toils and pains, and reconcile you to humbler pleasures and a private life. What remains for you, having insured fame, but to insure felicity? Seek for it in the moderate pursuit of your profession, or, if public life still flatters, in that office most congenial to it; and which will not withdraw you from those literary objects that require no violent waste of spirits, and those little plans that involve gentle exercise, and which you can drop or indulge in without injury to your family. I shall expect to hear from you as soon as you get fairly settled. Not knowing whether I ought to address to you at Albany or New-York, I have sent this to Mr. Murray, who will forward it, and who I suppose knows. Adieu. Sincerely and affectionately, JAMES MCHENRY. HAMILTON TO SEDGEWICK. BRISTOL, February 18th, 1795. MY DEAR SEDGEWICK: Every moment's reflection increases my chagrin and disgust at the failure of the propositions concerning the unsubscribed debt. I am tortured by the idea that the country should be so completely and unnecessarily dishonored. A day of reckoning must come. I pray you let the yeas and nays separate the wheat from the chaff. I may otherwise have to feel the distress of wounding a friend by a shaft levelled at an enemy. The case is an extreme one. Managements are every way improper. Yours affectionately, HAMILTON TO KING. A. HAMILTON. KINGSTON, February 21st, 1795. MY DEAR KING: The unnecessary, and capricious, and abominable assassination of the national honor, by the rejection of the propositions respecting the unsubscribed debt, in the House of Representatives, haunts me every step I take, and afflicts me more than I can express. To see the character of the government and the country so sported with-exposed to so indelible a blot-puts my heart to the torture. Am I, then, more of an American than those who drew their first breath on American ground? Or what is it that thus torments me, at a circumstance so calmly viewed by almost every body else? Am I a fool-a romantic Quixotte-or is there a constitutional defect in the American mind? Were it not for yourself and a few others, I could adopt the reveries of De Paux as substantial truths, and could say with him that there is something in our climate which belittles every animal, human or brute. I conjure you, my friend, make a vigorous stand for the honor of your country! Rouse all the energies of your mind, and measure swords in the Senate with the great slayer of public faith-the hackneyed veteran in the violation of public engagements. Prevent him, if possible, from triumphing a second time over the prostrate credit and injured interests of his country.* Unmask his false and horrid hypothesis. Display the immense difference between an able statesman and the man of subtilties. Root out the distempered and noisome weed which is attempted to be planted in our political garden, to choke and wither, in its infancy, the fair plant of public credit. I disclose to you, without reserve, the state of my mind. It is discontented and gloomy in the extreme. I consider the cause of good government as having been put to an issue, and the verdict rendered against it. Introduce, I pray you, into the Senate, when the bill comes up, the clause which has been rejected, freed from embarrassment by the bills of credit, bearing interest on the nominal value. Press its adoption in this the most unexceptionable shape, and let the yeas and nays witness the result. Among the other reasons for this is my wish that the true friends of public credit may be distinguished from its enemies. The question is too great a one not to undergo a thorough examination before the community. It would pain me not to be able to distinguish. Adieu! God bless you. *Witness the forty for one scheme-a most unskilful measure, to say the best of it. P. S. Do me the favor to revise carefully the course of the bill respecting the unsubscribed debt, and let me know the particulars. I wish to be able to judge more particularly of the underplot I suspect. HAMILTON TO KING. MY DEAR SIR: NEW-YORK, February 26th, 1795. I have received your letter, with the printed bills. The new clause is an additional bad feature; yet, 'tis better the thing should pass as it is than not at all. Every thing should be gained that can be. So it seems that, under the present administration of the Department, Hillhouse and Goodhue are to be the ministers in the House of Representatives, and Elsworth and Strong in the Senate. Fine work we shall have! But I swear the nation shall not be dishonored with impunity. HAMILTON TO WOLCOTT. ALBANY, April 10th, 1795. DEAR SIR: I wrote you a few lines by the last post. I sit down to fulfil my promise then made. The fulfilment of our foreign engagements, under the existing circumstances, is no doubt a perplexing task. But I hope it will not be found impracticable to effect enough to preserve character and credit. Every thing must be done to this end, though with considerable sacrifices, provided you do not go so far as to endanger credit |