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Subject Area: Economics
Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

to col. david henley 1 - Alexander Hamilton, The Works of Alexander Hamilton, (Federal Edition), vol. 9 [1774]

Edition used:

The Works of Alexander Hamilton, ed. Henry Cabot Lodge (Federal Edition) (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904). In 12 vols. Vol. 9.

Part of: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, (Federal Edition), 12 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


to col. david henley1

  • Headquarters, New Windsor,

Dear Sir:

I take the liberty to trouble you with a letter for Mr. Dana, which I have left open for your perusal; and I request it as a favor which I hope I may claim from your friendship to deliver it to him and press for a speedy answer. I think you sufficiently know my character and way of thinking to be convinced I could never have expressed sentiments of the kind imputed to me; and you will therefore be the more ready to afford me your good offices upon this occasion. There is no other gentleman in Boston whose friendship I could so far intrude upon.2

[1]Colonel David Henley, a brave officer of the Revolutionary War. This letter and certain others which follow relate to a remark attributed to Hamilton by Doctor Gordon, the historian of the Revolution. The most careful search has failed to discover the letters to Mr. Dana, but the “Calumny” of Dr. Gordon is shown, by a letter to Laurens (Sept. 11, 1779), given below, page 173, to have been that he quoted Hamilton as saying that he wished the people to rise, join General Washington, and turn Congress out of doors. The letters are interesting, because they are so extremely characteristic of the writer. The Mr. Dana referred to apparently was Francis Dana, of Massachusetts, afterwards a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Commissioner to France.

[2]Now first printed from the Hamilton papers in the State Department.