to oliver wolcott - Alexander Hamilton, The Works of Alexander Hamilton, (Federal Edition), vol. 10 [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. 10.
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.
Copyright information:
The text is in the public domain.
Fair use statement:
This material is put online to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. Unless otherwise stated in the Copyright Information section above, this material may be used freely for educational and academic purposes. It may not be used in any way for profit.
to oliver wolcott
Oct. 30, 1795.
Dear Sir:
I wrote you yesterday [Editors Note. Illegibel text. Please check.] a statement of the advances and appropriations for the Department of State.
I am very anxious that Fauchet’s whole letter should appear just as it is. Strange whispers are in circulation of a nature foreign to truth, and implicating honest men with rascals. Is it to come out? Can’t you send me a copy? I will observe any condition you annex.
The secret journals, and other files of the Department of State, will disclose the following facts:
That during the war a commission to negotiate a treaty of commerce with Great Britain, was given to Mr. Adams, and afterwards revoked.
That our commissioners for making peace were instructed to take no step whatever, without a previous consultation with the French ministry, though there was at that time reason to believe that France wished us to make peace, or truce, with Great Britain, without an acknowledgment of our independence, that she favored a sacrifice to Spain of our pretensions to the navigation of the Mississippi, and the relinquishment of a participation in the fisheries.
It will appear that instructions were actually given to Mr. Jay to yield the navigation of the Mississippi to Spain, in consideration of an acknowledgment of our independence; that Mr. Jay made a proposal accordingly, but clogged with some condition or qualification to bring it back to Congress before a final conclusion, and expostulated with Congress against the measure.
It will appear that this was effected by a Southern party, who would also have excluded the fisheries from being an ultimatum, in which they were opposed by the North, who equally contended for Mississippi and fisheries.
It will appear that Chancellor Livingston, as Secretary of State, reported a censure on our commissioners for breaking their instructions in the negotiations for peace.
It will appear that shortly after the arrival in this country of the preliminary articles, I made a motion in Congress to renew the commission to negotiate a treaty of commerce with Great Britain, that a committee was appointed to prepare one, with instructions, of which Mr. Madison was one, and that the committee never reported.
Thus stand the facts in my memory.
It is very desirable, now that a free access to the files of the department can give the evidence, to examine them accurately; noting times, places, circumstances, actors, etc. I want this very much for a public use, in my opinion essential.
It would also be useful to have a copy of Mr. Jefferson’s letter to Congress concerning the transfer of the French debt to private money-lenders, on which the report of the Board of Treasury is founded.
Nov. 12th. This letter, by accident, has lain in my desk since it was written. I send it still. Bache’s paper of the eleventh has a VALERIUS, which I think gives an opportunity of oversetting him. The leading ideas may be:
Firstly.—He discloses the object of the party to place Mr. Jefferson in contrast with the President.
Secondly.—He discloses the further object—an intimate and close alliance with France—to subject us to the vortex of European politics, and attributes it to Mr. Jefferson.
Thirdly.—He misrepresents totally Mr. Jefferson’s returning from France.
A solid answer to this paper, with facts, would do great good.
Titles (by Subject) 