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

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. [PRIVATE.] - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. XII (1790-1794) [1891]

Edition used:

The Writings of George Washington, collected and edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890). Vol. XII (1790-1794).

Part of: The Writings of George Washington, 14 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 ALEXANDER HAMILTON, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.

[PRIVATE.]

Sunday Noon, 15 May, 1793.

Dear Sir,

Before you despatch the circular letter, of which you enclosed me a copy, to the several collectors, I would speak to you respecting a particular clause in it.1

In the conversation you may have with a certain gentleman2 to-day, I pray you to intimate to him gently and delicately, that, if the letters or papers, which he has to present, are (knowingly to him) of a nature which relates to public matters, and not particularly addressed to me, or if he has any verbal communications to make of a similar kind, I had rather they should come through the proper channel. Add thereto, generally, that the peculiar situation of European affairs at this moment, my good wishes for his nation aggregately, my regard for those of it in particular, with whom I have had the honor of an acquaintance, my anxious desire to keep this country in peace, and the delicacy of my situation, render a circumspect conduct indispensably necessary on my part. I do not, however, mean by this, that I am to withhold from him such civilities as are common to others. Those more marked, notwithstanding our former acquaintance, would excite speculations, which had better be avoided; and if the characters similarly circumstanced, could be introduced by any other than himself, especially on Tuesday next, in the public room, when it is presumed the officers of the French frigate will be presented, it would unquestionably be better. But how this can be brought about, as they are strangers, without embarrassment, as the F. M.1 is shy on the occasion, I do not at this moment see; for it may not escape observation, as every movement is watched, if the head of any department should appear prompt in this business, in the existing state of things. I am, &c.

[1 ]This may have referred to the clause that awakened the fears of Jefferson, leading him to suspect Hamilton of making the revenue officers a “corps trained to the arts of spies, in the service of the Treasury.”

[2 ]This gentleman was the Viscount de Noailles, a French nobleman, who had served with distinction in the United States during the Revolution. He married a sister of the Marchioness de Lafayette. Having engaged with enthusiasm in the early movements of the French Revolution, and acted a conspicuous part, he at length found himself in a proscribed party, and was obliged to flee from his country to escape the rage of the contending factions. He passed by way of England to the United States. Genet characterized him and his companion, Talon, as representatives of the “pretended regent of France.”

[1 ]French Minister.