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Hamilton Exposes His Adultery: The Infamous Reynolds Pamphlet
ALEXANDER HAMILTON,
Pamphlet. Observations on Certain Documents Contained in “The History of the United States for the Year 1796,” in Which the Charge of Speculation Against Alexander Hamilton, Late Secretary of the Treasury, is Fully Refuted. Written by Himself. Philadelphia: Printed for John Fenno, by John Bioren, 1797. Gathered signatures, string-tied as issued. Early ink ownership signature of George M. Thompson on title page.
“The charge against me is a connection with one James Reynolds for purposes of improper pecuniary speculation. My real crime is an amorous connection with his wife, for a considerable time with his privity and connivance, if not originally brought on by a combination of the husband and wife with the design to extort money from me.This confession is not made without a blush… I can never cease to condemn myself for the pang, which it may inflict in a bosom eminently intitled to all my gratitude, fidelity and love…. The public too will I trust excuse the confession. The necessity of it to my defence against a more heinous charge could alone have extorted from me so painful an indecorum.”
Item #24839, $30,000
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The Only Known Document in Hamilton’s Hand on a Legal Case Involving James Reynolds
ALEXANDER HAMILTON,
Autograph Manuscript, c. November 1796, Notes regarding Margaret Currie, administratrix of David Currie v. James Reynolds (scire facias), 2 pp.
Also see the Alexander Hamilton Collection: The Story of the Revolution & Founding.
“There was also a prior Judgment against David Reynolds & his son James … but did not return the Execution nor sell till Wednesday the 2d of November, when James Reynolds about 6 Months ago came forward to claim these lands in virtue of a deed from his father prior to Sands mortgage.”
In July 1783, James Reynolds married Maria Lewis. From mid-1791 to mid-1792, Alexander Hamilton and Maria Reynolds had an affair. In November 1792, James Reynolds was imprisoned for forgery in a scheme to purchase the pensions and pay claims of Revolutionary War soldiers. Ironically, in May 1793, Maria (represented by Aaron Burr) filed for divorce from James on the grounds of adultery; the court granted the divorce two years later. Here, after Hamilton’s affair was known to James Monroe and very few others, Hamilton was somehow involved in a legal case having to do with James Reynolds just months before news of the scandal exploded.
Item #24624, $30,000
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For Washington, Hamilton Confirms Receipt of Hessian Troop Movement Intelligence
ALEXANDER HAMILTON,
Autograph Letter Signed, on behalf of General George Washington, to Colonel Charles Stewart, Commissary General of Issues, October 24, 1777, Headquarters [Whitpain Township, Pa]. 1p. with integral address leaf note, “Let the Bearer pass. Tim. Pickering Adjt. Genl.,” 13 x 8¼ in. (open).
Also see the Alexander Hamilton Collection: The Story of the Revolution & Founding.
Following the punishing battles at Paoli and Germantown, which left Philadelphia vulnerable to British control for the winter, the Continental Army under Washington spent two weeks recovering at Whitpain, Pennsylvania.
Alexander Hamilton was then Washington’s chief staff aide, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, a position he would hold for four years. He played a crucial role in handling much of the General’s correspondence with Congress, state governors, and other military officers.
Item #24375, $35,000
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Thomas Paine’s Day Job While Writing Common Sense: Editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine
[THOMAS PAINE],
Bound Volume. Pennsylvania Magazine; or American Monthly Museum. Volume 1. January-December 1775. Philadelphia, Pa., R. Aitken, 1775. 5 x 8¼ in.
Item #23101, $45,000
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Congress Begs the States for the Power to Regulate Trade and Negotiate Treaties
CHARLES THOMSON,
Document Signed as Secretary of Congress. Resolutions Concerning Foreign Commerce. April 30, 1784, [Annapolis, Maryland]. 1 p., 7¾ x 12¾ in.
“The fortune of every citizen is interested in the success thereof [of trade]; for it is the constant source of wealth and incentive to industry; and the value of our produce and our land must ever rise or fall in proportion to the prosperous or adverse state of trade.…”
Item #20874.99, $54,000
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Alexander Hamilton’s Initial Steps to Create a National Banking System
Alexander Hamilton,
Circular Letter Signed as Secretary of the Treasury, “Alexr Hamilton/Secy of the Treasury,” to Stephen Smith Esq., Collector of the Customs for the Port of Machias, Massachusetts [Maine], September 22, 1789, New York, New York. 2 pp., 7¾ in. x 9¼ in.
Also see the Alexander Hamilton Collection: The Story of the Revolution & Founding
On his 11th day as Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton orders Customs Collectors to accept Bank of North America and Bank of New York notes as the equivalent of gold or silver, and hints at forthcoming procedures to guard against counterfeit currency.
“In consequence of arrangements lately taken with the Bank of North America, and the Bank of New York for the accommodation of the Government, I am to inform you that it is my desire that the Notes of those Banks payable either on demand, or at no longer period than Thirty days after their respective dates should be received in payment of the duties, as equivalent to Gold and Silver . . .”
Item #26524, $70,000
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To Avoid Abuse from “bigots in religion...politics, or...medicine,” Thomas Jefferson Declines to Publish Benjamin Rush’s Private Correspondence
THOMAS JEFFERSON,
Autograph Letter Signed, to James Mease. With conjoined franked address leaf in Jefferson’s hand. August 17, 1816. Monticello, [Charlottesville, Va.]. 1 p., 9¾ x 8 in.
Thomas Jefferson, long since retired to private life, declines the request of Dr. James Mease for copies of Dr. Benjamin Rush’s correspondence with Jefferson. Mease had hoped to include them in a volume of Rush’s letters to be published and specifically requested letters pertaining to Rush’s personal views on religion and politics. After demurring, Jefferson discusses at length the differences between personal and official correspondence, with philosophical thoughts on public versus private expression. He closes with assurances that his decision is nothing personal, and of his great respect for Mease: “I hope, my dear Sir, you will see in my scruples only a sentiment of fidelity to a deceased friend.”
Item #23233, $75,000
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Hamilton Supports Anyone but Jefferson to Replace Washington as President
ALEXANDER HAMILTON,
Draft Autograph Letter, on George Washington’s declining a third term, and the importance of Jefferson not being president, c. November 8, 1796. Heavily marked and edited draft. Possibly to Jeremiah Wadsworth. 2 pp., 8 x 13 in.
Item #24639, PRICE ON REQUEST
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One of Hamilton’s Most Revealing Love Letters to Eliza: “You are certainly a little sorceress and have bewitched me”
ALEXANDER HAMILTON,
Autograph Letter Signed “A. Hamilton,” to Elizabeth Schuyler, August 8, 1780. [Dobbs Ferry, New York]. 4 pp. including partial integral leaf; lacking portion of page below signature; perhaps his signature on address relief was removed. 6½ x 8½ in.
Currently offered only as part of the Alexander Hamilton Collection: The Story of the Revolution & Founding
“you have made me disrelish every thing that used to please me, and have rendered me as restless and unsatisfied with all about me, as if I was the inhabitant of another world. ... I would go on, but the General summons me to ride....”
In the middle of their whirlwind courtship, Hamilton emphasizes his profound fascination with Eliza Schuyler. Hamilton both complains that she is distracting him from important military duties, while pleading with her for more distraction. Few of Hamilton’s letters to Eliza survive from this period.
As Hamilton was writing, tactical intelligence was being communicated at a frantic pace up and down the Hudson. On July 21, Washington had received intelligence from the Culper spy ring on British General Clinton’s planned attack on Rochambeau’s French squadron at Newport, and the massing of British troops on Long Island for an intensified invasion of New York. Hamilton now was in the middle of authoring a detailed “Plan for an Attack on New York” to recapture Manhattan and Brooklyn from the British. He mentions at the end of this letter his position at Dobbs Ferry, New York, a small town on the Hudson where the army was encamped. Hamilton ends when he is summoned by General Washington.
Item #24329, PRICE ON REQUEST
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Hamilton Seeks Information from Pennsylvania Loan Officer for Report to Senate
ALEXANDER HAMILTON,
Manuscript Letter Signed, to Thomas Smith, September 10, 1792, [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]. 1 p., 7¾ x 9⅛ in.
With this circular letter, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton requests financial information to respond to an order from the U.S. Senate. This copy went to Commissioner of Loans for Pennsylvania Thomas Smith. Hamilton submitted the report titled “List of Civil Officers of the United States, Except Judges, with Their Emoluments, for the Year Ending October 1, 1792” to the Senate on February 27, 1793.
Item #27441, SOLD — please inquire about other items
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George Washington’s Farewell Address (Alexander Hamilton’s Genius at Work)
[GEORGE WASHINGTON],
Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy or Worcester Gazette. Newspaper, September 28, 1796. Worcester, MA: Isaiah Thomas. 4 pp., 11.75 x 18.75 in. Washington’s September 17th Farewell Address is printed in full on pages two to three, signed in type.
“Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence; and that, after forty five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion....”
At the end of his second term, Washington sent an open letter emphasizing the importance of unity and warning Americans against entanglements with foreign powers. Though he had initially solicited James Madison’s assistance in crafting his remarks, Alexander Hamilton’s second draft is the basis of the final address. Delivered to Congress in writing, Washington’s Farewell Address warns against the dangers of sectionalism, and criticizes “the insidious wiles of foreign influence,” referring to the pro-French sentiments of Jefferson and the Republicans. Washington’s policy during the wars between Great Britain and France in the early 1790s had been one of strict neutrality, and in the closing paragraphs of his Address he argues for continued American isolationism. America heeded his advice against joining a permanent alliance for more than a century and a half.
Item #27305, SOLD — please inquire about other items
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Connecticut Broadsheet Reports Ratification of U.S. Constitution by Rhode Island, Hamilton’s Funding and Assumption Plans, and Other Debates
[CONSTITUTION],
Broadsheet, Supplement to the Connecticut Courant, Aug. 23, 1790. Hartford: Barzillai Hudson and George Goodwin. 2 pp., 10 x 14⅜ in.
“A message was received from the President of the United States, with the ratification of the Constitution of the United States by the State of Rhode Island.” (p1/c1)
This very rare broadside Supplement to the Connecticut Courant details congressional proceedings from June 16-25, 1790, including the announcement of the ratification of the Constitution by Rhode Island, debates surrounding the assumption of state war debts by the federal government, a bill regulating trade with Native American tribes, a committee report on books “necessary for the use of Congress,” a committee report on providing “the means of intercourse between the United States and foreign nations,” and other matters.
Item #26597, SOLD — please inquire about other items
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Alexander Hamilton, Preparing to Report to Congress on Public Credit, Establishes U.S. Treasury Department’s Forms & Procedures
ALEXANDER HAMILTON,
Letter Signed as Treasury Secretary. New York, December 1, 1789. 2 pp., 8 x 10 in.
The First Federal Congress established the Treasury Department on September 2, 1789, only three months before this letter. Hamilton became Secretary of the Treasury – actually the very first member of George Washington’s cabinet – on September 11. Hamilton speedily created processes to organize and run the new nation’s financial system. He requires weekly returns of cash receipts and disbursements, and notes that while monthly returns on import duties will normally not be required, they are for the year about to end. He mentions the need for this information so he can make timely reports to Congress near the beginning of their sessions, with “the information relative to the Revenue which they will necessarily require.” In fact, responding to the request of Congress, Hamilton delivered his seminal Report on Public Credit on January 14, 1790. This letter, introducing his subordinate customs and tax collectors to the developing system, is an early and important part of the process.
Item #27211, SOLD — please inquire about other items
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Benjamin Franklin Calls For Abolition of Slavery, Washington Addresses the Dutch Reformed Church on Religious Freedom, Thanksgiving Thoughts, Hamilton’s Plans, and More
[BENJAMIN FRANKLIN],
Newspaper. Gazette of the United States. November 25, 1789, New York, N.Y., 4 pp., (pp. 257-60), 10 x 16 in.
Also offered as part of the Alexander Hamilton Collection: The Story of the Revolution & Founding.
This important newspaper includes an October 9, 1789 letter to George Washington, with his Address responding To the Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church in North America discussing his gratitude for their support, thanks for the nation weathering the revolution and peacefully establishing constitutional government, and ensuring religious freedom. (p. 1, col. 3).
As well as a printing of Benjamin Franklin’s “Address to the Public from the Pennsylvania Society for promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of free Negroes unlawfully held in bondage.”
Item #23116, SOLD — please inquire about other items
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Jefferson-Signed Act of Congress Funding the Federal Government for 1791
THOMAS JEFFERSON,
Document Signed as Secretary of State. An Act making appropriations for the support of government during the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety one, and for other purposes, February 11, 1791. [Philadelphia: Childs and Swaine, 1791]. Signed in type by George Washington as President, Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg as Speaker of the House of Representatives, and John Adams as Vice President and President of the Senate. 2 pp., 9¼ x 15 in. Variant of Evans 23860.
Also see the Alexander Hamilton Collection: The Story of the Revolution & Founding.
Secretary of State Jefferson signs an Act making appropriations for the federal government in 1791. The figures cited—expenses of the “civil list” and the War Department—were taken directly from Treasury Secretary Hamilton’s Estimates for 1791 Report to the House of Representatives.
This is the only Jefferson-signed copy known in private hands. The only two known institutional copies are at the Library Company of Philadelphia and the New York Public Library.
Item #23982, SOLD — please inquire about other items
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Hamilton’s Back-Door Implementation of His Report on Manufactures Tariff Proposals, in Jefferson-Signed Act of Congress Raising Funds to Protect the Nation’s Frontier
THOMAS JEFFERSON,
Document Signed as Secretary of State. An Act for raising a farther sum of Money for the Protection of the Frontiers, and for other Purposes therein mentioned. May 2, 1792, [Philadelphia]. Signed in type by George Washington as President, Jonathan Trumbull as Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Richard Henry Lee as President pro tempore of the Senate. 4 pp., 9½ x 15 in.
Currently offered only as part of the Alexander Hamilton Collection: The Story of the Revolution & Founding.
While Hamilton’s Report on Manufactures is now acknowledged as one of the greatest of American economic papers, Congress promptly tabled it upon delivery in December 1791. Having won the hard-fought battle for his Assumption Plan, he did not push for its adoption. But in March 1792, Congress requested ideas to raise additional revenues needed to defend the nation’s Western frontiers from British Forces and their Indian allies. Hamilton was able to answer the call for funding with the present act’s import tariffs, which boosted American manufactures.
Item #24196, SOLD — please inquire about other items
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Hamilton Receives Money From Robert Troup, His Old Columbia College Roommate, Who Was Then Helping Hamilton Publish the Federalist Papers
ALEXANDER HAMILTON,
Autograph Document Signed, a receipt of £89 from Robert Troup, January 2, 1788. 1 p., 2⅜ x 7½ in.
Item #24838, SOLD — please inquire about other items
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President George Washington Announces the Formation of the Treasury Department
GEORGE WASHINGTON,
Letter Signed, September 11, 1789, to Governor Samuel Huntington of Connecticut. 1 p.
Item #24853, SOLD — please inquire about other items
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John Adams Reacts to the “Reynolds Pamphlet”: “Can talents atone for such turpitude? Can wisdom reside with such Gullibility?”
JOHN ADAMS,
Autograph Letter Signed as President, to Samuel B. Malcom. September 17, 1797. Quincy, Mass. 2 pp. 8 x 9¾ in.
Currently offered only as part of the Alexander Hamilton Collection: The Story of the Revolution & Founding.
“Mr Locke says the world has all sorts of men. All degrees of human wisdom are mixed with all degrees of human Folly. To me, and I believe, to you, this world would be a Region of Torment, if such a Recollection existed in our memories.”
Item #24380, SOLD — please inquire about other items
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Prospectus of Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures
[ALEXANDER HAMILTON],
Newspaper. Gazette of the United States, September 10, 1791. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: John Fenno. 4 pp., 10 x 16 in. The prospectus is printed on the front page in three columns.
Contrasting with the agrarian view of many Virginia founding fathers, New Yorker Alexander Hamilton saw an industrial future for the United States. After nearly two years of study and with the aid of Assistant Secretary Tench Coxe, Secretary of the Treasury Hamilton compiled his famed Report on Manufactures at the request of Congress. With the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures, Coxe and Hamilton advocate creating the nation’s first public-private partnership to develop the area around the Great Falls of the Passaic River, using the cataract for power.
Item #30014.06, SOLD — please inquire about other items
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