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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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“An Act to Incorporate the Subscribers to the Bank of the United States”
[GEORGE WASHINGTON],
Newspaper. Gazette of the United States, March 2, 1791. Philadelphia: John Fenno. 4 pp. (765-768), 10½ x 17 in. Includes full text of February 25 Act to Incorporate the Subscribers to the Bank of the United States.
Item #23392, $2,500
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Congress Authorizes a Mint, and President Washington Proclaims the Location of the Permanent Seat of Government
GEORGE WASHINGTON,
Columbian Centinel, April 23, 1791. Newspaper. Boston: Benjamin Russell. 4 pp. (pp. 45-48), 10¼ x 16¼ in
Including two March 3, 1791 Acts of Congress: Resolution to Establish U.S. Mint, and Act that President be requested to report to Congress on “the quantity and situation of lands not claimed by the Indians, nor granted to, nor claimed by any of the citizens of the Unties States within the territory ceded to the United States by the State of North-Carolina, and within the territory of the United States north-west of the river Ohio.” Also the March 30, 1791 Proclamation of Permanent Seat of Government, signed in type by Washington and Jefferson.
Item #30027.45, $3,250
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The Prospectus for Hamilton’s “Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures”
[ALEXANDER HAMILTON],
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.
Currently offered only as part of the Alexander Hamilton Collection: The Story of the Revolution & Founding.
In contrast to 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 advocated 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 #30019, PRICE ON REQUEST
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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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Ratification of The Bill of Rights
[BILL OF RIGHTS],
Newspaper. Columbian Centinel, March 14, 1792. Boston, Mass.: Benjamin Russell. 4 pp., 10½ x 16½ in.
Item #25046, 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 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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Hamilton LS to Bank of New York Advising That Collectors Will No Longer Receive Its Notes
ALEXANDER HAMILTON,
Manuscript Letter Signed, to President Gulian Verplanck and Directors of the Bank of New York, April 15, 1793, [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]. 1 p., 7¼ x 8⅞ in.
Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton informs President Gulian Verplanck (1751-1799) and the directors of the Bank of New York, an institution he helped to found in 1784, that collectors of three New York and New Jersey ports would no longer receive their bank’s notes in exchange for specie. Those port collectors were John Lamb (1735-1800) of New York City; Henry Packer Dering (1763-1822) of Sag Harbor, on Long Island, New York; and John Halstead (1729-1813) of Perth Amboy, New Jersey.
Item #27438, $19,000
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Robert Morris Promissory Note, Used As Evidence In His Bankruptcy Trial
ROBERT MORRIS,
Autograph Document Signed, December 12, 1794. 1 p., 7⅛ x 3¾ in.
Financier of the Revolution forced into bankruptcy court: “Sixty days after date, I promise to pay unto Mr. Mathias Kurlin Junr or Order Thirteen Hundred & forty six Dolls & Sixty Seven Cents for value recd.”
Item #20892, $2,800
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The Second Naturalization Act - Establishing Laws for Citizenship
EDMUND RANDOLPH,
Document Signed as Secretary of State. An act to establish an uniform rule of naturalization; and to repeal the act heretofore passed. January 29, 1795. Philadelphia: Francis Childs. Signed in type by George Washington as President, John Adams as Vice President, and Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg as Speaker of the House of Representatives. 2 pp., 8¼ x 13½ in.
Also see the Alexander Hamilton Collection: The Story of the Revolution & Founding.
The Constitution gave Congress the right to determine the process by which foreign-born residents could obtain citizenship, and a 1790 Act of the First Congress laid out the process. This 1795 revision required all persons who wished to become naturalized citizens to go to a court to declare their intention at least three years prior to formal application. They would have to take an oath of allegiance, be a person of good moral character, agree to support the Constitution, and renounce any former sovereign and hereditary titles.
“any alien, being a free white person, may be admitted to become a citizen of the United States, or any of them, on the following conditions, and not otherwise....”
By limiting naturalization to “free white” persons, the early acts effectively prevented any people of color or indentured servants from gaining citizenship. Over the next century and a half, these restrictions were at first reinforced (for instance in the notorious Naturalization Act of 1798, part of the Alien and Sedition Acts, which extended the required residency period to fourteen years), but then eventually eliminated by subsequent revisions.
Item #24428.26, $7,500
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Nearly Launching Several Duels Between the Livingstons and Hamilton at Federal Hall, Edward Livingston Slammed Hamilton: “Beware of Him or He Will Ruin You.”
JAMES FARQUHAR,
Autograph Document Signed, with ALEXANDER HAMILTON, Autograph Note on verso (though struck out), July 21, 1795. 2 pp.
Currently offered only as part of the Alexander Hamilton Collection: The Story of the Revolution & Founding.
On Saturday, July 18, 1795, a public gathering at New York’s City Hall nearly turned into a riot. News of a recently completed Treaty of Amity and Commerce with Great Britain, negotiated by John Jay and granting significant latitude to Britain, had arrived in the states. Tensions were high, and the meeting turned increasingly raucous. Hamilton attempted to defend the Treaty, but Republicans, carrying American and French flags, shouted down the former Treasury Secretary.
Item #24643, PRICE ON REQUEST
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Signed by Hamilton’s Second in Fatal Duel
NATHANIEL PENDLETON,
Manuscript Document Signed as Federal Judge, District of Georgia. Deposition of Hannah Miller, March 14, 1796, St. Marys, Georgia.
This affidavit is from a federal court case that Judge Nathaniel Pendleton heard in Georgia.
Item #24398, SOLD — please inquire about other items
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Hamilton’s Advice to Holland Land Company on a New Law Relating to New York State’s Prohibition Against Foreigners Owning Land
ALEXANDER HAMILTON,
Autograph Manuscript Draft, to Théophile Cazenove, c. May 19, 1796. 2+ pp.
Also see the Alexander Hamilton Collection: The Story of the Revolution & Founding
“It is manifestly the interest of the parties concerned to avail themselves of this act. They are now intirely at the discretion of the Government....”
New York adhered to the common-law prohibition against foreigners owning land. If a citizen purchased property in his own name but the money came from a foreigner, the purchaser was considered a trustee, and the State could seize the property. But Dutch investors, second only to France in their aid to America during the Revolution, invested heavily in American stocks, bonds, and western lands, working largely through their agent Théophile Cazenove.
Item #24625, $20,000
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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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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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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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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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Accusing Recently Retired Hamilton of Financial Malfeasance
JAMES CALLENDER,
Book. Historical Memories of the United States for 1796. Jan 1797. [Philadelphia: Bioran and Madan]. 288 pp. Half calf and marbled boards, bound in antique style, spine gilt, corners leather tipped.
Item #24363, $3,500
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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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