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28-B Maine Antique Digest, April 2017
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AUCTION -
28-B
This is a list of notes prepared for
President Washington’s third annual
message to Congress, October, 25, 1791.
Hamilton suggested 16 points, numbered
1-4 and 1-11, with one unnumbered. His
first one was used by Washington, who
said that the establishment of additional
cross-posts, especially to some of the
important points in the western and
northern parts of the Union, “cannot fail
to be of material utility.” His point about
making peace with the Indians by uniting
their immediate interests was also used,
as was his suggestion of subscriptions to
the Bank of the United States, and his
suggestion of national assumption of state
debts, making Revolutionary War debtors
beholden to the national government
rather than the state governments.
These notes were hitherto unknown and
unpublished. Hamilton’s list is on one
9" x 3
⅜
"page and endorsed on the back
by Hamilton “Heads for the Presidents
speech delivd Oct 25th 1791,” and in two
other hands, “This is, I suspect, a Minute
of Topics to be introduced into the Prest.
Speech” and “Alexr Hamilton,” the
former ruled through. The paper was torn
through near the center of the document,
without loss. It sold for $62,500 (est.
$15,000/25,000) to Seth Kaller of White
Plains, New York.
Group of 17 autograph letters by
Philip Schuyler signed “Ph
Schuyler,” 30 pages of
various sizes, most with
integral address leaves,
written in Albany to
Alexander Hamilton. The
condition varies, with fold
separations, tears usually
occurring to the address
leaf, and in some instances
with the blank margins of
the address leaf cut away
and one with the address
excised.
The catalog states:
“Schuyler’s letter of 5
January 1793 is of singular
importance insofar as he
provides a detailed analysis of
Samuel Gale’s essays
On the
Nature & Principles of Public
Credit, Containing Observations
on a System of Redemption
[of
public debt], (London, 1783-1787). In the
letter’s postscript, Schuyler counsels his
son-in-law: ‘Whether you shall remain
in or resign the Superintendence of the
Treasury Department, it seems to me
equally proper that you should establish
the principle in which all future loans
should be made, such as that the means of
redemption should invariably be annexed
to the loans from an accumulation of
debt will always be prevented without
additional burthens on the people and
setting out in this system advantages will
accrue which no nation having a public
debt has ever had yet experienced. The
credit will be yours and posterity will
bless your memory for having introduced
a system so replete with salutary
consequences.’”
“...Two letters dated 17 and 19 April 1801 are
devoted to the New York State gubernatorial race of
1801 in which his son-in-law Stephen van Rensselaer
was running for Governor on the Federal ticket. He
voices some concern about the race, but remains
optimistic that the Federalists will win the majority
vote.”
He also writes that he wished the Hamiltons were at
the Grange in the country and not in the city, exposing
them to pestilence. Outbreaks of yellow fever plagued
New York City between 1795 and 1803, costing
thousands of lives, and Hamilton’s offices on Robinson
Street were close to the most infected area in the city.
The group of letters sold for $118,750 (est.
$30,000/50,000) to the phone bidder who bought other
Schuyler letters.
This is the only known letter extant in Philip Hamilton’s hand to his
father. It was lost from sight for more than a century and quotes his
contention that the American Revolution kindled the “sacred fire of
freedom.” The catalog states, “The oldest child of Alexander and Elizabeth
Hamilton was killed in a duel at the age of 19, little more than two years
before his father met his fate in a similar contest of honor. In the present
letter, 15-year-old Philip, who had demonstrated the same intellectual
precocity as his father, complains of interference from William Samuel
Johnson, president of Columbia College, with the text of a speech the
young student was set to deliver.” It sold for $40,000 (est. $8000/12,000)
to the Gilder Lehrman Collection, which is on deposit at the New-York
Historical Society.
This letter signed “AH”
to Elizabeth
Hamilton, “My Loved Eliza,” reports
on preparations to put down the
Whiskey Rebellion. The 7
⅜
" x 5
⅞
"
page, written in Carlisle, Pennsylvania,
October 10, 1794, has an autograph
address “Mrs. E. Hamilton” and a
large seal remnant on integral leaf.
The fore-edge of the integral leaf is
restored, and it is tipped to a larger
sheet. This letter sold for $50,000 (est.
$10,000/15,000).
The catalog states: “The Whiskey
Rebellion—a revolt by western
frontiersmen (many of whom were
veterans of the Revolutionary War)
against a federal excise tax on
whiskey—had been festering for
nearly three years until President
Washington, urged by his Secretary
of the Treasury, determined to use
military force to bring it to an end.
(In August and September of 1794,
Hamilton had published, under the
pseudonym “Tully,” four letter-
essays in the Philadelphia
American
Daily Advertiser
denouncing the rebels
and calling for military intervention.)
Hamilton was instrumental in
organizing and supplying the
militia army that was, with some
difficulty, raised for the action, and he
accompanied the troops into the field.
Here he informs Eliza of his imminent
departure from headquarters at
Carlisle Barracks:
‘Tomorrow we leave this for Fort
Cumberland. We are very strong
& the Insurgents are all submissive so that you may be
perfectly tranquil. My health thank God is excellent. But
I have heard from you only once. You must continue to
write to this place sending your letters to [Secretary of
War] General [Henry] Knox to forward to me. God bless
you & my dear Children.’
“In this instance, Hamilton was correct to assuage
Eliza’s fears. The insurrection collapsed as soon as troops
marched into western Pennsylvania, and most of its
leaders evaded punishment.”
Alexander Hamilton autograph letter, signed “AH,” to Angelica Schuyler Church, sending and
requesting family news, two 8" x 7
⅜
" pages on a single sheet, Albany, March 6, 1795, address direction
at foot “Mrs. Church,” docketed in left margin of second page. It was remargined at the top, costing five
words that had been quoted in Allan McLane Hamilton’s
The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton
, p.
231. According to the catalog, “Hamilton writes to his sister-in-law during his transition back to private
legal practice after resigning his position as Secretary of the Treasury, ‘an office in which ’tis said I have
gained some glory.’” It sold to an absentee bidder for $62,500 (est. $6000/8000). Again from the catalog,
“Angelica’s husband, John B. Church, was an English-born businessman who made a fortune supplying
the French and American armies during the Revolution. After the war they moved to England, and while
they spoke often of returning to America they did not do so until 1797.” Hamilton was Church’s lawyer.