Part 27
You may, however, depend that I shall be happy to assist your department, and will keep in view your present request. I hope, towards the latter end of the month, I shall receive something considerable on the late tax.
I am, dear Sir, very truly, Your obedient servant, A. Hamilton.
To Timothy Pickering, D. Q. Gen.
HAMILTON TO ROBERT MORRIS.
Albany, Sept. 14, 1782.
Sir:
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 29th of August, the contents of which shall be executed.
I have just received by the post accounts of the specific supplies furnished by the State; copies of which I shall prepare to be transmitted to you by the next post, as I am to return the originals, which are for the inspection of the Legislature. I hope to add to these accounts of the moneys supplied.
I have written to you a number of letters since my journey to Poughkeepsie, of which, as they contain some things of a confidential nature, I am not without anxiety to learn the safe arrival.
I should also have been happy to have received your instructions against the meeting of the Committee, which is to take place to-morrow. As they will have other business, if I hear from you by the next post, I shall not be too late. I am at a loss to know whether I ought to press the establishment of permanent _funds_ or not; though unless I receive your instructions, following my own apprehensions of what are probably your views, I shall dwell on this article.
I have the honor to be, With perfect respect, Sir, your most ob’t serv’t, A. Hamilton.
I inclose you a copy of a letter of the Governor, of the 2d inst., from which you will see his hopes. Mine are not so good. In this vicinity, always delinquent, little is doing.
HAMILTON TO ROBERT MORRIS.
Albany, Sept. 21, 1782.
Sir:
The hurry in which I wrote to you by the last post, prevented my examining particularly the papers which I informed you I had received. On a more careful inspection of them, I found them not so complete as I had hoped. There is a general state of specific supplies; but the returns referred to in that for the particulars, were by some mistake omitted. I have written for them, but they have not yet arrived; when they do, I shall lose no time in forwarding them.
I observe there is nothing respecting transportation; and there is a part of the supplies for the period before Col. Hay came into office, which is estimated on a scale of proportion--too vague a method to be satisfactory. I have urged him to send me an account of the transportation, and to collect, as speedily as possible, official returns of the supplies above mentioned.
There is a practice obtaining which appears to me to contravene your views. The Contractors, I am informed, have gotten into a method of carrying your bills immediately to the Collectors and drawing the specie out of their hands, by which means the paper never goes into circulation at all; but passes, so to speak, immediately out of one hand of the public into the other. The people, therefore, can never be familiarized to the paper, nor can it ever obtain a general currency.
If the specie were to come into the Receivers’ hands, and the Contractors were left under a necessity of exerting their influence to induce the inhabitants to take your notes, to be afterwards redeemed by the Receivers agreeably to your plan, this would gradually accustom the people to place confidence in the notes; and though the circulation at first should be momentary, it might come to be more permanent.
I am in doubt, whether on the mere speculation of an evil, without your instructions, I ought to take any step to prevent this practice. For, should I forbid the exchange, it might possibly cause a suspicion that there was a preference of the paper to the specie, which might injure its credit.
I have thought of a method to prevent, without forbidding it in direct terms. This was to require each collector to return the names of the persons from whom he received taxes, and in different columns, specify the kind of money, whether specie, your notes, or bank notes, in which the tax was paid; giving the inhabitants receipts accordingly; and paying in money in the same species in which it was received. This would cover the object.
I have tried to prevail upon the county treasurer of this place, to instruct the collectors accordingly; but the great aim of all these people is to avoid trouble; and he affected to consider the matter as a Herculean labor. Nor will it be done without a legislative injunction.
A method of this kind would tend much to check fraud in the collectors; and would have many good consequences.
I thought it my duty, at any rate, to apprise you of the practice, that, if my apprehensions are right, it may not be continued without control. I have reason to believe it is very extensive--by no means confined to this State.
Permit me to make one more observation. Your notes, though in credit with the merchants by way of remittance, do not enter far into ordinary circulation, and this principally on account of their size; which even makes them inconvenient for paying taxes. The taxes of very few amount to twenty dollars a single tax; and though the farmers might combine to sell their produce for the notes, to pay the taxes jointly; yet this is not always convenient, and will seldom be practised. If the notes were, in considerable part, of five, eight, or ten dollars, their circulation would be far more general; the merchants would, even in their retail operations, give specie in exchange for balances; which few of them care to do, or can do, with the larger notes; though they are willing to take them for their goods.
A. Hamilton.
HAMILTON TO MORRIS.
September 28, 1782.
Sir:
I have been honored this week with your letters of the twenty-eighth of August, and the sixth, twelfth, and seventeenth instant, with their inclosures.
It gives me the most real pleasure to find that my past communications have met with your approbation; and I feel a particular satisfaction in the friendly confidence which your letters manifest. I am persuaded that substantial reasons have determined your choice in a particular instance to Doctor Tillotson; and I am flattered by the attention you have obligingly paid to my recommendations of Colonel Malcolm and Mr. Lawrence. Those gentlemen are now here. They make you the warmest acknowledgments for your offer, but decline leaving the State; which, indeed, is not compatible with the present prospects of either of them.
I am glad to have had an opportunity of perusing your letter to this State, at which so much exception has been taken; because it has confirmed me in what I presumed, that there has been much unjustifiable ill-humor upon the occasion. I will make use of the knowledge I have to combat misrepresentation.
Yours of the twenty-ninth of July to Congress, is full of principles and arguments as luminous as they are conclusive. It is to be lamented that they have not had more weight than we are to infer from the momentary expedient adopted by the resolutions of the fourth and tenth; which will, alone, not be satisfactory to the public creditors; and I fear will only tend to embarrass your present operations, without answering the end in view. The more I see, the more I find reason for those who love this country to weep over its blindness.
The committee on the subject of taxation are met. Some have their plans; and they must protect their own children, however misshapen: others have none; but are determined to find fault with all. I expect little, but I shall promote any thing, though imperfect, that will mend our situation.
With sentiments of The greatest respect and esteem, I have the honor to be, Sir, Your most obedient servant, A. Hamilton.
P.S. The public creditors in this quarter, have had a meeting, and appointed a committee to devise measures. The committee will report petitions to Congress and the Legislature; and an address to the public creditors in other parts of the State, to appoint persons to meet in convention, to unite in some common measure. I believe they will also propose a general convention of all the creditors in the different States.
A. H.
To the Hon. Robert Morris, Esq.
HAMILTON TO MORRIS.
Albany, Oct. 5, 1782.
Sir:
In my last I informed you, that the committee, appointed by the Legislature on the subject of taxation, were together. In spite of my efforts, they have parted without doing any thing decisive. They have, indeed, agreed upon several matters, and those of importance; but they have not reduced them to the form of a report; which, in fact, leaves every thing afloat, to be governed by the impressions of the moment, when the Legislature meets.
The points agreed upon, are these: That there shall be an actual valuation of land, and a tax of so much in the pound.
The great diversity in the qualities of land would not suffer them to listen to an estimated valuation, or to a tax by the quantity, agreeably to the idea in your late report to Congress. That there shall be also a tariff of all personal property, to be also taxed at so much in the pound; that there shall be a specific tax on carriages, clocks, watches, and other similar articles of luxury; that money, at usury, shall be taxed at a fixed rate in the pound, excluding that which is loaned to the public; that houses, in all towns, shall be taxed at a certain proportion of the annual rent; that there shall be a poll tax on all single men from fifteen upwards; and that the collection of the taxes should be advertised to the lowest bidder, at a fixed rate per cent., bearing all subordinate expenses.
Among other things which were rejected, I pressed hard for an excise on distilled liquors; but all that could be carried on this article was a license on taverns.
The committee were pretty generally of opinion, that the system of funding for payment of old debts, and for procuring further credit, was wise and indispensable; but a majority thought it would be unwise in one State to contribute in this way alone.
Nothing was decided on the quantum of taxes which the State was able to pay: those who went furthest, did not exceed seventy thousand pounds, of which fifty for the use of the United States.
I send you my cash account, which is for what has been received in this county. We have not heard from the others.
I have the honor to be, Sir, Your most obedient servant, A. Hamilton.
To the Hon. Robert Morris, Esq.
MORRIS TO HAMILTON.
Office of Finance, October 5, 1782.
Sir:
I have now before me your letters of the fourteenth and twenty-first of last month. I am sorry to find that you are less sanguine in your pecuniary expectations than the Governor appears to be; for I have always found that the worst forebodings on this subject are the truest. You will find, at the bottom of this letter, a list of all those which I have hitherto received from you. I think they have all been already acknowledged; but lest they should not, you will see in one moment, by the list, whether any have miscarried.
I am not surprised to find that the contractors apply with their paper, in the first instance, to the Receivers and Collectors. This I expected, because much of that paper is not fit for other purposes. Some of it, however, which is payable to the bearer, is calculated for circulation; which you observe is not so general as otherwise it might have been, by reason of the largeness of the sums expressed in the notes. Mr. Duer’s letters contain the same sentiment.
In issuing this paper, one principal view was to facilitate the payment of taxes by obviating the too general (though unjust) complaint of the want of a circulating medium. In substituting paper to specie, the first obstacle to be encountered, was the total diffidence which had arisen from the late profusion of it. Had a considerable quantity been thrown into the hands of that class of the people, whose ideas on the subject of money, are more the offspring of habit than of reason, it must have depreciated. That this apprehension was just, is clear from this fact, that the paper I first issued, and the Bank paper which came out after it, did depreciate from ten to fifteen per cent. in the Eastern States, notwithstanding all the precautions which were used. If I had not taken immediate measures to create a demand for it on the spot, and to stop issues to that quarter, its credit would have been totally lost for a time, and not easily restored. Besides that, the quantities which were pouring in from thence would have done mischief here. Confidence is a plant of very slow growth; and our political situation is not too favorable to it. I am, therefore, very unwilling to hazard the germ of a credit, which will, in its greater maturity, become very useful. If my notes circulate only among mercantile people, I do not regret it, but rather wish that the circulation may, for the present, be confined to them, and to the wealthier members of other professions. It is nothing but the greater convenience, which will induce people to prefer any kind of paper to the precious metals; and this convenience is principally felt in large sums. Whenever the shopkeepers, in general, discover that my paper will answer as a remittance to the principal ports, and will be readily exchanged by the Receivers, they will as readily exchange it for other people. When the people, in general, find that the shopkeepers receive it freely, they will begin to look after it, and not before. For you must know, that whatever fine plausible speeches may be made on this subject, the farmers will not give full credit to money, merely because it will pay taxes: for that is an object they are not very violently devoted to. But that money which goes freely at the store and the tavern, will be sought after as greedily as those things which the store and the tavern contain. Still, however, your objection remains good; that the traffickings in which the greater part of the community engage, do not require sums so large as twenty dollars. This I shall readily acknowledge: but you will observe there is infinitely less danger that large notes, which go only through the hands of intelligent people, will be counterfeited than small ones, which come to the possession of illiterate men. When public credit is firmly established, the little shocks it receives from the counterfeiters of paper money, do not lead to material consequences; but, in the present ticklish state of things, there is just ground of apprehension. Besides this, the value of paper will depend much upon the interchanges of it for specie: and these will not take place when there is a circulation of small paper. Lastly, I have to observe, that until more reliance can be placed on the revenues required, I dare not issue any very considerable amount of this paper, lest I should be run upon for more than I could answer: and as the circulation of what I dare issue, by increasing the general mass, enables people (so far as it goes) more easily to get hold of other money, it consequently produces, in its degree, that object of facilitating taxation which I had in view.
I am, Sir, Your most obedient, humble servant, Robert Morris.
Alexander Hamilton, Esq., Receiver for New-York.
HAMILTON TO DE NOAILLES.
1782.
Esteem for your talents and acquirements is a sentiment which, from my earliest acquaintance with you, my dear Viscount, I have shared in common with all those who have the happiness of knowing you; but a better knowledge of your character has given it, in my eyes, a more intrinsic merit, and has attached me to you by a friendship founded upon qualities as rare as they are estimable. Averse as I am to professions, I cannot forbear indulging this declaration, to express to you the pleasure I felt at receiving (after an inexplicable delay) the letter you were so obliging as to write me before your departure from Boston. It was of that kind which is always produced by those attentions of friends we value; which, not being invited by circumstances, nor necessitated by the forms of society, bespeak the warmth of the heart. At least my partiality for you makes me fond of viewing it in this light, and I cherish the opinion.
I was chagrined to find that you left us with an intention not to return. Though I should be happy if, by a removal of the war, this country should cease to be a proper theatre for your exertions, yet, if it continues to be so, I hope you will find sufficient motives to engage you to change your resolution. Wherever you are, you will be useful and distinguished; but the ardent desire I have of meeting you again, makes me wish America may be your destination. I would willingly do it in France, as you invite me to do; but the prospect of this is remote. I must make a more solid establishment here before I can conveniently go abroad. There is no country I have a greater curiosity to see, or which I am persuaded would be so interesting to me as yours. I should be happy to renew and improve the valuable acquaintances from thence, which this war has given me an opportunity of making; and, though I could not flatter myself with deriving any advantage from it, I am persuaded it is there I should meet with the greatest number of those you describe, who, etc.: but considerations of primary importance will oblige me to submit to the mortification of deferring my visit.
In the mean time I should be too much the gainer by communication with you, not gladly to embrace the offer you so politely make for writing to each other.
The period, since you left us, has been too barren of events to enable me to impart any thing worth attention. The enemy continue in possession of Charleston and Savannah, and leave us masters of the rest of the country. General Greene has detached Wayne to Georgia; but I believe his views do not extend beyond the mere possession of the country. It is said the Assemblies of the two invaded States are about meeting, to restore the administration of government. This will be a step to strengthening the hands of General Greene, and counteracting the future intrigues of the enemy. Many are sanguine in believing that all the southern posts will be evacuated, and that a fleet of transports is actually gone to bring the garrisons away. For my part, I have doubts upon the subject. My politics are, that while the present ministry can maintain their seats, and procure supplies, they will prosecute the war on the mere chance of events; and that while this is the plan, they will not evacuate posts so essential as points of departure; from whence, on any favorable turn of affairs, to renew their attack on our most vulnerable side. Nor will they relinquish objects that would be so useful to them, should the worst happen in a final negotiation. Clinton, it is said, is cutting a canal across New-York island, through the low grounds, about a mile and a half from the city. This will be an additional obstacle; but if we have, otherwise, the necessary means to operate, it will not be an insurmountable one. I do not hear that he is constructing any other new works of consequence. To you, who are so thoroughly acquainted with the military posture of things in this country, I need not say that the activity of the next campaign must absolutely depend on effectual succors from France. I am convinced we shall have a powerful advocate in you. La Fayette, we know, will bring ‘the whole house’ with him if he can.
There has been no material change in our internal situation since you left us. The capital successes we have had, have served rather to increase the hopes than the exertions of the particular States. But in one respect we are in a mending way. Our financier has hitherto conducted himself with great ability, has acquired an entire personal confidence; revived, in some measure, the public credit; and is conciliating fast the support of the moneyed men. His operations have hitherto hinged chiefly on the seasonable aids from your country; but he is urging the establishment of permanent funds among ourselves: and though, from the nature and temper of our governments, his applications will meet with a dilatory compliance, it is to be hoped they will by degrees succeed.
The institution of a Bank has been very serviceable to him: the commercial interest, finding great advantages in it, and anticipating much greater, is disposed to promote the plan; and nothing but moderate funds, permanently pledged for the security of lenders, is wanting to make it an engine of the most extensive and solid utility. By the last advices there is reason to believe the delinquent States will shortly comply with the requisition of Congress for a duty on our imports. This will be a great resource to Mr. Morris; but it will not alone be sufficient.
Upon the whole, however, if the war continues another year, it will be necessary that Congress should again recur to the generosity of France for pecuniary assistance. The plans of the financier cannot be so matured as to enable us, by any possibility, to dispense with this; and if he should fail for want of support, we must replunge into that confusion and distress which had like to have proved fatal to us, and out of which we are slowly emerging. The cure, on a relapse, would be infinitely more difficult than ever.
I have given you an uninteresting but a faithful sketch of our situation. You may expect, from time to time, to receive from me the progress of our affairs; and I know you will over-pay me.
I am, my dear Viscount, Yours faithfully, A. Hamilton.
To the Viscount De Noailles.
HAMILTON TO GREENE.
Albany, October 12, 1782.
Dear General:
It is an age since I have either written to you or received a line from you; yet I persuade myself you have not been the less convinced of my affectionate attachment, and warm participation in all those events which have given you that place in your country’s esteem and approbation which I have known you to deserve, while your enemies and rivals were most active in sullying your reputation.
You will perhaps learn, before this reaches you, that I have been appointed a Member of Congress. I expect to go to Philadelphia in the ensuing month, where I shall be happy to correspond with you with our ancient confidence; and I shall entreat you not to confine your observations to military subjects, but to take in the whole scope of national concerns. I am sure your ideas will be useful to me and to the public.