The Alexander Hamilton Collection of John E. Herzog

Alexander Hamilton's report on foreign loans from Amsterdam, responding to partisan-leveled charges of corruption

(Philadelphia): Printed by Childs and Swaine, (February 13, 1793). Folio, 13 3/4 x 8 1/4 in. (349 x 209mm). 22 pp. Gatherings stitched as issued; dampstaining along fore-edge and bottom edge of most leaves; scattered spotting to text; text variously toned; scattered marginalia. Evans 26347; Ford, Bibliotheca Hamiltoniana 244

Hamilton's rare report answering his Republican critics, led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, concerning foreign loans obtained in Amsterdam by Jefferson's former private secretary William Short, in 1790. By the end of 1792, Hamilton's critics were out for blood, and viewed him as a threat to the Republic, and sought to smear his name and remove him from office. On the lookout for any inkling of impropriety, they attacked him after learning of his possible misuse of foreign loans (see lots 28, 30). On December 24 and 27, and later, on January 23, 1793, Republicans passed a series of resolutions seeking numerous detailed reports from Hamilton about the nature and use of foreign loans, and Hamilton worked with great speed and energy to answer them in order to vindicate himself. The loans mentioned in this report were approved by Congress in 1790 to help pay down its debt to France incurred from the American Revolution.

We can locate only three copies of this report ever being offered at auction. Rare.