Books and Manuscripts

Albany, (New York), May 25, 1795. One sheet, 8 x 6 1/2 in. (203 x 165 mm). Autograph letter, signed by Alexander Hamilton, to Jonathan Burrall, Esq., cashier of the New York Office of Discount and Deposit of the Bank of the United States, regarding a financial transaction: "Dear Sir/I have this day drawn/upon you in the name of Leonard/Gansevort & Co. for One hundred/Dollars in the belief that Robert/Troupe has deposited in your Office/a larger sum in my name. If there/is any misapprehension--you will/oblige me by calling upon him/& he will enable you to pay/my order. Should he be absent/Judge John Laurance will do it./Should both be absent I will ask/the favor of you to take it up./I leave this tomorrow morning for/New York & shall in the last case immediately/reimburse you./Yrs with esteem/Alex. Hamilton/Jonathan Burrall Esq."; docketed on verso. Creasing from original folds; small loss at bottom left corner, but not affecting text; soiling along left edge; remnants from old mounting on verso. This letter is printed in The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Vol. 18, January 1795?–?July 1795, (New York, 1973, p. 352).

Alexander Hamilton draws $100 from the Bank of the United States for Leonard Gansevoort (1751-1810), a New York politician and resident of Albany. Robert Troup (1757-1832) was a lifelong friend, and former roommate of Hamilton's at King's College (now Columbia University). In a letter to Hamilton two weeks prior, Troup informed him that he deposited $562 into Hamilton's account. The money was a payment from Conradt Burghduff (1758-1838) on a bond and mortgage left to Hamilton by his father-in-law, Philip Schuyler (1733-1804), which Burghduff was financing.

Gansevoort was member of the New York Assembly in 1778-79, and 1788. He served in the Continental Congress in 1787 and 1788, was a member of the New York Senate from 1791 to 1793, and judge in Albany County from 1794 to 1797.

John Laurance (1750-1810) was a federal judge for the District of New York from 1794-96, a member of the United States House of Representatives from New York from 1789-93, and United States Senator from New York from 1796-1800.