To Alexander Hamilton from Jeremiah Wadsworth, 25 April 1794
From Jeremiah Wadsworth
Philadelphia April 25. 1794
Dear Sir
The Note which was among Chaloners1 papers payable to John B Church Esqr from Thomas Mifflin2 was for Sixteen hundred Dollars the interest was One thousand & forty dollars. I had a demand on the same Person for one Hundred Dollars. I have put the three Sums into a Bond payable to myselfe in one Year from the 24th of this Month. I have taken this method that if the project of Sequestration3 should come on the Carpet Mr Church may be safe. It was necessary to give a Years Credit as the Note was out Lawed and the payor Not in Cash. I wish for your approbation of this transaction. Their is due to Wadsworth & Church from Timothy Seymour of Hartford more than two thousand dollars & their is some doubt of his ability to pay but by lending him One thousand or twelve Hundred Dollars more a Mortgage can be obtained on Land that will serve the whole. If you approve of this transaction I will endeavor to compleat it. You may rember that it was agreed between us that all the Monies due Wadsworth & Church should be made payable to me when ever I took notes or Bonds. The Necessity of pursuing this mode in the mortgage is evident. You will direct me also on that subject.
I am D sir Your very Humble sert
Jere Wadsworth
Col Hamilton
ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. John Chaloner, Philadelphia merchant, had been the Philadelphia agent for John B. Church and Jeremiah Wadsworth during the seventeen-eighties. H managed Church’s business affairs in the United States.
2. Mifflin was governor of Pennsylvania.
3. For information on the resolution to sequester debts due from United States citizens to British subjects, see H to George Washington, April 14, 1794, note 22.
For the case concerning Chaloner’s estate (Dallas, Secretary of the Commonwealth v Chaloner’s Executors), see A. J. Dallas, Reports of Cases Ruled and Adjudged in the Several Courts of the United States, and of Pennsylvania, Held at the Seat of the Federal Government (Philadelphia, 1793–1801), III, 500–01.