thirds of the time; but that from this we are precluded by its being made irredeemable but in small portions and long terms. 6. "That this irredeemable quality was given it for the avowed purpose of inviting its transfer to foreign countries. 7. "They predict, that this transfer of the principal, when completed, will occasion an exportation of three millions of dollars annually for the interest, a drain of coin, of which as there has been no example, no calculation can be made of its consequences. 8. "That the banishment of our coin will be completed by the creation of ten millions of paper money in the form of bank bills, now issuing into circulation. 9. "They think the ten or twelve per cent. annual profit, paid to the lenders of this paper medium, are taken out of the pocket of the people, who would have had without interest the coin it is banishing. 10. "That all the capital employed in paper speculation is barren and useless, producing, like that on a gaming-table, no accession to itself, and is withdrawn from commerce and agriculture, where it would have produced an addition to the common mass. 11. "That it nourishes in our citizens vice and idleness instead of industry and morality. 12. "That it has furnished effectual means of corrupting such a portion of the legislature, as turns the balance between the honest voters, whichever way it is directed. 13. "That this corrupt squadron, deciding the voice of the legislature, have manifested their dispositions to get rid of the limitations imposed by the constitution on the general legislature; limitations, on the faith of which the States acceded to that instrument. 14. "That the ultimate object of all this is to prepare the way for a change, from the present republican form of government to that of a monarchy, of which the British constitution is to be the model. 15. "That this was contemplated in the Convention they say is no secret, because its partisans have made none of it. To effect it then was impracticable, but they are still eager after their object, and are predisposing every thing for its ultimate attainment. 16. "So many of them have got into the legislature that, aided by the corrupt squadron of paper-dealers, who are at their devotion, they make a majority in both houses. 17. "The republican party, who wish to preserve the government in its present form, are fewer, even when joined by the two, three, or half-dozen antifederalists, who, though they dare not avow it, are still opposed to any general government; but, being less so to a republican than a monarchical one, they naturally join those whom they think pursuing the lesser evil. 18. "Of all the mischiefs objected to the system of measures before mentioned, none, they add, is so afflicting and fatal to every honest hope, as the corruption of the legislature. As it was the earliest of these measures, it became the instrument for producing the rest, and will be the instrument of producing in future a king, lords, and commons, or whatever else those who direct it may choose. Withdrawn such a distance from the eye of their constituents, and these so dispersed as to be inaccessible to public information, and particularly to that of the conduct of their own representatives, they will form the worst government upon earth if the means of their corruption be not prevented. 19. "The only hope of safety, they say, hangs now on the numerous representation, which is to come forward the ensuing year; but, should the majority of the new members be still in the same principles with the present, show so much dereliction of republican government, and such a disposition to encroach upon or explain away the limited powers of the constitution in order to change it, it is not easy to conjecture what would be the re sult, nor what means would be resorted to for the correction of the evil. True wisdom, they acknowledge, should direct temperate and peaceable measures; but, they add, the division of sentiments and interest happens unfortunately to be so geographical, that no mortal can say that what is most wise and temperate would prevail against what is more easy and obvious. They declare they can contemplate no evil more incalculable, than the breaking of the Union into two or more parts; yet when they view the mass, which opposed the original coalescence, when they consider that it lay chiefly in the southern quarter, and that the legislature have availed themselves of no occasion of allaying it, but, on the contrary, whenever northern and southern prejudices have come into conflict, the latter have been sacrificed and the former soothed. 20. "That the owers of the debt are in the southern, and the holders of it in the northern division. 21. "That the antifederal champions are now strengthened in argument by the fufilment of their predictions, which has been brought about by the monarchical federalists themselves; who, having been for the new government merely as a stepping-stone to monarchy, have themselves adopted the very constructions of the constitution, of which, when advocating the acceptance before the tribunal of the people, they declared it unsusceptible; whilst the republican federalists, who espoused the same government for its intrinsic merits, are disarmed of their weapons, that which they denied as prophecy being now become true history. Who, therefore, can be sure, they ask, that these things may not proselyte the small number, which was wanting to place the majority on the other side? And this, they add, is the event at which they tremble." 1 1 This is copied almost verbatim from a letter which the writer had recently received from Jefferson.-Sparks. Hamilton's re These, as well as my memory serves me, are the sentiments, which directly and indirectly have been disclosed to me. To obtain light and to pursue truth being my sole aim, and wishing to have before me explanations of, as well as the complaints on, measures, in which the public interest, harmony, and peace is so deeply concerned, and my public conduct so much involved, it is my request, and you would oblige me by furnishing me with your ideas upon the discontents here enumerated; and for this purpose I have thrown them into heads or sections, and numbered them, that those ideas may be applied to the correspondent numbers. Although I do not mean to hurry you in giving your thoughts on occasion of this letter, yet, as soon as you can make it convenient to yourself, it would for more reasons than one be agreeable and very satisfactory to me. With affectionate regard, I am, &c. TO EDMUND RANDOLPH, ATTORNEY-GENERAL MY DEAR SIR, [PRIVATE] MOUNT VERNON, 26 August, 1792. The purpose of this letter is merely to acknowledge the receipt of your favors of the 5th and 13th instant, and to thank you for the information in both, without entering into the details of either.1 ply is printed in his Works (Lodge), ii., 236, but is wrongly described as a 66 cabinet paper."-Ford. 1 Randolph had written urging him to accept a second term, With respect, however, to the interesting subject treated on in that of the 5th, I can express but one sentiment at this time, and that is a wish, a devout one, that, whatever my ultimate determination shall be, it may be for the best. The subject never recurs to my mind but with additional poignancy; and, from the declining state in the health of my nephew, to whom my concerns of a domestic and private nature are entrusted, it comes with aggravated force. But as the All-wise Disposer of events has hitherto watched over my steps, I trust, that, in the important one I may soon be called upon to take, he will mark the course so plainly, as that I cannot mistake the way. In full hope of this, I will take no measures yet a while, that will not leave me at liberty to decide from circumstances, and the best lights I can obtain on the subject. I shall be happy, in the mean time, to see a cessation of the abuses of public officers, and of those attacks upon almost every measure of government, with which some of the gazettes are so strongly impregnated; and which cannot fail, if persevered in with the malignancy with which they now teem, of rending the Union asunder. The seeds of discontent, distrust, and irritation, which are so plentifully sown, can scarcely fail to produce this effect, and to mar that prospect of happiness, which perhaps never beamed with more effulgence upon any people under the sun; and this too at a time, when all Europe are gazing with admiration at the brightness of our prospects. And for what is all |