HAMILTON, ALEXANDER | Letter signed ("Alexander Hamilton"), to the Inspector General of the United States Army, Brigadier General James Wilkinson, during the Quasi-War crisis

HAMILTON, ALEXANDER

Letter signed ("Alexander Hamilton"), to the Inspector General of the United States Army, Brigadier General James Wilkinson, during the Quasi-War crisis  

1 page, folio (8 x 13 in.; 203 x 330 mm). Marked "Duplicate" in upper left corner, written from New York, and dated 23 May 1799, addressed on verso; some toning.

An important letter to James Wilkinson, commanding the Brigadier General to plan for military action in the Floridas and Louisiana

Owing to threatened hostilities with France during the Quasi-War, Hamilton requested Wilkinson's presence to talk over the affairs of the Western Army:

"I begin now to be anxious to learn that you had received my letter desiring you to repair to the Seat of Government, in conformity with an intimation from the Secretary of War, to the end that with the aid of your lights and experience, a general plan for the arrangement of the affairs of the Western Army, with an eye to the existing posture of our political concerns, might be digested and adopted..."

Alexander Hamilton had been appointed inspector-general of the United States Army during the Quasi-War, and as major general spent the latter part of part of 1798 preparing for the possible seizure of the Floridas and Louisiana. Charged with placating the Indians, as well as maintaining friendly relations with the Spanish, Wilkinson had been transferred to the southern frontier in 1798. Hamilton's choice of Wilkinson for this command proved a grave mistake. Not only had Wilkinson acted as Horatio Gates's co-conspirator against Washington in the Conway Cabal 25 years earlier, but in 1811, when his part in Aaron Burr's schemes on the Mississippi was made apparent, it was revealed that Wilkinson had been a highly-paid spy for the Spanish Empire since the 1780s.

Writing to Wilkinson in Natchez, Mississippi, Hamilton here seeks to again confirm Wilkinson's receipt of orders from the Secretary of War, James McHenry. In the event Wilkinson hasn't received the initial order, Hamilton urges him to make haste to the capitol at once, by way of New Orleans, writing: "if you could obtain the needful consent there, and if you should think it the most convenient and a perfectly safe route." 

A month after this letter was penned, Wilkinson moved down river, staying at Fort Massac in July and August. In August of 1799, Hamilton commanded Wilkinson to establish a base in order to seize the lower Mississippi Valley and New Orleans if the Quasi-War should turn into open war with France or Spain. Fortunately, this was not the case. Tensions reached their apex when the Spanish secretly ceded the port of New Orleans to the French in 1800, hindering American river trade, and threatening control of the Mississippi. However, diplomacy prevailed, and the various parties involved were spared further military action, when in 1802 France agreed to the sale of the Louisianan Territory to the United States.

LITERATURE:

The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Ed. Syrett (1976), 23:139

PROVENANCE:

James McHenry (his sale, Parke-Bernet, 30 & 31 October 1944, lot 82)⁠ — Christie's New York, 19 May 2000, lot 51