Hamilton, Alexander | Treasury Secretary Hamilton wishes "liberal allowances to the Judiciary"

Property from a Private Collection of a Founding Father of Rhode Island and our Country

Hamilton, Alexander

Manuscript letter signed ("Alexandr Hamilton") as Secretary of the Treasury, to Henry Marchant, Judge of the Rhode Island District Court, regarding compensation of the judiciary

One page (221 x 192 mm), written in a clerical hand, "Treasury Department" [Philadelphia], 29 June 1792, docketed on verso "Alex: Hamilton | 29th June 1792"; some light spotting, fold separations, fully (but neatly) separated at lowest horizontal fold, just touching descenders of two letters.

Alexander Hamilton assures Judge Henry Marchant that the Bank of the United States will guarantee the salaries of public officers, including the judiciary: "I must always wish liberal allowances to the Judiciary, as of great importance to their independence."

Hamilton writes, "The Bank of the United States have agreed to undertake the payment of the salaries of the public Officers, and the details of an arrangement for that purpose will be adjusted prior to the expiration of the next quarter.

"On the point of the quantum of compensation to the District Judge of Rhode Island, I could not with propriety say any thing, as it is a matter entirely foreign to my department. As an individual, I must always wish liberal allowances to the Judiciary, as of great importance to their independence, and consequently to the well administering of Justice."

Nominated by President George Washington, Marchant served as the first United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island from July 1790 until his death in August 1796. He had earlier been Rhode Island's Attorney General of Rhode Island and a delegate to the Second Continental Congress.

REFERENCE

The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, ed Syrett, 26:675–676