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HAMILTON ENGAGES IN SOME BUREAUCRATIC JUGGLING
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HAMILTON, ALEXANDER. Autograph Letter Signed, “A. Hamilton,” as
Secretary of Treasury, to Joseph Howell, asking the army to pay a reward for the capture of
a counterfeiter. 1 page, 4to; short separations at folds, silked on recto and verso, remnants of
prior mounting along right edge verso. (AKF)
New York, 3 March 1790
[4,000/6,000]
“
If you have any monies in your hands for which there is not an immediate call, I request you
to pay to the Honorable Jeremiah Wadsworth five hundred dollars on account of the apprehen-
sion of certain persons engaged in counterfieting the securities of the United States. . . . The
reason of this mode of doing the business is that there is at present no appropriation for autho-
rizing the payment out of the Treasury.”
Wadsworth, who received the reward for apprehending a gang of counterfeiters led by Francis
Crane, was then a United States Representative from Connecticut.
Published in Syrett,
Papers of Alexander Hamilton
, 23:285.