SIGNED BY THE FIRST TWO SECRETARIES OF THE TREASURY

ALEXANDER HAMILTON. Partly Printed Letter Signed as Secretary of the Treasury to Samuel R. Gerry, “Treasury Department” [Philadelphia, PA], 31 December 1793, plus integral address leaf that has a FREE FRANK of OLIVER WOLCOTT JR. The letter and address leaf are 1 page each, 9¼" x 8".

Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and the individual responsible for establishing the nation's fiscal system, had also been a Revolutionary soldier, a signer of the Constitution, and a co-author of The Federalist Papers. This letter shows him as Treasury Secretary, overseeing some details relating to the U.S. customs service.

Hamilton writes here to Samuel R. Gerry, who was the Collector at the port of Marblehead, Massachusetts, and who was almost certainly a relative of Elbridge Gerry, a signer of the Declaration of Independence who hailed from Marblehead. Hamilton informs Gerry that “Three duplicate receipts of the office of discount and deposit of the United States Bank, at Boston No. 375. 386. & 397 amounting to Two thousand eight hundred & ninety five Dollars – have been received from you at this office.” He has signed, “A Hamilton.”

The address leaf is free franked by Oliver Wolcott Jr., who was Hamilton’s chief assistant in the Treasury Department and who became the nation’s second Secretary of the Treasury in 1795 following Hamilton’s resignation. Wolcott, who was the son of a signer of the Declaration of Independence from Connecticut, held the posts of Auditor and Comptroller of the Treasury under Hamilton, and as such, he handled much of the day-to-day business of organizing and administering the Treasury Department. He served as Treasury Secretary for the remainder of George Washington’s administration and through almost all of John Adams’s Presidency as well, and in that post, he sought to continue Hamilton’s policies and programs.

Both the letter and the address leaf are in very good condition overall. Each has some staining at two corners, but in blank areas, not affecting any text. A small piece is torn away from the address leaf but also in a blank area. Fold breaks have been expertly repaired on the verso of each leaf.

A fine association of the first two Secretaries of the Treasury. $3500.00

The image above shows the letter; the image below shows the address panel on the address leaf.

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