Scholars believe Alexander Hamilton is the author of “Purchase of Lousiana,” published in the New York Evening Post on July 5, 1803. Hamilton diverts credit for the Louisiana Purchase from the Jefferson administration to waning French colonial power. He raises questions about how the country will pay for the Purchase and how it will govern the new territory.
In this letter to John Jay, president of the Continental Congress, dated March 14, 1775, Alexander Hamilton details his attempts to raise battalions of slaves in Georgia and South Carolina under threat of British invasion. While George Washington, commander in chief of the Continental Army, was in favor of recruiting slaves for soldiers, he never extended full support for Hamilton’s plan to allow the slaves to have “freedom with their muskets.”
In this letter to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, dated December 29, 1802, Alexander Hamilton argues for federal military action to claim western territory and reopen the Mississippi River to American trade. At the time, Pinckney was a diplomat working to negotiate the Louisiana Purchase with Spain.
In this letter, dated January 13, 1801, Alexander Hamilton writes to Gouverneur Morris, a U.S. Senator from New York, with evidence that he believes suggests Aaron Burr has little loyalty to either the Federalist Party or the democratic governance of the country.
In this letter, dated January 16, 1801, Alexander Hamilton writes to James Bayard, a Federalist member of the U. S. House of Representatives from Delaware. Hamilton conveys his satisfaction that Bayard has decided to support Burr in the Election of 1800. He goes on to offer his criticisms of both Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson and his worst fears were either man to become president.
