I the more freely render this testimony of my approbation, because I speak from opportunities of information which cannot deceive me, and which furnish satisfactory proof of your title to public regard.

My most earnest wishes for your happiness will attend you in your retirement, and you may assure yourself of the sincere esteem, regard and friendship of

Dear Sir,

Your affectionate

G. WASHINGTON.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON, Esq.

HAMILTON TO WASHINGTON.

PHILADELPHIA, February 3d, 1795.

SIR:

My particular acknowledgments are due for your very kind letter of yesterday. As often as I may recall the vexations I have endured, your approbation will be a great and precious consolation.

It was not without a struggle that I yielded to the very urgent motives which impelled me to relinquish a station in which I could hope to be in any degree instrumental in promoting the success of an administration under your direction, a struggle which would have been far greater, had I supposed that the prospect of future usefulness was proportioned to the sacrifices to be made.

Whatsoever may be my destination hereafter, I entreat you to be persuaded (not the less for my having been sparing in professions) that I shall never cease to render a just tribute to those eminent and excellent qualities which have been already productive of so many blessings to your country; that you will always have my fervent wishes for your public and personal fe licity, and that it will be my pride to cultivate a continuance of that esteem, regard, and friendship, of which you do me the

honor to assure me. With true respect and affectionate attach

The President and Directors of the Bank of the United States acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 31st ult., and feel with peculiar sensibility the notification of your resignation; with sincerity they offer their best wishes, that you may be as happy in private, as your administration has rendered you useful in public life.

They recollected, with extreme satisfaction, the liberal and enlightened principles on which you have conducted the great and various operations of your department with this institution: such as tend to cement a connection which it is their mutual interest to maintain, and which can only be permanent whilst founded on reciprocal advantage.

It must be to you a source of the most pleasing sensations to reflect on the extensive utility of an institution which you had such an essential agency in organizing, which has been strikingly evident as well in the aid it has afforded to the fiscal administration, as in the important support it has given to public and private credit.

They will again recur to the consideration of the propriety of establishing a branch in Virginia, and if it should appear that the advantages that will result therefrom, will supersede the obstacles and inconveniences that have hitherto retarded the operation, they will not hesitate in carrying it into prompt effect. In discussing the subject, the arguments which you have suggest

ed, and which have been derived from experience, will have their due weight in influencing their determination. They an ticipate with confidence, in the person who is contemplated by the President as your successor, the possession of those qualities which will lay claim to every facility and support, which an attention to the interests of their constituents, combined with a wish to promote the public service, will enable the President and Directors to afford.

In behalf of the President and Directors of the Bank of the United States.

HAMILTON TO WASHINGTON.

PHILADELPHIA, February 4th, 1795.

SIR:

The circumstance of having offered my late report to Congress to the two Houses, which rendered two copies necessary, and the extreme press of business in the office, in preparing for my resignation, prevented my sending you a manuscript copy of that report.

I have now corrected a printed copy for you, which I have the honor to send herewith.

With true respect and attachment, &c.

HAMILTON TO WASHINGTON.

(PRIVATE.)

PHILADELPHIA, February 12th, 1795.

SIR:

I have maturely reflected on the subject of the within papers. I do not hesitate to give it as my opinion, that if it were not for

very peculiar personal circumstances, the fittest arrangement, upon the whole, would be to consign the temporary execution of the comptroller's office to the commissioner of the revenue. But I could not advise this, because it could not fail, for strong reasons, to be unpleasant to Mr. Wolcott, and because there is real danger that Mr. Coxe would first perplex and embarrass, and afterwards misrepresent and calumniate.

The treasurer would by no means answer; because, as the keeper of the money, it is particularly essential that all the checks upon him should be maintained in full vigor; and the comptroller is the officer who, in the the last resort, settles his accounts as well as concurs, in the first instance, in authorizing, by the warrants which are issued by the secretary, and countersigned by the comptroller, the payments and receipts of the treasurer.

The register is also one of the principal checks of the department; first, upon the secretary and comptroller, whose warrants he must register and sign, before they can take effect; and, secondly, upon the settlements of the comptroller and auditor, by recording their acts, and entering them on the books to the proper accounts.

Of any of the officers of the department, except the commissioner of the revenue, the business can be best managed through the auditor, consistently with the preservation of the most material checks, with the restriction I mentioned this morning, of his not deciding, as comptroller, upon any account he may have settled as auditor. The temporary suspension of the final conclusion of the accounts-all the previous examinations going on-cannot be attended with any serious inconvenience. If the laws admit of it (which I doubt, as they now stand), the appointment of the auditor's first clerk to act as auditor in his stead will be a conveniency. I do not think this would be liable to the same objections as the appointing a clerk to act as comptroller, whose office imports the second trust in the department. In one sense, to appoint the auditor to act as comptroller will comport best with the spirit of the constitution of the department. This is, that the officer who is to settle the accounts, by countersigning the warrants for receipts and payments, shall have an opportunity to

observe their conformity with the course of business, as it appears in the accounts; and shall have notice, in the first instance, of all payments and receipts, in order to the bringing all persons to account for public moneys. This reason operates to make the auditor, who is the coadjutor of the comptroller in settlements, his most fit substitute in this particular view.

On the whole, I am of opinion that it is most advisable to appoint the auditor.

A clerk, for reasons already mutually adverted to, does not appear to me expedient.

I have the honor to be, Sir,

Your affectionate and obedient servant,

A. HAMILTON.

P. S. The restriction above suggested, for greater caution, had best be in writing, in a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury. The instrument appears to me in proper form.

BIRD, SAVAGE AND BIRD, TO HAMILTON.

LONDON, February 23d, 1795.

SIR:

In your retreat from the office of Secretary of the United States, it can be of little moment to you to have any addition to the public and private testimonies you have received of the high opinion your country entertains of your distinguished integrity and abilities, which have been so successfully employed in restoring her public credit, and placing it on the most favorable footing to her future prosperity. We cannot, however, refuse ourselves the gratification of communicating to you the ap plause that the wisdom of your financial measures has procured from all persons in this country, where the subject is so well known and understood.

Joining in the general regret at your retreat, we beg leave to