HAMILTON, Alexander. Letter signed ("Alexander Hamilton" with flourish) as Inspector-General of the Army, to Brigadier General James Wilkinson (1757-1825); New York, 23 May 1799. 1 page, folio (330 x 203 mm.), addressed on verso, in excellent condition. SUMMONING WILKINSON TO WASHINGTON TO MAKE PLANS FOR MILITARY ACTION IN LOUISIANA AND FLORIDA An important letter to Wilkinson, later associated with Aaron Burr's territorial ambitions. Hamilton, appointed inspector-general and given the rank of major general during the quasi-War with France, spent the latter part of 1798 organizing a force of 50,000 men and preparing for the possible seizure of Louisiana and the Floridas. But his choice of Wilkinson for this command was a grievous mistake. Wilkinson had been Horatio Gates's co-conspirator against Washington in the so-called Conway Cabal 25 years earlier, and in 1811, when his role in Aaron Burr's schemes on the Mississippi unraveled, it was learned that Wilkinson had been a paid agent of Spain since the 1780s. Writing to Wilkinson in Natchez, Mississippi, Hamilton re-confirms orders from Secretary of War McHenry: "I begin now to be anxious to learn that you had received my letter desiring you to repair to the seat of Government in conformity with an intimation from the Secretary of War, to the end that with the aid of your lights and experience, a general plan for the arrangement of the affairs of the Western Army, with an eye to the existing posture of our political concerns, might be digested and adopted." If he hasn't received the first directive, Hamilton urges him to make haste to the capitol at once, by way of New Orleans: "if you could obtain the needful consent there, and if you should think it the most convenient and a perfectly safe route." In his absence, he is to relinquish command to another, "making the proper reserves as to those discretionary powers which a confidence personal to you may have dictated," and assuming he will have left already, Hamilton has sent word to Col. Hamtramck. Wilkinson (1757-1825) had been transferred to the southern frontier in 1798 to placate the Indians and maintain cordial relations with the Spanish. Mounting tensions came to a head when the Spanish secretely ceded the port of New Orleans to the French in 1800, blocking American river trade and threatening control of the Mississippi. Diplomacy prevailed over arms, however, and in 1802 France agreed to the sale of the Louisianna Territory to the United States.
HAMILTON, Alexander. Letter signed ("Alexander Hamilton" with flourish) as Inspector-General of the Army, to Brigadier General James Wilkinson (1757-1825); New York, 23 May 1799. 1 page, folio (330 x 203 mm.), addressed on verso, in excellent condition. SUMMONING WILKINSON TO WASHINGTON TO MAKE PLANS FOR MILITARY ACTION IN LOUISIANA AND FLORIDA An important letter to Wilkinson, later associated with Aaron Burr's territorial ambitions. Hamilton, appointed inspector-general and given the rank of major general during the quasi-War with France, spent the latter part of 1798 organizing a force of 50,000 men and preparing for the possible seizure of Louisiana and the Floridas. But his choice of Wilkinson for this command was a grievous mistake. Wilkinson had been Horatio Gates's co-conspirator against Washington in the so-called Conway Cabal 25 years earlier, and in 1811, when his role in Aaron Burr's schemes on the Mississippi unraveled, it was learned that Wilkinson had been a paid agent of Spain since the 1780s. Writing to Wilkinson in Natchez, Mississippi, Hamilton re-confirms orders from Secretary of War McHenry: "I begin now to be anxious to learn that you had received my letter desiring you to repair to the seat of Government in conformity with an intimation from the Secretary of War, to the end that with the aid of your lights and experience, a general plan for the arrangement of the affairs of the Western Army, with an eye to the existing posture of our political concerns, might be digested and adopted." If he hasn't received the first directive, Hamilton urges him to make haste to the capitol at once, by way of New Orleans: "if you could obtain the needful consent there, and if you should think it the most convenient and a perfectly safe route." In his absence, he is to relinquish command to another, "making the proper reserves as to those discretionary powers which a confidence personal to you may have dictated," and assuming he will have left already, Hamilton has sent word to Col. Hamtramck. Wilkinson (1757-1825) had been transferred to the southern frontier in 1798 to placate the Indians and maintain cordial relations with the Spanish. Mounting tensions came to a head when the Spanish secretely ceded the port of New Orleans to the French in 1800, blocking American river trade and threatening control of the Mississippi. Diplomacy prevailed over arms, however, and in 1802 France agreed to the sale of the Louisianna Territory to the United States.
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