?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,500 - $ 5,000
HAMILTON, ALEXANDER. Letter Signed, as Secretary of the Treasury, to Collector at George Town James M. Lingan: ". . . From the statement which you make no Tonnage was demandable on the entry of the Ship Eliza in your District; and the change of Register was not a cause of its being paid. It is therefore to be refunded." 1 page, 4to; reinforcement tape at edges verso faintly visible recto, some toning overall, some chipping at top right with minor text loss; matted with an engraved portrait and framed. "Treasury Department" [Philadelphia], 29 September 1792
The collection of tonnage duties was a critical source of national income for the young Republic, and Hamilton attended diligently to every detail: "[O]n a day-to-day basis, the Treasury Department very nearly was the national government" (McDonald, Alexander Hamilton, p. 218).
