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My dear Friend. Mr. King delivered me your Letter on the Subject of the Sudden / Rise of Script, which I observe has occasioned in your mind / a great alarm _ Those who impute to my Artifices the Rise / of this Species of Stock in the market, beyond its true Point / of Value do me infinite Injustice _ The Fact is that as / far as my opinion public or private could have an Effect, / I have mentioned to the Dealers, in Stocks, particularly Scrip,/ [inserted: that were [straining] it ] / beyond its true Point of Value _ For the latter I never gave but / in one Instance more than 175 _ although in my Judgment they are / [barly] worth £200. _ And if we do not Support them at that / price At least, you may be assured (and I speak it from Fact, / arising within my own Knowledge) that the Major Interest in the / Bank will be Foreign Property -: how far this is Desirable I leave / to your Judgment _ The Instance in which I gave more than 175 / for the Scrips is as follows _ one Mr. Robert Morris [inserted: (then in this city)] Connecticut? / [page torn then in this city] [to] witness to the Truth of it _ When the Arts of Designing / now (combined with the heated Imagination of new Adventurers) / had carried the Price of Scrip to nearly 300, and they were / then practising on the Fears of the Unskifull to Induce them / to sacrifice them I as an Article worth nothing I, I united / with one of two Gentlemen of Patriotic Principles. _ and agreed / to take about 400, at 240, provided the Sellers would deposit /
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The m with us Immediately, and wait for their Pay till the first / day of December _ This they did, and the Consequences were allowed by / all the City to be Extremely beneficial _ Instead of an Instant / Depression of the Stock, which would have Involved hundred in / Utter Ruin, a Pause of Reflection succeeded, the true Value of / the article became an Object of Discussion, and of Course a / gradual Reduction in Price; the only thing, which by averaging the / Loss, can rescue some of the Unwary Adventurers from Utter Ruin _ / This is the plain History of my Conduct in this Matter, and of its / Motives _ I shall Conclude with one observation; as it Relates to myself, / I wish to have avoided it, but Exposed as I find myself / to Unjust Clamours in your City, I am Constrained to say what / otherwise I would have left to others. During the whole Time I have been Engaged in Operations of the / Public Debt, I can with Truth aver that I have Scrupulously adhered / to the most rigid Principles of Candor, and fair Dealing _ Instead of / Entering into Combinations to Entrap the Unwary I have Endeavored / to make any Knowledge I possess on this Subject, a Common Stock _ / By my advice & Example, Numbers in this City have by [Embarking] / in the Funds, supported the Public Credit, and advanced their own / Fortunes _ If the Price of Stock in the New York market has had / a powerful Influence in other Parts, I can with Truth say that / its Effects (if beneficial) are in no small Degree imputable to / me _ Feeling therefore in this Instance (as I have in the whole / Course of my Life) that the Public Good has been a primary Object /
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Of My Pursuit, I despise the malicious aspersions of those who aim to / destroy my character in yours, and the Public Esteem _ : The Citizens / amongst who I life have I am persuaded too good an opinion / of my heart and head to think me so weak, and wicked to persue / that line of Conduct, which your Letter Intimates . _ I feel a / consciousness that it cannot have made an Impression (even / for a moment) on your Mind; and if it has you will I trust do / me the Justice not only to Efface Every Trace of it such an / opinion, in your Breast _ but in that of Every Person; with in / [crossed out] the Circle of your Friends, whom Esteem it Worthy of / Preservation __ I have the honor to be with SentimentsOf Esteem, [crossed out], & [page torn] Sincere affection Yours Wm. Duer
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[ADDRESS] Alex.r Hamilton Esq./Secretary of the Treasury Newyork. _ Augt 16th 1791.
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