Hamilton, Alexander, as Secretary of the Treasury

Report of the Secretary of the Treasury to the House of Representatives to a Provision for the Support of Public Credit of the United States. New York: Francis Childs and John Swaine, by Order of the House of Representatives, 1790



Folio (13 1/4 x 8 1/4 in.; 337 x 211 mm). Summary report by Alexander Hamilton dated 9 January 1790, abstracts, statement of accounts of the United States and individual states, schedules, and estimates, text of an act repealing duties upon spiritis with spaces for accomplishment; top and bottom margins dampstained throughout, minor loss to lower right corner of title-page. Stabbed and stitched. Black cloth folding case, green morocco label on spine.

Church 1253; Evans 22998

First printing of the fundamental document of Hamilton's secretaryship. "To promote the encreasing respectability of the American name; to answer the calls of justice; to restore landed property to its due value; to furnish new resources both to agriculture and commerce; to cement more closely the union of the states; to add to their security against foreign attack; to establish public order ont he basis of an upright and liberal policy.—These are the great and invaluable ends to be secured, by a proper and adequate provision, at the present period, for the support of public credit," wrote Hamilton in this report. The financial policies herein formulated permitted the public credit of the fledgling nation—which was burdened by unpaid foreign loans and a demoralizing domestic debt—to be set on a sound and adequate basis. As a result of Hamilton's proposals, Congress assumed the debts of the States contracted during the War of Independence, and established a national bank. Scarce, only three copies have been sold at auction since 1975.