Page:Observations on Certain Documents Contained in No. V & VI of "The History of the United States for the Year 1796," In which the Charge of Speculation Against Alexander Hamilton, Late Secretary of the Treasury, is Fully Refuted.pdf/148

148 other parts of it to be so—Indeed in one sense I could not have made the acknowledgment alledged without acknowledging myself guilty.

In the second place there appears a design at all events to drive me to the necessity of a formal defence while you know that the extreme delicacy of its nature must be very disagreeable to me. It is my opinion that as you have been the cause, no matter how, of the business appearing in a shape which gives it an adventitious importance, and this against the intent of a Confidence reposed in you by me, as contrary to what was delicate and proper, you recorded Clingman’s testimony without my privity and thereby gave it countenance, as I had given you an explanation with which you was satisfied and which could leave no doubt upon a candid mind it was incumbent upon you as a man of honour and sensibility to have come forward in a manner that would have shielded me completely from the unpleasant effects brought upon me by your agency. This you have not done.

On the contrary, by the affected reference of the matter to a defence which I am to make, and by