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/150

150 Always anxious to do justice to every one, it would afford me pleasure could I answer it in a manner satisfactory to your feelings: but while the respect which I owe to myself forbids me replying in that harsh stile which you have adopted, that same respect with an attention to truth, according to the impressions existing on my mind, will compel me upon all occasions to place this affair on its true ground.

Why you have adopted this stile I know not. If your object is to render this affair a personal one between us you might have been more explicit, since you well know, if that is your disposition, what my determination is, and to which I shall firmly adhere. But if it is to illustrate truth and place the question on its true merits, as I have always been disposed to do, it appears illy calculated to promote that end.

I have constantly said and I repeat again that in making an entry which appears after our interview with you, and which ought to have been signed by the other gentlemen as well as myself I never intended to convey an opinion upon it, nor does it convey any opinion of my own, but merely notes what