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/153

Rh than to shun such an issue.—It was my earnest wish to have experienced a conduct on your part, such as was in my opinion due to me, to yourself, and to justice. Thinking as I did on the coolest reflection, that this had not been the case, I did not hesitate to convey to you the impressions which I entertained, prepared for any consequences to which it might lead.

Nevertheless, it would have been agreeable to me to have found in your last letter sufficient cause for relinquishing those impressions. But I cannot say that I do—The idea is every way inadmissible, that Clingman’s last miserable contrivance should have had weight to shake, though not absolutely change the opinion which my explanation had produced; and that having such an effect it should have been recorded and preserved in secret without the slightest intimation to me. There was a vast difference between what might have been proper before and after my explanation; though I am not disposed to admit, that the attention which was paid to such characters, even before, would have been justifiable, had it not been for the notes in my handwriting.