does not appear. Col. Smith could not have been so indiscreet; for he had transmitted genuine copies, with other papers (ten in all) to the President of the Senate, Mr. Jefferson, to be laid before that body; but which Mr. Jefferson sent to Mr. Morris, chairman of the committee, as appears by his letter of December 15, 1800.

Such instances of reprehensible management, as these documents exhibited, it was obviously supposed, would not be suffered to remain on the files of the Senate. President Adams did withdraw them, and (as the information rests on my memory) the very next day. Apprehensive of this, some of the Senators, by diligent application, and setting up at night, took copies of them. These copies have been fifteen or twenty years in my possession, unseen till now; and no part of them might ever have seen the light, but for Mr. Adams's malicious calumnies, respecting my conduct in relation to Smith, in his letters to Cunningham; intended, with his other calumnies, eventually to be published; to the mortification of my children and children's children-of many affectionate relativesand of numerous respectable friends, so long as my name should be remembered.

"

I leave the reader to his own reflections on this management of President Adams to obtain the Senate's approbation of his son-in-law, Col. Smith, to be surveyor of the customs at New-York; only remarking, that the nomination appears to have taken place without the privity of the Secretary of the Treasury, to whose department the matter belonged. To the application of the committee for information, the Secretary (in his letter of Dec. 26, 1800) answered, "I possess no infor"mation respecting the nomination which the Presi"dent of the United States has been pleased to make "of William S. Smith, Esq. to be surveyor for the dis"trict of New-York, and inspector of the revenue for "the ports in that district."

The very serious instances of private misconduct, affecting directly Col. Smith's integrity as a man, refer

red to in General Washington's letter, and the specific case respecting Major Burrows, to which Smith ascribes the negative to his nomination as adjutant general, were unknown to me when I expressed to some Senators my opinion that it was not expedient to confer on Smith that confidential office; although, by the documents before me, I find those "serious instances" were known in New-York two years before; and hence, doubtless, the negative votes of many of the Senators may be accounted for; although Mr. Adams has been pleased, for the purpose of reproach, to ascribe to me importance and influence enough to determine the votes of the Senate: he says, that I "got Smith negatived." That opinion of mine rested wholly on the information already intimated, accidentally given me, three or four years before, by a gentleman of fair character, with whom I was acquainted. This was, Col. Smith's unfaithfulness in a trust of magnitude committed to him by Sir William Pulteney, a wealthy Englishman.

Having introduced the serious charge against Smith, in General Washington's letter, but which he said might possibly admit of a fair explanation, candour requires that I should notice what Smith said. He roundly denies, but with too much bluster, that he had "knowingly" pledged property to Burrows which was before conveyed to Mr. Constable; and says it was by a mere mistake, an inadvertence, that his titles to some real estate, already conveyed to Constable, were produced to Burrows's counsel, as of property still his own; and which, by that means, was included with other real estate then conveyed to Burrows; to whom, however, it made a difference of ten thousand dollars loss; and Smith had no other property to give as a substitute. It is not a little remarkable, that Smith should have forgotten the conveyance (not of long standing-perhaps a year or two) of city lots in New-York, to Constable, of the value of ten thousand dollars; though the thing is possible. But this explanatory letter of Smith's -if it deserve the name-is marked with ingratitude, and replete with misrepresentations, respecting Major

Burrows; as any one would perceive on the perusal of the candid statement of the latter to the Senate's committee, furnished at their request. Its great length necessarily excludes it from this Review.

After all that Burrows could obtain of Smith, towards the large sums he had been obliged to pay for him, Smith remained deeply his debtor. Burrows then commenced a suit against him, with a view to get hold of any property of his which might be discovered. Smith found bail; but the bail being alarmed, they insisted on Smith's relieving them, by surrendering himself to the sheriff; who must have committed him to jail. In this forlorn situation, Smith wrote to Burrows, praying to be relieved; for he was then going from camp to NewYork, to save his bail. That generous hearted man, totally ruined as he had been by Smith, instantly relieved him; saying, he would rather burn his bond than disgrace or injure him. General Hamilton wrote to Burrows for the same purpose; and, as the letter is not a long one, and has, besides its kindness, some pleasantry in it, I give it entire; the rather, because Mr. Adams represents Hamilton (ridiculous as is the idea) to have been jealous of Smith's superior military talents, and his enemy.

4

GENERAL HAMILTON'S LETTER TO MAJOR BURROWS.

66 DEAR SIR,

"New-York, March 10, 1800.

"The anxiety of Col. Smith's bail to your suit had like to have shut him up yesterday in our prison. The good nature of Col. Troup* interposed to save him from the disgrace. You would have been sorry if it had happened-because you are not vindictive, and because it would utterly have ruined him, without doing you the least good. Many considerations induce me to second the advice you will receive from Col. Troup-namely, to accept John Doe and Richard Roe, characters of ancient renown in the law, for your bail, and to proceed to judgment on that basis. If Smith has any real estate, that will secure it; and as to his body, it had better continue fat and jolly, to present a good front to his country's enemies, than to be sent to pine and grow meagre in a nasty jail. Adieu.

Your's truly,

A. HAMILTON."

*Col. Troup was Major Burrows's counsel.

I have but slightly adverted to Col. Smith's unfaithfulness in the trust he accepted from Sir William Pulteney. I am now possessed of particular and authentic details of his gross mismanagement (to use a gentle term) of the property of that gentleman, and of Governor Hornby; together, amounting to sixty thousand pounds sterling (equal to 266,400 dollars) committed to Smith, to be applied (on very liberal commissions) to their use, in the United States; where advantageous speculations presented, in the purchase of funded debt, bank stock, and new lands; but of which Smith made no returns. The whole was so soon dissipated, that in 1796 he began to borrow money; and before the close of that year he ruined his friend Burrows. The agents of Pulteney and Hornby gathered something from the wrecks of the property acquired by Smith with their funds.

I forbear to say more on this subject; what I have stated being sufficient to show the substantial correctness of the information on which I thought myself bound to interfere, to prevent his obtaining the office of adjutant general.

The statement I have here made suggests the following questions. Can it be supposed that Mr. Adams was ignorant of Col. Smith's conduct in relation to the funds of Pulteney and Hornby? If not uninformed, what can be offered to justify his nominating him to an office in the Revenue department of the United States? And why was the nomination made (as it seems to have been) without the privity of the secretary of the treasury?

Čol. Smith lost his office in the revenue department in the following manner:

The name of General Miranda was familiar in the United States, at one period of Mr. Jefferson's presidency. He was a Spaniard, born (as I understood) in one of the Spanish American provinces. He had been in France, at one period of her revolution; and, serving in her armies, in the rank of major general, barely escaped the guillotine, when it was so common to cut

off the heads of their military commanders. After this, Miranda came to America, and visited the city of Washington, where he spent some time. From thence he repaired to New-York, and there engaged practically in a project of revolutionizing one of the Spanish provinces. A band of Americans, encouraged perhaps by visions of wealth to be acquired in the country of silver and gold, were induced to embark with him in the expedition. Col. Smith, then surveyor of the customs for the New-York district, aided Miranda, in forwarding the enterprise; and, if I do not mistake, permitted one of his sons to go with him. This wild, because so premature a project, and so deficient in means, necessarily failed, and the Americans were made prisoners. The Spanish minister complained of this outrage against the territory of a nation with whom the United States were at peace. The thing was notorious. To appease the Spaniard, President Jefferson deprived Smith of his office; and the expedition having been set on foot, and the means for it prepared, within the United States, in violation of an express law of the Union, Smith was prosecuted for a breach of it. His apology for engaging in it was, that Miranda informed him, that Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison approved of his plan. This was stated by Smith, soon after he had been deprived of his office, in a long letter to his brotherin-law, J. Q. Adams, then in the Senate of the United States. Smith, thinking that in Miranda's information gentlemen would find an excuse for his engaging in the expedition, desired the letter might be shown; and Mr. Adams put it into my hands to read.