Alexander Hamilton Settles His Accounts with Agents for the Holland Land Company, Relating to his Work on the Prohibition Against Foreigners Owning Land

His work on behalf of Dutch interests that year cut to the heart of foreign ownership of American land

 

This “would enable me to do it [settle the amounts] with greater correctness & propriety”

 

The history of Western New York’s European settlement is fraught with interconnected events and relationships, including some between several well-known characters.

LeRoy, Bayard, and McEvers were partners in a New York City mercantile firm which represented the Holland Land Company in the United States. The Company was a group of six Dutch banking firms which formally organized as the Holland Land Company on February 13, 1796. Alexander Hamilton worked with the land company and would have assisted the firm LeRoy, Bayard, and McEvers, the Company’s agent, in his capacity as their attorney.

Robert Morris acquired approximately four million acres of land in New York which he had obtained from Massachusetts in 1791. The Massachusetts claim to these lands, which went back to the 1620 charter of the Plymouth Company, was settled in 1786 by an agreement between Massachusetts and New York. Under this agreement, Massachusetts was given the preemption rights (that is, the right to purchase the title to the land from the Native Americans), while New York was given all governmental rights over the lands in question. Thus, in 1791, Morris purchased not the land but rather the right of Massachusetts to deal with the Native Americans for this land. Morris sold about 3.6 million acres of this tract to the Holland Land Company. The company retained £37,500 of the purchase money until Morris secured the title and completed the necessary surveys.

From 1791 to 1795, warfare prevented any final settlement of land rights, and in 1795, when peace was restored by the Treaty of Greenville, Morris lacked the necessary funds to treat with the Native Americans. Accordingly, the Holland Land Company advanced him £9,000 out of the £37,500 retained to begin the negotiations. The Holland Land Company desired the treaty, for it could not sell the lands purchased from Morris until the former title had been extinguished. Morris wanted the Native Americans to relinquish their title so that he could use his lands west of the Holland Land Company’s purchase to secure or pay some of his numerous debts.

Negotiations with the Seneca tribe began on August 28, 1797, and an agreement was signed on September 15, 1797. Morris, who did not attend the negotiations, was represented by his son Thomas. The Native Americans agreed to sell to Morris the lands in question (except for some reserved lands or reservations) for one hundred thousand dollars, which was to be invested in stock of the Bank of the United States. The treaty, or more accurately, the agreement, is entitled “Contract entered into, under the sanction of the United States of America, between Robert Morris and the Seneca Nations of Indians.”

However, an obstacle remained. The American firm was holding the land on behalf of the foreign owners. New York followed the common practice of not allowing foreigners to hold unencumbered title to land in the new country.

Théophile Cazenove was a native of Holland and had a brokerage and commercial business in Amsterdam from 1763-1788. He represented the “Six Houses” (Dutch banking houses) in their American business. He arrived in the United States in 1790 and persuaded the banks to invest in western lands. Between 1792 and 1794, Cazenove purchased more than five million acres in western New York and Pennsylvania for his employers. Both Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr advised him on matters of his clients’ land and interests in America.

Determined to make an all-out effort to mobilize support in the legislature to eliminate all restrictions on land tenure, Mr. Cazenove, who was negotiating on behalf of the Holland Company, asked help from Aaron Burr. A key member of the New York State Legislature in 1797, Burr agreed to help him. So well did Burr succeed that on April 2, 1798, the legislature passed the Alien Land Holding Act that permitted foreigners to own land in the State of New York “forever.” Hamilton was also advising them, as we see from correspondence showing the American firm’s work contracted out to both men, Burr and Hamilton, in May of that year.

So by the end of 1798 the matter was settled, with the Holland Land Company and its U.S. representative LeRoy, Bayard, and McEvers satisfied with the results. Alexander Hamilton set about doing his end of the year accounting, including funds paid him in fees and a determination if any sums were still owing. He wrote LeRoy, Bayard, and McEvers asking for confirmation of his account.

Autograph letter signed, New York, December 26, 1798, addressed to the firm of Messrs. Le Roy, Bayard, and McEvers. “Gentlemen, I am making out your account to the end of the present year. It would enable me to do it with greater correctness & propriety if you could furnish me with a memorandum of the sums you have from time to time paid me as fees & the objects. Excuse this trouble. Yrs with true affection…A Hamilton.”

The Papers of Alexander Hamilton note this letter as not having been found.

Hamilton was busy with other things as well. In 1798, during the XYZ affair against France, Hamilton returned to the army in July 1798 with the rank of major general. He served as the inspector general and was second in command to George Washington. As Washington was stationed at Mount Vernon at this time with no desire to leave his beloved home, Hamilton was essentially in charge of the United States military.

An interesting letter associating Hamilton with Robert Morris and the land in the west the settlers were obtaining from the Native Americans.