Hamilton connection

Spent the morning in the library at UVA - different library this time - the law library - and a slightly higher standard of graffiti on the tables as a consequence. It had been raining in the night so the Hunter wellies were out in force - didn't know they did so many colours. Was going through the 27 volumes of the Alexander Hamilton papers. Hamilton was a hero of the Revolution, Washington's aide de camp, one of the founding fathers and also the first United States Secretary of the Treasury. Hamilton was a Federalist, Jefferson was a Democratic Republican. He was also one of Jefferson's least favourite people - in Monticello their busts are opposite each other in the entrance hall and the guide said that Jefferson had placed them their so they could be opposed to each other in death as they were in life.
In 1791 - when Hamilton Secretary of the Treasury - guess who offers the US government a loan of £500,000 - or offers to sort it out for them? Yes, Alexander Donald.
There are letters from William Short - US Minister to France at this stage and Jefferson's "adoptive son" - to Alexander Hamilton about Mr Donald's offer:
"I wrote some time ago to a person in London, Mr Alexander Donald, partner in a rich house established there, informting him that it had been hinted to me that it was not improbable that moneyed men of that country would be disposed to place their cash in loans if such were opened there for the US and desiring him to give me his opinion on the subject. Mr Donald though not personally known to me, seemed the most proper person to be applied to in such a case as well on account of his commercial connexions with the US as the high opinion which I know to be entertained of him by the Secretary of State [TJ] to whom he has been long known and who will be able to tell you how far this information is to be relied on."
Short then includes details of what Alexander had said on the matter. This is Short quoting Donald to Hamilton:
"I do think that they credit of Congress stands so well and money is so very abundant in this country that a loan for half a million could be done provided the terms are made agreeable. If any further steps are taken in this business, the first to be adopted here will be inserting an advertisement in the publick newspapers intimating the business & calling a meeting of whose who are disposed to lend the money at which time proposals will be laid before them for their consideration. I believe sir that the guarantee of Donald & Burton would be accepted for the payment of the interest which they have no objection to do upon being allowed a reasonable commission for their trouble." 
Now, we all know that Alexander Donald is about to go spectacularly bust, so you have to give him credit for trying it on at this stage. Short says that they will only go for it if they can get 1 per cent below the rate they can get in Amsterdam - which was 5 per cent. Short not happy with the idea of an advertisement, and he will: 
"See if the advertisement he speaks of cannot be dispensed with, as it would be disagreeable in the extreme to take such a measure until the success was insured and then it would be useless."
 Long and the short of it is that Alexander goes up to his coal mines in Nuneaton and up to Scotland - so William Short starts to deal with Alexander's partner, Robert Burton. Burton slightly poured cold water on the whole thing: 
"Mr Donald left London soon after writing me the letter communicated to you in mine on the 23^rd August. His partner has since informed me [Robert Burton to Short, September 6, 1791] that it does not appear to him possible that a loan could effected in London for the US at less than 5 per cent, although he thinks it might be done at that rate ... This is a less favourable view of the subject than that presented by Mr Donald."
And again in a subsequent letter: 
"Since the departure of Mr Donald from London his partner has continued the correspondence with me on the subject of a loan there for the US. The final result of his researches is less favourable for the present than Mr Donald had given reason to hope. On more precise enquiry he found that no house of solidity would undertake to make a guarantee a loan for any commission and that no loan could be opened publicly for a foreign power."
I think the technical term for Alexander's behaviour at this stage is "chancer". 
Poor William Short was taken in by Donald and Burton - and in 1793 when they went for a burton, he lost a lot of money. Fast forward two years from these letters - and here is William Short again - but this time to adoptive daddy, Jefferson: 
"... I was preparing this business in a very agitated and enraged state of mind when I received on the 29th. a letter informing me that the house of Donald & Burton had failed more than a month ago for £150,000 stlg. As you know that they had almost the whole of my fortune in their hands, you will readily concieve what an effect that had produced on me. It seems as if all the misfortunes that can befall the human lot were reserved for me and to be crowded on me at once...


"M. Donald’s having never written to me to inform me of this disaster, seems an extraordinary and an alarming circumstance..
"I have great confidence in Mr. Donald’s honor—and it seems to me if he deserves it he will have kept this deposit sacred and untouched by his disaster—but his having not written to me since it has befallen him, staggers me much."