Virginia museum to auction off letter by Alexander Hamilton

Portrait of Alexander Hamilton (Photo By John Trumbull – Washington University Law School, Public Domain)

PORTSMOUTH, Va. — A letter written by Alexander Hamilton will go to the highest bidder at an auction to raise money for restoration work at a Virginia museum.

The Virginian-Pilot reports the letter, written by a Founding Father of the United States and the first secretary of the Treasury, was written Sept. 14, 1794.

In the letter, Hamilton makes a military request for wagons during the Whiskey Rebellion.

That was a violent uprising in the 1790s in western Pennsylvania that arose in response to a federal tax on whiskey production.

The newspaper says the money raised by auctioning the letter will benefit the Hill House Museum, a historic home in Portsmouth furnished with family belongings collected through generations.

The auction will take place March 22 at Quinn’s Auction Galleries in Falls Church.