midnight
And , in truth , his mind had opened at once to the certainty that the time was come for him to make the final effort to insure Washington 's acceptance . He had felt , during the last weeks , as if burrowing in the very heart of a mountain of work ; but his skin chilled as he contemplated the opening of the new government without Washington in the presidential Chair . Two hours after dinner Morris escorted him to the library and shut him in , then went , with his other friends , to Fraunces ' tavern , and the house was quiet . Hamilton 's thoughts arranged themselves rapidly , and before midnight he had finished his letter . Fortunately it has been preserved , for it is of as vital an interest as anything he ever wrote , not only because it was the determining factor in Washington 's acceptance of an office toward which he looked with reluctance and dread , but because of its consummate sagacity and of its peremptory tone , which no man but Hamilton would have dared to assume to Washington . It ran : -- NEW YORK , September , 1788 . ... I should be deeply pained , my dear sir , if your scruples in regard to a certain station should be matured into a resolution to decline it ; though I am neither surprised at their existence , nor can I but agree in opinion , that the caution you observe in deferring an ultimate determination , is prudent .