Hamilton had privately asked Beckwith to tell the British authorities that Washington’s government was open for business with London. “I have always preferred a connection with you, to that of any other country,” Hamilton said to Beckwith, continuing: “we think in English, and have a similarity of prejudices and of predilections.”17 It was a clear effort to become part of Britain’s sphere rather than France’s—the opposite of the course Jefferson favored.
