Clingman, on 1 January 1793, declared to Monroe that Maria claimed that the affair had been invented as a cover for the speculation scheme. However, the letter from Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth to Hamilton dated 2 August 1797 relates how during Reynolds's detention in November–December 1792 Maria had applied to both Wadsworth and Governor General Thomas Mifflin. In the attempt to convince them to help her obtain her husband's release from prison, Maria spontaneously told both of them the story of her first acquaintance and following "amour" with Hamilton in words that match Hamilton's description of their first encounter as reported in both the first draft of the Reynolds Pamphlet of July 1797 (before Wadsworth's letter) and the printed version, also dated July 1797, as well as James Reynolds's first letter to Hamilton.