1. The enclosed extract reads: “To be brief it is to request of you, that you would be so good as to send me by the first opportunity (if in your power to obtain it) a Plan of the Federal City? as descriptive in a rough manner as possible of the natural and artificial marks (viz.) Rivers, Creeks, Branches, Springs, Marshes, Eminencies &Ca agreeable to the designation and arrangement of—the Gentleman who superintended the laying it out—I forgot his name—I think if you could oblige me in this instance, and I could have time to complete some number of copies before any printed ones are extant that I could dispose of them here to pretty good advantage.

“It is very apposite in my line of business, and will afford me agreeable imployment when the season will not admit of my being active in the field; You know that I have a natural turn as well as fondness, for amusements of that kind which would be hightened by the idea of emolument.

“I wish our good President when he is dispensing his favors, would think of the son of a venerable old acquaintance; who I beleive posseses as many virtues as ever did the patriarchs, Abraham Isaac and Jacob, and who will be bold to say that he inherits a patrimony of his Father which he hopes will ever remain in-tact and unalienable—namely honesty, and a small share of natural ingenuity [.] I have the vanity to think, that had I the honor of his acquaintance, he would not think me altogether an object unworthy his attention in that way. If you could venture to recommend me to him (in which generous act I think my friend Mr [Abraham] Baldwin would not be backward in joining his interest) you would be infinitely obliging a friend, whose conduct I flatter myself would always evince to you, that you had not served him unworthily; I would prefer some appointment in the Geographical or surveying department, in which I am the most conversant; such as laying out and describing boundaries &ca, in the prosecution of which, would endeavour to deduce some Topographical essays, which perhaps may not be void of some utility. Between you and me, I could mention another good it would be promotive of. It would enable me to dispence with the exigences of business in seasons unfavorable to health in our torrid climate, as well as increase that inspiration excited in me by a sense of his inimitable virtues, to attempt an ode to his praise every anniversary of his birthday, which has been my constant practice since I ventured on the back of Pegasus and which my freinds tell me are not to be classed among the meanest of the kind. I do not mention this as anything recommendatory of myself; neither do I think, that any such paltry allurements can possibly bias that Great Man (abstracted from more necessary qualifications for public service) in the disposal of his appointments” (DLC:GW). William Sturges (born c.1763) was the son of the Rev. Daniel Sturges, the Anglican minister of Norbourne Parish at Charles Town, Va. (now W. Va.), from 1771 to 1786. William Sturges received a grant of 400 acres in Richmond County from the state of Georgia in September 1784 (Candler, Revolutionary Records of Georgia, description begins Allen D. Candler, comp. The Revolutionary Records of the State of Georgia. 3 vols. Atlanta, 1908. description ends 2:720). He apparently did not receive an appointment from GW.

2. None of Francis Willis’s sons received an appointment in the U.S. Army during GW’s tenure in office.

3. GW laid an unofficial copy of Pierre L’Enfant’s plan of the Federal City before Congress on 13 Dec. 1791. For the reasons the president was unable to provide Congress with a more polished plan, see GW to Tobias Lear, 2 Oct., note 5, L’Enfant to GW, 21 Nov., editorial note, and GW to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 13 Dec. 1791, source note.