George Washington Papers

From George Washington to Edmund Randolph, 18 October 1794

To Edmund Randolph

(Private)

Cumberland [Md.] Oct: 18. 1794

Dear sir,

I have directed Mr Dandridge to acknowledge the recet of your public dispatches of the 13. Inst.,1 whilst I enclose those of our Envoy2 to you, which came under cover to me in a letter from him dated the 5. of August, with the following P.S.—“I shall enclose with this my dispatches to Mr Randolph. If the William Penn shou’d be stopped by a belligerent vessel, they will respect a letter directed to you more than one directed to him.” on opening it I find duplicates only.

His private letter to me of the date above, & which he wishes may be considered as confidential (which, & the possible risque, prevents my sending it to you by the returning Express) is a very pleasing one; as it is more indicative of a hope, & expectation of general good success in his mission than any that had come from him before. He conceives that there is no indisposition in the present ministry to settle the several matters in dispute upon what they conceive to be just & liberal terms. But what these may appear to be, when they come to close discussion, no one can prognosticate—to give & take I presume will be the result. I am led to draw more favorable inferrences from this letter however, than from any of his preceding ones. I am always &c.

Go. W.

Df, in Bartholomew Dandridge, Jr.’s writing, DLC:GW.

1GW’s secretary Bartholomew Dandridge, Jr., wrote Randolph on this date: “By the President’s order I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your several Letters of the 13 Inst: to him.

“From information which has been received thro’ several channels it appears that the people in the western counties of Pennsylvania are at length convinced of the approach of the army, & are truly alarmed at the consequences which may attend its passage thro’ their Country. Measures have been taken by them to convince the President that good order & a disposition to support Goverment had so far prevailed as to render the going of an armed force into that country unnecessary. They however will not produce the effect intended—And it is the wish of some of the well disposed of them that the army shou’d proceed, & their opinion is that salutary consequences will result therefrom. As an undoubted proof that the alarm is serious, three Gentn from Fayette Coty M[iste]rs Mason, Clinton & Terrence [perhaps Isaac Meason, Charles Clinton, and Joseph Torrence] have this morning waited on the President on behalf of their county men to offer their services in purchasing & preparing at convenient places supplies for the army when it gets over the mountain.

“The President will leave this place early tomorrow morning on his way to Bedford, where ’tis likely he will be detained three or four days” (DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters).

2GW was referring to John Jay.

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