To George Washington from Benjamin Lincoln, 15 July 1784
From Benjamin Lincoln
Hingham [Mass.] July 15th 1784
My dear General
I may not omit so good an opportunity as now offers ⅌ Major Bayliss to inform your Excellency that at the meeting of the Cincinnati of this State they with great pleasure adopted the system as altered and amended by the general meeting and it appears to give great satisfaction to the citizens at large.1
I am pursuing the plan I mentioned to your Excellency the last fall of erecting mill for manufacturing flour I hope to have them running by the first day of November. Bayliss goes to Ascertain in what part of your country wheat may be purchased on the best terms—He is interested with me in business, and nearly connected in my family—Your Excellencys knowledge of him, makes it unnecessary for me to say more than to wish your advice to him in the execution of his commission and to assure you that every smile on his attempts will lay me under new obligations.2
He will give your Excellency the printers account—it far exceeds what I expected it would amount to. I complained but was informed it was agreeable to the rules of business.3 My best regards to Mrs Washington And believe me my Dr General with the highest esteem your affectionate humble servant
B. Lincoln
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. Hodijah Baylies (1756–1842), General Lincoln’s son-in-law and former aide-de-camp, was GW’s aide from May 1782 to 23 Dec. 1783.
2. In October 1783 Lincoln visited the Brandywine mills in Delaware with a view to erecting a mill of his own on his land near Hingham, Massachusetts. Much of his time in 1784 was taken up with the building of the mill and getting a miller to operate it. See his correspondence with Samuel Hodgdon in the Lincoln Papers, MHi. Lincoln’s mercantile connection in Alexandria was with William Lyles, who sent him 3,258 1/4 bushels of wheat in the fall of 1784 (see Lyles to Lincoln, 6 Nov. 1784, MHi: Lincoln Papers).
3. GW records in his cash accounts having paid Baylies £3.12 “for Gen. Lincoln Printg Acct Boston.”