ALS, DLC:GW; copy, DLC: Hamilton Papers.

GW wrote Secretary of War James McHenry on 11 April: “Young Fayette and his friend are with me. Come & dine with them to day at 3 oclock if you are not otherwise engaged” (ALS [photocopy], DLC: James McHenry Papers). McHenry’s acceptance of this invitation has not been determined, but Vice President John Adams wrote his wife Abigail from Philadelphia on 13 April about the gathering: “I dined on Monday at the Presidents with young La Fayette and his Preceptor, Tutor or Friend, whatever they call him, whose Name is Frestel. I asked Them with Mr Lear to breakfast with me this Morning and they agreed to come: but last Evening Mr Lear came with a Message from The President, to ask my Opinion whether it would be adviseable for the young Gentleman, in the present Circumstances of his Father and Mother and whole Family and considering his tender Years, to accept Invitations and mingle in Society?—Whether it would not too much interrupt his studies? The Youth and his Friend had proposed these Questions to the P. and asked his Advice, and expressed their own opinion that Retirement would be more adviseable and more desirable.

“I Agreed in opinion with the P. and his Guests and as I had been the first who had invited them, at the P’s request agreed to excuse them from accepting my Invitation that they might have it to say as a general Apology that they had accepted none” (Adams Family Correspondence, description begins Lyman H. Butterfield et al., eds. Adams Family Correspondence. 13 vols. to date. Cambridge, Mass., 1963–. description ends 11:250–51).