From George Washington to James McHenry, 22 July 1796
To James McHenry
(private)
Mount Vernon 22d July 1796.
Dr Sir,
Your private letter of the 16 came to my hands at the same time that your official one did of the 18th.
From what is there said it appears by the enclosures, I am satisfied no unnecessary delay respecting the Algierine frigate has taken place. From a former one, & perhaps from a solicitude to execute promptly whatever is entrusted to me, I had conceived otherwise.1
As I have Mr Liston here, & the house full of other company,2 I shall only add that I am, what you will always find, Yr &c.
G. Washington
LB, DLC:GW. A purported ALS of this letter was offered for sale in The Collector, July-Sept. 1955, n. 640. A transcript made in 1855, probably from the ALS, is at NhD; it shows no significant variation from the letter-book copy. McHenry acknowledged this letter when he wrote GW on 26 July.
1. See McHenry to GW, 7 July.
2. British minister Robert Liston, accompanied by his wife Henrietta Marchant Liston, his secretary Edward Thornton, and Henry Stuart (1777–1809), arrived at Mount Vernon on 20 July. For their trip from Philadelphia, see McHenry to GW, 5 July, n.1.
Henrietta Liston wrote in her journal that the mansion at Mount Vernon was “a respectable old House, the beauty of which consists in a very large Piazza opening nobly on the Potomack, which is here two miles broad. We were kindly received, & sumptuously entertained by the President & Mrs. Washington, & spent some days most agreeably. But our visit was shortened by a wish to make a tour in Virginia by the Vale of Winchester, which we were told would afford us a view of the best land, & most picturesque view we had yet seen.” The party stopped at Harpers Ferry and Winchester, Va., and Lancaster, Pa., on their return to Philadelphia ( 12–13).
Henrietta Liston provided other observations on the visit to Mount Vernon when she wrote her uncle James Jackson from Germantown, Pa., on 6 Sept.: “We reached Mount-Vernon next day [20 July] to dinner & were received with the utmost kindness by the President & Mrs Washington, his Family consists of the Marquis la Fayettes Son, & his Tutor [Felix Frestel], the former a gentle, melancholy, interesting youth, the latter clever & accomplished, but apparently proud & Sullen—the Presidents Secretary, a Modest young Man [George Washington Craik], & a Miss Custis, the Grand Daughter of Mrs Washington by a former Marriage, one of the prettiest Girls I have seen—as Mr Liston was anxious to reach home by the arrival of the packet, & desireous of extending his journey to the Vale of Winchester, We departed, after three days stay, in spight of all entreaties: the President was at great pains to show Us eve[r]y part of his Farm, He is, indeed, one of the best Farmers in America, & it seems to be his favourite occupation” (StEdNL: Liston Papers).