George Washington Papers

From George Washington to Richard Henry Lee, 9 August 1774

To Richard Henry Lee

Fredg Augt 9th 1774.

Dr Sir,

If this Letter should (though I do not See any probable chance of it) reach your hands in time, it is to ask, if you do not think it necessary that the Deputies from this Colony should be provided with authentick Lists of our Exports, & Imports generally, but more especially to Great Britain? and, in that case, to beg of you to obtain such from the Custom House Offices on Potomack & Rappa.; as I have desird the Speaker, if he should think it expedient, & might not have thought of it, to do from York & James River. I have got an Acct (though not a certified one) from Mr Wythe of our Number of Taxables in the year 1770, since Increas’d (Archy Cary says) at least 10,000, as would have appeard by the Lists returnd in May, if the Session had gone on.1 I am with esteem—Dr Sir Yr Most obedt Servt

Go: Washington

P.S. If you should travel to Phila. by Land, instead of water, I should be glad of your Company—Mr Henry & Colo. Pendleton are to be at my House on their way Tuesday the 30th Instt.2

ALS, PPAmP: Correspondence of Richard Henry Lee and Arthur Lee. The letter is docketed “3d August 1774” in one place, “Aug: 9. 1774” in another.

1The “Speaker” is Peyton Randolph, one of the Virginia delegates to the Continental Congress. Col. Archibald Cary (1720–1787) of Ampthill in Chesterfield County served in the House of Burgesses from 1756 to 1775 and in the Virginia conventions.

2Patrick Henry, Edmund Pendleton, and GW left Mount Vernon on 31 Aug. for Philadelphia.

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