To George Washington from the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 17 November 1796
From the Commissioners for the District of Columbia
Washington, 17th November 1796
Sir,
We had the honor of your favor of the 11th Instant, with the Inclosure & shall now proceed to take a conveyance of all the property in which the United States have an interest1—The State of the business laid before you by Messrs Budd & Prior was particularly stated to you on your way to Mount Vernon, last summer, & the measures to be pursued by the board were approved of by you—2 We now inclose a Letter to these gentlemen, which is left open for your perusal.3
We wait with some degree of anxiety for the answer of the Bank of the United-States, as we must, in case we do not succeed at Phila., fall on some expedient to raise money elsewhere.4
We beg the favor of you to forward to us the plan of the City, which was lodged in the Secretary of State’s Office; and also some of the engraved plans of the City and Territory; a few dozen of each might be usefully disposed of here.5 We have the honor, &c.
G. Scott
W. Thornton
A. White
LB, DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Letters Sent.
1. See Executive Order to Thomas Beall and John Mackall Gantt, 10 Nov., printed as an enclosure to GW’s letter to the commissioners of 11 November. See also the commissioners’ first letter to GW of 1 Oct. and the source note to that document.
2. The commissioners may have discussed with GW their epistolary communications with George Budd and Norton Pryor, Jr., (of the Philadelphia firm Budd & Pryor) either on 19 June or around 25 Sept. 1796, the days that GW was in the Federal City on his way to Mount Vernon (see ; see also GW to David Humphreys, 12 June). The commissioners’ dealings with Budd & Pryor pertained to the slow construction of a hotel that the two men had won in a lottery (see Budd & Pryor to GW, 31 Oct.).
3. The commissioners probably enclosed their letter to Budd & Pryor of 18 Nov., which reads: “The President … has transmitted to us, your address to him, dated 31st Ulto, on the subject of the hotel. We think it unnecessary to enter into a minute discussion of … that address; but can, with truth assure you, That you are not more sensible of the injury arising to the City, and of the injustice done to yourselves, by the delay in finishing that building, than we are; but on mature consideration … we are of opinion that we are not empowered to bring suit to enforce the completion of it; and that neither ourselves personally, nor the funds of the City, under our administration, can be subjected to the payment of damages for the failure—We presume, however, that you are not without remedy, and … we will give you every aid in our power, by furnishing copies of the Securities given by Mr Blodget to Mr Johnson, Mr [David] Steuart & Mr Carroll, or even the orginals, should they become necessary … You will no doubt, consult counsel” (DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Letters Sent). On 9 Nov., GW’s secretary George Washington Craik had sent the commissioners the 31 Oct. letter to GW from Budd & Pryor (see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 7 Nov., n.12).
4. For the commissioners’ unsuccessful loan request, see GW to the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 11 November.
5. The commissioners may be referring to Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s manuscript plan of the Federal City, which GW submitted to Congress in December 1791, and to the 1792 Thackara-Vallance engraved map (see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 1 Oct. [first letter], and n.5; see also GW to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 13 Dec. 1791).