To George Washington from the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 3 December 1796
From the Commissioners for the District of Columbia
Washington 3rd December 1796
Sir
We are honored with your Letter of 27th Ulto, and on friday,1 agreeably to your expectations, we received a Letter from Mr Wolcott, informing of the failure of his negotiation with Mr Hope2—The board therefore, immediately authorised Mr Scott to repair to Annapolis, and to negotiate a Loan with the Legislature of Maryland, agreeably to the terms of your act, authorising that measure3—On an event so momentous; we conceive nothing ought to be omitted, which may tend to secure a favorable issue—With that impression on our minds, we, with great deference, submit the propriety of your addressing the Assembly, on the subject—We are of opinion, and we find it is the opinion of the best friends of the City, that it would have a decided effect, if your interposition is judged expedient, the earlier the communication of your sentiments is received, by the Legislature, the better, as the Session will soon be drawing to a close.4
We think it of so much consequence, as to induce us to send this Letter by express, to Baltimore, that a post may be thereby gained—We are, with Sentiments &c.
G. Scott
A. White
P.S. Doctor Thornton had rode to his farm,5 before it occurred to the board to address the President on the subject of the above Letter.
LB, DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Letters Sent.
1. The previous Friday was 2 December.
2. The commissioners probably are referring to Treasury Secretary Oliver Wolcott, Jr.’s letter to them of 28 Nov., which reads in part: “I mentioned that I was making enquiries to ascertain whether the money you wanted for the use of the Federal City could be obtained from some other quarter than the Bank [of the United States]. It is with regret that I have to inform you, that at a late interview with the parties with whom I entertained some hopes of succeeding—I find the measure to be impracticable” (DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Letters Received). The “parties” refer to Henry Hope and his Dutch banking firm of Hope & Company. Wolcott had approached Hope about a loan for the commissioners after failing to secure one from the Bank of the United States (see GW to the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 21 Nov.).
3. For GW’s order authorizing the D.C. commissioners to secure a loan from the Maryland legislature, see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 31 Oct. (second letter), and n.2 to that document.
4. GW wrote Maryland governor John Hoskins Stone about the loan, which that state’s legislature soon granted (see GW to Stone, 7 Dec., and Stone to GW, 12 Dec., and n.2 to that document). The session of the Maryland legislature ended on 31 Dec. (see , 105:115).
5. D.C. commissioner William Thornton owned a 1½-story house on a 573-acre farm in what is now Bethesda, Montgomery County, Maryland. This country seat, named Park Grove, was six miles from Georgetown, D.C. (see Thornton to John Coakley Lettsom, in , 340; see also Allen C. Clark, “Doctor and Mrs. William Thornton,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society, 18 [1915]:167).