From George Washington to Unknown, 25 February 1797
To Unknown
Philadelphia 25th Feby 1797
The printed notification (enclosed) gives a general description of the lands held by the Subscriber on the Rivers Ohio & Kanhawa.1 For one more in detail, it is presumed the purchaser would choose to rely more on his own investigation, or on the report of an Agent, than on that of the Seller, and therefore it will not be attempted.2
The price has been rising, and at present is eight dollars pr Acre, (which has been refused for one of the Advertised tracts on the Ohio river, not better, it is presumed, in quality). The terms of payment are made known in the printed Paper herewith.3
Go: Washington
A Plat of the contemplated tract is enclosed.4
ALS (incomplete), NjMoHP. The first part of this letter is missing; only the final page, which has the dateline and signature, is extant. No reply to this letter has been found. A notation beneath the postscript, evidently added at a later date, suggests that the letter was addressed to U.S. surveyor general Rufus Putnam.
This letter evidently is GW’s reply to an unfound query about his western lands on the Ohio and Kanawha rivers, which he advertised for sale on 1 Feb. 1796 (see Advertisement, that date). GW received similar inquiries about his landholdings. For instance, New York merchant Joseph Fay, in a letter of 7 Feb., had asked about the quality and price of GW’s lands, and proposed offering them for sale in Europe. In his reply to Fay of 19 Feb., GW declined the offer of an overseas sale of his lands, and requested that potential purchasers rely on eyewitness reports on the value and quality of the tracts rather than on his own description (see Fay to GW, 30 March 1797, n.1, in 1:56–57; see also Bartholomew Dandridge, Jr., to GW, 26 Sept. 1796, and n.4 to that document).
1. GW must have enclosed a copy of his 1 Feb. 1796 advertisement, announcing his western lands for sale. In February 1796, GW had sent the ad to Rufus Putnam, who publicized it in Marietta (Northwest Territory, now Ohio) (see GW to Putnam, 13 Feb. 1796; and Putnam to GW, 11 March 1796).
2. GW made a similar statement in his advertisement of 1 Feb. 1796, in which he recommended that those “inclinable to become purchasers” of GW’s lands, or their agents, “examine them critically.”
3. The enclosed “printed Paper” has not been found, but for the purchase terms for GW’s western tracts, see Advertisement, 1 Feb. 1796.
4. The enclosed plat has not been identified, but GW may have enclosed copies of William Crawford’s 1771 plats of GW’s Ohio River tracts, as well as the plats of the bounty lands on the Kanawha River (see Advertisement, 1 Feb. 1796, and n.7).