From George Washington to the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 29 July 1795
To the Commissioners for the District of Columbia
Mount Vernon 29 July 1795.
Gentlemen,
On friday last I received your several dispatches with different signatures;1 and should have answered them by monday’s post; but Doctr Thornton promising to assign his reasons for the dissent he had given to the proposed regulations respecting wharves & water lots, I postponed giving any opinion thereon until I should receive these2—which I did yesterday morning. Since which I have been so extremely hurried with one dispatch & another, that I have not been able to attend to the business of the federal city.
I propose to be in Alexandria on Monday, & shall proceed to Georgetown in the afternoon, when, or very early next morning, I will meet you & decide upon all the matters referred to
Gentlemen Yr &c.
Go. Washington.
LB, DLC:GW.
1. The previous Friday was 24 July. The commissioners sent two letters of that date to GW, one with the signatures of Gustavus Scott and William Thornton, and the other with those of Scott and Alexander White. In addition, Thornton sent a third letter that has not been found. Since GW was visiting Mount Vernon at the time, the letters could reach him the same day.
2. Thornton explained his dissent in his letter to GW of 26 July.