To George Washington from Robert Morris, 23 April 1787
From Robert Morris
Philad[elphi]a April 23d 1787
Dear Sir
The Public Papers have announced Your consent to serve as a Member of the Convention to be held in this City.1 this is what I ardently wished for & I am truely rejoiced at it—I was only restrained from writing to you by Motives of delicacy, thinking that your own judgement rather than the perswasion of Friends ought to determine. I hope Mrs Washington will come with you & Mrs Morris joins me in requesting that you will on your arrival come to our House & make it your Home during your Stay in this City. We will give You as little trouble as possible and endeavour to make it agreable, it will be a charming season for Travelling, and Mrs Washington as well as yourself will find benefit from the Journey Change of Air &c. As I hope soon for the pleasure of seeing you I will only add that you must not refuse our request & the honor you confer by acceptance shall ever be considered as a great favour.2
Our New Bishop brought the enclosed letter from England, He desired me to forward it & to present his most respectfull Compts.3 I am Dear Sir Your most obedt & humble Servant
Robt Morris
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. On Saturday, 21 April 1787, the Pennsylvania Packet, and Daily Advertiser(Philadelphia) printed a dispatch from Richmond, Va., dated 11 April: “It is with peculiar satisfaction we inform the public, that our illustrious fellow citizen, GEORGE WASHINGTON, Esq. has consented to serve on the ensuing federal convention to be held in Philadelphia the second Monday in May next:and that his Excellency Edmund Randolph, Esq. proposes leaving this City early in that month, on the same business.”
2. GW on 5 May refused Morris’s invitation, but upon his arrival in Philadelphia on Sunday, 13 May, he was persuaded by the Morrises “to lodge with them” (, 5:155). He continued to live in the Morrises’ house on the south side of Market Street below Sixth Street throughout his stay in Philadelphia.
3. The letter from England has not been identified. The “new Bishop” was William White (1748–1836), the brother of Morris’s wife, Mary.