From George Washington to John Hoskins Stone, 7 December 1796
To John Hoskins Stone
Philadelphia 7th December 1796
Sir,
The attempts lately made by the Commissioners of the City of Washington to borrow Money in Europe for the purpose of carrying on the public buildings having failed or been retarded1 they have been authorised by me to apply to your State for a loan of One hundred and fifty thousand Dollars upon terms which they will communicate.2 Such is the present situation of foreign Nations with respect to Money, that according to the best information there is no reasonable hope of obtaining a loan in any of them immediately and applications can now only be made in the United States upon this subject with any prospect of success and perhaps no where with greater propriety than to the Legislature of Maryland where it must be presumed the most anxious solicitude is felt for the growth and prosperity of that City which is intended for the permanent Seat of Government in America.
If the State has it in its power to lend the money which is solicited, I persuade myself it will be done, and the more especially at this time when a loan is so indispensable that without it not only very great and many impediments must be endured in the prossecution of the Work now in hand, but inevitable loss must be sustained by the funds of the City, in consequence of premature Sales of the public property3—I have thought I ought not to omit to State for the information of the General Assembly, as well the difficulty of obtaining Money on loan,4 as the present necessity for it, which I must request the favor of you most respectfully to communicate. With very great respect I am Sir Your very Hble Servt
Go: Washington
LS, MdAA; Df, with some corrections in GW’s writing, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW.
GW enclosed this document in his letter of this date to D.C. commissioner Gustavus Scott, written from Philadelphia: “Taking into consideration the critical situation of the funds of the Commissioners, I have, though with much reluctance, written a letter to the Governor of Maryland (agreeably to the request of the Commissioners) to be laid before the assembly of that State: The letter is enclosed herewith & left unsealed for your perusal; after which you will please to seal & deliver, or have it delivered to the Governor” (Df, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW).
GW evidently submitted the present document to Attorney General Charles Lee, who wrote GW on this date with the following opinion: “The attorney General will observe the only objection which has occurred to him against the President’s putting his signature to a letter such as the foregoing is that it is not usual for the President to correspond but by the channel of certain officers and the [D.C.] commissioners are the proper persons on common occasions which concern the [Federal] city. But as this letter is not addressed to an individual, but to the sovereign power of a state, the objection may be disregarded if the President shall think it expedient, to write upon the subject” (ALS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW).
In a letter of 10 Dec., Maryland governor Stone transmitted this document to the state legislature, and it was read before the state senate that day (see Stone to GW, 12 Dec.; see also , 105:20).
1. For the commissioners’ difficulties in securing a loan in the Netherlands, see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 13 May 1796, and n.1; see also the commissioners’ first letter to GW of 31 Oct., and n.1.
2. For GW’s order authorizing the D.C. commissioners to borrow money from the Maryland legislature, see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 31 Oct. (second letter), and n.2; see also GW to the commissioners, 21 Nov., and n.3 to that document.
3. GW may be referring to the sale of several thousand Federal City lots to James Greenleaf and Robert Morris in 1793. Morris and John Nicholson, who had bought out Greenleaf’s interest, failed to make scheduled payments on those lots, which threatened delays on the construction of the public buildings (see GW to the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 20 Aug. 1793; see also the commissioners to GW, 23 Dec. 1793; and GW to Edmund Randolph, 22 July 1795).
4. The Bank of the United States had denied a loan to the commissioners (see GW to the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 11 Nov., and n.3 to that document).