To George Washington from Edmund Randolph, 29 April 1795
From Edmund Randolph
Philadelphia April 29. 1795.
Sir
It being probable from your favor of the 24th instant, that a letter, directed to Alexandria or George Town by this post, would be too late to meet you at either of those places; and rather doubtful, whether you will not have passed Baltimore before to-morrow evening;1 I do myself the honor of merely saying, that Mr Carmichael died on the 9th of february last:2 that Smith, a former prisoner at Algiers has arrived, with dispatches from thence:3 & that Mr Jay appears from the latest New-York papers, determined not to leave England, until after the Spring equinox.4 I have the honor to be sir with the most respectful and affectionate attachment yr mo. ob. serv.
Edm: Randolph
ALS, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, GW’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State. Randolph directed his ALS to Baltimore.
1. On his journey from Mount Vernon to Philadelphia, GW arrived at Georgetown on 26 April and reached Baltimore three days later (see 6:200).
2. William Short informed Randolph about the death of William Carmichael, chargé d’affaires of the United States at the court of Spain, in his letter of 13 February. “The declining state of health in which he has been for several years continued the same until a few days before his death when the symptoms were such as to induce him to call in the aid of physicians” (DNA: RG 59, Despatches from U.S. Ministers to Spain).
3. The freed prisoner was most likely George Smith, who sailed from Boston aboard the schooner Maria, captured on 24 July 1785. The announcement about his return to the United States stated that Smith arrived on 19 April aboard the brig Minerva from Cadiz, Spain. His friends had ransomed Smith for $3,000 (Aurora General Advertiser [Philadelphia], 20 April).
4. An article submitted by Robert Troup and Josiah O. Hoffman to the “ELECTORS” of New York contained excerpts of letters written by John Jay to his family and “received by the January mail.” In one letter Jay stated: “I fear the New-York vessels now here will sail in February, if so, I must with Reluctance let them go without me. Any time after the vernal Equinox would do—I am always so sick at sea” (American Minerva and the New-York Advertiser, 27 April).