1. District of Columbia commissioners David Stuart and Daniel Carroll wrote Jefferson on 10 Dec. that L’Enfant “has indeed done us the Honour of Writing us a Letter, Justifying his conduct. We have not noticed it, and believe as we are likely to get every thing Happily adjusted between Mr. Carroll and him, it will be most prudent to drop all explanations. We expect you will see the Major in Philadelphia in a Short time. We can not conclude, without expressing our Sanguine hopes, from the Train in which all matters are now, respecting this unhappy affair, that however reprehensible it may have been in the mode of conducting it, that it will prove Ultimately Salutary.” Carroll and Stuart also reported that Andrew Ellicott was progressing in the work of laying out the city squares, but they advised that no sale of lots should be held sooner than mid-June 1792. Jefferson endorsed the commissioners’ letter as being received on 13 Dec., when he apparently sent it to GW for perusal (see Jefferson Papers description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. 41 vols. to date. Princeton, N.J., 1950–. description ends , 22:388–89).

2. See GW to L’Enfant, 13 December. L’Enfant’s letter to GW of 10 Dec. has not been found.