George Washington Papers
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From George Washington to the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 3 March 1797

To the Commissioners for the District of Columbia

Philadelphia 3d Mar. 1797

Gentlemen,

Three things relative to the City of Washington call for my decision, and this is the last day I have Powers to give any.1

The first respects the dispute with Mr Law, touching the conveyances of Lotts;2 the second, to my approbation of the Plans for the Executive Offices;3 and the third, to the Instrument you transmitted to me in your letter of the 31st of January.4

With regard to the first, however hard & unexpected the case may be as it affects the public interest, and whatever my private opinion on some points may be; I think it safest, and all things considered perhaps the best, to let the opinion of the Law Officer of the government—herewith enclosed—prevail;5 and I advise it accordingly. The second, not only meets my approbation, but is much approved also by the heads of Departments; and may, when the funds and other circumstances will permit be carried into effect; for which purpose the Plans are returned with my approving signature.6 On the other, or third point, the Bill for incorporating the Commissioners of the City of Washington, has not been passed into a Law, in consequence of the superior claim of more important matters upon the attention of Congress in the close of the present Session.7 The instrument you transmitted to me, as mentioned before, having been altered according to the advice of the Attorney General you will herewith receive, formally executed.8

Another matter occurs which is necessary to apprise you of. In your letter of the 31st of Jany it is said “We have forwarded to the Secretary of State, a plan of the City under cover to Messrs Willinck, with all the public property particularly designated on the face of it; and have written to those Gentlemen, pressing them to forward the loan by all the means in their power.” Inquiring the other day of the Secretary if it was dispatched, he answered that no such packet had been recd by him.9

Your letter of the 27th Ulto is received & I am sorry your prospt of a loan in Holld is so bad. With esteem & regd I am always Yrs

Go: Washington

ALS, DLC: U.S. Commissioners of the City of Washington records; ALS (letterpress copy), DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW. The commissioners received this letter on 7 March (see DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Proceedings, 1791–1802).

1GW’s second term as president was about to end. John Adams was inaugurated as the second U.S. president on 4 March.

2For the dispute involving Thomas Law, Robert Morris, and John Nicholson, see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 6 Feb. (second letter).

3For the proposal to erect executive department office buildings, see the commissioners’ first letter to GW of 1 Oct. 1796; see also the commissioners to GW, 31 Jan. 1797; and GW to the commissioners, 15 Feb. 1797.

4GW refers to the executive order describing the public reservations in the Federal City. GW signed and implemented that order on 2 March in order to convey the reservations to the commissioners (see the commissioners to GW, 31 Jan., and n.1 to that document).

5The commissioners’ book of proceedings for 7 March described the enclosure as “the Opinion of the Atty General respecting Mr Laws Titles” (DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Proceedings, 1791–1802). Attorney General Charles Lee’s opinion has not been found. He evidently ruled on 19 Feb. that the deeds given to Law for lots that Law had purchased need not include a building clause (i.e., that Law build a house on every third lot). According to Lee, the commissioners, however, could compel Morris and Nicholson to construct the houses that they had released Law from building. Lee evidently also gave the year 1800 as the targeted date of completion for the houses (see Arnebeck, Through a Fiery Trial description begins Bob Arnebeck. Through a Fiery Trial: Building Washington, 1790–1800. Lanham, Md., and London, 1991. description ends , 425; see also Bryan, National Capital description begins Wilhelmus Bogart Bryan. A History of the National Capital: From Its Foundation through the Period of the Adoption of the Organic Act. 2 vols. New York, 1914–16. description ends , 1:295).

Lee’s opinion pertained to Law’s demand for a fee simple title to lots he had purchased from Morris, Nicholson, and James Greenleaf. Law had insisted that the title be free from the building clause contained in the contract of 24 Dec. 1793 between the commissioners and Morris and Greenleaf (see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 6 Feb. [second letter], and notes 1 and 2 to that document; see also Arbuckle, Pennsylvania Speculator and Patriot description begins Robert D. Arbuckle. Pennsylvania Speculator and Patriot: The Entrepreneurial John Nicholson, 1757–1800. University Park, Pa., 1975. description ends , 121–22). Morris and Nicholson wrote about Lee’s decision in a letter to the commissioners of 4 March 1797: “As we understand the Subject which was referred to the Attorney General by the President, submitted to him from you on the Subject of Mr Laws titles, has been decided in favor of granting those titles without the condition of building being inserted therein, we request now that the same may be granted to him as soon as convenient as the delay is attended with inconvenience and injury” (DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Letters Received).

6The signed plans of the executive buildings have not been found. The commissioners had transmitted the plans to GW with their letter to him of 31 Jan. (see n.2 to that document).

7The second session of the Fourth Congress adjourned on this date. For the bill to incorporate the D.C. commissioners, see GW to the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 17 Feb., and n.4 to that document.

8GW refers to the deed, executed by GW on 2 March, which conveyed the Federal City reservations to the commissioners (see n.4 above). Attorney General Charles Lee’s advice on that matter has not been identified.

9For the commissioners’ letter to Secretary of State Timothy Pickering, which enclosed a map of the Federal City and a letter to Dutch bankers Jan and Wilhem Willink, see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 31 Jan., and n.6 to that document.

The commissioners’ letter to the Willinks pertained to efforts to negotiate a loan in the Netherlands (see the commissioners to GW, 31 Oct. [first letter], and notes 1 and 2 to that document).

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