1From George Washington to William Gordon, 15 October 1797 (Washington Papers)
Your favour of the 20th of Feb: has been received, and I am indebted to you for many other unacknowledged letters. The truth is, I soon found after entering upon the duties of my late public station, that private correspondencies did not accord with official duties; and being determined to perform the latter to the best of my abilities, I early relinquished the former, when business was not...