From George Washington to Thomas Law, 24 October 1798
To Thomas Law
Mount Vernon 24th Octr 1798.
Dear Sir,
Your letter of the 17th instant was handed to me by Mr Lear, and I should have sent you the enclosed check on the Bank of Alexandria for two hundred and fifty dollars sooner, had we not expected you at this place on friday or Saturday last, according to promise—and been looking for you every day since.1
All I ask is, that you would have me secured in the loan of this sum, for the purpose of erecting a Hotel for Mr Tunnicliff, in the same manner you do the $750 lent on your own A/c.2
The family here unite in love and best wishes for Mrs Law, Eliza and yourself; and I am, with great esteem & regard—Dear Sir Your Most Obedt Hble Servt
Go: Washington
ALS (letterpress copy), DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW.
1. No letter of 17 Oct. from Law has been found. See GW to William Thornton, 18 Oct., n.3.
2. On 21 May 1799 William Tunnicliff, who had been operating the Eastern Branch Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue between 8th and 9th streets, S.E., announced the opening of his Washington City Hotel near the Capitol, on A Street just off 1st Street, N.E. (W. B. Bryan, “Hotels of Washington Prior to 1814” 7:79, 84–85). GW has on 24 Oct. 1798 an entry of $250 in , 49, for “my subscription for 5 Shares towards building a hotel in the City of Washington pd to Mr Law who promises to see them secured.” See also the entry in GW’s Day Book for this date.