1From John Adams to Tobias Lear, 24 December 1799 (Adams Papers)
I recd—in due Season your Letter of the fifteenth of this Month, and immediately communicated it to both Houses of Congress in a Message. The melancholly Event announced in it, had been before communicated to the Legislature, but upon less authentic and regular Evidence. The American People are sincere Mourners, under the loss of their Friend and Benefactor. For General Washington it is a...