From George Washington to Richard Peters, 10 December 1796
To Richard Peters
[Philadephia] 10th Decr 1796
Dear Sir,
Herewith, you will not only receive the Outlines &ca (asked for yesterday) but the Appendix thereto; and other productions from the same quarter; which, when you have done with, be so good as to return.1
These, or some of the Papers, may be of use to a Committee, if Congress should incline to take up the subject of Agriculture.2
Your observations, with the return of the Papers, will be very acceptable to Dr Sir Yr Obedt & Affe.3
Go: Washington
ALS, PHi: Peters MSS. Peters printed this letter as a facsimile in the unpaginated front matter of volume two of Memoirs of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture (Philadelphia, 1811).
1. GW probably enclosed Robert Somerville’s Outlines of the Fifteenth Chapter … On the Subject of Manures (London, 1795) and a pamphlet titled Additional Appendix to the Outlines of the Fifteenth Chapter … On the Subject of Manures (London, 1796). John Sinclair, president of Britain’s Board of Agriculture, had asked GW to circulate the Outlines and Appendix, and to solicit observations on them. GW wrote Sinclair on this date to acknowledge receipt of the Appendix and of Sir John Sinclair’s Address to the Board of Agriculture … the Twenty-Fourth of May, 1796 (n.p., n.d.). GW may have also enclosed other publications, including Queries Relating to Live Stock (see GW to Peters, 4 March 1796; see also Sinclair to GW, 14 and 30 May; and Peters to GW, 12 May, and n.2 to that document).
2. In his annual message to Congress, GW had advocated for the establishment of a national board of agriculture, but no significant action was immediately taken (see GW to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 7 Dec., and n.21).
3. Peters was prepared to return the enclosures by the end of the next month (see Peters to GW, 26 Jan. 1797).