To George Washington from “A Sincere Friend,” 11 February 1797
From “A Sincere Friend”
Feby 11th 97
No. 64—South Second Street [Philadelphia]1
Knowing your regard for all Public utility & benefit; I beg leave to acquaint you of my having a prescription for the Dropsy,2 it’s great simplicity & mild performance of the cure, is very remarkable. In what manner or mode, I should communicate it, to the Legislature of this Country, is what I would be happy in being inform’d of.3 With great Respect—I am Yr Excellency’s—Most Obedt Servt
A. Sincere Friend.
AL, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters.
1. The Philadelphia Directory for 1797 lists William Blackburn at this address (see , 28).
William Blackburn (c.1747–1808) was a former agent for the Canal Lottery Company. In 1797, he advertised tickets for sale in the Canal Lottery and the “Schuylkill bridge and Perkiomen Bridge lotteries” at his “LOTTERY and BROKER’S OFFICE” at “No. 64 south Second street” (Gazette of the United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser, 2 June 1797; see also Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser [Philadelphia], 28 June 1796). Blackburn later relocated to Chestnut Street in Philadelphia, where he sold tickets for various other lotteries (see Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser [Philadelphia], 9 Jan. 1801).
2. Dropsy is a “morbid condition characterized by the accumulation of watery fluid in the serous cavities or the connective tissue of the body” ().
3. No reply to this letter from GW has been found. No submission to Congress in 1797 about dropsy has been identified.