91From George Washington to Charles Lee, 4 August 1797 (Washington Papers)
Agreeably to my promise I have looked among those parcels which I conceived most likely to produce the Paper of which you required a copy, without the desired effect. How to account for it I am at a loss unless Mr Lear & Mr Dandridge (whom I employed to seperate & Pack up my files) may have left it, with papers of a similar nature, which I also miss, with those designed for my Successor in...
92From George Washington to Henry Lee, Jr., 2 April 1797 (Washington Papers)
If this letter should happen to find you in Philadelphia, the intention of it is to bring you acquainted with the situation of Messrs Reed & Ford’s engagement to transfer (after the 28th of March) seventy shares in the Bank of Columbia on your account for my benefit. On my way home, I placed their obligation in the hands of a Gentleman within the District of Columbia, for the purpose of having...
93From George Washington to Henry Lee, Jr., 8 September 1797 (Washington Papers)
Your favour of the 27th Ult. with its enclosures, came safe to hand. When the negociable note for $1000 is paid, and the 30 barrels of Corn are received, the amount of both will be carried to your credit. I am told that the present price of Wheat in Alexandria is 8/ but I can fix no price now for what may be delivered 2, 3, 4 or even 6 months hence, or, perhaps, not at all (if you depend upon...
94From George Washington to Ludwell Lee, 29 August 1797 (Washington Papers)
General Spotswood, Mrs Miss & Captn Spotswood, and Miss Thornton of Culpeper (all relations I believe of yours) are now here. They, Mrs Washington and myself, would be glad to see you, Mrs Lee Miss Armistead & any others of your family, at Dinner tomorrow. With esteem & regard I am Dear Sir Your Obedt Hble Servt ALS , owned (1996) by Mr. Joseph Rubinfine, West Palm Beach, Florida. Alexander...
95From George Washington to George Lewis, 9 April 1797 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 31st Ult. from Culpeper County, came to my hands late at night on the 5th instt; and the enclosure for your brother Fielding was sent to him early next morning. The melancholy occasion of your writing has filled me with inexpressable concern. The debt of nature however sooner or later must be paid by us all, and although the seperation from our nearest relatives is a heart...
96From George Washington to George Lewis, 13 November 1797 (Washington Papers)
The running off of my Cook, has been a most inconvenient thing to this family; and what renders it more disagreeable, is, that I had resolved never to become the master of another Slave by purchase; but this resolution I fear I must break. I have endeavoured to hire, black or white, but am not yet supplied. A few days ago, having occasion to write to Mr Bushrod Washington on other matters, I...
97From George Washington to Lawrence Lewis, 4 August 1797 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 24th Ulto has been received, and I am sorry to hear of the loss of your Servant; but it is my opinion these elopements will be much more, before they are less frequent; and that the persons making them should never be retained, if they are recovered, as they are sure to contaminate and discontent others. I wish from my Soul that the Legislature of this State could see the...
98From George Washington to Robert Lewis, 3 November 1797 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 26th ulto has been received. To Mr F. Whiting for presenting, and to you for forwarding the orchard-grass Seeds, I feel myself obliged, and request you to mention it to him accordingly. I approve of your placing a Tenant upon my small tract of Land above Bath, at a moderate Rent, for the purpose of preserving the Timber thereon; and if decisive proof could be had of the...
99From George Washington to Zechariah Lewis, 14 August 1797 (Washington Papers)
Your favor of the 17th Ulto came safe, but a good while after date. For the Sermons you had the goodness to send me I pray you to accept my thanks. The doctrine in them is sound, and does credit to the Author. It does, indeed, give me pleasure to have such sentiments as Mr Custis has expressed to you, transmitted to me; and it would render him and all his friends an acceptable service if in...
100From George Washington to Thomas Macdonald, 29 August 1797 (Washington Papers)
Your favor of the 19th, and the Vol[um]e of Reports which accompanied it, have been duly received. For your care of the latter, and particularly for having it bound, I pray you to accept my best thanks; and an assurance that, if inclination or business should induce you or Mr Rich to visit the State of Virginia, I should think myself honored in seeing of you at my Seat. Little doubt can be...
101From George Washington to John Marshall, 4 December 1797 (Washington Papers)
Your very interesting and obliging favour of the 15th of September from the Hague, came duly to hand, and I thank you sincerely for the important details with which it is fraught, & pray for the continuance of them. I congratulate you too on your safe arrival from Ship-board; and, as the Newspapers tell us, at Paris; and I wish, a little while hence, I may have it in my power to do the same on...
102From George Washington to Thomas Coleman Martin, 3 October 1797 (Washington Papers)
I have already erected a thrashing Machine on Mr Bookers plan, and was on the point of putting up one or two more when I received a letter from a Gentleman of my acquaintance informing me that you had invented one which did more execution with less force. This had induced me to suspend the erection of those in Mr Booker’s plan until I can receive better information relative to yours, and this...
103From George Washington to James McAlpin, 3 July 1797 (Washington Papers)
If you will present your account of the things furnished young Mr Custis (on his return to College in May last) to Colo. Clemt Biddle, he will pay you the amount thereof. I thank you for the information repecting John Cline, but shall give myself no further concern about him, for it was always my intention to have given him his freedom (as I did by the other Servants under similar...
104From George Washington to James McAlpin, 7 May 1797 (Washington Papers)
Mr Custis will present you with an order for Cloaths, &ca which please to have made according to his directions—and the amount of cost shall be paid on demand. Finding I shall have occasion for an Agent to do such little matters as I shall want in Philadelphia, I shall soon appoint one, who will be instructed to pay your Account. By depending on you to procure the dozen pieces of Nankeens I...
105From George Washington to Daniel McCarty, 3 November 1797 (Washington Papers)
I shall preface this letter in answer to yours of yesterday, with a declaration as sincere as it is solemn, and that is, that if it was in my power, I would take no advantage of you in the proposed exchange of Lands; nor would I wish you to make a bargain with me that either you yourself, or your friends (such I mean as are competent judges) should hereafter say was disadvantageous on your...
106From George Washington to Daniel McCarty, 13 November 1797 (Washington Papers)
Presuming from the tenor of your last letter, that there is no great probability of our meeting in the proposed exchange of lands—unless the difficulties which have occurred can be overcome—I should not have given you the trouble of receiving another letter from me on this subject, had it none been from an expectation that those who have applied to know the terms on which I would dispose of my...
107From George Washington to Daniel McCarty, 30 October 1797 (Washington Papers)
After suggesting (for it did not appear to have been meant, or received as a regular proposition) that the relative value of lands here, and on the Great Kanhawa might be estimated as one to three, & finding that this difference did not comport with my ideas, you requested that I would suggest something on my part. This, after you had candidly stated the predicaments under which your Sugar...
108From George Washington to James McHenry, 7 July 1797 (Washington Papers)
By the last Post I was favoured with your letter of the 3d instant and thank you for its enclosure, although, on the same day, I had, myself, transmitd a copy thereof to the Secretary of State. I had doubted a while, whether to forward it to your Office or that of State, but finally resolved to send it to the latter, as it seemed more properly I thought, to belong to that Department. If the...
109From George Washington to James McHenry, 14 August 1797 (Washington Papers)
It is a little out of time, to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 9th ulto; but “better late than never.” and one object in doing it, is to pray you to thank Mr Bordly in my name, for the work he had the goodness to send me, through the channel of your conveyance. I presume the affair of Mr Blount will lye dormant until the Committee of Congress make a Report at the ensuing Session....
110From George Washington to James McHenry, 16 October 1797 (Washington Papers)
Your favour of the 2d instt came duly to hand. For the perusal of the enclosure I thank you—It is returned. We heard with much concern, but long after the thing had happened, of the accident which befel your son. We hope he is perfectly recovered from the fall, and you from your billious attack. Having no news to entertain you with, and could only fill a letter with the perplexities I...
111From George Washington to James McHenry, 3 April 1797 (Washington Papers)
Private Dear Sir, Mount Vernon 3d April 1797 Your letter of the 24th Ulto has been duly received, and I thank you for the information given in it: Let me pray you to have the goodness to communicate to me occasionally, such matters as are interesting, and not contrary to the rules of your official duty to disclose. We get so many details in the Gazettes, and of such different complexions, that...
112From George Washington to James McHenry, 29 May 1797 (Washington Papers)
I am indebted to you for several unacknowledged letters, but ne’er mind that; go on, as if you had them. You are at the source of information & can find many things to relate, while I have nothing to say that could either inform, or amuse a Secretary of War in Philadelphia. To tell him that I begin my diurnal course with the Sun; that if my hirelings are not in their places at that time I send...
113From George Washington to Stephen Milburn, 15 May 1797 (Washington Papers)
Having in a great measure given up the idea of Renting my Farms (from an apprehension that I could not dispose of the whole of them, & that unless I did this my objects wd not be answered) I was not as explicit as I might have been in my answers to some of the questions you asked on friday last. Revolving on the matter since, & believing if I wait until an offer is made for the whole—I may not...
114From George Washington to Mary White Morris, 1 May 1797 (Washington Papers)
The lustre which stood suspended in our large Drawing Room in Philadelphia, I pray you to accept from Mrs Washington and me, as a small testimony of our affectionate regard for you, Mr Morris & family. To bring it from Philadelphia, and then to send it back, carries with it an appearance so singular, as to require explanation—the following, though uninteresting, & may appear tedious in detail,...
115From George Washington to William Vans Murray, 3 December 1797 (Washington Papers)
Your favors of the 26th of August (and a duplicate) and 16th and 17th of Septr with the enclosures, have been duly received; and meet, as they ought, my particular thanks. The letter alluded to in the first, is yet missing, but may, notwithstanding, get to hand. I feel much obliged by your polite attention to me; and though in retirement, you can receive little more in return from me than...
116From George Washington to Edward Newenham, 6 August 1797 (Washington Papers)
I am so much your debtor in the epistolary way, that it would upbraid me too severely was I to go into a particular acknowledgment of the receipt of all the letters with which you have honoured me in the course of the last two or three years—and avoiding this accustomed mode, I scarcely know how to begin my letter to you, or what apology to make for so long a silence. As honesty however (in...
117From George Washington to John Nicholas, 30 November 1797 (Washington Papers)
I know not how to thank you sufficiently, for the kind intention of your obliging favour of the 18th instant. If the object of Mr Langhorne, who to me, in person & character, is an entire stranger, was such as you suspect, it will appear from my answer to his letter, that he fell far short of his mark. But as the writer of it seems to be better known to you, and that you may be the better...
118From George Washington to John O’Donnell, 4 September 1797 (Washington Papers)
I am going to take a liberty with you, for which I rely more on your goodness, than on any excuse I can make for pardon. A person of the name of Anthony Heusler, a German (in the vicinity of Baltimore) has offered himself to me as a Gardener. He professes to understand that business in all its branches, and well in each, representing himself moreover as a person of some property, and very...
119From George Washington to Richard Parkinson, 15 December 1797 (Washington Papers)
Since my last of the 28th Ult., a copy of which you will find on the other side, I have received your letter of the 27th of Septr to which, I find little to add, further than to assure you, that it would be very pleasing to me to have my Farms in the hands of skilful Agriculturalists, who are able, & willing, to manage them properly. Such, if their capital be sufficient to afford me the...
120From George Washington to Richard Parkinson, 28 November 1797 (Washington Papers)
Your letter dated “Doncaster August 28th 1797” has been received. In answer thereto, I inform you, that I had engaged my largest farm to a Gentleman in the vicinity of it for the ensuing year (on the terms mentioned in the plan I took the liberty of transmitting to Sir John Sinclair, and which, having seen as you say, it is unnecessary for me to detail) but some circumstances afterwards...