From George Washington to William Temple Broome, 24 July 1798
To William Temple Broome
Mount Vernon 24th July 1798
Sir,
Your letter of the 18th Instt has been received, and I thank you for the tender of your Services in my family if I should take the field;1 but as the Gentlemen about me, in that event, must be composed of experienced characters, candour requires that I should inform you my purposes would not be answered by receiving those who are not so. I am Sir Your very Hble Servt
Go: Washington
ALS (letterpress copy), DLC:GW.
1. William Temple Broome (d. 1804) wrote on 18 July from New York as “a young man wholly unknown to” GW wishing to serve him “in either of the Capacities of Secretary or Aid.” He thought it might “be proper to mention that any assistance which can be rendered me by Generals [Horatio] Gates and [James] Clinton, the Honorable Mr [James] Hillhouse and A[aron] Burr Esq. under whose Guidance my legal pursuits were directed, will be readily afforded. To these respectable Attestations wd be added if requisite, those of Colonel [Jeremiah] Wadsworth late of the Army of the United States, and of the Presidents of Yale and Columbia Colleges of the latter of which Institutions I am an Alumnus” (DLC:GW). Broome received a B.A. degree from Columbia College in 1791 and an A.M. degree in 1792. The complete Broome letter is in CD:ROM-GW On 20 July 1799 Broome wrote again from New York to say that when he received GW’s letter he “was incapacitated by Ill Health from making the proper acknowledgment. The unimportance of the Subject, which has probably ere this faded from your remembrance, may render an Apology for subsequent Inattention, without an object” (DLC:GW).