To George Washington from the Germantown, Pennsylvania, School Trustees, 6 November 1793
From the Germantown, Pennsylvania, School Trustees
[Germantown, Pa.] Novr 6th 1793
Sir
The trustees of the public School of German-town have the honor to wait upon the President with a respectful tender of the school buildings for the accommodation of Congress, should they convene at this place.1
To judge of the other inhabitants of German-town from our own motives, it cannot be questioned they would on this occasion strive to make it as convenient a residence as possible.
On the permanence of our general Government and the safety of it’s supporters and defenders, rests, under God in our view, whatever we hold most valuable.
It has been our fortune, Sir, to see you in many Seasons of difficulty & danger, always surmounting them, & even now fortifying with your presence, the good spirit of the Union, lately humbled by the calamity in Philadelphia; an aleveviation of which we participate, doubtless in common with the Survivors of the City, in consequence of your propitious return to this State.
| Henry Hill |  |
Trustees |
| Saml Ashmead | ||
| Joseph Ferree | ||
| Christian Schneider | ||
| Samuel Mechlin |
LS, in Henry Hill’s writing, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW. This letter was printed in the Federal Gazette and Philadelphia Daily Advertiser, 8 November. Samuel Ashmead (1731–1794), a Philadelphia County judge, also represented Philadelphia County in the Pennsylvania general assembly, 1782–83 and 1789–90. Christian Schneider (died c.1802) was a leather dresser. Samuel Mechlin (1730–1817) was a tanner.
1. The trustees’ minutes indicate that on 2 Nov. the signatories were constituted a committee authorized to offer the buildings for the use of Congress at a rent of $300 per session (A History of the Germantown Academy [Philadelphia, 1910], 121).