To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin H. Latrobe, 21 February 1805
From Benjamin H. Latrobe
Wilmington, Feby. 21st. 1805
Dear Sir
For the last three weeks I have been at Lancaster as the Agent of the Ches. & Del. Canal Co. to solicit Legislative aid to our undertaking, and having been detained from day to day, by the usual tediousness of such an application. Having succeeded as far as a resolution of each house in our favor, I returned hither last night, and shall in an hour proceed by the Mail to the works and thence to Washington tomorrow. I staid a day in Philadelphia to engage stone Cutters & have agreed with six good hands to go on directly.—My Clerk informs me that he sent a letter from you after me. I have not received it as yet, but have directed the necessary enquiries. With the true respect I am
Your faithful hble Servt
B H Latrobe
RC (DLC); endorsed by TJ as received 24 Feb. and so recorded in SJL.
resolution of each house: the president and directors of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company petitioned the Pennsylvania Senate and House of Representatives on 7 Feb., asking for public support for the project. Both houses responded favorably and brought in bills authorizing the governor to purchase shares in the company. On 12 Mch. the House resolved to fold the bill into a larger one appropriating funds for an array of public projects (Journal of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Which Commenced at Lancaster, the Fourth Day of December, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Four [Lancaster, Pa., 1804], 165-6, 169-71; Journal of the Fifteenth House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Commenced at Lancaster, on Tuesday, the Fourth Day of December, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Four [Lancaster, Pa., 1804], 290, 314-5, 333-4, 356-7, 480).