To George Washington from Henry Lee, Jr., 27 August 1797
From Henry Lee, Jr.
Alex[andri]a 27th Aug. [1797]
My dear Sir—
I have not time to pay my respects as I intended, in as much as I cannot leave town this evening & my long absence from home forbids my loosing another day.
My demands on Philadelphia unless the yellow fever interrupts the Philadelphians will be settled in Septr. I then shall have some of Wilsons money, on which fund I counted when I bought yr land.1
I now enclose a negotiable note for 1000 Ds. & an order for 30 bls of corn ballance of the quantum due to you.2
Deduct the freight from Alexa. & give me credit.
My overseer had sold 100 bbs. before the boat got down—Be so good as to favor with a statement of the sum due after the various credits in a letr addressed to me at Stratford & say definitively if you please what you will allow for wheat delivered at yr landing. I am my dear sir with the highest respect & regard your Ob. h: se[rvan]t
Henry Lee
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. For Lee’s purchase of GW’s Dismal Swamp Company land, see GW to Lee, 2 April 1797. U.S. Supreme Court Justice James Wilson (1742–1798) was financially ruined by his heavy investment in land speculation, as was Lee, and Lee refers several times to Wilson’s failure to pay him money due.
2. For the trouble GW had in securing payment on Jesse Simms’s negotiable note that Lee enclosed, see Simms to GW, 8 Jan. 1798, and the references in note 1 of that document. See also GW’s response to Lee, 8 Sept. 1797.