To George Washington from Oliver Ellsworth, 19 June 1796
From Oliver Ellsworth
Baltimore June 19 1796.
Sir,
I had the misfortune to pass you & Mrs Washington without knowing it.1 You will be pleased, however, to accept of my wishes that your present retreat may be undisturbed, and that you may know, for a few days at least, how much more happifying it is to converse with the works of nature than with the wiles of man. In the mean time I believe you may rest assured that the publick mind, as well Southward as elsewhere, is pretty tranquil, and much more so than it would have been had our Country been dishonored and exposed by a violation of her faith.2 But one game more of the present System remains, and that respects the next quadrennial election, and is to be played only on condition that the electors are restrained in the objects of th[e]ir choice. I have the honor to be Sir, with the highest respect Your most obedient and most humble Servt
Oliver Ellsworth
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. On his return from attending circuit courts in southern states, Ellsworth presumably passed GW on the road south of Baltimore (see Ellsworth to Abigail Ellsworth, 20 March, in 3:99,101).
The Maryland. Journal, & Baltimore Advertiser for 17 June printed an item on GW’s arrival in Baltimore the previous day “at the Fountain Inn” with “his LADY, G. W. M. LaFayette, and suite. In the evening he was waited on, and congratulated by a number of the most respectable characters; a general satisfaction was expressed by the Citizens of Baltimore on the arrival of this illustrious man.
“He leaves town this morning on his way to Mount Vernon.” GW then stopped at Bladensburg, Md., and the Federal City (see the entries for 17–19 June 1796 in Cash Memoranda, 1794–1797).
2. Ellsworth is referring to the failed effort in the House of Representatives to refuse funding for implementation of the Jay Treaty.