To George Washington from Alexander Spotswood, 15 March 1799
From Alexander Spotswood
Newpost March 15. 1799
Dear Sir
Altho, after peruseing the enclosure which came to hand Yesterday, you may determine not to possess A. Woodrows 300 acree Survey on Rough creek—Yet it must be pleaseing to you to Find (if Mr Hite be wright in his calculation) That your lands are of Superior Vallue to what you ever held them—for if Mr Hites Spot be worth 10$ pr Acree—certainly yours must be worth $5.1
Supposeing greens paper to have no circulation yr way have cut out & inclosed you a peice for yr peruseal—and I suppose shoretly the Tales of the Tubs—will come forward.2 Mrs Spotswood & my family desires there best regards to you & Mrs Washington as well as Dr Sr yr Afft. & obt St
A. Spotswood
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. See Spotswood to GW, 31 Mar. 1797, n.1. See also GW to Spotswood, 25 Mar. 1799.
2. Timothy Green was the publisher of the Fredericksburg Virginia Herald. On Tuesday, 12 Mar., the Fredericksburg paper carried an item from the Charleston (S.C.) Daily Advertiser of 22 Feb. telling of the arrest and imprisonment of five French citizens (two female, three male), some of whom were mulattoes, who arrived in Charleston on 21 Feb. as passengers in the brig Minerva from Hamburg. Secretary of State Timothy Pickering had written to Gov. Edward Rutledge and to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney to inform them that he had learned that these people were French agents and had concealed papers “in two false bottomed tubs.” The Charleston paper concluded the story in this way: “The four [three] men and their [two] female accomplice[s], are now confined at Fort Pinckney, their trunks and baggage are taken to the customhouse, and the important Tales of the Tubs are under the examination of Major General Pinckney, to whom they were immediately delivered. The development will come out in season.” See GW’s comments on the clipping in his letter to Alexander Spotswood of 25 March. As Pinckney soon learned, the mulatto Matthew Solomon and his companions were en route to Saint Domingue to attempt to instigate a revolt against the French government.