From George Washington to the Earl of Buchan, 20 June 1792
To the Earl of Buchan
Philadelphia June 20 1792
My Lord,
I presume you will, long before this reaches you, have received my letter of the first of May, in answer to the honor of your Lordships favor of the 28th of June, by Mr Robinson.1 In that letter, I have stated, that the reason of my having so long delayed acknowledging the receipt of it, was a wish that the portrait, which you were pleased to request, should accompany the letter.2
It was not till the 10th instant that I had the honor to receive your Lordships second favor of the 15th of September which was enclosed in a letter from Doctr James Anderson, and accompanied with six volumes of the Bee.3 These were forwarded by a Bookseller at New York, who mentions his having received directions from Doctr Anderson to transmit them to me.4
I must therefore beg your Lordships acceptance of my warmest thanks for this additional testimony of your politeness. Considering myself as a subscriber to the Bee I have written to Doctor Anderson to know in what manner I shall pay the money, that it may get regularly to5 his hands.6
With sincere prayers for the health & happiness of your Lordship—an⟨d⟩ gratefully impressed with the many mark⟨s⟩ of attention which I have received from you—I have the honor to be with Great esteem Your Lordships Most Obedient Serv⟨t⟩
Go: Washington
ALS, PPRF; Df, in Tobias Lear’s hand, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DLC:GW; copy, MHi: Miscellaneous Collection. The mutilated text along the edge of the manuscript is supplied in angle brackets from the draft.
1. In both Lear’s draft and the letter-book copy this name is correctly written as “Robertson.”
2. For Archibald Robertson’s portrait of GW and its transmission to Buchan, see the frontispiece to this volume, Robertson to GW, 21 April, and notes 2 and 3, and GW to Buchan, 1 May 1792, and note 1.
3. For James Anderson’s letter of 28 Sept. 1791, see GW to Anderson, 20 June 1792, n.1.
4. At this place in the draft manuscript, Lear wrote: “and Dr Anderson observes in his letter to me, that he had sent the four first volumes of this work. On comparing these accounts I presume I am indebted to your Lordship for those which I have received, as you mention to have sent me a sett, and more especially as Dr Anderson says that he has sent with the Bee, a pamphlet on wool by Sir John Sinclair, and there was no such pamplet accompanying the books which have come to my hands.” While making revisions to the draft, GW struck out this passage. For the bookseller Samuel Campbell’s transmission of a package of papers and seeds from Anderson to GW, see GW to Anderson, this date, n.2.
5. On the draft manuscript Lear first wrote “Dr Andersons hands, and shall accordingly request his information on this matter.” GW later struck out the phrase and inserted “his hands.”
6. See GW to Anderson, this date, and note 5. On 2 Feb. 1800 Buchan wrote on the reverse of the ALS of GW’s letter: “I had presented to the General some volumes of Dr James Andersons Bee & mentioned to him that I proposed to write some papers for that periodical work which might have a Scope toward the United States. So attentive was this great and good man to the most minute circumstances that five Guineas accompanied this letter for Dr Anderson as a subscriber to his Paper.”