To George Washington from Tobias Lear, 10 February 1796
From Tobias Lear
Washington [D.C.] Feby 10th 1796
My dear Sir,
I had the honor of writing to you on the 8th inst.1 Since which I have been favored with a letter from Colo. Pickering, covering the agreement of the prop[r]ietors of the land at the junction of the Potomac & Shanandoah, and requesting my agency to complete the purchase for the United States, if it can now be done.2 Tomorrow I set off for that quarter, and shall endeavor to close the business upon the terms proposed. I shall act with as much address as I am master of to accomplish the object; but I confess, as the time has elapsed, I have doubts whether it can be touched now upon the first offer.
Mrs Lear & the children unite in respectful & affectionate remembrance to Mrs Washington & yourself & love to Mr Dandridge & Washington. With every respectful & affectionate feeling, I am, My dear Sir, Your obliged friend
Tobias Lear
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. Lear’s letter to GW of 8 Feb. has not been found. However, a document titled “Extracts from the official correspondence relative to the purchase of the Site at Harpers ferry—1796,” 15 May 1823, summarizes it: “Regrets that a decision had not been sooner made respecting the site at Harpers ferry. Fears the proprietors will not now dispose of the property upon the terms formerly offered. Mentions that the proprietors were to reserve, only as much land as would serve for a ferry landing” (DNA: RG 156, Letters Received).
2. Lear is referring to Timothy Pickering’s letter to him of 28 Jan. (MHi: Pickering Papers). Pickering enclosed “the original agreements of Mr Rutherford and the Harpers” but noted “that they had fixed the 1st & 10th of this month to terminate their conditional obligations.” Pickering continued: “I shall be very unhappy should this delay induce them to depart from their agreements.”