To George Washington from Tobias Lear, 30 March 1796
From Tobias Lear
Washington [D.C.] March 30th 1796.
My dear Sir,
I have this moment received your kind & acceptable favor of the 27th instant; and at the same time a letter from the Secretary of War on the subject of the Arsenal. It contains but a few lines, informing me that he shall put the papers, which I transmitted last month, into the hands of the Attorney General, to enable him to draw the deeds, and that he will write me more particularly in a short time. No serious evil, I think, can arise from the thing’s not being executed on the first of April; for altho’ it is said in the papers, that the U.S. shall have possession on that day; yet it is expressed that the proprietors shall make deeds whenever the U.S. acquire it.1
I am happy to inform you that Maria is much better, and in a fair way to recover her usual state of health in a few days, when I shall take the liberty of carrying her to Mount Vernon to receive the benefit of the air, and change of place for a short time. She will be, with her brothers, there in the care of Mrs Skinner, who I am sure will pay every possible attention to her.2
Altho’, under present circumstances, I do not feel disposed to move about or mix much in society; yet I think it probable that I may, next week, go on to Phila. I have some business there which can be better done by me in person than by writing; and ’tho I have had sufficient firmness to bear up, with a considerable degree of composure, against my late afflicting calamity; yet, ’till now, I was hardly sensible of the effect it has had upon me, and a change of place for a short time, together with a succession of active scenes, may be necessary to my health: I shall therefore, my dear Sir, postpone writing to you on the subject of business at present, expecting shortly to have the happiness of paying my respects to you in person.
I feel for others more than for myself, and it would give me unspeakable satisfaction to be able to say anything that could give consolation to your dear & good Mrs Washington. But it is out of my power; and I know that her mind looks to that source from which alone we can draw comfort in times of affliction like these. I beg to be presented to her in terms of dutiful & affectionate remembrance, in which my dear little Maria joins me and sends the same for your acceptance. I am, and always shall be, with a heart too full to express my gratitude & affection, Your invariable & respectful friend
Tobias Lear.
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. For a summary of James McHenry’s letter to Lear of 25 March, see GW to Lear, 27 March, n.2. The papers had been transmitted with Lear’s letter to Timothy Pickering of 26 Feb. (not identified), which, according to a later summary, “Reports that he has concluded agreements with Rutherford & the Wagers for the purchase of the site; and for the sum proposed in the terms formerly offered by them with a relinquishment of some reservations proposed by the Wagers, on the ferry tract; making the whole much more favorable to the public. Encloses copies of the agreements, that the Atty Genl Mr Lee, may draw the deeds in due form” (“Extracts from the official correspondence relative to the purchase of the Site at Harpers ferry—1796,” DNA: RG 156, Letters Received).
2. Anna Maria Washington’s brothers, Lear’s stepsons, were George Fayette Washington and Charles Augustine Washington. Mrs. Skinner may have been William Pearce’s housekeeper (see Martha Washington to Frances Bassett Washington, 10 and 24 May 1795, in 285–88).