George Washington Papers
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Edmund Randolph to Tobias Lear, 6 December 1790

Edmund Randolph to Tobias Lear

[Philadelphia] Monday evening [6 December 1790].

Dear sir

I wished to have said a word to you in private; but being prevented this morning, I must beg your excuse for hinting a subject, which it may not be amiss to inquire into. President Mifflin stopped me to-day, to inform me, that the Coachman of the President of the U.S. was very insolent in the use of his whip among the people yesterday at the church door. He added, that it was near being serious by the combination of a little mob; but was put a end to by some persuasive means. His author was Dr Foulke; and he requested me to intimate the affair to the President in some shape or other. I have therefore troubled you with this note, which I confide to your discretion.1 I am dear Sir with great esteem yr mo. ob. serv.

Edm: Randolph.

ALS, in private hands.

1For the background to this incident involving GW’s coachman Arthur Dunn, see GW to Tobias Lear, 23 Nov. 1790 and note 3. At this time Thomas Mifflin was president of the supreme executive council of Pennsylvania; he had recently been elected governor under the new state constitution but had not yet assumed that office. John Foulke (1757–1796), a Philadelphia Quaker physician, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and completed his medical studies in France. After returning to Philadelphia he served on the staff of the Pennsylvania Hospital (Crane, Elizabeth Drinker Diary, description begins Elaine Forman Crane et al., eds. The Diary of Elizabeth Drinker. 3 vols. Boston, 1991. description ends 3:2150; Butterfield, Rush Letters, description begins L. H. Butterfield, ed. Letters of Benjamin Rush. 2 vols. Princeton, N.J., 1951. description ends 1:252–53).

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