45151From George Washington to James McHenry, 5 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
Private My dear Sir, Mount Vernon 5th May 1799 Your private letter of the 29th Ulto was received yesterday, and requires but a short reply. From an observation of yours, in answer to my letter of the 23d Ulto, I perceive my meaning with respect to the settlement of relative Rank, has been misunderstood; or, if taken properly, I must adhere to the opinion I gave of the injustice which would be...
45152From George Washington to John Marshall, 5 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
With infinite pleasure I receiv’d the news of your Election. For the honor of the District, I wish the Majority had been greater; but let us be content; and hope, as the tide is turning, the current will soon run strong ⟨in our⟩ favor. I am sorry to find that the publication you allude to, should have given you a moments disquietud⟨e⟩. I can assure you, it made no impression on my mind, of the...
45153From George Washington to Thomas Peter, 5 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
I have had the enclosed Tobacco note by me sometime. Too long perhaps for the best Market. If Mr Peter (your father) whom I presume is a good judge of these matters, should be of opinion that it had better be sold now than wait longer, for a rise in the price of that article, I pray you to sell it for what it will fetch. I give you this trouble because the Tobacco is in the Warehouse at George...
45154From George Washington to John Tayloe, 5 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
I received, yesterday, your favour of the 29th Ult.; and by tomorrow’s Post for Baltimore, the enclosed will be dispatched, to meet you at Annapolis. I hope the contents of it will meet your ideas—I have given these, as nearly as I could recollect them, in my communication to the Secretary of War. With sincere pleasure I received the information of Generals Lee & Marshall’s Elections. Had the...
45155From George Washington to Bushrod Washington, 5 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 26th Ulto—as also that of the 10th, have been duly received. The Elections of Generals Lee and Marshall are grateful to my feelings. I wish however both of them had been Elected by greater majorities; but they are Elected, and that alone is pleasing. As the tide is turned, I hope it will come in with a full flow; but this will not happen if there is any relaxation on the...
45156From George Washington to William Booker, 6 May 1799 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to William Booker, 6 May 1799. On 15 May Booker wrote GW : “Your letter of the 6 Inst. I duly receivd.”
45157From George Washington to James McHenry, 6 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
It is a point from which I have not deviated, to forward all recommendations, & applications, which have been made to me for Military appointments, to the Department of War. In confirmation of what is said in the enclosed letters from General Morgan, and the Colonels Meade and Parker, I may add that, the same good report of the merits of Major Lawe Butler has, verbally, been made to me by...
45158To George Washington from Thomas Peter, 6 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
I received yours of the 5th by the Hands of Washington Custis, enclosing a Note of Tobacco, nett weight 912 lb. which I disposed off this Morning at Six dollars ⅌ Hd & a dollar for the cask, there was but one person in Town that would give more than 5¾, it being under a thousand; a Mr Williams sold this day ⟨5⟩0 Hhds all weighing upwards of 1000 at a Credit of 60 dy for Six & a half dollars....
45159To George Washington from Lafayette, 9 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
your kind and Welcome letter of the 25 december is safely arrived and as my friend Bureau de Puzy has not yet sailed, he will, along with some introductory lines, Carry these my affectionate and filial thanks —no, my dear general, it never Entered my Head to attribute your Silence to any neglect of yours, and I would have Suspected European piracies, or things much more incredible, Rather than...
45160To George Washington from George Lewis, 9 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
Being anxious to get a Command in the immediate Army, I wrote to a friend in Congress at an early day on the subject, expressing my desire to be with the Army, and requested him to signify the same to the Secretary of War, or so arrange the business as I might be considered a candidate for a Command—to this letter I have never received a reply, and am now inform’d by a friend, that my name is...
45161To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 9 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
I take the Liberty to enclose a Letter long since transmitted to me for Monsieur de la fayette. It was in London with my Papers when I saw him last at Altona but (if in my Possession) I should perhaps have withheld it as having no probable Relation to any Matter within his present Competency—I should have delivered it into your own Hands at Mount Vernon if Business which demands my Attendance...
45162To George Washington from Edward Carrington, 10 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
I have been honored by the receipt of your letter of the 30th Ult. and take pleasure in complying with your request as far as my information enables me. In our Congressional Representation we have eight Federal Members towit, Genl Marshall, Evans, Lee, Powell, Robt Page, Goode, Gray, Parker—the first six are certainly in real disposition firm supporters of our Government and the administration...
45163From George Washington to Daniel Morgan, 10 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
I have just received a letter from the Secretary of War, in which, after giving it as the opinion of the President of the United States, that Officers for the twenty four additional Regiments ought to be had in contemplation; that, in case the exigency of our Affairs should require them, greater dispatch might be used in the formation, is the Extract which follows. Having given these Extracts,...
45164To George Washington from James McHenry, 11 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
I enclose you three letters, one from Mr Posey recommending Mr Thomas Hord to a Majority in the provisional army; another from James Machir Esqr. recommending Mr William Bullett for the same grade; and one from Alexander Spotswood offering his services. You will please to return these letters with the list you have been requested to furnish, when it shall be completed. I have the honor to be,...
45165To George Washington from William Russell, 11 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
The fatality which has so long attended my endeavors to forward the Sheep seems still to attact, for the poor fellow when embark’d in the first Vessell we have had this Spring for New York has met an unusually long passage and by a subsequent detention here is very much reduced in his appearance, however as upon my arrival here I learn that a Sloop is now up for Alexandria I have desird my...
45166To George Washington from Henry Lee, Jr., 12 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
I found yr letter by Mr Anderson last evening at my lodgings & took the earliest opportunity of conversing with Mr Page on its contents Mr Page says that on his first conversation with Mr Harrison he rated his property at five pounds pr acre, but that on a subsequent meeting he fell to 50/ pr acre, for which price he could have purchased the land. He offered 45/ & proposed renewing the...
45167From George Washington to James McAlpin, 12 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
Having heard nothing from you since my last request (now more than two Months ago) that you would complete, and send on my Uniform Suit so soon as the gold thread, which you informed me was expected in the Spring shipping, should have arrived; I give you the trouble of receiving this letter on the Subject: and to request that no unnecessary delay may prevent the accomplishment of it. Send the...
45168From George Washington to John Marshall, Edward Carrington, and William Heth, 12 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
Although the letter, of which the enclosed is a copy, is of old date, it has but just been received from the Secretary of War. Without aid, it will be impossible for me to carry his views into effect; which, & the confidence I place in you, is the best apology I can make for asking you to assist me, in the business required. I have, with the exception of short intervals, been so many years...
45169To George Washington from Ralph Wormeley, Jr., 12 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
I am about to ask a favour of you, which I think it probable you may refuse, the frequency of applications of this sort having induced a resolution, on your part, never to comply with any; I mean, “Letters of recommendation”—in June I propose to embark at Norfolk for New York in my way to Boston; my business is to settle my second son as a student at Harvard College Cambridge. I am not...
45170From George Washington to James McHenry, 13 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
Your favour of the 2d Instt, covering your dispatches of the 10th Ultimo, was brought to me by the Messenger who carried my letters to you (of the 5 & 6th) to the Post Office in Alexandria. That no time might be lost in carrying the Presidents Plan, and the request contained in your letter of the 10th Ult., into effect, I have solicited the aid of Generals Morgan, Lee, & Marshall; & the...
45171To George Washington from William Booker, 15 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 6 Inst. I duly receivd, and agreably to promise I Expect to be at Mount Vernon in the Early part of June. I Should have answerd you respecting Mr Roberts before this, but Waited to Get the best Information. I hear he resides in the town of petersburg and has for some time Quit the Milling Buiseness and has become Such a Sott that he is by No Means fit for buisiness. Instead...
45172From George Washington to William B. Harrison, 16 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
I have given the proposition you have made me, respecting your part of Chapel land, all the consideration that is necessary; the result of which is. That I will give, as a Rent, thirty dollars for every hundred acres within the bounds you shall establish; and in that proportion for the overplus, or add[itional] acres, according to measurement: Provided I receive a Lease for the whole quantity,...
45173To George Washington from John Marshall, 16 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
Neither Colo. Carrington nor Colo. Heth are now in town. So soon as they arrive your letter of the 12th inst. with its inclosures, will be communicated to them. I wish it may be in our power to furnish any useful information on the subjects inquired into. Returns of all the elections have been receivd. The failure of Colo. Hancock & of Major Haymond was unexpected & has reducd us to eight in...
45174To George Washington from James Welch, 16 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
I find it out of my power To Rise the money in this place that I am at this time in debted to you; money is Verry Scarce among the marchanes of this place; the[y] cannot be temped to advance money for paper that has Longer then 60 dayes To Run; the paper that I have will be Due on the 25th day of Novembr Next it is Well Securd and will be Puntuelly paid that you Shall have I Start this day for...
45175To George Washington from Clement Biddle, 18 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
I cannot find the person who made the Machines for raking Meadows—he has removed from Kensington and I can learn no more of him or his machines. The sellers of Shad & herrings tell me they are very dull sale & a worse prospect at this Market—they ask 4 Drs ⅌ bbl for Herrings but nobody to buy them & shad are merely retailed by the single barrel—Flour is 9 to 9½ Ds. for Super fine, common in...
45176To George Washington from James McHenry, 19 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
I received your letter of the 13th inst. Before I concluded to request you to take upon yourself a task which involves the delicacies you have suggested, I had foreseen them, and reflected in what manner they might be avoided, and at the same time, the object in view obtained, without subjecting the government to difficulties or inconveniences which might be more sensibly felt by the Country....
45177To George Washington from Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 20 May 1799 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: from Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 20 May 1799. On 5 June GW wrote Pinckney : “Your favor of the 20th Ulto from Mulberry Grove, came duly to hand.”
45178From George Washington to William Augustine Washington, 20 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 2d instant by Captn Bowcock came safe, as the Corn did, in good order; and I should have written to you by his return but the Vessel went from the Landing at which she delivered the Corn unknown to me. But not without the Whiskey and Fish; as I had, previously, directed these to be shipped. The first I hope you will find good, if no pranks are played with it; Mr Anderson (my...
45179To George Washington from William Augustine Washington, 20 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
This will be delivered to you by Capt. Bowcock, who carries up the Ballence of what corn I could spare 166 Barrels—the first Load was 187½ Barrels, he was to have taken 200 but I left home before he had finished the Load, I mentioned that quantity in my Letter but the wind coming on to blow fresh he chose rather to go with that quantity, than to remain longer —I have sent my Steward to day to...
45180To George Washington from James McHenry, 21 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
Inclosed is a list of the names of the persons appointed from Virginia, for the Cavalry and Infantry. It distinguishes, 1st Those who have accepted. 2. Those who have declined & 3d Those who have not been heard from. I sent your letter to McAlpin. But as the Spring vessels have not yet arrived by which the gold thread is expected, of course your uniform is not yet finished. I intended sending...
45181Enclosure: List of Officers for Virginia Regiments in the New Army, 21 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
Seventh Regiment of Infantry. + Accepted. º Declined. Blanks, not heard from. Field Officers. + William Bentley Lieut: Colo. Powhatan + 1 Robert Beale Major Maddison + 2 James Baytop Major Gloucester County Companies + 1 Daniel Ball Captain near Richmond + 6 Van Bennet Lieutenant
45182To George Washington from Henry Lee, Jr., 22 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
I have waited here two weeks cheifly to try to finish my engagement with you—But all my endeavors are vain—I shall never recede from my exertions till I do accomplish the end, for no event of my life has given me more anguish. I would if you consider yr sale injurious rather relinquish the contract & give up the payments made, than to be the instrument of damage to you—The loss of money I am...
45183From George Washington to Benjamin Lincoln, 22 May 1799 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to Benjamin Lincoln, 22 May 1799. American Book-Prices Current (1964), 70:884, records that this letter “introducing a Mr. Ralph Wormeley” was sold by Christie, Manson & Woods on 19 Dec. 1963, item no. 241.
45184From George Washington to Thomson Mason, 24 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
I mean to renew the outer fence, on the line between you and me, & in a manner more substantial than usual. Mr Anderson will explain the method by wch I propose to accomplish this, to you; and ask your leave to profit by your Ditch, & present fence: which can be attended with no temporary inconvenience to yourself—and may, ultimately, be of singular advantage to you, as well as myself; as my...
45185From George Washington to William Augustine Washington, 24 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
The enclosed was written (as you will perceive by the Superscription) to go by General Lee; who, four days ago appointed to be here on his return to Westmoreland, but is not yet arrived. In the meantime; your second letter by Captn Bowcock (dated the 20th instant) has been received. When the enclosed was written I thot the Whiskey had been sent; but Captn Bowcock postponed taking it on board...
45186To George Washington from Burgess Ball, 25 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
The Gentlemen whom I wish to recommend as Officers (and yesterday mention’d to you) are Mr Arther Lee in the County of Northumberland, and Mr Reuben Beale of Richmond County. They are Gent. of Family, and I think will be actuated by proper principles. Those Gentlemen aspire to nothing higher than to commence with an Ensigncy or Cornetcy, provided, Officers of the Cavalry are furnish’d with...
45187From George Washington to Wilson Allen, 26 May 1799 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to Wilson Allen, 26 May. On 29 May Allen wrote GW that he had received “Your letter of date the 26th inst.”
45188From George Washington to Jedidiah Morse, 26 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
I thank you for your Sermon “Exhibiting the present dangers, and consequent duties of the Citizens of the United States of America” which came to hand by the last Post: and which I am persuaded I shall read with approbating pleasure, as soon as some matters in which I am engaged at present, are dispatch’d. With esteem and regard I am, Revd Sir, Your Obedt & obliged Humble Servant ALS , owned...
45189From George Washington to William Russell, 26 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
Your favor of the 11th instant from New York, has been received; and the articles therein alluded to got safe to hand yesterday; for which I pray you to accept my grateful thanks. The Ram, though poor, seems to be in good health, and being turned into as good Pasture as the backwardness of the Season would admit, will, I have no doubt, soon recover his flesh. His wool, and other appearances...
45190From George Washington to James Welch, 26 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
I was not disappointed in the contents of your letter of the 16th instant, because I had formed no hope from the proposed application at Fredericksburgh. Inconvenient, and indeed distressing as it is to me to lay out of the money you were obligated to pay me the first of the present year, and to receive which was the only inducement that led to the Bargain which exists between us for my Lands...
45191To George Washington from Wilson Allen, 29 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of date the 26th inst. covering a deed to Genl Lee, for lands lying in Kentucky, I recd last evening. I rather think that when Mr B. Washington requested the deed to be sent to me to be recorded, he must have forgot that the lands thereby conveyed lay in Kentucky—for it appears very evident, that all that cou’d legally be done with it by any Court in this state, has already been...
45192From George Washington to William White, 30 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
The Sermon on the duty of Civil obedience as required in Scripture, which you had the goodness to send me, came safe a Post or two ago; and for which I pray you to accept my grateful acknowledgments. The hurry in which it found me engaged, in a matter that pressed, has not allowed me time to give it a perusal yet: but I anticipate the pleasure & edification I shall find when it is in my power...
45193To George Washington from William Thornton, 31 May 1799 (Washington Papers)
Finding that the Board of Commissrs were exceedingly urged, by Mr George Walker, to lay off and divide certain small portions of Ground, within the lines of his property, between the intersection of various Avenues & Streets, which do not appear in the general plan of the City to have ever been designed for private Occupancy; and perceiving the Board were disposed to adopt the proposal, I...
45194From George Washington to William Thornton, 1 June 1799 (Washington Papers)
In replying to your favor of yesterday’s date, I must beg leave to premise that, when I left the Chair of Government it was with a determination not to intermeddle in any public matter which did not immediately concern me; and that I have felt no Disposition since to alter this Determination. But as you have requested that I would give you my Ideas on a certain point, which seems to have...
45195To George Washington from William Augustine Washington, 1 June 1799 (Washington Papers)
Your two favors of the 20th & 24th by Capt. Bowcock I have recd with two Barrels of Whiskey & a Barrel of Fish; the first I have not tryed, but have no doubt of its being good, the latter are very fine & I have to return you my thanks for the present. Mr Wm Flood the Excr of Mr Thacker Washington has consented to let the Estates Corn go in my Contract with you; Capt. Bowcock carried up 39...
45196To George Washington from Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 4 June 1799 (Washington Papers)
I wrote to you from Mulbury Grove the seat of our deceased friend Genl Greene in Georgia, & enclosed you my letter to the Secretary of War giving an account of the progress of Brigr Genl Washington, Major Rutledge & myself on the sea Coast —I now enclose you two other letters to the Secretary, one from Augusta & the other from this place. The Arrangement for North Carolina, South Carolina &...
45197From George Washington to William Thornton, 4 June 1799 (Washington Papers)
You will perceive by the enclosed letter, and my order, consequent thereof; that the Glass from Boston is arrived at Alexandria, and in good condition. Be so good as to send the order to Mr Blagden, that he may use his own time & mode of getting it to the City. I hope Mr Blagden will be careful of the overplus, as more glass was written for than the houses will require without loss. With great...
45198From George Washington to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 5 June 1799 (Washington Papers)
Your favor of the 20th Ulto from Mulberry Grove, came duly to hand, and would have received an earlier acknowledgment had I not allowed time for the completion of your visit to the Frontier Posts, in the State of Georgia. I thank you for the interesting details you took the trouble of communicating in that letter, and its enclosures; but it was not, nor is it, my wish to inflict such...
45199To George Washington from William Thornton, 5–6 June 1799 (Washington Papers)
According to the Desire you signified of knowing how soon Mr Blagdin would require a further Advance of Money, I requested him, the Day after your Departure, to state the Sum and time. He told me that he should shortly have to remit Money to Mr Littleton Dennis, on the Eastern Shore, for Materials, & should want a thousand Dollars by the 15th Instant. I told him that such rapid payments were...
45200From George Washington to Clement Biddle, 6 June 1799 (Washington Papers)
Your letters of the 18th & 21st Ulto have been duly received. In reply to them, so far as it respects the raking machines, I agree perfectly with Mr J. Williams, that they will not answr on Stoney, stumpy, or rough land of any kind, for the reason he has assigned; but I am equally well persuaded, that on level & smooth land (which for the most part my fields are) they would be found useful...