11From George Washington to William Gordon, 20 December 1784 (Washington Papers)
I am indebted to you for several letters; & am as much so for the Fish you kindly intended, as if it had actually arrived, & I was in the act of paying my respects to it at table—the chance, however, of doing this would be greater, was it at Boston, than in York-town in this State, where, I am informed it was landed at the time the Marqs de la Fayette did; who proceeded from thence to...
12From George Washington to William Gordon, 6 December 1785 (Washington Papers)
Altho’ I am so great a delinquent in the epistolary way, I will not again tread over the usual ground for an excuse, but rather silently throw myself upon your philanthropy to obtain one. In reading the Memoir which passed thro’ my hands to you (for I have no copy of it) I do not recollect that I was struck with any exagerations or improprieties in it; nor is it in my power to give you a...