To George Washington from the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 11 November 1796
From the Commissioners for the District of Columbia
Washington, 11th November 1796
Sir,
We were duly favored with your letter of the 7th Inst. That the inaccuracy of our Clerk and our own inattention should have occasioned so much trouble to the Executive, excites sensations scarcely to be expressed. The Words per annum noted by you are not contained in the original Draft of the letter to Messrs Willink, from which, the letter itself, and the copy inclosed with it, for your perusal, were taken;1 we think it is probable the letter may be right, if you will take the trouble to open it, and find it so, it may be sent on; but, lest the same error may have crept into it, we have written another Letter to those gentlemen, varying the expression respecting incidental charges, so as to leave no doubt of our meaning, & which, we think better than the first in its original form.2
The Statement of the proprietors of the hotel in this City, was not enclosed, with your Letter3—We are, &c.
G. Scott
W. Thornton
A. White
LB, DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Letters Sent.
1. For the commissioners’ letter of 31 Oct. to Jan and Wilhem Willink, and for the duplicate of that letter, see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 31 Oct. (first letter), and notes 1 and 2; see also GW to the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 7 Nov., and n.5 to that document.
2. The commissioners’ book of proceedings for this date recorded that the present document enclosed “a Letter to Messrs Willink the same as the one inclosed to Mr Gilmor, and of the same date, in lieu of the one before transmitted” (DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Proceedings, 1791–1802). The commissioners wrote Robert Gilmor on this date: “We lately transmitted to you, a duplicate of our Letter to Messrs Willink—the original was sent to the President … who suggests a small alteration.” The commissioners asked Gilmor to return the duplicate “& forward the One now sent” (DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Letters Sent). Anticipating further modification of their revised letter to the Willinks, the commissioners wrote Gilmor’s firm on 12 Nov. to stop its immediate forwarding (DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Letters Sent). The revised letter to the Willinks has not been identified.
3. The “Statement” refers to the letter to GW of 31 Oct. from the Philadelphia firm Budd & Pryor. For the eventual forwarding of that letter, see GW to the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, 7 Nov., and n.12.