From George Washington to Robert Boggess, 10 December 1799
To Robert Boggess
Mount Vernon 10th Decr 1799
Sir
In answer to your letter of yesterday’s date,1 I have to observe that you, as well as others, have mistaken my real situation very much when it is supposed that I have it in my power to lend money.
The truth is, that my receipts of this article, for some years back, have fallen so far short of my expenditures—without having made any purchases to increase my property (excepting a lot or two in the Federal City) that I have been under the necessity of selling land, & borrowing money myself to enable me to support, ⟨illegible⟩ these expences.2 I am Sir Your Hble Servant
Go: Washington
ALS (letterpress copy), NN: Washington Papers.
1. Letter not found.
2. Robert Boggess, whose house was on the Cameron-Colchester stage road not far from Mount Vernon, seems not to have stood very high in GW’s estimation: GW wrote his farm manager, Anthony Whitting, on 9 Dec. 1792 that he hoped “the Overseer you have got from Boggess[’]s will answer your expectations” but confessed that he had “no opinion of any recommendation from that person.”