1. The commissioners last wrote GW on 1 Oct. (two letters [letter 1; letter 2]).

2. The commissioners likely enclosed a copy of a letter to them of 4 Oct. from George Walker, a Georgetown merchant and landholder in the federal district. That letter reads in part: “I now Send you in writing, my reasons for being of Opinion, that the public Area, alotted for the Marine Hospital, Should not be changed or Abolished.” Walker then referenced the 1792 engraved plan of the Federal City, which contained Thomas Jefferson’s and Andrew Ellicott’s modifications to Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s original 1791 manuscript plan. Walker wrote: “When the plan came to be engraved, Mr Jefferson advised the President not to insert any of the appropriations but the two principal, not recollecting … what had already taken place. But even in the engraved plan, a large public building with Gardens, are inserted in the Area intended for the Marine Hospital; and to my knowledge, purchases have been made upon the Avenues leading to it, in consequence thereof.” Walker commented that “any Alteration of the public appropriation, would be a glaring violation of public and National Faith—and every man, whether Citizen or foreigner, who has purchased Lots in that City, would have a just plea against the United States for indemnification.” Walker further warned that “public Opinion would be, that the City of Washington was nothing but a fluctuating Bubble, and that it would be both imprudent and improper to engage in Such an unstable object” (DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Letters Received). Walker’s letter concerned the recent proposal to divide the tract on the Eastern Branch, initially designated for a marine hospital, into marketable lots (see Commissioners for the District of Columbia to GW, 1 Oct. [first letter], and notes 5, 8, and 12). Controversy over the use of the site continued; an unsuccessful proposal in 1799 allocated part of the tract for the Washington navy yard (see William Thornton to GW, 1 Sept. 1799, and n.6, in Papers, Retirement Series description begins W. W. Abbot et al., eds. The Papers of George Washington, Retirement Series. 4 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1998–99. description ends 4:280–82). The site later became home to an almshouse and city jail.

For the letter of 5 Oct. that Walker wrote the commissioners, and that may also have been enclosed with this letter, see Walker to GW, 24 Jan. 1797, and n.10.