Not perceiving what has been your object in addressing such sentiments as your letter of the 4th instant contain, and not being conscious of having merited the reprehension you have judged it expedient to inflict on me, I shall not give you the trouble of reading an answer in detail.5 I cannot forbear observing however, that as it is not usual with me to treat any Gentleman with incivility, or even with indifference (especially under my own roof) I am unable to recollect any part of my behaviour which could give rise to such mis-conceptions of my motives. As to the deceptions which may have been occasioned by the quotation in your letter, I shall only remark that I had no agency in the fabrication of it, or of anything similar thereto; that it is to be regretted, that we should have Land-jobbers and other Speculators among us, who, to promote their interested views will publish such accounts, and that foreigners should be imposed upon by them. I am &c. *To THE SECRETARY OF STATE Mount Vernon, April 16, 1798. Dear Sir: Your obliging favour of the 11th. instant, enclosing copies of the Instructions to, and Dispatches from the Envoys of the United States at Paris, was received with thankfulness, by the last Post. One would think that the measure of infamy was filled, and the profligacy of, and corruption in the system pursued by the Fevot signed himself as "Lawyer at the Sovereign Council of Berne." His grievance was that he had come to America as a political refugee, because of a book titled "Answer to all the questions that might be asked relating to the United States of America," which assured travelers that "The most generous hospitality is shewn to Strangers," and had encountered very different treatment. He complained, too, of Washington's coolness toward him at Mount Vernon. Fevot's letter is in the Washington Papers. 1798] A SUIT 249 French Directory, required no further disclosure of the principles by which it is actuated than what is contained in the above Dispatches, to open the eyes of the blindest; and yet, I am persuaded, that those communications will produce no change in the leaders of the opposition; unless there should appear, a manifest desertion of their followers. There is a sufficient evidence already, in the Aurora, of the turn they intend to give the business, and of the ground they mean to occupy; but I do not believe they will be able to maintain that, or any other much longer. With very great esteem etc. *To OLIVER EVANS Mount Vernon, April 22, 1798. Sir: Your favour of the 17th, in answr to my letter of the 8th. instant, has been received; and I thank you for the ready, and early attention you gave to my request respecting a Miller. You will do me a kindness to inform me of the result of your application to the person who served you in that capacity, whether he would agree to come, or not; that I may be relieved from suspence: and if his objection to coming is on account of the wages, and you should not hear of a suitable character who would engage on the terms mentioned in my last, let me know the lowest wages your former Miller would agree to take, provided he can be here by the middle, or even the latter end of August, and he shall know immediately (through you) whether we can agree or not, With esteem, etc. *To GEORGE DENEALE Mount Vernon, April 22, 1798. Sir: In answer to the enquiry contained in your letter of the 18th instant, respecting the issue of the suit which had been brought against Thomson Mason, I am sorry to inform you that I can say nothing which would be explicit, or satisfactory. It is near 20 years since I had any Agency in the concerns of the deceased Mrs. Savage. My Public occupations, and long absences from this State, threw the whole of that business on the Revd. Mr. Fairfax; from whom alone you will be able to get the information Mr. Dixon has asked. And very unsatisfactory I fear it will prove, as Doctr Savage while living, and his followers since, have had recourse to all the chicane and subterfuge which could be practiced, to wrong the above Lady and defraud her creditors; of whom I am one, for money lent her. I am etc. P. S. It is possible Colo. Simms can give you some information respecting this business as I believe he was employed as an Attorney to prosecute in behalf of the trustees. *To BUSHROD WASHINGTON Mount Vernon, April 22, 1798. My dear Bushrod: Enclosed are Deeds from me to General Lee, and from him to me. They were copied from his original Deed to me, without my previous examination of it, supposing (I understood it was drawn by Mr. Charles Lee) that it was correct in all its parts. When we were about to execute the New ones I found that his title to the old one was not recited; whether this is essential to the conveyance I know not, as the Lands are accurately described and he has, as he says, Doctr. Skinners conveyance to him wch. he will send me. The Patents from the Commonwealth to Skinner I have. If the Deeds enclosed are valid please to have them recorded, if not return them with your observations. I hope they are good wishing to have no more trouble with them. Yours Affectionately. 1798]_______ THE DINWIDDIE GRANTS______ 251 *TO ALEXANDER SMITH Mount Vernon, April 25, 1798. Sir: On the 3d. instant I wrote to you by way of Baltimore, and sent a duplicate thereof through the hands of Governor Henry at Annapolis. One or the other I hope has been received, altho' no acknowledgment of either (which is desirable, that I may know what to depend upon) has been given. The purpose of this letter is to request, if it should get to your hands in time, that the Sleepers mentioned in the Bill of scantling I sent you, may be 9 Inches by 3, instead of 10 by 4; that the joists may be 8 by 3, instead of 9 by 3; and that the Studs may be 4 by 3 Inches, instead of being 6 by 4; and that to these may be added 10 posts, 11 feet long and 8 by 4 Inches is size. I am etc. *To EDWARD GRAHAM Mount Vernon, April 25, 1798. Sir: I have received your letter of the 9th. Ulto, but am not enabled to answer it satisfactorily. The burthen of obtaining the Grants for 200,000 acres of land under Governor Dinwiddie's Proclamation of 1754, and indeed the greater part of the expence attending this business, from the first move that was made therein until the issuing of the Patents, were thrown upon me, nor has the latter been re-embursed to this day. It was with great difficulty after Peace was established in the year 1763, that I could obtain a recognition of the above proclamation; and then, instead of assigning a district, and permitting every Claimant to locate his own quantum therein, we were compelled to take the whole quantity in twenty Surveys; or rather not allowed to exceed that number. This it was that occasioned so many names to be jumbled together in the same Patent and has caused the difficulties which have since occurred to the Patentees, to obtain their respective quantities. The same happened to myself; but rather than be at the trouble and expence of dividing with others, I bought, and exchanged, until I got entire tracts to myself. After the Patents were granted and the Land thereby secured, I concerned myself no further with any part thereof except my own, than to give the notice you have alluded to; and am altogether ignorant of the measures the Patantees have taken to ascertain their proportions; consequently can afford you no satisfactory information on the subject of your enquiry. I am etc. *To WILLIAM BOOKER Mount Vernon, April 25, 1798. Sir: In reply to your letter of the 20th instant, I inform you, that I shall be very glad to see you at Mount Vernon when you come into this part of the Country, and that the sooner it happens after harvest the more agreeable it will be to me. It is not the expence of any alteration in my Wheat Machine I regard, if the object proposed by it, can be accomplished. And I shall depend upon you for a raw hide band of the best kind. With esteem etc. *To THOMAS PINCKNEY Mount Vernon, May 6, 1798. Dear Sir: Permit me to give you the trouble of the enclosed letter to Mr. Horry, in acknowledgment of one I received from him at Baltimore. I do this on the uncertainty of its finding him in Philadelphia, and because, in his letter to me, he did not say whether he should return to Charleston by Land or Water. |