I have just time to send you the enclosed which I found here on my return from Jefferson County the day before yesterday.
I have so many letters to answer & so much other business to transact that I scarcely know what to begin with first.
Present our love to Mrs W. & believe me My dear Sir very truly yr friend
I have sent the deed to Mr Parks to mr Lewis to execute with a request that he wd enclose it to you before friday. Should you not recieve it it will be unimportant as Mr Parks at any rate would have to send it back to us to have it recorded & therefore the mere form of sending to Mr Parks is altogether unecessary. you can write him so by mr Hoy who will nevertheless get the mortgage executed.
I am just setting off from home & am much hurried. Sincerely yr affect friend
Your letter of the 21: I recd yesterday. I have written to Mr Robinson agreable to your request, and I hope he will accede to your proposal. I enclose you a certificate respecting the time <when> you sent me your account agt Mr Robinson.
I yesterday recd your favor of the 8th. I have no objection to the alterations in the petition which you suggest, altho' I apprehend no inconvenience which the devisees of the General ought to apprehend from disclosing the defects in their title to the Northwestern lands. This Subject had not escaped my attenti<on,> and so long as there was a prospect of securing the title under <mutilated> warrants I concealed this weakness from all but those with whom I was compelled to consult for the purpose of protecting the title.
Your letter of the 4th has Just come to hand; that of the 23 Ultimo was recieved some days earlier. I shall use my best exertions to fulfill your wishes expressed in both & am now engaged on the subject of the War tho with nothing like certainty as to its success. I will write you the moment that any thing occurs worth mentioning.
I have examined my papers very thoroughly & the only information I can give on the subject of your Suit is contained in the enclosed Certificate. Yrs respectfully
I am much gratified by the visit which my nephew has made me, as well as with his improvement in every respect. I doubt not that his future progress in life will Justify the expectations which, from present Appearances, his friends may fairly entertain of him.
I recd your letter returning the order of Shepherd which will compel us immediately to bring suit against him. we do not think it would be proper for us acting as executors to charge the debts due to the estate which would be the effect of assigning the whole of the debt to you and receiving from you a security for the excess.
I had the pleasure to recieve your letters by Mr Deleport and Mr Parish, and whilst I feel flattered by these proofs of your recollection, I have to thank you for introductions to two gentlemen who seem so well to deserve what you say of them. The former having favoured me with a visit, I had an opportunity of presenting him to Mrs Washington. The latter I saw in Philadelphia in May, and recieved from him a promise of his Company at Mount Vernon whenever he should go to the banks of the Potomack.
Since my return from Richmond I recd yours of the 11 Inst.
Having sacrificed from necessity so much of my wards fleur, I must wait for better prices before I sell more; I think it will not be long before a favorable change will take place.
I will thank you to send by Jerry twenty dollars for Jno. & Bushrod which charge to my guardians a/c. Yrs respectfully
Since my return from the Northward I am informed by Mr Lewis that Mr Peter and Mr Custis having orders upon us from Doctor Stewart for £350 each have refused to accept our orders upon your favour for that amount.
Mr Lawrence Lewis was here yesterday, & informed me that he had consented to a proportion made by Robert & Howel Lewis that the former might settle with the latter $4537.86 of his debt, and in lieu thereof that Mr Parks of Baltimore should pay his debt to you instead of Howel Lewis. This he was induced to do because in consequence of some bargain between his brothers such an arrangement would accomodate them, and he was convinced that Robert Lewis would not have been able to raise the mony for you.
I now enclose you a draft of the United States Bank or the branch at Boston for $201.50/100 which you will please dispose of in the manner mentioned to you in my last letter.
I mean that you and Bushrod should leave Andover very soon, and shall put you to some other school more within my reach, where I shall have more frequent opportunities of attending to your education, and where I hope you will improve much faster than you have hitherto done. I am merely waiting until I can hear that Colo. Dade has sent down mony enough to enable me to pay what is due to Mr Philips & others on your account.
I yesterday recd your favor of the 7th, and now subjoin an extract from the will of Genl Washington containing the clause respecting the establishment of an University in the district of Columbia vz."I give and bequeath in perpetuity the 50 Shares which I hold in the potomac Compy under the afsd acts of the legislature of Virginia, towards the endowment of an University to be established within the limits of the district of Columbia, under the auspices of the general government if that Governt should incline to extend a fostering hand towards it; and until such semina
Not having with one a copy of General Washingtons will, I cannot with any degree of precision give the information you request; but as soon as I get home I will send you an extract containing the clause which relates to the National university.
I am very sensible of the honor done me in the election which constitutes me a member of the military academy of the U.S. of which, your favor of the 1t Decr but lately received, gave me the first intimation.
Should it be in my power to make any communications which I can think worthy the attention of this institution, I shall do so without reserve & with sincere pleasure. I have the honor to be Sir very respectfully yr mo. ob. Sert
As we cannot flatter the creditor Legatees with any considerable collections from those whose purchases exceeded their shares, it has occurred to us that it would be convenient and agreable to the creditors to recieve an assignment of the debts from which they might derive an immediate benefit; indeed this idea has been suggested to us by many of the Creditor legatees.
In one of your letters enclosing the request of the bar that the Circuit Court might be adjourned, you speak of the first monday in January as the day mentioned by them and approved by you. But as the determination to adjourn was not positively fixed at that time, and no notice of it has appeared in any of the Phila. papers which have come to my hands, I think it necessary to ascertain at once the precise day; that is whether it is to be the 1st day, or the first monday.
I have watched with anxious solicitude the successive reports of your board of health, always hoping that some favorable change would take place in the State of the disorder which seemed to threaten your City. The last accounts appear to us very alarming, particularly as they correspond very nearly with those from New York, Baltimore & Norfolk, & seem for this reason to prove that the Sickness is not local, but dependent in a great measure on the unfriendliness of the season, aided no doubt by imported causes.
I should much sooner have acknowledged your favor 19th July if I had not thought it most proper to wait until I should recieve Mr Vaughn's communication. This not having taken place, I can no longer withhold from the American philosophical Society the expression of my thanks for the distinguished honor they have conferred on me by the election you have been pleased to announce.
I have long thought that a work upon the plan you suggest, was much wanted by those who form the great bulk of readers on chemical subjects.