In a letter dated June 12th to Saml Washington I enclosed a mortgage to be executed by Colo. Thornton of the Fauquier land, and also one to be executed by himself of the horse shoe tract with directions for selling them proved & certified. After this letter copied I this day inserted a postscript calling on him for the $427.1 or so much of it as is due from him.

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On the Jefferson administration. "To what a deplorable and contemptible situation is this country reduced! How illy rewarded are the laudable exertions of our forefathers," etc.

     I should have answered your letter of the 15th of feby much sooner if I had not expected that a meeting of the legatees would take place in the course of the summer, when I should have an opportunity of taking¹ their opinion as to the further delay you had requested.² Altho I strongly wished to afford you every indulgence in my power, yet as many of the legatees have never recd any part of the estate, I thought it but right that they at least shd be consulted.

     We are so pressed by the creditor legatees that we are compelled to call upon those who have purchased over their shares for what is due from them.

     Please say when you can make us a payt & to what amount.

I yesterday recd a very discouraging letter from Mrs Washington from which I beg leave to trouble you with the following extracts. She says that the pain in her side encreases, and has for several days past been accompanied by a dull pain (as heretofore felt) in the shoulder; occasionally in the wrist and other Joints. She is certain she has night fevers– Wants appetite & sleeps badly. She has for some days discontinued the steel & bark being afraid, & very Justly she thinks, that those medicines have done injury to her side.

     I cant find Mr Marshall rect but have written to him to send you another immediately. I am pretty sure I took one & could find it if I was less hurried. I have found Shephards letter of the 30th June to me with the rect to you, which I enclose you together with his last letter to me, that you may know how to pay the taxes. Please preserve these letters, as they will be very useful in future.

     I observe two notices in the alexandria papers from the mutual insurance company, which I do not know how to understand. The one informs the members that a meeting is requested on the 8th of april, and States that at present none of them are insured. I am perfectly at a loss to concieve what circumstance can have placed us in this awkward predicament. We have paid our premiums, and no legitimate demands remains unsatisfied with which I am acquainted. I understood that the repartition formerly asked for had been dispensed with at the general meeting.

Mrs Washington’s mouth having got much better, we commenced the application of the mercurial ointment about ten nights ago. After using it for two nights, she became apprehensive that it had affected her mouth, and of course it was thought best to discontinue the operation untill these symptoms should disappear. At this period, the experiment was extremely flattering to our hopes. To use Mrs W’s expression, the ointment, with the gentle friction used in rubbing it on, acted upon the pain in the side like a charm.

     Our correspondence is slow in becoming mutual. The great uncertainty of receiving letters by mail has made me believe that my last has miscarried. I am sure you would have been attentive to our agreement had not this been the case. As I was the first to write, and my leter not having been received, I feel it my duty to proscute my engagement.

Whilst I was in Richmond, Mrs Washington commenced the taking of the mercurial pills, and having most unfortunately persevered too long, even after the soreness in the mouth had taken place, a kind of salivation was brought on, & though not attended by a spilling, her tongue & mouth have been for 8 or 10 days so much swollen, that she has been unable to take any kind of nourishment not in a liquid form. Her mouth is now somewhat better, but I am greatly alarmed by the return of the pain in the side which had almost ceased.

I recd a letter from Mrs Washington last night which has rendered me very unhappy. She appears to be much alarmed at her present state of health, and has described the symptoms very minutely to be submitted to you. She says she recollects you asked her if she was ever sensible of a pain in her right arm or shoulder, & seemed to think her answer in the negative a fortunate circumstance. But she now feels that pain and had done so for ten days, and with it a considerable increase of the pain in her side which never leaves her for a moment.

     Finding it necessary to obtain a remittance from home, and not wishing if it can be avoided to trust bank notes by post, I have taken the liberty to enclose you a check on the bank for $200 which I presume is considerably within the sum to my credit there, and if you can procure a bill on Phila, at sight, and such as will certainly be paid, I will thank you to send me such a one—if such cannot be obtained, I should prefer two post notes for the amount.

     I will thank you to inform me if the sum which Mr Lee was authorised to draw for is placed to my credit with the bank. sincerely & respectfully yrs

     Having a large sum of mony to pay to Mr Bernard, I shall be obliged to get my nephew to carry it down to him. He will call at Haywood, but as well on account of his health as of his studies I hope he will not remain in the lower Country more than a day or two, unless you should wish otherwise.

     A Gentleman of your City leaves Alexa. tomorrow, and I shall endeavour to prevail with him to take charge of the box containing the 3d vol. of the history. Having nothing to add to my letter a few days past. I am Sincerely yrs

     Mr Riddle is offer'd $600, or the Vessel alone, in good negotiable paper at 3,629 months, which I wd have authorised him to take, if I knew with certainty that you had made no contract with Keene. The Man who makes the offer demands an immediate answer; I have requested Riddle to call upon him & promise him one by 10 <o'cl>ock tomorrow. I shall order Jerry to carry this letter to you tonight, and will thank you to write to Riddle & send the letter so as to reach him before the time I have fixed.

After a careful examination of the circumstances which attended, as well as others which preceded the fire at this place, it is obvious that it was the work of an incendiary. But I know as little who to suspect at this moment, as when I first recieved the information. There is not amongst my domestics one, to whom I can trace it by any possible motive of vengeance, or whose conduct would in any manner warrant me in selecting him as the guilty person.

     When I removed to Mount Vernon I had to purchase new furniture for all the rooms of that extensive building as well as the necessary instruments for conducting the operations of a large farm. The present, is the first year, when I could expect to be repaid by the Crops.

     I now enclose you a deed for your part of the General's estate sold me, which I will thank you to execute as soon as you possibly can, lest accidents to you or I might produce embarrassments which might be unpleasant to the survivor. I have annexed to the deed a Commission for the privy examination of Cousin Lewis, and you will have to get two magistrates to attend at your house to take it.

Your letter of the 13th found me confined to my bed by a severe pleuretic attack, from which I am just recovering. It is a matter of regret to me, that this indisposition prevented me from seeing & conversing with two distinct parties of members of Congress who have lately favoured me with their company. I was extremely anxious to know what was thought & said in that house about the impeachment. my wish to see the charges was gratified by your letter.

Your letter of the 31st. Decr. mentioning that one of the manuscript Copies has been delivered to you to [act partially] upon gives me great uneasiness. I am at a loss to account for Mr Marshall's having done so inconsiderate a thing after the letter which I wrote him upon that subject. – I was so particular in my directions to him, as to forbid the delivery of the manuscripts to you even sealed up, unless Mr Morgan consented thereto, & in case of his refusal, I requested him to deposit them so sealed with Mrs. Powel. –

     I recd a day or two ago yr favr of the 23d. Being much hurried at present, & expecting to write you a long letter as soon as I hear from Mr Marshall, I mean at present only to assure you that we have every disposition to gratify all your reasonable wishes & will do so. The moment I recieve Mr Marshalls' letter, I shall send you on every thing necessary to enable you to commence your Operations.

Duly estimating the importance of Mr Weems going off immediately to the Southward, that the opportunity might not be lost of meeting the legislatures of those states in Session, I sent for him to meet me here yesterday. To my request that he would commence his Journey immediately, he replied that he was ready at any moment and only awaited your answer to two propositions – the one, the renewal of his diurnal allowance, & the other, an agreement not to hold him responsible for broken setts.

Your favor of the 16 came to hand this evening as did also one from the Chief Justice covering the title page & preface to the history. I communicate to him by this post your sentiments respecting the proper period at which to close the 1st. vol. and also as to the name of the Author being inserted, upon both which points I entirely concur in opinion with you. I have therefore urged the necessity of adopting them. – But as he has commenced his Journey to Raleigh, my letter must follow him there, & of course I cannot expect his answer in less than 8 or 10 days.