You will please add your name to the letters to Mrs Tod, Robt Lewis, Samuel Washington, to which you will also give the proper direction— W. L. M. Spotswood— and Washington Thornton— These you will please Seal & forward by post or otherwise— If you can give a more precise direction to the last of these letters, I will thank you to do so.— The two letters to Mr Carter and Mrs E. Lewis are sent merely that you may give them the proper direction, and then to Seal & forward.

     I yesterday recd a letter from Major Lewis, in which he states, that on the 24 Oct. 1798, Genl Washington paid you $250, being the amount of five shares towards building a hotel for Wm Tunnicliff in this City, which (as appears by the Generals diary or Cash Account) you were to have secured— The Major understands that the hotel was Surrendered by T. to the subscribers, & is the building in which Congress sat after the burning of the Capitol.

     The enclosed circular addressed t[o] the residuary legatees under the will of Genl Washigtn and the answer which accompanies it will explain to you the general nature of the Suit which Maj. Lewis & myself wish to engage in.

     I have within a few days past recd a letter from Mr Morson, in answer to mine of the 4th of May requesting him to pay to Mr Bernard the amount of the debt due by my nephew to you. This he declines doing until you have paid, or are prepared to pay the balance due upon the mortgage, when, and not before, he will be ready & glad to discharge the whole of his debt to me.

    I lately recd a letter from the Chief Justice in relation to what he had proposed in a former letter as to the 1st volume of the life of Genl W.—namely; "that he would take the risk of that volume on himself," He thinks now that such an arrangement might produce embarrassments in the accounts which had best be avoided. He therefore proposes, instead of that plan, that the 1st volume should be printed at the risk of the editor, but that all compensation for the Copyright should be relinquished upon it.

    I recd a letter from chief Justice Marshall dated the 12th Ulto which I have been prevented by sickness from sooner attending to— The following extract was intended for your inspection. "I have reflected a good deal on the subject of the Life, and have come to the Conclusion to seperate the introduction from the other volumes & to publish a small edition of it at my own risk, if I may be permitted to do so by Mr Wayne & yourself without being charged with the copy right.

    I have been waiting with some impatience to hear from you in relation to Cresaps suit against you, and to recieve a Copy of the bill, without which I can do nothing towards the defence of the suit. I shall depend upon your promise to forward me a Copy as soon as the bill is filed. With respect to the selection of a lawyer I must rely entirely upon you as I am unacquainted with the members of the bar in your part of the Country. I can only observe generally, that attention to business is almost as indispensable in an advocate as talents.

I have received the box of letters by the steam boat.

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 recd your letter of the 2d inst. in Phila. but was prevented, by a severe indisposition, from answering it from that place, and even now, I can do no more than repeat the undiminished confidence I feel in your ability to execute the work in the best possible manner, and in your fidelity to bring it out in a way most¹ advantageous for the pecuniary interest of the parties concerned consistently with our contract —