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George Washington To Thomas Peter December 3, 1799

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Mount Vernon 3d Decr 1799

Dear Sir,

Have you succeeded, or are you likely to succeed, in procuring the Hemp seed I required?1

The fly has got into my Wheat, very generally this Fall; and I lay my account for great ravages thereon next Spring; which makes me more desirous of laying (to use a Sea term) an anchor to windward for something else.2

I congratulate you and Patcy on the birth of a “Manchild”3—My best wishes attend the Mother & Child—and I am—Dear Sir Your Affecte Hble Servt

Go: Washington

ALS (photocopy), DLC:GW.

1 

GW spent the night of 9 Nov. at Thomas Peter’s house in Georgetown, at which time he and Mr. Peter may have spoken of hemp seed (Diaries, 6:375). No reference to hemp has been found in their correspondence.

2 

See GW’s elaborate plans for cropping his Mount Vernon farms in 1800, which he gave on 13 Dec., the day before his death, to his farm manager, James Anderson.

3 

This was probably John Parke Custis Peter, the son of Thomas and Martha Peter, who is known to have been born sometime between 1798 and 1800.

Cite as: The Papers of George Washington Digital Edition, ed. Theodore J. Crackel. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2008. 
Canonic URL: http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/GEWN-06-04-02-0385 [accessed 02 Jan 2015]
Original source: Retirement Series (4 March 1797–13 December 1799), Volume 4 (20 April 1799–13 December 1799)
 
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