Philadelphia, April 13, 1794.

    Dear sir: I have been favored with your letter of the 4th. instt., and thank you for the information respecting the depredations on my land, lying on four miles run. Mr. Bushrod Washington a year or two ago, was desired to commence a suit or suits against some of the Trespassers; but whether he did, or not, or what the result was, I do not recollect ever to have heard. The growth of the land, is more valuable than the land itself; to protect it therefore, is important.

    Not knowing the christian name of Mr. Minor, or whether there may not be more than one of that name I am at a loss how to direct to him; and indeed for a safe mode of conveying a letter to him; and therefore take the liberty of putting the enclosed under cover to you, with a request (after putting a wafer in it) that you would be so good as to have it safely conveyed to the right person.

    The accounts which I receive from Mount Vernon, respecting my Wheat, are very unfavorable. They could not, indeed, be otherwise, after the effect, occasioned by the drought in the fall had become apparent, which was the case before I left home in the latter part of October.

    The appointment of a Martial, for the District of Georgia, had taken place before your letter came to my hands: but if the case had been otherwise, Mr. McCrea, however well known in Virginia, was too new a settler, and too little known in Georgia to have become an exceptable man for that office when half the State (in a manner) was in hot pursuit of it. and many of the ancient inhabitants and respectable characters were pressing forward by themselves, and friends, on this occasion.

    My best wishes attend Mrs. Stuart and the rest of the family, and with very great esteem etc.⁵⁴

[Note:From a photograph of the original kindly furnished by Alwin J. Scheuer, of New York City. ]