New York May 4th. 1785
Dear Sir,
Your favor of April the 20th enclosing a bill on Boston for £200 our currency is this moment come to hand1 - I will endeavor to dispose of it in this City. I thank you sir for your obliging offer of subscribing to the Potomac navigation for me, but as I hope to pass thro Alexandria in June or July when Congress adjourns - I will suspend my subscription until I have the pleasure of seeing you. We have no news here of any consequence. The Emperors quarrel with the Dutch seems to be quieted, but it is not improbable that a war between him & Prussia will take place. Congress has taken the most effectual steps in their power to quiet the Barbary Pirates, so as to prevent their hostilities upon our Commerce.
I am Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant,
Richard Henry Lee
Receiver's copy, owned by Creighton C. Hart (1974), Kansas City, Mo.
1 Lee had also written the following letter, addressed "Col. Fitzgerald, Merchant in Alexandria, Virginia," on April 27. "Your letter to me enclosing a packet for Mr. Storey I replied to by the next post after I received it, since which I have not been favoured with any other letter from you. My son, Mr. Thomas Lee of Dumfries, has given me reason to have expected for the two last posts a remittance from you of two hundred pounds our currency, but your silence on this head gives me apprehension that there is some mistake, or that your letter may have miscarried. Be pleased to let me hear from you on this subject. The slow arrival of the packets leave us here without any news foreign, and the domestic is in no ways interesting." Historical Magazine 7 (June 1863): 193 - 94.