GW at Philadelphia. GW wrote to Georgetown, Md. merchants William Deakins, Jr. and Benjamin Stoddert, asking them to arrange the purchase of lands along the Potomac River, on which the federal city would be built. Though GW had already announced the location of the capital, he had not yet specified the site of the federal city, and he asked the merchants to keep their assignment a secret.

GW had his secretary Tobias Lear write to the Senate to ask for copies of bills that the Senate was pondering, along with their printed journals.