From Mount Vernon, GW wrote to thank William Craik, son of his friend Dr. James Craik, for handling a land dispute for him. GW also responded to Ky. landowner Thomas Marshall’s 12 Feb. letter, in which Marshall worried that the west was thinking of leaving the Union because of tensions over access to the Mississippi River. Alarmed, GW begged for further information and promised more of his opinions through a safer medium than written communication.

Former artillery commander Henry Knox wrote to alert GW that only a few more Congressmen were needed in N.Y. to reach a quorum. Additionally, merchants from Providence, R.I. wrote GW, asking him for help with R.I.’s grim financial and political situation, including its struggles to ratify the Constitution.