From Mount Vernon, GW wrote to his Philadelphia business agent Clement Biddle. He hoped that the buckwheat he needed for fertilizer would arrive in time and ordered fourteen yards of livery lace. Additionally, GW wrote James Madison to request that he make lodging reservations for him prior to his arrival in N.Y. to assume the presidency. GW worried about the prospect of favoritism if he were to stay with private families.

Former artillery commander Henry Knox wrote to GW that a Congressional quorum in N.Y. still had not been reached. He reported that the general government would lose $300,000 for not meeting at the appointed time.