Your joint letter of the 2. instant to the President, as also Mr.
Carroll's separate letters of the 5. and 15. have been duly re-
ceived. Major L'Enfant also having arrived here and laid his
plan of the federal city before the President, he was pleased to
desire a conference of certain persons, in his presence, on these
several subjects. It is the opinion of the President, in conse-
quence thereof, that an immediate meeting of the Commission-
ers at Georgetown is requisite, that certain measures may be
decided on and put into a course of preparation for a com-
mencement of sale on the 17. of October as advertised. As Mr.
Madison and myself, who were present at the conferences, pro-
pose to pass through Georgetown on our way to Virginia, the
President supposes that our attendance at the meeting of the
Commissioners might be of service to them, as we could com-
municate to them the sentiments developed at the conferences
here and approved by the President, under whatever point of
view they may have occasion to know them. The circumstances
of time and distance oblige me to take the liberty of proposing
the day of meeting and to say that we will be in Georgetown on
the evening of the 7. or morning of the 8. of the next month, in
time to attend any meeting of the Commissioners on that day,
and in hopes they may be able in the course of it to make all the
use of us they make think proper, so that we may pursue our
journey the next day. To that meeting therefore the answers
to the several letters before mentioned are referred.

   The letter is addressed externally to Mr. Carroll only with a
requisition to the post master at Georgetown to send it to him
by express, under the hope that he will by expresses to the other