New York, June 22, 1790.

    Dear Sir: I ought to make many apologies to you for not answering a letter which you did me the favor of writing to me some considerable time ago respecting my caveat, and to which reference is made in your letter of the 7th. now before me. I find an excuse exceedingly necessary for me at present for (not having letters of that date by me to refer to) I am obliged to acknowledge that I do not recollect enough of the terms then communicated, to enable me to decide upon the matter now.

    Will you permit me then, my good Sir, to ask you once more whether by paying the State price for the land is all that remains for me to do to obtain it, or whether, and what the precise cost to the final completion by Patent (inclusive) amounts to. I will then, without further delay write to you definitively. The land to the best of my recollection is of no great value. The State price therefore is an object of some consideration; but one which has yet more weight in my mind is, not to have my name brought forward in a dispute of this sort before any tribunal, rather than this I would submit to the loss. I am etc.⁷

[Note:From the "Letter Book" copy in the Washington Papers . ]