University of Virginia Library

TO GENERAL WASHINGTON.

Dear Sir,—I had the honor of receiving your favor
of the 12th. of June during my attendance on the Legislature,
and of answering it a few days, before I left
Richmond. Since my return home I have been informed
that the gentleman into whose hands the
answer was put has mislaid or lost it, and that I cannot
rely on its ever finding its way to you. I have
therefore to repeat, Sir, that the sanction which your
judgment gave to the propriety of rewarding the literary
services of Mr. Payne,[15] led to an attempt in the
House of Delegates for that purpose. The proposition
first made was, that he should be invested with a
moity of a tract of public land known by the name of
the Secretary's lying on the Eastern Shore. The kind
reception given to this proposition induced some gentlemen
to urge that the whole tract containing about
500 acres might be included in the donation, as more
becoming the dignity of the State, and not exceeding
the merits of the object. The proposition thus enlarged
passed through two readings without apprehension
on the part of its friends.—On the third, a
sudden attack grounded on considerations of economy
and suggestions unfavourable to Mr. Payne threw
the Bill out of the house. The next idea proposed

was that the land in question should be sold and
£2000 of the proceeds allotted to Mr. Payne to be laid
out in the purchase of a farm if he should think fit.
This was lost by a single vote. Whether a succeeding
Session may resume the matter, and view it in a
different light, is not for me to say. Should exertions
of genius which have been everywhere admired, and
in America unanimously acknowledged, not save the
author from indigence & distress, the loss of national
character will hardly be balanced by the
savings at the Treasury.

With the highest respect &c.