Mount Vernon, October 14, 1791. In this letter he begins by saying he is
glad of the intimation given of the intentions of the minister of France
[not stated what they are], and pleased though distressed at the
information that the 24th instant is the day for the meeting of
Congress. He had supposed it to be the 31st, and intended to spend
Monday and possibly Tuesday in Georgetown; but now he would endeavor to
reach Bladensburg on Monday night and lose no time afterwards in
pursuing his journey onward to Philadelphia, as scarce any time would be
left to him for preparing his communications when the session opened, if
the members were punctual in attending. This makes it the more
necessary, he says, that Mr. Lear should look with accuracy, and without
delay, into his speeches and the laws of the past sessions; that all
might be at hand for his own review and consideration. And he requests
Mr. Lear, should anything else have occurred to him as fit for
recommendation or communication in his speech to Congress, to note it,
that it might be ready for his consideration in case it should not be
among his own memorandums. The conclusion is in his usually cordial way.

This session of Congress passed over. It was the long one, and ran into
May 1792. I find in the collection only three letters to Mr. Lear dated
in that year. The first is from Mount Vernon, July 30, '92, soon after
he had left Philadelphia, and is familiarly descriptive of his journey
homewards. His horses plagued him a good deal, he says, and the sick
mare, owing to a dose of physic administered the night he reached
Chester, was so much weakened as to be unable to carry Austin [one of
the postilions] further than the Susquehannah; had to be led thence to
Hartford, where she was left, and two days afterwards, "gave up the
ghost." As he travelled on, he heard great complaints of the Hessian
fly, and of rust or mildew in the wheat, and believed that the damage
would be great in some places; but that more was said than the case