raise an army of twenty-five thousand men in addition to it; and 3d. A
bill to organize, put in training, and hold in readiness at a minute's
warning a select corps of eighty thousand militia. He seemed to think
that the first and last would pass, but that the result of the second
could not be so well predicted. He mentions the appointment of Mr. Jay
as special minister to England in the hope of settling all our
difficulties in a temperate way by fair and firm negotiation, and that
he would sail in a few days, with Mr. John Trumbell as his private
Secretary; tells him also of Mr. Randolph's appointment as Secretary of
State, and that Mr. Bradford, of Pennsylvania, was made Attorney General
in Mr. Randolph's place. In conclusion, he alludes to "little Lincoln"
[Mr. Lear's son] and his "lottery tickets," which, "poor little fellow!"
he exclaims, will never be likely to build him a baby-house even; the
whole Washington lottery business having turned out a bed of thorns
rather than roses. He terminates the letter by telling him that his
public avocations will not admit of more than a flying trip to Mount
Vernon this summer, and that this not suiting Mrs. Washington he has
taken a house in Germantown [the vicinity of Philadelphia] to avoid the
heat of Philadelphia in July and August, and that Mrs. Washington, Nelly
[one of the Miss Custi's], and the rest of the family united with him in
every good wish for his health, prosperity, and safe return; and he begs
him to be "assured of the sincerity with which he was and always should
be his affectionate friend, G.W."

Mount Vernon, August 5, 1795. Mr. Lear had got back from England and
was now residing in Georgetown or its neighborhood. The present letter
incloses him a power of attorney to vote on the General's shares in the
Potomac Company at a meeting of its stockholders to be held on the day
following, in Georgetown. He says he would be there himself to vote in
person if possible; but that having sent to the post-office in