On the 2nd of May, at Charleston, halting five days,

“11th” Savannah, halting two days.

Thence, leaving the line of the mail, I shall proceed to Augusta, and according to the information which I may receive there, my return, by an upper road, will be regulated.  The route of my return is at present uncertain, but in all probability it will be through Columbia, Camden, Charlotte, Salisbury, Salem, Guilford, Hillsborough, Harrisburg, Williamsburg to Taylor’s Ferry on the Roanoke, and thence to Fredericksburg by the nearest and best road.

After thus explaining to you, as far as I am able at present, the direction and probable progress of my journey, I have to express my wish, if any serious and important case should arise during my absence (of which the probability is but too strong), that the Secretaries for the departments of State, Treasury, and War, may hold consultations thereon, to determine whether they are of such a nature as to require my personal attendance at the seat of government, and if they should be so considered, I will return immediately from any place at which the information may reach me; or should they determine that measures relevant to the case may be legally and properly pursued, without the immediate agency of the President, I will approve and ratify the measures which may be conformed to such determination.

Presuming that the Vice-President will have left the seat of government for Boston, I have not requested his opinion to be taken on the supposed emergency.  Should it be otherwise, I wish him also to be consulted.

I am, Gentlemen, your most obedient servant,

G. Washington.

Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Henry Knox, Esquires, Secretaries of the United States for the departments of State, Treasury, and War.

LETTER LVIII.—­TO COLONEL HUMPHREYS, April 11, 1791

TO COLONEL HUMPHREYS.

Philadelphia, April 11, 1791.

Dear Sir,

I wrote you March the 15th, with postscripts of the 18th and 19th.  Since that, yours of January the 3rd, No. 10, January the 15th, No. 11, from Madrid, February the 6th, No. 12, and February the 12th, No. 13, from Lisbon, have been received.  They covered a letter from Mr. Carmichael, the only one we have from him of later date than May, 1789.  You know that my letter to him, of which you were the bearer, took notice of the intermission of his correspondence, and the one enclosed to him in my letter to you of March the 15th, being written when this intermission was felt still stronger, as having continued so much longer, conveyed stronger marks of dissatisfaction.  Though his letter, now received, convinces us he has been active in procuring intelligence, yet it does not appear that he has been equally assiduous in procuring means of conveyance, which was the more incumbent on him, in proportion as the government was more jealous