George Washington to Mary Katherine Goddard
6 January 1790, New York
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New York Jany 6th 1790 Madam, In reply to your memorial of the 23rd of December, which has been recieved, I can only observe, that I have uniformly avoided interfering with any appointments which do not require my official agency; and the Resolutions and Ordinances establishing the Post Office under the former Congress, and which have been recognized by the present Government, giving power to the Postmaster General to appoint his own Deputies, and making him accountable for their conduct, is an insuperable objection to my taking any part in this matter. I have directed your memorial to be laid before the Post Master General who will take such measures thereon as his judgment may direct. I am, Madam, Your most Obdt Sevt. [No Signature] |
The following is adapted from The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, W. W. Abbot et al., eds., vol. 4, p. 428 (Dorothy Twohig, volume editor), University Press of Virginia (Charlottesville, 1993).
Washington wrote this reply to Mary Katherine Goddard's letter of 23 December 1789. The following transcript is taken from a contemporary copy of the letter in the Miscellaneous Letters in the National Archives, Washington, D.C., Record Group 59. A draft of the letter is in the Washington Papers at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. This letter is not in Washington's handwriting, but was transcribed by a clerk.
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