think their Request just and reasonable, I flatter myself they will be favoured with your Interest in the General Assem bly. I am, with much Respect and Esteem,

Dear Sir,

Y'r most ob'd't Serv't,

G. MASON.

GEN. WASHINGTON TO SAMUEL POSELL, ESQ.

[The following Letter from Gen. Washington to Samuel Posell, Esq., is taken from the transcript recently published for the first time by Silas E. Burrows, Esq., in the New York Journal of Commerce. The original is in possession of Mr. Shwartz, U. S. Consul at Vienna, from whom Mr. B. obtained his copy. We take ours from the Baltimore Sun, of January 26th last.]

MOUNT VERNON, FEB. 5TH, 1789.

Dear Sir,The letters which you did me the honor of writing to me on the 6th and 26th last month, came duly at hand; and their enclosures were safely delivered to my nephew, Bushrod Washington, who has lately become a resident of Alexandria, where and at the courts in its vicinity he means to establish himself in the practice of the law. No apology, my dear sir, on this or any other occasion, was or will be necessary for putting any letter you may wish to have safely conveyed to a friend in these parts, under cover to me.

All the political manœuvres which were calculated to impede, if not to prevent the operation of the Government, are now brought to a close until the meeting of the new Congress; and although the issue of all the elections is not yet known, they are sufficiently displayed to authorize

a belief that the opposers of the Government have been defeated in almost every instance. Although the elections in this State are over, it will be some time from the extent of it before the Representatives to Congress can be finally announced. From conjecture, however, it is supposed the majority will be federalists. Some are so sanguine as to believe that seven out of the ten will be so; but this, as I have already said, is altogether conjecture and vague conjecture; for much pains has been taken, and no art left unessayed, to poison the mind and alarm the fears of the people into opposition. On the list of the Electors which has been published by the Executive authority of the State, there appear (as far as I am acquainted with the character of the gentlemen.) eight decided friends to the new constitution. Be the cause of the British King's insanity what it may, his situation (if alive) merits commiseration. Better perhaps would it have been for his nation, though not for ours, (under present prospects,) if this event had happened at the time, Dr. Franklin, you say, supposes his Majesty's constitution was first tinged with the malady under which he is now laboring.

Mrs. Washington, the Major and Fanny, and others under this roof, unite in best wishes and affectionate regards for Mrs. Posell and yourself-and, I am,

Dear Sir, your most ob't

and very humble servant,

(Signed,)

G. WASHINGTON.

GEN. WASHINGTON TO MR. JAMES MCALPIN.

[We copy the following letter from Gen. Washington to Mr. James McAlpin, (a Merchant Tailor in Philadelphia,) from the original in the possession of a lady in this city who has obliging

ly lent it to us for publication in our work. The letter is not important, but is yet of some interest from its serving to illustrate the character of the writer in a small point, and from its being one of the latest effusions of his pen, having been written in the last year of his life.

The history of the letter, also, is somewhat curious, and serves to shew the high estimation in which the most trivial autographs of the General have always been held; for it was given, it seems, by Mr. McAlpin, who was an emigrant from Glasgow, to a friend of his who lodged it (probably by his direction,) in Hunter's Museum in the University of that city, from which it was, some years afterwards, "mysteriously abstracted," but having been as "mysteriously restored," was subsequently obtained, in exchange for another of the same writer, by a gentleman of this city, who gave it to the late Chief Justice Marshall, in whose family it is still carefully preserved.]

MOUNT VERNON, 18TH MARCH, 1799.

Sir,-Your letter of the 15th ult'o came duly to hand, and I feel obliged by the pains you were at, to obtain gold thread for the Uniform Suit you were requested to make and forward to me. I am perfectly satisfied that nothing was left unattempted on your part, to comply with my order.

This article (gold thread) being expected in the Spring Importations, you will provide what is good, and have the suit completed (by a skilful workman) agreeably to former directions, and sent in the manner required in my last letter.

I am Sir

Your very H'ble Serv't,

MR. JAMES MCALPIN.

G. WASHINGTON.

INDIAN RELICS.-No. II.

FORTS, &c.

All trace of the old forts built in the Valley between the Blue Ridge and Alleghany, is rapidly passing away. These are known to have been quite numerous. Almost every settlement had some place to run to when the alarm of "Indians" was raised. It would be worth while to ascertain their location. The people of the older churches in the Valley, used frequently to assemble for worship with their guns in their hand. Around the venerable old Augusta Church, ten miles north of Staunton, is yet to be seen the well defined boundary of one of the largest and strongest forts in the Valley, with the trench more than a hundred yards in length, leading down the hill to the spring. There was also a fort in Rockbridge county, on the land now owned by the Rev. James Morrison, and about two hundred yards east of his house. The trench leading to the spring may yet be seen. Another fort stood in Bath county, a few hundred yards east of where Windy Cove Church now is.

The stone battle axe of the Indian is sometimes picked up in our fields. Some which I have seen were about six inches long and three wide. They generally had a groove cut around them near the pole end, to which the handle was firmly fastened; the other end was brought down to an edge. In the absence of all iron tools and weapons, this was no doubt valuable to the Indian.

In their desperate charges upon each other, they frequently fought with sharpened poles, or spears. But when they were set on the colonies and frontier settlements by their more barbarian emissaries of Great Britain, these were soon laid aside for the gun, the tomahawk and the scalp

-one

ing knife. I know not how others may feel; but one, whose maternal ancestors have suffered so much,who has watched the tears on a mothers face, as she told the sorrowful tale, of a father, mother, brothers and sisters,— all except three of a large family, down to the infant on the breast, murdered and scalped in cold blood, and two of the three left, dragged into captivity; such a one, may be allowed at least to express his opinion, which is, that all the British agents and actors of that day, on this, or the other side of the great water, who took side against the colonies, and hired the Indians, by the payment of a scalp-reward, to the indiscriminate murder of men, women and children; deserve to go down on the page of history, to the

very

low

est deep of infamy.

MOUNDS.

There is on the top of Car's Creek Mountain in Rockbridge county, touching the right hand of the road as you go west from Lexington, a large pile of stones erected by the Indians. The stones have been gathered quite clean. for some distance around. It was probably to commemorate some event; or mark a boundary of hunting ground between tribes; or mark some particular place for crossing the mountain.

In the same county, and on the eastern bank of Hay's Creek, just below its juncture with Walker's Creek, there is a large mound of circular form. It is, perhaps forty or fifty feet in diameter, and is crowded with human bones. It had, at first, probably been twelve or fourteen feet high; but it has worn down to not more than four or five. I should suppose this mound coutained not much short of one thousand bodies; and judging from bones and teeth I have seen, they were of all sizes. There is in the neighborhood, an old tradition, or belief, that this was once a