Volume 5 covers the first half of 1790 and focuses on Washington's continued concentration on the problems facing the new government. North Carolina had ratified the Constitution in late 1789, and Rhode Island held its ratifying convention in early 1790. Many documents in this volume reflect the president's concern with the establishment of ties to the federal government in both states, especially in the matter of appointments to the federal civil service. Also treated in detail in the volume are Washington's near-fatal illness in May 1790 and his difficult recovery. The heavy incoming...

Volume 7 of the series presents documents written during the final sessions of the First Congress, a period of intense activity for Washington and his administration. Between December 1790 and March 1791, Congress passed legislation that established a national bank and a dederal excise, incresed the size of the army, and provided for the admission of Vermont. Filling the offices created by these and other acts occupied much of Washington's attention; the excise service alone was one of the largest bureaucracies created during the Early Republic. The Indian war on the northwest frontier...

n the period covered by volume 9, the fall and winter of 1791-92, Washington was busy dealing with a host of issues. Over forty letters to and from Washington between November 1791 and February 1792 concern the problems arising from Pierre L'Enfant's high-handedness as designer of the Federal City, particularly his destruction of the house of Daniel Carroll of Duddington, and L'Enfant's insistence that he not take orders from the Commissioners for the District of Columbia but receive his authority from Washington directly. Washington's nomination in late December 1791 of Thomas Pinckney,...