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To  Major l'Enfant Philadelphia, April 10, 1791
SIR, -- I am favored with your letter of the 4th instant, and
in compliance with your request, I have examined my papers, and found
the plans of Frankfort-on-the-Mayne, Carlsruhe, Amsterdam, Strasburg,
Paris, Orleans, Bordeaux, Lyons, Montpelier, Marseilles, Turin, and
Milan, which I send in a roll by the post. They are on large and
accurate scales, having been procured by me while in those respective
cities myself. As they are connected with the notes I made in my
travels, and often necessary to explain them to myself, I will beg
your care of them, and to return them when no longer useful to you,
leaving you absolutely free to keep them as long as useful. I am
happy that the President has left the planning of the town in such
good hands, and have no doubt it will be done to general
satisfaction. Considering that the grounds to be reserved for the
public are to be paid for by the acre, I think very liberal
reservations should be made for them; and if this be about the Tyber
and on the back of the town, it will be of no injury to the commerce
of the place, which will undoubtedly establish itself on the deep
waters towards the eastern branch and mouth of Rock Creek; the water
about the mouth of the Tyber not being of any depth. Those connected
with the government will prefer fixing themselves near the public
grounds in the centre, which will also be convenient to be resorted
to as walks from the lower and upper town. Having communicated to
the President, before he went away, such general ideas on the subject
of the town as occurred to me, I make no doubt that, in explaining
himself to you on the subject, he has interwoven with his own ideas,
such of mine as he approved. For fear of repeating therefore what he
did not approve, and having more confidence in the unbiassed state of
his mind, than in my own, I avoided interfering with what he may have
expressed to you. Whenever it is proposed to prepare plans for the
Capitol, I should prefer the adoption of some one of the models of
antiquity, which have had the approbation of thousands of years; and
for the President's house, I should prefer the celebrated fronts of
modern buildings, which have already received the approbation of all
good judges. Such are the Galerie du Louire, the Gardes meubles, and
two fronts of the Hotel de Salm. But of this it is yet time enough
to consider. In the meantime I am, with great esteem, Sir, your most obedient humble servant.
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