Washington in Domestic Life

"[...]driver, for taking on the children to Philadelphia. His reasons for writing the duplicate was, that Giles (one of his servants), who was sent on Wednesday to Alexandria with his first letter with directions that if the stage had gone to pursue it to Georgetown so as to overtake the mail, had put the letter into the hands of a passenger, who "all but forced it from him," so anxious was this passenger to do an obliging thing, as he "knew General Washington." This passenger told his name, but it was "so comical," he could not recollect it. This was Giles's story; and the General adds that as he knew what little dependence was to be placed on the punctual conveyance of letters by a private hand, he writes this duplicate by post to[...]".