Mount Vernon 2 Jan. 1799 Dear Sir, If you should havecer ceived, that the letters I have written to you since my retirement from the Chair of Government, worth the door they would take up in your Beaureaus and can readily lay your hands upon one written on the 6^th of February in the past year, I would thank you for a copy of the last page thereof — A Press copy was taken of the letter; and all of it, except the last page sufficiently legible, but that is so entirely the Reverse as not to be understood, or made out by the context. — M^rs Washington and Miss Custis write with me in offering you the compliments of the Season and in wishing that M^r Pickering, yourself and family may see the return of many, very many happy New Years. — I am always Y^r [undecipherable] & Affect^e Ser^t [signature: G. Washington] [D^r Pickering] [Gen. Washington — Jan^y 4. 1799. — wants copy his letter of Feb^y 6, 1798.]