APPENDIX. 517 



tions,* a plan for a general loan of ^500,000 was proposed by Mr. 

 Blodget, and carried out in part by the commissioners: 500 bonds of 

 ^1,000 each being prepared, and Mr, Blodget advancing ^10,000 of 

 his own money, t which sum was actually paid to them July 17, 1792. 



At this time the plans for the President's House and Capitol were so 

 far matured that the foundations of each were begun, and, as it hap- 

 pened, these advances by Mr. Blodget were directly applied to that 

 purpose.! 



During this and the following year Mr. Blodget gave his entire time 

 to the interests of the new city, buying very largely himself, and in- 

 ducmg many of his Boston friends to buy of the government lots sold 

 on October 8, 1792, for which the commissioners tendered liim their 

 thanks, officially, in letters to the President. Soon after this sale Mr. 

 Jefferson suggested to the commissioners the appointment of a Super- 

 visor, or General Superintendent of the work of erecting the public 

 buildings, naming Mr. Blodget as a suitable person, and on June 5^ 

 1793, the commissioners duly appointed him Supervisor as follows: 



" You are retained for one year, commencing the ist instant, as 



Supervisor of the buildings and in general of the affairs committed to 

 our care, for which you are to receive ^600, payable in money or in 

 lots at their just value," etc. 



In pursuance of this appointment, he entered at once on the most 

 active duties, the greatest difficulty existing in obtaining the money 

 appropriated by the States of Virginia and Maryland, only a small por' 

 tion as yet being received. In this emergency, and as the project of a 

 general loan on pledge of the real estate of the city had failed, owing 



* Mr. Jefferson, then Secretary of Slate, writes to the Commissioners, May 11, 1792 : 

 " I had informed you that the catastrophe among the paper dealers would retard llie 

 completion of the loan. I now enclose you a letter from Mr. Blodget, by which you 

 will perceive its effect to be greater than he had at first supposed. He thinks that the 

 payment of June, which if the loan had been filled up, would have been of $50,000, 

 must now he thrown back and consolidated with that of November, except as to 

 ;SlO,000 which he undertakes to pay on the 15th of June for eighty shares he takes 

 himself, and twenty shares he has disposed of. After consultation with the President 

 we concluded nothing better was to be done than to leave the matter in Mr. Blodget's 

 hands. I therefore yesterday delivered his 500 warrants for which I enclose his 

 receipt." 



f See letter of Thomas Jefferson to the commissioners, dated at Philadelphia, July 

 II, 1792, in which he says: "I enclose you a letter received from him (Samuel 

 Blodget) this day, informing you that the deposit of $10,000 is made in the Boston 

 Bank, and will be paid to your orders." 



\ See also letter of acknowledgment of the commissioners to Samuel Blodget, July 

 18, 1792, in which they accept the money, and advise him that the foundations of the 

 buildings will at once be entered upon. 



