Copy of a Letter from the illustrious GEORGE
WASHINGTON, to the Gentlemen Proprietors
of the Ship FEDERALIST.

" MOUNT VERNON, June 8, 1788.
" GENTLEMEN,
" CAPTAIN BARNEY has just arrived here in the
Miniature Ship called the FEDERALIST; and has
done me the Honour to offer that beautiful Curiosity as a
Present to me, on your Part.-----I pray you, Gentlemen,
to accept the warmer Expressions of my Sensibility for this
Specimen of American Ingenuity; in which the Exactitude
of the Proportions, the Neatness of the Workmanship, and
the Elegance of the Decorations (which make your Present
fit to be preserved in a Cabinet of Curiosities) at the same time
they exhibit the Skill and Taste of the Artist, demonstrate
that Americans are not inferior to any People whatever in
the Use of Mechanical Instruments and the Art of Ship-
building.

" The Unanimity of the agricultural State of Mary-
land in general, as well as of the commercial Town of Bal-
timore in particular, expressed in their recent Decision on
the Subject of a general Government, will not (I persuade
myself) be without its due Efficacy on the Minds of their
Neighbours, who) in many Instances, are intimately con-
nected not only by the Nature of their Produce, but by the
Ties of Blood and the Habits of Life.—Under these Cir-
cumstances, I cannot entertain an Idea that the Voice of the
Convention of this State, which Is now in Session, will be
dissonant from that of her nearly-allied Sister, who is only
separated by the Potomack.—

" You will permit me, Gentlemen, to indulge my Feelings
in reiterating the Heart-felt Wish, that the Happiness of this
Country may equal the Desires of its sincerest Friends; and
that the patriotic Town of which you are Inhabitants (in
the Prosperity of which I have always found myself strongly
interested) may not only continue to increase in the fame
wonderful Manner it has formerly done—but that its Trade,
Manufactures and other Resources of Wealth may be plac-
ed, permanently, in a more flourishing Situation than they
have hitherto been.
" I am, with Sentiments of Respect,

" Gentlemen,

" Your most obedient and most humble Servant,

"George Washington."

" To WILLIAM SMITH, Esq, and the other
" Gentlemen Proprietors of the Ship FEDE-
" RALIST."

Drawing of the Maryland Federalist, constructed in 1987 to commemorate the bicentennial of Maryland's ratifica-
tion of the U.S. Constitution, April 26, 1788. The Maryland Federalist is a replica of the Ship Federalist with which
Marylanders paraded to celebrate ratification. The Ship Federalist later was presented as a gift to George Washing-
ton. His June 8, 1788, letter of thanks is reproduced here from the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser of
June 24, 1788. Drawing by Melbourne Smith,