From George Washington to Pierre Charles L’Enfant, 30 October 1783

Herewith you will receive [250] Dollars in Bank notes, with which you will please to procure for me Eight of the Bald Eagles—one of which, if there shall appear (upon conversing with gentlemen, better acquainted in those matters than I am) no impropriety in it, or any deviation from the intention of the order, may not only be finished in a masterly manner; but ornamented in an elegant, tho’ not in a costly stile—If, on the contrary, it shall be thought best to have no difference between any of them in the decorations, (for I do not mean to depart in the smallest degree from the form, of the order)—then seven will be sufficient for me; as the ornamented one would only have been used on extraordinary occasions.

I have, in the Letter you are charged with, to the Marqs de la Fayette, requested him to send me, by the earliest opportunity, a sett of silver plated ware, but as there is not only a possibility, but a probability that he may have left Paris for this country, before you get there, or may be absent on some other occasion; I beg, in that case, that you would open my letter to him, & comply with the contents of it, if you can do it conveniently—Wishing you a pleasant passage, & a prosperous voyage I remain, Sir, with very great esteem Your most Obt Servt