To George Washington from Mary Gomain Hallet, 27 April 1795
From Mary Gomain Hallet
[27 April 1795]1
Sir
When Every one rejoice at your coming to this place let me partake of the public joy and hope that it will put a period to my distressing Situation; let me for one moment draw your attention from public to private affairs and pray listen favourably to a wife pleading her husband’s cause while mr hallet waits in silent expectation for a Slow determinatio⟨n.⟩2 while he is Suffering by these protracted delais I, the partaker of his pains, will call for justice; I will Endeavour to hasten it by bespeaking your interest and I have this Confidence that I Shall not be disapointed that you will not be deaf to the voice of a woman and this child united to ask upon you the favour of heaven.
Mary G. hallet
ALS, DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Letters Received.
Mary Gomain (Marie François Gomain) Hallet, the daughter of a clerk for the two Chambres des Requêtes of the Paris Parlement, married Stephen Hallet in France and came with him to the United States in 1789 (see H. Paul Caemmerer, “Architects of the United States Capitol,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society 48–49 [1946–47]: 5; Hallet to Thomas Jefferson, c.6 Oct. 1792, in 24:444–45; and Almanach Royal, Année M.DCC.LXVI [Paris, 1766], 221).
1. This letter and the one from Hallet that follows evidently are the papers put into GW’s hands when he passed through the Federal City on 27 April (see GW to Hallet, 5 May).
2. Stephen Hallet formerly served as supervisor over construction of the U.S. Capitol, under the direction of James Hoban. Hallet lost that position on 28 June 1794 because of conflicts with Hoban and a failure to abide by design decisions made by the D.C. commissioners and GW. In a letter to the commissioners dated 21 Jan., Hallet tried to justify his actions and asked to be rehired (DNA: RG 42, Records of the Commissioners for the District of Columbia, Letters Received; see also the commissioners to GW, 4 Feb., n.7).