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Subject Area: Political Theory
Subject Area: War and Peace
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

TO JAMES WOOD. 1 - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. II (1758-1775) [1889]

Edition used:

The Writings of George Washington, collected and edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1889). Vol. II (1758-1775).

Part of: The Writings of George Washington, 14 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


TO JAMES WOOD.1

13 March, 1773.

Dear Sir,

Herewith you will receive Lord Dunmore’s certificates of my claims (as well in my own right as by purchase from Captain Posey and Mr. Thruston) in the location of which in the government of West Florida I shall rely on your friendship and care.

Unnecessary it is to add that I should choose good land or none at all. But as many things concur to make land valuable, it is impossible for me at this distance, and under my present knowledge of that country, to be explicit in any direction. Suffice it then to observe, generally, that I would greatly prefer the land upon the river, to lands back from it; that I should not like to be in a low morassy country, nor yet in that which is hilly and broken; and that, from the idea I entertain of that country at this time, I should like to be as high up the Mississippi as the navigation is good, having been informed that the lands are better, and the climate more temperate in the northern parts of the government than below.

If I could get the lands equally good in one survey, I should prefer it. If not, then in one or more as circumstances require. Perhaps some locations already made upon the river might for a small consideration be bought; if so, I would rather advance a little money than put with less valuable land. You will please to have the grant surveyed and effectually secured, with such indulgences as those claiming under the proclamation of 1763 are entitled to; and do all and every thing in my behalf which shall to you seem right and proper; the cost of doing which I will pay, and moreover for your faithful discharge of this trust allow you the sum of one hundred pounds Virginia currency on the due execution of it. Wishing you a pleasant tour and safe return to your friends.1

[1 ]A tenant of Washington, occupying “Lot 6,” in his Fauquier property.

[1 ]This move to colonize in Florida was made by an association styling itself the “Military Company of Adventurers,” composed of those who had served in the provincial army in the late war. This company expected to obtain the grant from the British government of a large tract of territory in “West Florida” (now Mississippi), on the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers—territory that had been thrown open to settlement by the creation of a new State, Florida, after the peace of 1763. This company appointed General Phineas Lyman, of Connecticut, to press its claims on the ministry, but he found so much opposition to it that he was unable to effect his purpose. Without waiting for a formal grant, the company in Jany., 1773, sent a party from New York to take possession. “After a long voyage they arrived at Pensacola, and there, to their great disappointment and chagrin, found that the Governor had no authority to grant them lands as had been represented. Considerable time was spent in negotiations on the subject, and exploring the rivers and adjacent country; but no settlement was made.” Walker, History of Athens County, Ohio, i., 26, 27. Gentleman’s Magazine, 1772, 63, 355 509. Franklin’s Writings. A letter from Washington to William Edwards, the Governor of West Florida, introducing Mr. Wood, is printed in Sparks, Writings of Washington, ii., 369.