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

TO LUND WASHINGTON, MOUNT VERNON. 1 - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. III (1775-1776) [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. III (1775-1776).

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 LUND WASHINGTON, MOUNT VERNON.1

Cambridge, 26 November, 1775.

What follows is part of a letter written to Mr. Lund Washington, the 26th day of November, 1775. A copy is taken to remind me of my engagements and the exact purport of them. These paragraphs follow an earnest request to employ good part of my force in clearing up swamps, h. hole, ditching, hedging, &c.

“I well know where the difficulty of accomplishing these things will lie. Overseers are already engaged (upon shares), to look after my business. Remote advantages to me, however manifest and beneficial, are nothing to them; and to engage standing wages, when I do not know that any thing that I have, or can raise, will command cash, is attended with hazard; for which reason, I hardly know what more to say, than to discover my wishes. The same reason, although it may in appearance have the same tendency in respect to you, shall not be the same in its operation; for I will engage for the year coming, and the year following, if these troubles and my absence continue, that your wages shall be standing and certain, at the highest amount, that any one year’s crop has produced to you yet. I do not offer this as any temptation to induce you to go on more cheerfully in prosecuting these schemes of mine. I should do injustice to you, were I not to acknowledge, that your conduct has ever appeared to me above every thing sordid; but I offer it in consideration of the great charge you have upon your hands, and my entire dependence upon your fidelity and industry.

“It is the greatest, indeed it is the only comfortable reflection I enjoy on this score, that my business is in the hands of a person in whose integrity I have not a doubt, and on whose care I can rely. Was it not for this, I should feel very unhappy, on account of the situation of my affairs; but I am persuaded you will do for me as you would for yourself, and more than this I cannot expect.

“Let the hospitality of the house, with respect to the poor, be kept up. Let no one go hungry away. If any of this kind of people should be in want of corn, supply their necessities, provided it does not encourage them in idleness; and I have no objection to your giving my money in charity, to the amount of forty or fifty pounds a year, when you think it well bestowed. What I mean by having no objection is, that it is my desire that it should be done. You are to consider, that neither myself nor wife is now in the way to do these good offices. In all other respects, I recommend it to you, and have no doubt of your observing the greatest economy and frugality; as I suppose you know, that I do not get a farthing for my services here, more than my expenses. It becomes necessary, therefore, for me to be saving at home.”

The above is copied, not only to remind myself of my promises and requests, but others also, if any mischance happens to

G. Washington.

[1 ]Mr. Lund Washington was the agent for superintending General Washington’s plantations, and managing his business concerns, during the revolution. It was not known what degree of family relationship existed between them, though it was supposed, that they both descended from the same original stock. Their ancestors came to America at different times, doubtless emigrating from different parts of England, and the name is the only evidence of consanguinity, which either branch of the family possesses.

From the beginning to the end of the revolution, Lund Washington wrote to the General as often at least as two or three times a month, and commonly every week, detailing minutely all the events that occurred on the plantations, his purchases, sales, and payments of money, the kinds and quantity of produce, occupations of the laborers, and whatever else could tend to explain the precise condition and progress of the business in his hands. These letters were regularly answered by the General, even when the weight and embarrassment of public duties pressed most heavily upon him, and full instructions were returned for regulating the plans and conduct of the manager. Hardly any copies of this description of letters were recorded, if retained, and the originals have been lost or destroyed. But Lund Washington’s letters are preserved, and they give evidence of the extraordinary attention bestowed by the Commander-in-chief on his domestic affairs, though several hundred miles from home, and bearing a burden of public cares, which alone was enough to distract and exhaust the firmest mind. Sparks.