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

TO LUND WASHINGTON. [EXTRACT.] - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. X (1782-1785) [1891]

Edition used:

The Writings of George Washington, collected and edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890). Vol. X (1782-1785).

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

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TO LUND WASHINGTON.

[EXTRACT.]

Head-Qrs.,Newburg, 5 April, 1783.

My dear Marqs.,

11 June, 1783.

It is easier for you to conceive, than for me to express, the sensibility of my heart at the communications in your letter of the 5th of Feb. from Cadiz. It is to these communications we are indebted for the only accts. yet recd. of a general Pacification. My mind, upon the receipt of this news, was instantly assailed by a thousand ideas, all of them contending for preëminence; but, believe me, my dear friend, none could supplant, or ever will eradicate that gratitude, which has arisen from a lively sense of the conduct of your nation, and from my obligations to many of the illustrious characters of it, among whom, (I do not mean to flatter, when I place you at the head,) and from my admiration of the Virtues of your August Sovereign, who, at the same time that he stands confessed the Father of his own people, and defender of American rights, has given the most exalted example of moderation in treating with his Enemies.

I do not blame you for the wages which you gave Evans; I have no doubt of your having engaged him upon as good terms as you could, and as it was my wish to have the work forwarded, this was all I had a right to expect.

We stand, now, an Independent People, and have yet to learn political Tactics. We are placed among the nations of the Earth, and have a character to establish; but how we shall acquit ourselves, time must discover. The probability (at least I fear it), is that local or State politics will interfere too much with the more liberal and extensive plan of government, which wisdom and foresight, freed from the mist of prejudice, would dictate; and that we shall be guilty of many blunders in treading this boundless theatre, before we shall have arrived at any perfection in this art; in a word, that the experience, which is purchased at the price of difficulties and distress, will alone convince us that the honor, power, and true Interest of this Country must be measured by a Continental scale, and that every departure therefrom weakens the Union, and may ultimately break the band which holds us together. To avert these evils, to form a Constitution, that will give consistency, stability, and dignity to the Union, and sufficient powers to the great Council of the nation for general purposes, is a duty which is incumbent upon every man, who wishes well to his Country, and will meet with my aid as far as it can be rendered in the private walks of life: for hence forward my mind shall be unbent and I will endeavor to glide gently down the stream of life till I come to that abyss from whence no traveller is permitted to return.

In one of your letters (speaking of the difficulty of getting workmen) you recommend it to me to engage some of the enemy who were prisoners with us—many of whom, you say, are good workmen. Why, let me ask, when they hired themselves by the authority of Congress, and comparatively speaking were in your neighborhood, would you not do this for me? None of them were within 300 miles of me, and most of them within 55 to 80 miles of you. But you seem to have had an unconquerable aversion to going from home; one consequence of which is, I expect I shall lose all my rents; for in a letter I have lately received from my brother John, in Berkeley, are these words: “I fear you are suffering greatly in your rents, as I am informed many of the tenants are going into the Western country, and understand there are many years’ arrears of rent due to you.” In divers letters, at divers times in the course of the three or four last years, have I mentioned this fact to you, and the necessity of visiting them; but cannot find by any of your letters, that you have ever been amongst them more than once, and then I believe only partially. I expect also that all the money I have expended on the mill at Yohoghaney, and all the property which has been put into the hands of Gilbert Simpson, will be sunk for want of proper endeavors to bring him to account. But if your own wages, since the charge of them in the account rendered at Valley Forge, has not been received by you in the specific articles of the crop, which does not appear by the accounts you have lately rendered to me, I shall be more hurt than at any thing else, to think that an estate, which I have drawn nothing from for eight years, and which always enabled me to make any purchase I had in view, should not have been able for the last five years, to pay the manager: and that, worse than going home to enjoy coffers, and expensive living, I shall be encumbered with debt. It is disagreeable to me, because I dare say it will be so to you, to make these observations; but as my public business is now drawing to a close, I cannot avoid looking towards my private concerns, which do not wear the most smiling countenance.

The armament, wch. was preparing at Cadiz, and in which you were to have acted a distinguished part, would have carried such conviction with it, that it is not to be wondered at, that Great Britain should have been impressed with the force of such reasoning. To this cause, I am persuaded, the Peace is to be ascribed. Your going to Madrid from thence, instead of coming immediately to this Country, is another instance, my dear Marquis, of your zeal for the American Cause, and lays a fresh claim to the gratitude of her Sons, who will at all times receive you with open arms.1 As no official despatches are yet received, either at Phila. or New York, of the completion of the treaty, nor any measures taken for the reduction of the army, my detention there-with is quite uncertain. To say then (at this time) where I may be, at the epoch for your intended visit to this continent, is too vague even for conjecture; but nothing can be more true, than that the pleasure, with which I shall receive you, will be equal to your wishes. I shall be better able to determine then, than now, on the practicability of accompanying you to France, a Country to which I shall ever feel a warm affection; and, if I do not pay it that tribute of respect, which is to be derived from a visit it may be ascribed with more justice to any other cause, than a want of inclination, or the pleasure of going there under the auspices of your friendship.

I am sorry that Barry’s land has at last slipped through my fingers. If the purchaser made it with a view to rent it to me, he shall be disappointed; nor shall any tenant, or himself, if he proposes to live on it, reap the smallest benefit from my fencing and other improvements, without which the place is of no value to any but me. This the purchaser must have known, and as his aim must have been to take advantage of my wishes to add this small piece of land (surrounded as it is) to my tract, let him abide the consequence of his interference, especially as it was well known, I wanted to take no advantage of Barry, having offered to leave the price to three disinterested men, of his own choosing, to fix.

I have already observed, that the determinations of Congress, if they have come to any, respecting the army, is yet unknown to me. But, as you wish to be informed of every thing that concerns it, I do, for your satisfaction, transmit authentic documents of some very interesting occurrences, which have happened within the last Six months. But I ought first to have premised, that, from accumulated sufferings and little or no prospect of relief, the discontents of the officers last Fall put on the threatening appearance of a total resignation, till the business was diverted into the channel, which produced the Address and Petition to Congress, which stand first on the file herewith enclosed. I shall make no comment on these proceedings. To one so well acquainted with the sufferings of the American army as you are, it is unnecessary. It will be sufficient to observe, that the more the Virtue and forbearance of it are tried, the more resplendent it appears. My hope is, that the military exit of this valuable class of the community will exhibit such a proof of amor patriæ, as will do them honor in the page of history.