Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. - The Writings of George Washington, vol. X (1782-1785)

Return to Title Page for The Writings of George Washington, vol. X (1782-1785)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

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

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. - 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.

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 THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

These papers, with my last letter, (which was intended to go by Colo. Gouvion, containing extensive details of military Plans,) will convey to you every information I can give in the present uncertainty worthy of attention. If you should get sleepy and tired of reading them, recollect, for my exculpation, that it is in compliance with your request I have run into such prolixity. I made a proper use of the confidential part of your Letter of the 5th of Feby.

Sir:

The scheme, my dear Marqs., which you propose as a precedent to encourage the emancipation of the black people of this Country from that state of Bondage in wch. they are held, is a striking evidence of the benevolence of your Heart. I shall be happy to join you in so laudable a work; but will defer going into a detail of the business, till I have the pleasure of seeing you.

I have the honor of transmitting to your Excellency for the consideration of Congress, a Petition from a large number of Officers of the Army in behalf of themselves, and such other Officers and Soldiers of the Continental Army as are entitled to rewards in lands, and may choose to avail themselves of any Priviledges and Grants which shall be obtained in consequence of the present solicitation—I enclose also the Copy of a Letter from Brigr. General Putnam in which the sentiments and expectations of the Petitioners are more fully explained; and in which the ideas of occupying the Posts in the Western Country will be found to correspond very nearly with those I have some time since communicated to a Committee of Congress, in treating of the subject of a Peace Establishment.—I will beg leave to make a few more observations on the general benefits of the Location and Settlement now proposed; and then submit the justice & policy of the measure to the wisdom of Congress.

Lord Stirling is no more. He died at Albany in Jany. last, very much regretted. Colo. Barber was snatched from us about the same time, in a way equally unexpected, sudden, and distressing; leaving many friends to bemoan his fate.1

Altho’ I pretend not myself to determine how far the district of unsettled Country which is described in the Petition is free from the claim of every State, or how far this disposal of it may interfere with the views of Congress, yet it appears to me this is the Tract which from its local position and peculiar advantages ought to be first settled in preference to any other whatever, and I am perfectly convinced that it cannot be so advantageously settled by any other class of men as by the disbanded Officers and Soldiers of the Army—to whom the faith of Government hath long since been pledged, that lands should be granted at the expiration of the War, in certain proportions agreeably to their respective grades.

Tilghman is on the point of matrimony with a namesake and cousin, sister to Mrs. Carroll of Baltimore. It only remains for me now, my dear Marqs., to make a tender of my respectful compliments, in which Mrs. Washington unites, to Madame Lafayette, and to wish you, her, and your little offspring, all the happiness this life can afford. I will extend my compliments to the gentlemen with whom I have the honor of an acquaintance in your circle. I need not add how happy I shall be to see you in America, and more particularly at Mount Vernon, or with what truth and warmth of affection I am, &c.

I am induced to give my sentiments thus freely on the advantages to be expected from this plan of Colonization—because it would connect our Governments with the frontiers, extend our settlements progressively—and plant a brave, a hardy, & respectable Race of People as our advanced —, who would be always ready & willing (in case of hostility) to combat the Savages, and check their incursions—A Settlement formed of such Men would give security to our frontiers—the very name of it would awe the Indians—and more than probably prevent the murder of many innocent Families, which frequently in the usual mode of extending our Settlements & Encroachments on the hunting grounds of the Natives, fall the hapless Victims to savage barbarity—Besides the emoluments which might be derived from the Peltry Trade at our Factories, if such should be established; the appearance of so formidable a Settlement in the vicinity of their towns (to say nothing of the barrier it would form against our other Neighbors) would be the most likely means to enable us to purchase upon equitable terms of the Aborigines their right of preoccupancy; and to induce them to relinquish our Territories, and to remove into the illimitable regions of the West.