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

TO GEORGE WILLIAM FAIRFAX. - 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 GEORGE WILLIAM FAIRFAX.

Newburg, 22 April, 1783.

Dear Sir:

State ofNew York,
10 July, 1783.

My dear Sir,

I did not receive your letter of the 15th till after my return from Ringwood, where I had a meeting with the secretary at war for the purpose of making arrangements for the release of our prisoners, agreeably to the resolve of Congress of the 15th Inst.

With very sincere pleasure I receiv’d your favor of the 26th March. It came to hand a few days ago, and gave me the satisfaction of learning that you enjoyed good health, and yt. Mrs. Fairfax had improved in hers. There was nothing wanting in this Letter to give compleat satisfaction to Mrs. Washington and myself, but some expression to induce us to believe you would once more become our neighbors. Your house at Belvoir I am sorry to add is no more, but mine (which is enlarged since you saw it,) is most sincerely and heartily at your service till you could rebuild it.

Finding a diversity of opinion respecting the treaty, and the line of conduct we ought to observe with the prisoners, I requested, in precise terms to know from Gene. Lincoln (before I entered on the business) whether we were to exercise our own judgment with respect to the time, as well as mode of releasing them, or was to be confined to the latter. Being informed that we had no option in the first, Congress wishing to be eased of the expence as soon as possible, I acted solely on that ground.

As the path, after being closed by a long, arduous, and painful contest, is to use an Indian metaphor, now opened and made smooth, I shall please myself with the hope of hearing from you frequently; and till you forbid me to endulge the wish, I shall not despair of seeing you and Mrs. Fairfax once more the inhabitants of Belvoir, and greeting you both there the intimate companions of our old age, as you have been of our younger years. I cannot sufficiently express my sensibility for your kind congratulations on the favorable termination of the War, and for the flattering manner in which you are pleased to speak of my instrumentality in effecting a revolution, which I can truly aver, was not in the beginning premeditated; but the result of dire necessity brought about by the persecuting spirit of the British Government. This no man can speak to with more certainty, or assert upon better grounds than myself—as I was a member of Congress in the Councils of America till the affair at Bunker Hill, and was an attentive observer and witness to those interesting and painful struggles for accomodation, and redress of grievances in a Constitutional way, which all the world saw and must have approved, except the ignorant, deluded and designing.

At the same time I scruple not to confess to you, that if this measure was not dictated by necessity, it is, in my opinion an impolitic one; as we place ourselves in the power of the British, before the treaty is definitive. The manner in which peace was first announced, & the subsequent declarations of it, have led the country & army into a belief that it was final. The ratification of the preliminary articles on the 3d of February, so far confirmed this, that one consequence resulting from it is, the soldiers for the war conceive the term of their services has actually expired; and I believe it is not in the power of Congress or their officers, to hold them much, if any, longer; for we are obliged at this moment to increase our guards to prevent rioting; and the insults which the officers meet with in attempting to hold them to their duty. The proportion of these men amount to seven-elevenths of the army. These we shall loose at the moment the British army receive, by their prisoners, an augmentation of five or 6000 men.

I unite my prayers most fervently with yours for wisdom to these U. States, and have no doubt, after a little while all errors in the present form of their Government will be corrected, and a happy temper be diffused through the whole; but, like young heirs come a little prematurely perhaps to a large inheritance, it is more than probable they will riot for a while—but this, if it should happen, tho’ it is a circumstance which is to be lamented (as I would have the national character of America be pure and immaculate,) will work its own cure, as there is virtue at the bottom.

It is not for me to investigate the causes which induced this measure; nor the policy of those letters (from authority) which gave the tone to the present sentiment. But since they have been adopted, we ought, in my opinion, to put a good face upon matters; and by a liberal conduct throughout on our part (freed from appearances of distrust) try if we cannot excite similar dispositions on theirs. Indeed circumstanced as things now are, I wish most fervently that all the troops which are not retained for a peace establishment were to be discharged immediately, or such of them, at least, as do not incline to await the settlement of their accts. If they continue here, their claims, I can plainly perceive, will increase, and our perplexities multiply. A petition is this moment handed to me from the non-comd. officers of the Connecticut line soliciting half pay. It is well drawn, I am told, but I did not read it. I sent it back without appearing to understand the contents, because it did not come through the channel of their officers. This may be followed by others and I mention it to show the necessity, the absolute necessity, of discharging the warsmen as soon as possible.

You speak of having written many Letters to me during the War; but few, very few indeed have ever reached me. Early, and repeatedly, did I advise you of the impracticability, while I continued to direct the military operations of the Country, of my paying the smallest attention to your Interest in Virginia, and pressed you to name some other friend to superintend your business. Upon your suggestion of Mr. Nicholas, I wrote to him on the subject without obtaining an answer; and wrote and wrote again to him months after he was dead, so little acquainted was I with the private occurrences of our own State. Nor to this moment have I got an answer from any one on the subject, and know as little—perhaps less than you do of the situation of your affairs in Virginia—I have been in the State but once since the 4th of May, 1775, and that was at the Siege of York. In going thither I spent one day at my own House, and in returning I took 3 or 4, without attempting to transact a particle of private business, even for myself. I do not conceive that it would be any consolation to you to hear that your neighbors were equal sufferers with yourself, or you might thank God—as an overseer in the service of your Father-in-law did, when he was rendering an account to his employer in the time of a calamitous and [illegible] the miserable prospect before him and the probability of their starving—that his neighbors were as bad off as himself.

I have taken much pains to support Mr. Morris’s administration in the army, and in proportion to its numbers I believe he had not more friends anywhere. But if he will neither adopt the mode which has been suggested, point out any other, nor show cause why the first is either impracticable or impolitic (I have heard he objects to it) they will certainly attribute their disappointment to a lukewarmness in him, or some design incompatible with their interests. And here, my dear Colo. Hamilton, let me assure you that it would not be more difficult to still the raging billows in a tempestuous gale, than to convince the officers of this army of the justice or policy of paying men in civil offices full wages, when they cannot obtain a sixtieth part of their dues. I am not unapprised of the arguments which are made use of upon this occasion, to discriminate the cases; but they really are futile; and may be summed up in this: that tho’ both are contending for the same rights & expect equal benefits, yet, both cannot submit to the same inconveniences to obtain them; otherwise, to adopt the language of simplicity and plainness, a ration of salt pork, with or without pease, as the case often is, would support the one as well as the other, & in such a struggle as ours would, in my opinion, be alike honorable in both.

The amiable Mr. Custis was taken sick at the Siege of York, and died at Colo. Bassett’s the [5th] of Novr.—he has left four lovely children; three girls and a boy (which the latter is the youngest) who were all very well and promising when we heard last from them1 —His widow is yet single, and lives where he did, at the place formerly Robt. Alexander’s (above Alexandria) which he bought and handsomely approved before his death. Mrs. Washington enjoys an incompetent share of health; Billious Fevers and Cholics attack her very often, and reduce her low. At this moment she is but barely recovering from one of them. At the same time that she thanks Mrs. Fairfax and you for your kind suggestion of Doctr. Jones’s Annatiptic Pills, she begs you both to accept her most affectionate regards—she would have conveyed these in a letter of her own with grateful acknowledgements of Mrs. Fairfax’s kind remembrance by Mr. Lee, if her health would have allowed it.

My anxiety to get home increases with the prospect of it, but when is it to happen? I have not heard that Congress have yet had under consideration the lands and other gratuities, which at different periods of the war have been promised to the army. Does not these things evince the necessity of a committee’s repairing to camp, in order to arrange & adjust matters without spending time in a tedious exchange of letters. Unless something of this kind is adopted, business will be delayed & expences accumulated, or the army will break up in disorder, go home enraged, complaining of injustice & committing enormities on the innocent inhabitants in every direction.

I wait with great impatience the arrival of the Definitive Treaty—that I may quit my military employment, and bid adieu to public life—and in the shades of retirement seek that repose and tranquillity to which I have been an intire stranger for more than Eight years. I wish for it too because it will afford me some leisure to attend to an impaired fortune and recover as it were from a state of torpidity or suspension—except in the instances of having money paid to me at the depreciated value—My private concerns, my warmest and best affections attend Mrs. Fairfax and yourself—and I am &c.1

I write to you unreservedly. If, therefore, contrary to my apprehension all these matters are in a proper train, & Mr. Morris has devised means to give the army three months’ pay, you will, I am persuaded, excuse my precipitancy and sollicitude, by ascribing it to an earnest wish to see the war happily & honorably terminated; to my anxious desire of enjoying some repose, & the necessity of my paying a little attention to my private concerns, which have suffered considerably in eight years’ absence. * * *

[1 ]Elizabeth Parke, born 21 August, 1776; Martha Parke, born 31 December, 1777; Eleanor Parke, born 21 March, 1779; and George Washington Parke, born 30 April, 1781.

[1 ]“A report prevails here [in Va.], said to come from Philadelphia, that our worthy general has become so unpopular in his army, that no officer will dine with him. The report is so improbable that I give no credit to it, yet I am anxious to hear from you on the subject, and also to know in what state the definitive treaty is and what now obstructs the signing of it.”—Benjamin Harrison to the Virginia Delegates in Congress, 12 July, 1783. “We do not know,” they replied on July 27th, “any color of reason for the report you mention relative to our Commander-in-chief. On the contrary, we believe that his popularity, like his merit, has not suffered the smallest diminution.”

[1 ]Elizabeth Parke, born 21 August, 1776; Martha Parke, born 31 December, 1777; Eleanor Parke, born 21 March, 1779; and George Washington Parke, born 30 April, 1781.

[1 ]“A report prevails here [in Va.], said to come from Philadelphia, that our worthy general has become so unpopular in his army, that no officer will dine with him. The report is so improbable that I give no credit to it, yet I am anxious to hear from you on the subject, and also to know in what state the definitive treaty is and what now obstructs the signing of it.”—Benjamin Harrison to the Virginia Delegates in Congress, 12 July, 1783. “We do not know,” they replied on July 27th, “any color of reason for the report you mention relative to our Commander-in-chief. On the contrary, we believe that his popularity, like his merit, has not suffered the smallest diminution.”