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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.

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 GEORGE WILLIAM FAIRFAX.

On referring to the Institution of the Society of the Cincinnati I find that the Chevalier de la Luzerne, the Sieur Gérard, the Counts D’Estaing, Barras and De Grasse, the Chevalier Destouches and the Count de Rochambeau with the Generals and Colonels of his Army are to be presented with the Order of the Society.

State ofNew York,
10 July, 1783.

My dear Sir,

As it is however proper that these Gentlemen should be made acquainted with the nature of the Society, I propose to write to each of those above named (except the Chevalier de la Luzerne who was written to in first instance) and inclose them a copy of the Institution, at the same time informing them that Major L’Enfant is charged with the execution of the Order, and has directions to furnish them from the first that are finished.

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.

I propose also to inclose a Copy to the Marquis de la Fayette, and request him to take the signatures of such of the French officers in our service who are entitled and wish to become members—to receive their month’s pay and deliver them the Orders on their paying for them.

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.

These Letters Major L’Enfant will carry with him and deliver to each of those Gentlemen and must be directed to deliver them the Orders so soon as they are compleat—delivering to Count Rochambeau, for the Officers of his Command who will receive them of him—and to the Marquis de la Fayette, sufficient for the French Officers in our Service who become Members.

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.

I enclose to you the permission for Major L’Enfant to go to France, and a Certificate of his being a Member of the Society. However, before he sets off, I think it should be well explained and understood by him, that the Voyage is not undertaken for the Society but that their business is committted to him only in consequence of his going there on his own affairs, and consequently he is not to be paid any Expence of the Voyage or his stay—but only such extra Expence as might be incurred by any person residing in France who transacted the same business for the society—These are my sentiments—if they accord with yours and the rest of the Gentlemen, and he accepts these conditions I think the sooner he sets out the better.

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 will be obliged to you to make out his instructions comprehending the objects I have mentioned above and such other as you may think necessary—and to make the necessary arrangements with him respecting the funds to be furnished. I am told subscriptions have been paid in by those who wish to have Orders—I propose taking seven, for which the Money is ready at any time—and it may not be amiss in this place to inform you that it has always been my intention to present the Society with 500 Dollars—if any part of this is necessary and can be applied with propriety in this business—I have no objection.

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.

Maj. L’Enfant might also be directed to receive from the Marquis the Month’s pay of the french Officers in our service who become Members.

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 must request you to procure Six or seven Copies of the Institution to be made out neatly, to transmit to the Gentlemen above mentioned. Major L’Enfant can bring them on with him.1

[1 ]“All the officers who chose to make use of Major L’Enfant’s agency to obtain the badge of the society, not only commissioned him to bring them from France, but furnished him with the means. I did this myself for six or eight. He brought many more, I have some reason to believe on a speculating scheme, and demanded so much for them as, if my memory serves me, to disgust many members of the society, and induce them to apply to an artist in Philadelphia, who, it was said, would not only execute them as well (and without the defect which was discovered in the French ones), but furnish them cheaper.”—Washington to Knox, 1 June, 1786.

[1 ]“All the officers who chose to make use of Major L’Enfant’s agency to obtain the badge of the society, not only commissioned him to bring them from France, but furnished him with the means. I did this myself for six or eight. He brought many more, I have some reason to believe on a speculating scheme, and demanded so much for them as, if my memory serves me, to disgust many members of the society, and induce them to apply to an artist in Philadelphia, who, it was said, would not only execute them as well (and without the defect which was discovered in the French ones), but furnish them cheaper.”—Washington to Knox, 1 June, 1786.