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

TO BENJAMIN HARRISON, GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. - 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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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 BENJAMIN HARRISON, GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA.

Mount Vernon, 18 January, 1784.1

My dear Sir,

I have just had the pleasure to receive your letter of the 8th. For the friendly and affectionate terms, in which you have welcomed my return to this country and to private life, and for the favorable light in which you are pleased to consider and express your sense of my past services, you have my warmest and most grateful acknowledgments.

That the prospect before us is, as you justly observe, fair, none can deny; but what use we shall make of it is exceedingly problematical; not but that I believe all things will come right at last, but like a young heir, come a little prematurely to a large inheritance, we shall wanton and run riot until we have brought our reputation to the brink of ruin, and then like him shall have to labor with the current of opinion, when compelled perhaps to do what prudence and common policy pointed out, as plain as any problem in Euclid, in the first instance.

The disinclination of the individual States to yield competent powers to Congress for the federal government, their unreasonable jealousy of that body and of one another, and the disposition, which seems to pervade each, of being all-wise and all-powerful within itself, will, if there is not a change in the system, be our downfall as a nation. This is as clear to me as the A, B, C; and I think we have opposed Great Britain, and have arrived at the present state of peace and independency, to very little purpose, if we cannot conquer our own prejudices. The powers of Europe begin to see this, and our newly acquired friends, the British, are already and professedly acting upon this ground; and wisely too, if we are determined to persevere in our folly. They know that individual opposition to their measures is futile, and boast that we are not sufficiently united as a nation to give a general one! Is not the indignity alone of this declaration, while we are in the very act of peacemaking and conciliation, sufficient to stimulate us to vest more extensive and adequate powers in the sovereign of these United States?

For my own part, although I am returned to, and am now mingled with, the class of private citizens, and like them must suffer all the evils of a tyranny, or of too great an extension of federal powers, I have no fears arising from this source, in my mind; but I have many, and powerful ones indeed, which predict the worst consequences, from a half-starved, limping government, that appears to be always moving upon crutches, and tottering at every step. Men chosen as the delegates in Congress are, cannot officially be dangerous. They depend upon the breath, nay, they are so much the creatures of the people, under the present constitution, that they can have no views, (which could possibly be carried into execution,) nor any interests distinct from those of their constituents. My political creed, therefore, is, to be wise in the choice of delegates, support them like gentlemen while they are our representatives, give them competent powers for all federal purposes, support them in the due exercise thereof, and, lastly, to compel them to close attendance in Congress during their delegation. These things, under the present mode for and termination of elections, aided by annual instead of constant sessions, would, or I am exceedingly mistaken, make us one of the most wealthy, happy, respectable, and powerful nations, that ever inhabited the terrestrial globe. Without them, we shall, in my opinion, soon be every thing which is the direct reverse of them.

I shall look for you, in the first part of next month, with such other friends as may incline to accompany you, with great pleasure, being, with best respects to Mrs. Harrison, in which Mrs. Washington joins me, dear Sir, &c.

[1 ]Washington had no sooner reached Mount Vernon than he was overwhelmed by applications from many sources for his aid and countenance. The manner in which the army had been disbanded appealed to his sympathies, and he was ever ready to listen to the application of those who had served under him, and with whose services and wants he was acquainted. In this much tact and discrimination were necessary. He was now a private citizen, without call upon either Congress, or the States, and ostensibly of no weight in determining public questions or urging private claims. Yet he would have had no time for other occupation had he attempted to do what was asked of him. In addition to his friendly correspondence—a heavy tax on his time and strength, he was asked to write endorsements and recommendations, stand sponsor to books on every topic, subscribe money to all manner of undertakings, and loan it to the needy. I could fill two volumes with his replies, but have been compelled to omit many that Mr. Sparks printed in his collection, for the form, always in good taste and discretion, was somewhat stereotyped; and I thought, with so many other letters of interest, I could best sacrifice many of this description.

[1 ]Washington had no sooner reached Mount Vernon than he was overwhelmed by applications from many sources for his aid and countenance. The manner in which the army had been disbanded appealed to his sympathies, and he was ever ready to listen to the application of those who had served under him, and with whose services and wants he was acquainted. In this much tact and discrimination were necessary. He was now a private citizen, without call upon either Congress, or the States, and ostensibly of no weight in determining public questions or urging private claims. Yet he would have had no time for other occupation had he attempted to do what was asked of him. In addition to his friendly correspondence—a heavy tax on his time and strength, he was asked to write endorsements and recommendations, stand sponsor to books on every topic, subscribe money to all manner of undertakings, and loan it to the needy. I could fill two volumes with his replies, but have been compelled to omit many that Mr. Sparks printed in his collection, for the form, always in good taste and discretion, was somewhat stereotyped; and I thought, with so many other letters of interest, I could best sacrifice many of this description.