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

MEMORANDUM TO JOHN LEWIS. - 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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MEMORANDUM TO JOHN LEWIS.

From this description of my lands, with the aid of Evan’s or Hutchins’s Map of that country, a good general knowledge of their situation may be obtained by those, who incline to become adventurers in the settlement of them; but it may not be improper to observe further, that they were surveyed under the Royal Proclamation of 1763 (granting to each commissioned and non-commissioned officer according to his rank, and to the private soldier certain quantities,) and under a yet older proclamation from Mr. Dinwiddie, then lieutenant-governor of the colony, issued by the advice of his council to encourage and benefit the military adventurers of the year 1754, while the land-office was shut against all other applicants. It is not reasonable to suppose, therefore, that those, who had the first choice, had five years allowed them to make it, and a large district to survey in, were inattentive either to the quality of the soil, or the advantages of situation.

14 February, 1784.

But supposing no preëminence in quality, the title to these lands is indisputable; and, by lying on the south-east side of the Ohio, they are not subject to the claims of the Indians; consequently will be free from their disturbances, and from the disputes, in which the settlers on the northwest side (when the Indians shall permit any) and even on the same side lower down will be involved; for it should seem, that there is already location upon location, and scarce any thing else talked of but land-jobbing and monopolies, before Congress have even settled the terms upon which the ceded lands are to be obtained.

G. Washington would be obliged to Mr. Lewis for delivering, or causing to be delivered by a safe hand the Letter accompanying this, to Mr. Gilbert Simpson, & if he goes by his house to Fort Pitt;—for observing the size, & condition of his Plantation & the Condition of the Mill.—& for enquiring how many Tenants he has placed on the Land, for how long a term, & upon what Rents. Whether there is any person living upon a small Tract he holds at the Great Meadows—what sort of an Improvement is thereon—of whom the person took it and upon what terms—And should Mr. Lewis have a favorable opportunity, the General would be obliged to him for informing those settlers upon his tract West of the Monongahela, on the waters of Shurtee’s & Raccoon creeks1 that he has a patent for the Land, dated the 5th day of July 1774—that he will most assuredly assert his right to it. But, in consideration of their having made Improvements thereon ignorantly, or under a mistaken belief, founded in false assertions that the Land did not belong to him, he is willing that they should remain upon it as Tenants, upon a just and moderate rent, such as he and they can agree upon. The like may be said to any Person or Persons who may be settled at a place called the Round Bottom, on the Ohio, opposite Pipe Creek and a little above a Creek called Capteening, which has been surveyed by the county Surveyor of Augusta upon proper warrants from Lord Dunmore, ever since the 14th day of July 1773.

Having given this account of the land, I am brought to another point, which is more puzzling to me.

If Mr. Lewis can discover by indirect means who would be a fit Agent in the neighborhood of Fort Pitt to charge with the seating and leasing the General’s Lands in that country without holding up Ideas to them which may lead any one to expect the appointment, he would thank him for the information.

I have been long endeavoring to hit upon some mode, by which the grantor and grantees of these lands might be mutually considered and equally satisfied, but find it no easy matter; as it is to be presumed that all adventurers, especially emigrants from foreign countries, would not only choose but expect leases for a long term. In this case, it is difficult in an infant country, where lands rise progressively, and I might add rapidly in value, to fix upon a rent, which will not, in the first instance, startle the tenant by its magnitude, or injure the landlord in the course of a few years by the inadequacy of it. What course then is to be taken?

Such parts of these requests as can be complied with before his departure from Fort Pitt, the General would be obliged by receiving them (in a letter) from that place, as he is desirous of getting some knowledge of his affairs in that Country, as soon as possible.

To advance the rent periodically, in proportion to the supposed increasing value of the land, is very speculative; and to leave it to the parties, or their representatives, or to persons to be chosen by them, at like stated periods to determine the increase of it, would not only be vague and uncertain, but more than probably open a door for many disputes, and prove very unsatisfactory to both sides. Yet, difficult as the case is, private and public considerations urging me thereto, I have come to a resolution, which I am going to promulge in the gazettes of this country, by inserting an advertisement of which the enclosed is a copy, leaving it optional in the grantees to make choice of either.