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

TO RUFUS PUTNAM. - 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 RUFUS PUTNAM.

Mount Vernon, 10 October, 1784.2

Dear Sir,

Mount Vernon, 2 June, 1784.

Dear Sir,

Upon my return from the western country a few days ago, I had the pleasure to receive your favor of the 17th ultimo. It has always been my intention to pay my respects to you, before the chance of another early and hard winter should make a warm fireside too comfortable to be relinquished. And I shall feel an additional pleasure in offering this tribute of friendship and respect to you, by having the company of the Marquis de Lafayette, when he shall have revisited this place from his eastern tour, now every day to be expected.

I could not answer your favor of the 5th ulto., from Phila., because Genl. Knox having mislaid, only presented the letter to me, in the moment of my departure from that place. The sentiments of esteem and friendship which breathe in it, are exceedingly pleasing and flattering to me—and you may rest assured they are reciprocal.

I shall take the liberty now, my dear Sir, to suggest a matter, which would (if I am not too shortsighted a politician) mark your administration as an important era in the annals of this country, if it should be recommended by you and adopted by the Assembly.

I wish it was in my power to give you a more favorable account of the officers’ petition for Lands on the Ohio and its waters, than I am about to do.—After this, and information respecting the establishment for Peace, were my enquiries solely directed, as I passed thro’ Annapolis on my way to Philadelphia,—but I could not learn that any thing decisive had been done in either. On the latter Congress are differing about their powers, but as they have accepted of the cession from Virginia, and have resolved to lay off ten new States bounded by latitudes and longitudes, it should be supposed that they will determine something respecting the former before they adjourn, and yet I very much question it, as the latter event is to happen on the third of next month.

It has long been my decided opinion, that the shortest, easiest, and least expensive communication with the invaluable and extensive country back of us would be by one or both of the rivers of this State, which have their sources in the Apalachian mountains. Nor am I singular in this opinion. Evans, in his Map and Analysis of the Middle Colonies, which, considering the early period at which they were given to the public, are done with amazing exactness, and Hutchins since, in his Topographical Description of the western country, (a good part of which is from actual surveys,) are decidedly of the same sentiments; as indeed are all others, who have had opportunities, and have been at the pains, to investigate and consider the subject.1

As the Congress, who are to meet in November next by adjournment, will be composed from a new choice of Delegates in each State, it is not in my power at this time, to direct you to a proper correspondence in that body. I wish I could, for persuaded I am, that to some such causes as you have assigned may be ascribed the delay which the petition has encountered;—for surely, if justice and gratitude to the Officers, and the general policy of the Union, were to govern in this case, there would not be the smallest interruption in granting their request. I really feel for those Gentlemen who, by these unaccountable (by any other means than those which you have suggested) delays, are held in such an awkward and disagreeable state of suspence; and wish my endeavors could remove the obstacles. At Princeton (before Congress left that place) I exerted every power I was master of, and dwelt upon the arguments you have used to shew the propriety of a speedy decision. Every member with whom I conversed acquiesced in the justice of the petition; all yielded, or seemed to yield to the policy of it, but plead the want of cession of the Land to act upon.—This is made, and accepted, and yet matters (as far as they have come to my knowledge) remain in statu quo.—

But that this may not now stand as mere matter of opinion or assertion, unsupported by facts (such at least as the best maps now extant, compared with the oral testimony, which my opportunities in the course of the war have enabled me to obtain), I shall give you the different routs and distances from Detroit, by which all the trade of the northwestern parts of the united territory must pass; unless the Spaniards, contrary to their present policy, should engage part of it, or the British should attempt to force nature, by carrying the trade of the Upper Lakes by the River Utawas into Canada, which I scarcely think they will or could effect.2 Taking Detroit then (which is putting ourselves in as unfavorable a point of view as we can be well placed, because it is upon the line of the British territory,) as a point by which, as I have already observed, all that part of the trade must come, it appears from the statement enclosed, that the tide waters of this State are nearer to it by one hundred and sixty-eight miles, than that of the River St. Lawrence; or than that of the Hudson at Albany, by one hundred and seventy-six miles.

I am endeavoring to do something with the Lands I now hold, and have had in that Country these twelve or fourteen years. The enclosed contains the terms upon which I propose to lease them. I am not sanguine in obtaining Tenants on them in this country; and yet on leases renewable forever—or for the term of 999 years. I will not (considering the peculiar situation and advantages of these Lands) take less. For a short time I care little about the rent, because, knowing the value and convenience of the Land, I am certain that the improvements which are to be made thereon, will enable me thereafter to command my own terms. If you think the promulgation of them can be of service to others, or myself, it is optional with you to do it. With very sincere &c.

Maryland stands upon similar ground with Virginia. Pennsylvania, although the Susquehanna is an unfriendly water, much impeded, it is said, with rocks and rapids, and nowhere communicating with those, which lead to her capital, has it in contemplation to open a communication between Toby’s Creek, which empties into the Allegany River ninety-five miles above Fort Pitt, and the west branch of Susquehanna, and to cut a canal between the waters of the latter and the Schuylkill; the expense of which is easier to be conceived, than estimated or described by me. A people, however, who are possessed of the spirit of commerce, who see and who will pursue their advantages, may achieve almost any thing. In the mean time, under the uncertainty of these undertakings, they are smoothing the roads and paving the ways for the trade of that western world. That New York will do the same so soon as the British garrisons are removed, which are at present insurmountable obstacles in their way, no person, who knows the temper, genius, and policy of those people as well as I do, can harbor the smallest doubt.1

[2 ]Washington wrote letters to George Plater, of Maryland (25 October), and Jacob Read, of South Carolina (3 November), upon the same subject, and in much the same language. I have noted a few variations and additions of interest, and printed in the proper place the views expressed to Read on other matters.

“My tour to the westward was less extensive than I intended. The Indians, from accounts, were in too dissatisfied a mood for me to expose myself to their insults, as I had no object in contemplation, which could warrant any risk. My property in that country having previously undergone every kind of attack and diminution, which the nature of it could admit, to see the condition of my lands, which were nearest and settled, and to dispose of those, which were more remote and unsettled, was all I had in view. The first I accomplished; the other I could not; and I returned three weeks sooner than I expected.”—From his letter to Jacob Read.

[1 ]“To describe the usefulness of water transportation would be a mere waste of time; every man who has considered the difference of expence between it and land transportation, and the prodigious saving in the article of draft cattle, requires no argument in proof of it. And to point out the advantages which the back inhabitants of Virginia and Maryland would derive from an extension of the inland navigation of the river Potomack, even supposing our views did not extend beyond the Appalachian mountains, would be equally nugatory.”—From his letter to Plater.

[2 ]“As the Lakes are as open to our traders as theirs, and the way easier.” From his letter to Plater.

[1 ]“Any more than they will of the difficulty of diverting trade after connections are once formed, and it has followed for any length of time in one channel, to that of another. I am not for discouraging the exertion of any State to draw the commerce of the western country to its sea ports. The more communications are opened to it, the closer we bind that rising world (for indeed it may be so called) to our interests, and the greater strength shall we acquire by it. Those to whom nature affords the best communication will, if they are wise and politic, enjoy the greatest share of the trade. All I would be understood to mean, therefore, is that the gifts of Providence may not be neglected or slighted.”—From his letter to Plater.

[2 ]Washington wrote letters to George Plater, of Maryland (25 October), and Jacob Read, of South Carolina (3 November), upon the same subject, and in much the same language. I have noted a few variations and additions of interest, and printed in the proper place the views expressed to Read on other matters.

“My tour to the westward was less extensive than I intended. The Indians, from accounts, were in too dissatisfied a mood for me to expose myself to their insults, as I had no object in contemplation, which could warrant any risk. My property in that country having previously undergone every kind of attack and diminution, which the nature of it could admit, to see the condition of my lands, which were nearest and settled, and to dispose of those, which were more remote and unsettled, was all I had in view. The first I accomplished; the other I could not; and I returned three weeks sooner than I expected.”—From his letter to Jacob Read.

[1 ]“To describe the usefulness of water transportation would be a mere waste of time; every man who has considered the difference of expence between it and land transportation, and the prodigious saving in the article of draft cattle, requires no argument in proof of it. And to point out the advantages which the back inhabitants of Virginia and Maryland would derive from an extension of the inland navigation of the river Potomack, even supposing our views did not extend beyond the Appalachian mountains, would be equally nugatory.”—From his letter to Plater.

[2 ]“As the Lakes are as open to our traders as theirs, and the way easier.” From his letter to Plater.

[1 ]“Any more than they will of the difficulty of diverting trade after connections are once formed, and it has followed for any length of time in one channel, to that of another. I am not for discouraging the exertion of any State to draw the commerce of the western country to its sea ports. The more communications are opened to it, the closer we bind that rising world (for indeed it may be so called) to our interests, and the greater strength shall we acquire by it. Those to whom nature affords the best communication will, if they are wise and politic, enjoy the greatest share of the trade. All I would be understood to mean, therefore, is that the gifts of Providence may not be neglected or slighted.”—From his letter to Plater.