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

TO FRANCIS HOPKINSON. - 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 FRANCIS HOPKINSON.

As the plan contemplated by Lady Huntington, according to the outlines exhibited, is not only unexceptionable in its design and tendency, but has humanity and charity for its object, and may, I conceive, be made subservient to valuable political purposes, I take the liberty of laying the matter before you for your free and candid sentiments thereon. The communication I make of this matter to you, Sir, is in a private way; but you are at full liberty to communicate the plan of Lady Huntington to the members individually, or officially to Congress, as the importance and propriety of the measure may strike you. My reasons for it are these. First, I do not believe that any of the States to which she has written, unless it may be New York, are in circumstances, since their cession of territory, to comply with the requisitions respecting emigration; but it has been privately hinted to me, and ought not to become a matter of public notoriety, that, notwithstanding the indefinite expressions of the address respecting the numbers or occupations of the emigrants, which were designed to avoid giving alarms in England, the former will be great, and the useful artisans among them many. Second, because such emigration, if it should effect the object in view, besides the humane and charitable purposes, which would be thereby answered, will be of immense political consequence; and even if this should not succeed to her Ladyship’s wishes, it must nevertheless be of considerable importance from the increase of population by orderly and well-disposed characters, who would at once form a barrier, and attempt the conversion of the Indians without involving an expense to the Union.

Dear Sir,

I see but one objection to a compact, unmixed, and powerful settlement of this kind, if it is likely to be so, the weight of which you will judge. It is (and her Ladyship seems to have been aware of it, and endeavors to guard against it,) placing a people in a body upon our exterior, where they will be contiguous to Canada, who may bring with them strong prejudices against us and our form of government, and equally strong attachments to the country and institutions they leave, without the means (being detached and unmixed with citizens of different sentiments) of having them eradicated.1

In for a penny, in for a pound, is an old adage. I am so hackneyed to the touches of the painter’s pencil, that I am now altogether at their beck; and sit, “like Patience on a monument,” whilst they are delineating the lines of my face. It is a proof, among many others, of what habit and custom can accomplish. At first I was as impatient at the request, and as restive under the operation, as a colt is of the saddle. The next time I submitted very reluctantly, but with less flouncing. Now, no dray-horse moves more readily to his thill than I to the painter’s chair. It may easily be conceived, therefore, that I yielded a ready obedience to your request and to the views of Mr. Pine.

Her Ladyship has spoken so feelingly and sensibly on the religious and benevolent purposes of the plan, that no language of which I am possessed can add aught to enforce her observations. And no place I think bids so fair to answer her views, as that spot in Hutchins’s map, marked Miami Village and Fort. From hence there is a communication to all parts by water; and at which in my opinion we ought to have a post. * * *

Letters from England recommendatory of this gentleman came to my hands previous to his arrival; not only as an artist of genius and taste, but as one who had shown a very friendly disposition towards this country, for which it seems he had been marked.

Please to accept my thanks for the pamphlet you sent me, and for the resolutions respecting the temporary and permanent seat of government. If I might be permitted to hazard an opinion of the latter, I would say, that, by the time your federal buildings on the banks of the Delaware, along the point of a triangle are fit for the reception of Congress, it will be found that they are very improperly placed for the seat of the Empire, and will have to undergo a second edition in a more convenient one. If the Union continues, and this is not the case, I will agree to be classed among the false prophets, and suffer for evil prediction. * * *

It gave me pleasure to hear from you. I shall always feel an interest in your happiness; and, with Mrs. Washington’s compliments and best wishes joined to my own for Mrs. Hopkinson and yourself, I am, &c.1

[1 ]“April 28th. To dinner Mr. Pine, a pretty eminent Portrait and historical painter arrived in order to take my picture from the life, and place it in the historical pieces he was about to draw. This gentleman stands in good estimation as a painter in England; comes recommended to me from Colo. Fairfax, Mr. Morris, Govr. Dickinson, Mr Hopkinson, and others.”—Washington’s Diary.

[1 ]“April 28th. To dinner Mr. Pine, a pretty eminent Portrait and historical painter arrived in order to take my picture from the life, and place it in the historical pieces he was about to draw. This gentleman stands in good estimation as a painter in England; comes recommended to me from Colo. Fairfax, Mr. Morris, Govr. Dickinson, Mr Hopkinson, and others.”—Washington’s Diary.