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

TO WILLIAM GRAYSON, IN CONGRESS. - 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 WILLIAM GRAYSON, IN CONGRESS.

My best wishes will accompany you to Potsdam, and into the Austrian’s Dominions whenever you set out upon that tour. As an unobserved spectator, I should like to take a peep at the troops of those Monarch’s at their manœuverings, upon a grand field day; but as it is among the unattainable things, my philosophy shall supply the place of curiosity, and set my mind at ease.

Dear Sir,

In your favor of the 19th of March you speak of letters which were sent by a Mr. Williams; but none such have come to hand. The present for the little folks did not arrive by Mr. Ridouts ship as you expected;—to what cause owing I know not.—Mrs. Washington has but indifferent health; & the late loss of her mother, & only brother Mr. Barthw. Dandridge (one of the Judges of our Supreme Court) has rather added to her indisposition. My mother and friends enjoy good health.—George has returned after his peregrination thro’ the West Indies, to Burmuda, the Bahama Islands, & Charlestown; at the last place he spent the winter. He is in better health than when he set out, but not quite recovered:—He is now on a journey to the Sweet Springs, to procure a stock sufficient to fit him for a matrimonial voyage in the Frigate F. Bassett; on board which he means to embark at his return in October:—how far his case is desperate, I leave you to judge—if it is so, the remedy, however pleasing at first, will certainly be violent.

* * * * * *

The latter end of April I had the pleasure to receive in good order, by a ship from London, the picture of yourself, Madame la Fayette and the children, which I consider as an invaluable present, & shall give it the best place in my House.—Mrs. Washington joins me in respectful compliments, & in every good wish for Madame de la Fayette, yourself & family, all the others who have come under your kind notice present their compliments to you.—For myself, I can only repeat the sincere attachment, & unbounded affection of My Dr. Marqs., &c.

I thank you for the several articles of intelligence contained in your letter, and for the propositions respecting a coinage of gold, silver, and copper; a measure, which, in my opinion, is become indispensably necessary. Mr. Jefferson’s ideas upon this subject are plain and simple; well adapted, I think, to the nature of the case, as he has exemplified by the plan.1 Without a coinage, or unless some stop can be put to the cutting and clipping of money, our dollars, pistareens, &c., will be converted, as Teague says, into five quarters; and a man must travel with a pair of money scales in his pocket, or run the risk of receiving gold at one fourth less by weight than it counts.

[1 ]This plan was the one which has since been carried into use. Mr. Jefferson took the dollar as a unit, and then divided it decimally for the other denominations. He wrote a memoir on the subject for the consideration of Congress.—Jefferson’s Writings, vol. i., p. 133. A very ingenious scheme had been previously devised by Gouverneur Morris, founded on similar principles; but, as a different unit was adopted, the notation was less simple.—Sparks’ Life of Gouverneur Morris, vol. i., pp. 273-281.

[1 ]This plan was the one which has since been carried into use. Mr. Jefferson took the dollar as a unit, and then divided it decimally for the other denominations. He wrote a memoir on the subject for the consideration of Congress.—Jefferson’s Writings, vol. i., p. 133. A very ingenious scheme had been previously devised by Gouverneur Morris, founded on similar principles; but, as a different unit was adopted, the notation was less simple.—Sparks’ Life of Gouverneur Morris, vol. i., pp. 273-281.