Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow TO WILLIAM GRAYSON, IN CONGRESS. - The Writings of George Washington, vol. X (1782-1785)

Return to Title Page for The Writings of George Washington, vol. X (1782-1785)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

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.

Mount Vernon, 3 October, 1785.

Dear Sir,

Mount Vernon, 22 August, 1785.

Dear Sir,

I have this moment received yours of yesterday’s date, enclosing a memorial and remonstrance against the Assessment Bill, which I will read with attention. At present I am unable to do it, on account of company. The bill itself I do not recollect ever to have read; with attention I am certain I never did, but will compare them together.

* * * * * *

Although no man’s sentiments are more opposed to any kind of restraint upon religious principles than mine are, yet I must confess, that I am not amongst the number of those, who are so much alarmed at the thoughts of making people pay towards the support of that which they profess, if of the denomination of Christians, or declare themselves Jews, Mahometans, or otherwise, and thereby obtain proper relief. As the matter now stands, I wish an assessment had never been agitated, and as it has gone so far, that the bill could not die an easy death; because I think it will be productive of more quiet to the State, than by enacting it into a law, which in my opinion would be impolitic, admitting there is a decided majority for it, to the disquiet of a respectable minority. In the former case, the matter will soon subside; in the latter, it will rankle and perhaps convulse the State. The dinner-bell rings, and I must conclude with an expression of my concern for your indisposition. Sincerely and affectionately, I am, &c.1

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.

end of vol. x.

I have ever been a friend to adequate congressional powers; consequently I wish to see the ninth article of the confederation amended and extended.1 Without these powers we cannot support a national character, and must appear contemptible in the eyes of Europe. But to you, my dear Sir, I will candidly confess, that in my opinion it is of little avail to give these to Congress. The members seem to be so much afraid of exerting those, which they already have, that no opportunity is slipped of surrendering them, or referring the exercise of them to the States individually. Instance your late ordinance respecting the disposal of the western lands, in which no State with the smallest propriety could have obtruded an interference. No doubt but the information of Congress from the back country is better than mine, respecting the operation of this ordinance; but I have understood from some sensible people therefrom that, besides running they know not where to purchase, the lands are of so versatile a nature, that, to the end of time, they will not, by those who are acquainted therewith, be purchased either in townships or by square miles. This, if I recollect right, was the sentiment I delivered to you, on the first mention of the matter; but past experience, you said, was brought forward in support of the measure, and appealed to for the issue. I submitted therefore to its decision, but still retained my opinion.

We have got the Potomac navigation in hand. Workmen are employed, under the best manager and assistants we could obtain, at the Falls of Shenandoah and Seneca; and I am happy to inform you, that, upon a critical examination of them by the directors, the manager, and myself, we are unanimously of opinion, that the difficulties at these two places do not exceed the expectations we had formed of them; and that the navigation through them might be effected without the aid of locks. How far we may have been deceived with respect to the first, (as the water though low may yet fall), I shall not decide; but we are not mistaken, I think, in our conjectures of the other. With very great esteem and regard, I am, &c.1

[1 ]A bill had been brought into the House of Delegates in December, 1784, and twice read, for establishing a provision for teachers of the Christian religion. By the principles of the bill, a specified tax was to be collected from every person in the commonwealth subject to pay taxes for other purposes; and the money raised by virtue of this act was to be appropriated by the vestries, elders, or directors of each religious society to a provision for a minister or teacher of the gospel of their denomination, or to the providing of places of worship. Quakers and Mennonists were to receive the amount collected among themselves, but they were to employ it in promoting their particular mode of worship. When the bill came up for a third reading, on the 24th of December, a motion was made to postpone it till the fourth Thursday in November, and this motion was carried by a vote of forty-five to thirty-eight. Before the time arrived, remonstrances and memorials agaimst it were prepared, and signatures obtained from those who were opposed to the measure. The consequence seems to have been a law of a very different complexion, in the preamble of which religious freedom is asserted in its fullest latitude, and by which it was enacted, “that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or otherwise burdened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to possess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.”—Hening’s Statutes, vol. xii., p. 86.

[1 ]A bill had been brought into the House of Delegates in December, 1784, and twice read, for establishing a provision for teachers of the Christian religion. By the principles of the bill, a specified tax was to be collected from every person in the commonwealth subject to pay taxes for other purposes; and the money raised by virtue of this act was to be appropriated by the vestries, elders, or directors of each religious society to a provision for a minister or teacher of the gospel of their denomination, or to the providing of places of worship. Quakers and Mennonists were to receive the amount collected among themselves, but they were to employ it in promoting their particular mode of worship. When the bill came up for a third reading, on the 24th of December, a motion was made to postpone it till the fourth Thursday in November, and this motion was carried by a vote of forty-five to thirty-eight. Before the time arrived, remonstrances and memorials agaimst it were prepared, and signatures obtained from those who were opposed to the measure. The consequence seems to have been a law of a very different complexion, in the preamble of which religious freedom is asserted in its fullest latitude, and by which it was enacted, “that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or otherwise burdened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to possess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.”—Hening’s Statutes, vol. xii., p. 86.