Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow TO WILLIAM SMITH, AND OTHERS, OF BALTIMORE. - The Writings of George Washington, vol. XI (1785-1790)

Return to Title Page for The Writings of George Washington, vol. XI (1785-1790)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

TO WILLIAM SMITH, AND OTHERS, OF BALTIMORE. - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. XI (1785-1790) [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. XI (1785-1790).

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 SMITH, AND OTHERS, OF BALTIMORE.

Gentlemen,

Captain Barney has just arrived here in the miniature ship called The Federalist, and has done me the honor to offer that beautiful curiosity as a present to me on your part. I pray you, Gentlemen, to accept the warmest expressions of my sensibility for this specimen of American ingenuity, in which the exactitude of the proportions, the neatness of the workmanship, and the elegance of the decorations, which make your present fit to be preserved in a cabinet of curiosities, at the same time that they exhibit the skill and taste of the artists, demonstrate that Americans are not inferior to any people whatever in the use of mechanical instruments, and the art of ship-building.

The unanimity of the agricultural State of Maryland in general, as well as of the commercial town of Baltimore in particular, expressed in their recent decision on the subject of a general government, will not, (I persuade myself,) be without its due efficacy on the minds of their neighbors, who, in many instances, are intimately connected, not only by the nature of their produce, but by the ties of blood and the habits of life. Under these circumstances, I cannot entertain an idea, that the voice of the convention of this State, which is now in session, will be dissonant from that of her nearly allied sister, who is only separated by the Potomac.

You will permit me, Gentlemen, to indulge my feelings in reiterating the heart-felt wish, that the happiness of this country may equal the desires of its sincerest friends, and that the patriotic town, of which you are inhabitants, and in the prosperity of which I have always found myself strongly interested, may not only continue to increase in the same wonderful manner it has formerly done, but that its trade, manufactures, and other resources of wealth, may be placed permanently in a more flourishing situation than they have hitherto been. I am, with respect, &c.1

[1 ]The citizens of Baltimore had recently celebrated the adoption of the constitution in Maryland by various demonstrations of joy. There was a procession, in which the mechanical trades and liberal professions made a brilliant display under their appropriate banners. Commodore Barney performed a conspicuous part on this occasion. “He had a small boat, fifteen feet in length, completely rigged and perfectly equipped as a ship, which was called The Federalist; which, being mounted on four wheels and drawn by the same number of horses, took its place in the procession. He commanded the ship, and was honored with a crew of captains, who, at his word and the boatswain’s pipe, went through all the various manœuvres of making and taking in sail, to the great delight of the crowded windows, doors, and balconies, by which they passed. The ship was immediately followed by all the captains, mates, and seamen at that time in the port of Baltimore. It was paraded through all the principal streets of Fell’s Point and other portions of the city, and finally anchored on the beautiful and lofty bank of the Basin, which from that occurrence received, and has ever since borne, the name of Federal Hill.” After the pageant was over, it was resolved to present the ship to General Washington in the name of the merchants and ship-masters of Baltimore. It was launched, and navigated by Commodore Barney down the Chesapeake Bay to the mouth of the Potomac, and thence up the river to Mount Vernon.—Life of Joshua Barney, p. 157.—Sparks.