The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• The Writings of George Washington.
• 1785.
• To James Warren.
• To Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia,
• To George William Fairfax.
• To Lund Washington.
• To James Madison.
• To Alexander Hamilton.
• To the Trustees of the Alexandria Academy.
• 1786.
• To Benjamin Lincoln.
• To Samuel Purviance, Esq.
• To Cols. Fitzgerald and Gilpin.
• To Robert Morris.
• To the Marquis De Lafayette.
• To John Jay.
• To Henry L. Charton.
• To James Tilghman.
• To Henry Lee, In Congress.
• To William Grayson, In Congress.
• To Wakelin Welch, Esq.
• To the Chevalier De La Luzerne.
• To Thomas Jefferson.
• To John Jay.
• To the Marquis De Lafayette.
• To David Humphreys. 1
• To John Francis Mercer.
• To William Triplet.
• To Bushrod Washington.
• To George Augustine Washington.
• To Henry Lee, In Congress.
• To James Madison.
• To Bushrod Washington.
• To James Madison.
• To Fielding Lewis.
• To P. Marsteller.
• To James Madison.
• To Edmund Randolph, Governor of Virginia. 1
• To David Humphreys.
• To Henry Knox.
• 1787.
• To Bushrod Washington.
• To Henry Knox.
• To Charles Washington.
• To Mrs. Mary Washington.
• To Thomas Stone. 1
• To Colonel David Humphreys.
• To John Jay.
• To Major-general Benjamin Lincoln.
• To Edmund Randolph, Governor of Virginia.
• To James Madison, In Congress. 1
• To Henry Knox.
• To Henry Knox.
• To Lund Washington.
• Diary During the Constitutional Convention, May—september, 1787. 1
• To Thomas Jefferson.
• To David Stuart.
• To Alexander Hamilton.
• To Richard Henry Lee.
• To Patrick Henry.
• To Colonel David Humphreys.
• To James Madison, In Congress.
• To Henry Knox.
• To Alexander Hamilton.
• To James Madison, In Congress.
• To Mathew Carey.
• To Archibald Johnston.
• To Arthur Young.
• To James Madison, In Congress.
• To Bushrod Washington.
• To Thomas Johnson.
• To David Stuart.
• To James Madison, In Congress.
• To Colonel Thomas Lewis.
• 1788.
• To Thomas Jefferson.
• To Edmund Randolph, Governor of Virginia.
• To Colonel Frederick Weissenfels.
• To James Madison, In Congress.
• To Charles Carter.
• To Jonathan Trumbull.
• To James Madison, In Congress.
• To the Chevalier De La Luzerne.
• To the Marquis De Lafayette.
• To Alexander Spotswood.
• To Samuel Griffin.
• To Benjamin Lincoln.
• To James Madison, In Congress.
• To Samuel Hanson, Esq.
• To the Count De Moustier.
• To Henry Knox.
• To Charles Lee.
• To James Wilson.
• To Thomas Johnson.
• To the Marquis De Chastellux.
• To John Armstrong.
• To the Marquis De Lafayette.
• To the Count De Rochambeau.
• To Benjamin Lincoln.
• To George Steptoe Washington. 1
• To the Marquis De Lafayette.
• To James Madison.
• To John Jay.
• To William Smith, and Others, of Baltimore.
• To Henry Knox.
• To the Marquis De Lafayette.
• To Richard Henderson. 1
• To Charles Carter.
• To Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.
• To Benjamin Lincoln.
• To John Jay.
• To Noah Webster.
• To James Madison, In Congress.
• To George Steptoe Washington.
• To Charles Pettit.
• To John Beale Bordley.
• To the Count De Moustier.
• To Benjamin Lincoln.
• To Alexander Hamilton.
• To Thomas Jefferson.
• To Henry Lee, In Congress.
• To James Madison, In Congress.
• To Alexander Hamilton.
• To Benjamin Lincoln.
• To Mathew Carey.
• To Arthur Young.
• To William Gordon.
• 1789.
• To William Pierce.
• To the Marquis De Lafayette.
• To Benjamin Lincoln.
• To Samuel Powel.
• To Thomas Jefferson.
• To Harry Innes.
• To Captain Richard Conway.
• To Benjamin Harrison.
• To George Steptoe Washington.
• To James Madison, In Congress.
• To Thomas Green. 2
• To Henry Knox.
• To John Langdon.
• Inaugural Speech to Both Houses of Congress, April 30th, 1789.
• Fellow-citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives,
• Reply to the Answer of the Senate.
• Reply to the Answer of the House of Representatives.
• To Edward Rutledge.
• To James Madison.
• To Mary Wooster. 1
• To Count De Moustier. [confidential.]
• To Mathew Carey.
• To the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. 1
• To James Mchenry.
• To John Jay. [private.]
• To Charles Thomson.
• To David Stuart.
• To James Madison.
• Sentiments Expressed By the President to the Committee From the Senate, Appointed to Confer With Him On the Mode of Communication Between the President and the Senate Respecting Treaties and Nominations.
• To James Madison. [confidential.]
• To Benjamin Lincoln.
• To James Craik.
• To Mrs. Betty Lewis.
• To Benjamin Franklin.
• To Edmund Randolph.
• To Gouverneur Morris.
• To Thomas Jefferson.
• To Gouverneur Morris.
• To Gouverneur Morris.
• To John Hancock.
• To Beverley Randolph, Governor of Virginia.
• To James Mchenry. [confidential.]
• To Edmund Randolph.
• To Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury.
• To Jabez Bowen.
• 1790.
• Speech to Both Houses of Congress, January 8th, 1790.
• Fellow-citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
• Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
• Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:
• To Catharine Macaulay Graham.
• To Charles Pinckney, Governor of South Carolina. [private.]
• To Thomas Jefferson.
• To Edmund Randolph, Attorney-general.
• To David Stuart.
• To the Marquis De La Luzerne. 1
• To the Marquis De Lafayette.
• To David Stuart.
• To Clement Biddle.
• To the Marquis De Lafayette.
• To Henry Knox, Secretary of War.
• To Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury.
• To Tobias Lear.
• To Henry Knox, Secretary of War. [private.]
• To George Steptoe Washington.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Mount Vernon, 13 February, 1789.

Dear Sir,

Having found that there is a vessel on the point of sailing from Alexandria for Havre de Grace, I would not forego so good an opportunity of addressing a letter to you, although nothing very material has occurred since the date of my last, which was transmitted by Mr. Gouverneur Morris. As you will doubtless have seen in the gazettes the measures taken by the different States for carrying the new government into execution, I will not therefore enter upon any report of news, or discussion of political topics.

Exclusive of these things, the greatest and most important objects of internal concern, which at present occupy the attention of the public mind, are manufactures and inland navigation. Many successful efforts in fabrics of different kinds are every day made. Those composed of cotton, I think will be of the most immediate and extensive utility. Mr. Milne, an English gentleman, who has been many years introducing those manufactures into France, and whose father is now carrying them on, (under the protection of government,) at the royal château of Muette in Passy, has been at my house this week, and is of opinion that they may be prosecuted in America to greater advantage than in France or England. He has been almost two years in Georgia, stimulating and instructing the planters to the production of cotton. In that State and South Carolina it is said that cotton may be made of a most excellent quality, and in such abundant quantities as to prove a more profitable species of agriculture than any other crop. The increase of that raw material, and the introduction of the late improved machines to abridge labor, must be of almost infinite consequence to the prosperity of United America.

A desire of encouraging whatever is useful and economical seems now generally to prevail. Several capital artists in different branches have lately arrived in this country. A factory of glass is established upon a large scale on Monocacy River near Fredericktown in Maryland. I am informed it will this year produce glass of various kinds nearly to the amount of ten thousand pounds’ value. This factory will be essentially benefited by having the navigation of the Potomac completely opened. But the total benefits of that navigation will not be confined to narrower limits than the extent of the whole western territory of the United States.

You have been made acquainted, my dear Sir, with my ideas of the practicability, importance, and extent of that navigation, as they have been occasionally, though fully expressed, in my several letters to you. * * * Notwithstanding my constant and utmost endeavors to obtain precise information respecting the nearest and best communication between the Ohio and Lake Erie, I am not yet able to add any thing more satisfactory to the observations, which I had the honor to make on that subject in my letter of the 1st of January, 1788; but I have lately received a correct draft, executed principally from actual surveys, of the country between the sources of the Potomac and those navigable waters that fall into the Ohio. Of this I enclose you such a rough sketch as my avocations would permit me to make; my principal object therein being to show, that the distance between the two waters is shorter, and that the means of communication are easier, than I had hitherto represented or imagined. I need not describe what and how extensive the rivers are, which will be thus in a wonderful manner connected, as soon as the Potomac shall be rendered entirely passable. The passage would have been opened from Fort Cumberland to the Great Falls (nine miles from tide-water) before this time, as I mentioned in my letter of the 31st of August last, had it not been for the unfavorableness of the season. In spite of that untoward circumstance, I have the pleasure to inform you that two or three boats have actually arrived at the last-mentioned place.

I am going on Monday next to visit the works, as far as the Seneca Falls. Could I have delayed writing this letter until my return from thence, and afterwards availed myself of the same conveyance, I might have been more particular in my account of the state of the several works, and especially of the situation of the land adjoining to the Canal at the Great Falls. Whensoever the produce of those parts of the country bordering on the sources of the Potomac, and contiguous to the long rivers (particularly the Shenandoah and South Branch) that run into it, shall be water-borne, down to tide-water for exportation, I conceive this place must become very valuable. From the conveniency of the basin a little above the spot where the locks are to be placed, and from the inducements which will be superadded by several fine mill-seats, I cannot entertain a doubt of the establishment of a town in that place. Indeed mercantile people are desirous that the event should take place as soon as possible. Manufactures of various commodities, and in iron particularly, will doubtless be carried on to advantage there. The mill-seats I well know have long been considered as very valuable ones. How far buildings erected upon them may be exposed to injuries from freshets or the breaking up of the ice, I am not competent to determine from my own knowledge; but the opinion of persons better acquainted with these matters than I am, is, that they may be rendered secure. On the commodiousness of Alexandria for carrying on the fur trade throughout the whole western country, I treated in a very minute, and I may say almost voluminous manner, in my communication to you on the 30th of May, 1787. Probably Georgetown, and the place which I have just mentioned, will participate largely and happily in the great emoluments to be derived from that and other valuable articles, through the inland navigation of the upper and western country. I am, dear Sir, yours, &c.