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Front Page  Titles (by Subject) TO HARRY INNES. - The Writings of George Washington, vol. XI (1785-1790)
TO HARRY INNES. - 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).
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- 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 HARRY INNES.
Mount Vernon, 2 March, 1789. Sir,
I have been favored by the receipt of your obliging letter, dated the 18th of December last, just in time to send my acknowledgment by a person who is immediately returning to Kentucky. This circumstance prevents me from expressing so fully as I might otherwise have done, the sense I have of the very patriotic sentiments you entertain respecting the important matter, which is the subject of your letter. As a friend to United America, I embrace with extreme satisfaction the proposals you are pleased to offer of transmitting farther intelligence. For which purpose I will endeavor to arrange and send you a cypher by the earliest safe conveyance. In the mean time, I rely implicitly upon that honor which you have pledged, and those professions which you have made; and sincerely hope, that your activity and discretion will be successful in developing the machinations of all those, who, by sowing the seeds of disaffection, may attempt to separate any portion of the United States from the Union. I will only add, for myself I have little doubt but that a perseverance in temperate measures and good dispositions will produce such a system of national policy as shall be mutually advantageous to all parts of the American republic. I am, Sir, with much esteem, yours, &c.
“In the latter end of this summer, it was suggested to me, that the British court had emissaries in Kentucky. From the abhorrence and detestation which I have to a British connexion, other than that of friends and allies, I was induced to keep a look-out, and scrutinize the conduct of all strangers. My observations soon convinced me of the truth of the case. Among others, Lieutenant-Colonel Connolly (late of Fort Pitt) from Detroit has visited this district. His conduct has alarmed my fears. He had some confidential conferences with influential characters. He touched the key to fomentations, and offered assistance to enable the inhabitants of the western country to seize on the city of New Orleans, and secure thereby the navigation of the Mississippi. How his machinations are to be counteracted is the great object. I would be more explicit if the conveyance of my letter were more certain. It is entrusted to chance; I must therefore act with caution.
“Relying implicitly on this fact, that whatever tends to disturb the peace of United America would distress and injure your tranquillity and repose, and that your aiding hand would not be withheld when your country’s cause required it, I have ventured to solicit your advice and directions on this interesting subject, and would wish to write confidentially to you on this business, if by your answer I should conceive myself justified in the attempt. Should this proposed communication meet your approbation, will it not be advisable to invent a cypher for the preservation of that secrecy, which the magnitude of the subject requires? This being arranged, I pledge my honor to give you from time to time a faithful detail of facts.”—Innes to Washington, 18 December, 1788.
In October, 1788, John Connolly, who at one time played quite an important part as an agent of Lord Dunmore, a British recruiting agent and a Tory prisoner, came from Detroit to Kentucky ostensibly to look after some lands he claimed, but in reality as a messenger from Lord Dorchester to sound opinion in that region. He claimed to be authorized by Lord Dorchester to offer British aid to an armed force intended to operate against New Orleans. Wilkinson to Miro, 12 February, 1789. He had conferences with Wilkinson, Thomas Marshall, George Muter, and Charles Scott, and returning to Detroit, gave his employer the impression that a British protectorate might be made useful to check the efforts of Spain to win over the Kentuckians, and that a British party could be fostered in the west. Miro had an idea that his commercial agreements with Wilkinson had established a Spanish hold that could not be shaken, and Gardoqui, with his scheme of Morgan’s colony and free port, thought he had for the time smoothed over the irritation that the Kentuckians had shown at the iron restrictions that the colonial policy of Spain had imposed on her trade. France, also, was in possession of a suggestion that might bear fruit: to secure from Spain the peaceable cession of New Orleans, and so come between the resentments of the Americans and Spaniards with a grant of privileges advantageous to all concerned. An end was put to this intriguing by Washington’s election to the presidency.
“Judgment, impartiality, and decision are conspicuous in every transaction of the President, and from the appointments which he has made, there is every reason to expect that the different departments will be conducted with justice and ability. I consider the appointment of Mr. Jefferson (vice Jay) as a measure favorable to the interests of the Western Country, and calculated to remove those fears which exist respecting the navigation of the river Mississippi. I am fully convinced that we have nothing to fear on that score from the President. This I speak from a knowledge of his sentiments.”—John Brown to Harry Innes, 28 September, 1789.
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