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

TO JAMES MADISON, IN CONGRESS. - 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 JAMES MADISON, IN CONGRESS.

My dear Sir,

I have been favored with your letter of the 19th, by which it appears that a quorum of Congress was hardly to be expected before the beginning of the next week. As this delay must be very irksome to the attending members, and every day’s continuance of it, before the government is in operation, will be more sensibly felt, I am resolved, that none shall proceed from me that can well be avoided, after notice of the election is announced, and therefore I take the liberty of requesting the favor of you to engage lodgings for me previous to my arrival.

Mr. Lear, who has lived with me three years as a private secretary, will accompany or precede me in the stage; and Colonel Humphreys I presume will be of my party. On the subject of lodgings, I will frankly declare to you, that I mean to go into none but hired ones. If these cannot be had tolerably convenient (for I shall not be nice about them), I would take rooms in the most decent tavern, till a house can be provided for the more permanent reception of the President. I have already declined a very polite and pressing invitation from the Governor to lodge at his house, till a place could be prepared for me; after which, should any other offer of a similar nature be made, there could be no propriety in my acceptance of it. As you are fully acquainted with my sentiments on this head, I shall only add, that, as I mean to avoid private families on the one hand, so on the other I am not anxious to be placed early in a situation for entertaining; for which reason private lodgings, till I can feel the way a little, would not only be more agreeable to my own wishes, but possibly more consistent with sound policy.1

As it is my intention to conform to the public desire and expectation with respect to the style proper for the President to live in, it may be well to know what these are before he enters upon it. After all, something may perhaps have been decided upon before this will reach you, that may make the request nugatory. If otherwise, I will only in one word say, that my wish is to be placed in an independent situation for the purpose I have mentioned. I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the highest regard, &c.

[1 ]Both Governor Clinton and John Jay invited Washington to stay with them on his arrival in New York. To Clinton he replied, 25 March, 1789:

“I shall make it a point to take hired lodgings or rooms in a tavern until some house can be provided. Because it would be wrong, in my real judgment, to impose such a burden on any private family, as must unavoidably be occasioned by my company; and because I think it would be generally expected, that, being supported by the public at large, I should not be burdensome to individuals. With respect to the other part of your letter, which is expressive of a wish to be apprized of the time of my approach to the city, I can assure you, with the utmost sincerity, that no reception can be so congenial to my feelings as a quiet entry devoid of ceremony, be the manner of it what it may.”