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

TO BURGES BALL. - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. XII (1790-1794) [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. XII (1790-1794).

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 BURGES BALL.

Dear Sir,

I have, in due course of post, been favored with your letter of the 11th inst.

I thank you for the prompt compliance with my request—as I do Mr. Fitzhugh also for the ready belief he yielded that I would do nothing unfriendly, or ungenteel in the case you were desired to mention to him.

Before the receipt of your letter I had dispatched Howell Lewis (who was first to go to Fredericksburgh for purposes of his own) to Mount Vernon; but had I known at the time that his brother Lawrence would have undertaken the business, I should have thought him (on account of his age) the most eligible, and would have preferred him accordingly; for, possibly, if he had chosen to continue there, his conduct might have been found such, as to supercede the necessity of employing any other; because, as I could place entire confidence in his integrity, and presume I may do so in his sobriety, industry, care and œconomy, with strict attention to the conduct of the overseers, and to the plans marked out for their government, my business might progress as well under his auspice, as under that of any other I am likely to get; for a married man would not only be inconvenient for me, but (by keeping a separate house) would add considerably to my expences. Whereas a single man whether at my first (if from his walk of life he should be entitled to it) or at my second table, would with respect to his board be not more than a drop in the bucket.

But after all, is not Lawrence Lewis on the point of matrimony? Report says so, and if truly, it would be an effectual bar to a permanent establishment in my business, as I never again will have two women in my house when I am there myself. * * *