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

TO HENRY LEE, GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. [PRIVATE.] - 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.

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TO HENRY LEE, GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA.

[PRIVATE.]

Philadelphia, 21 July, 1793.

Dear Sir,

I should have thanked you at an earlier period for your obliging letter of the 14th ultimo, had it not come to my hands a day or two only before I set out for Mount Vernon, and at a time when I was much hurried, and indeed, very much perplexed with the disputes, memorials, and what not, with which the government were pestered by one or the other of the petulant representatives of the powers at war, and because, since my return to this city, nine days ago, I have been more than ever overwhelmed with their complaints. In a word, the trouble they give is hardly to be described.1

My journey to and from Mount Vernon was sudden and rapid, and as short as I could make it. It was occasioned by the unexpected death of Mr. Whiting, my manager, at a critical season for the business with which he was intrusted. Where to supply his place I know not; of course my concerns at Mount Vernon are left as a body without a head; but this by the by.

The communications in your letter were pleasing and grateful; for, although I have done no public act with which my mind upbraids me, yet it is highly satisfactory to learn, that the things which I do, of an interesting tendency to the peace and happiness of this country, are generally approved by my fellow citizens. But, were the case otherwise, I should not be less inclined to know the sense of the people upon every matter of great public concern; for, as I have no wish superior to that of promoting the happiness and welfare of this country, so, consequently, it is only for me to know the means to accomplish the end, if it be within the compass of my powers.

That there are in this, as well as in all other countries, discontented characters, I well know; as also that these characters are actuated by very different views; some good, from an opinion that the measures of the general government are impure; some bad, and, if I might be allowed to use so harsh an expression, diabolical, inasmuch as they are not only meant to impede the measures of that government generally, but more especially, (as a great mean towards the accomplishment of it,) to destroy the confidence, which it is necessary for the people to place, (until they have unequivocal proof of demerit,) in their public servants. For in this light I consider myself, whilst I am an occupant of office; and, if they were to go further and call me their slave, during this period, I would not dispute the point.

But in what will this abuse terminate? The result, as it respects myself, I care not; for I have a consolation within, that no earthly efforts can deprive me of, and that is, that neither ambitious nor interested motives have influenced my conduct. The arrows of malevolence, therefore, however barbed and well pointed, never can reach the most vulnerable part of me; though, whilst I am up as a mark, they will be continually aimed. The publications in Freneau’s and Bache’s papers are outrages on common decency; and they progress in that style, in proportion as their pieces are treated with contempt, and are passed by in silence, by those at whom they are aimed. The tendency of them, however, is too obvious to be mistaken by men of cool and dispassionate minds, and, in my opinion, ought to alarm them; because it is difficult to prescribe bounds to the effect.

The light in which you endeavored to place the views and conduct of this country to M. Genet, and the sound policy thereof, as it respected his own, was unquestionably the true one, and such as a man of penetration, left to himself, would most certainly have viewed them in; but mum on this head. Time may unfold more than prudence ought to disclose at present. As we are told that you have exchanged the rugged and dangerous field of Mars for the soft and pleasurable bed of Venus I do in this, as I shall in every thing you may pursue like unto it, good and laudable, wish you all imaginable success and happiness. With esteem and regard, I am, &c.

[1 ]The appeals and representations of the British representative were frequent and urgent, and by no means stronger than the occasion called for. Jefferson was postponing a settlement, while stirring up his correspondents with outcries against the pusillanimity of the proclamation and the insolent demands of Hammond. The President was “pestered” into a sensitive state of mind by the conflicting memorials from the French and British ministers, and by the difference of opinion in his own cabinet. He determined to take advice of persons learned in the law on the subject of prizes, and belligerent vessels leaving or entering the ports of the United States; and pending such a reference, Jefferson requested the British minister not to allow the vessels giving rise to the question to depart.—Jefferson to Hammond, 12 July, 1793. Hammond naturally expressed some surprise that he should receive such a requisition, for he had no control over any one of them, and indeed all but one were either vessels of force, fitted out to prey upon British commerce, or prizes of those vessels. By a curious oversight, the Sans Culotte, then at Baltimore, was omitted by Jefferson, a circumstance that did not increase Hammond’s faith in the suggested mode of determining the questions he was so much interested in, and other circumstances were not wanting to confirm his suspicion. The Little Sarah, now refitted as a French privateer, The Little Democrat, sailed from Philadelphia, although this was one of the vessels Jefferson named in his letter of the 12th. A few days later a prize was sent in by Le Citoyen Genet, another vessel included by Jefferson, and Hammond was careful to quote the very words of the Secretary of State in calling his attention to these evidences of bad faith on the part of the Government.

It was the President’s intention to consult the Justices of the Supreme Bench on this matter, “whose knowledge of the subject would secure against errors dangerous to the peace of the United States, and their authority insure the respect of all parties.” The result is given in the note to the next letter.