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

TO HILAND CROW. - 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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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 HILAND CROW.

By a Letter which I have just received from my nephew, Mr. Lewis, at Mount Vernon, he informs me that you are applying to have your wages raised. This, I think, was the case last year, and may be the case another year. Nor is this all. For when one succeeds, another comes forward; a stop therefore might as well be put to these kind of cravings at one time as at another. However, as your crop was the most productive of any I made last year; and as I hope the present one will not be bad, if properly taken care of, I agree, by way of encouraging your future exertions, to raise your wages to forty pounds next year; and make you the same allowance of provisions and other things as, by agreement, you were to receive this year.

To make an attempt after this, to encrease your wages, will be fruitless; and I mention it, that whenever you want more, you must seek for it elsewhere. Forty pounds per annum, clear of all expenses, whether the wind blows high or blow low—whether the ground is deluged with rain, or laid waste by a parching drought; by either of which, and by many other casualties, crops may be destroyed, though the expences incurred in the making do not lessen, nor the mouths which are to be fed, nor the backs which are to be clothed do not decrease—is equal to the chance of double that sum in a proportion of the crop; which, was it not for the labor spent in making meadows, and other jobs, some on and others off the farm, I had much rather give; but have been restrained from doing it to avoid grumbling; and because I may apply the hands at such places and in such a manner as to me, or my manager, should seem most conducive to my interest, when no other was to be affected by it. With this explanation of my sentiments, I remain, &c.