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

TO EDMUND PENDLETON. - 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 EDMUND PENDLETON.

Mount Vernon, 23 September, 1793.

My dear Sir,

With very sincere pleasure I received your private letter of the 11th instant. This pleasure was not a little enhanced by your reiterated assurance of my still holding that place in your estimation, of which, on more occasions than one, you have given me the most flattering testimony, highly gratifying to my mind. This assurance came opportunely, as I had begun to conceive, though unable to assign a cause, that some part of my public conduct, (however well-meant my endeavors,) had appeared unfavorably in your eyes; for you will please to recollect, that formerly you promised me, and I always expected, an annual letter from you. It is now, (if my memory has not failed me,) at least four years since I have had that pleasure.

Sequestered you say you are from the world, and know little of what is transacting in it, but from newspapers. I regret this exceedingly. I wish you had more to do on the great theatre, and that your means of information were co-equal to your abilities and the disposition I know you to possess to judge properly of public measures. It would be better, perhaps, for that public, it should be so; for, be assured, we have some infamous papers, calculated to disturb the public mind, if not absolutely intended to do mischief.

With respect to the fiscal conduct of the Secretary of the Treasury, I will say nothing, because an inquiry, more than probable, will be instituted next session of Congress into some of the allegations against him, which eventually may involve the whole; and because, if I mistake not, he will seek, rather than shrink from an investigation. A fair opportunity will, in that case, be offered the impartial world to form a just estimate of his acts, and probably of his motives. No one, I will venture to say, wishes more devoutly than I do, that they may be probed to the bottom, be the result what it will.1

With the most scrupulous truth I can assure you, that your free and unreserved opinion, upon any public measure of importance, will always be acceptable to me, whether it respects men or measures; and on no man do I wish it to be expressed more fully than on myself, for, as I can conscientiously declare, I have no object in view incompatible with the constitution, and the obvious interests of this country, nor no earthly desire half so strong as that of returning to the walks of private life; so, of consequence, I only wish, whilst I am a servant of the public, to know the will of my masters, that I may govern myself accordingly.

You do me no more than justice when you suppose, that, from motives of respect to the legislature (and I might add from my interpretation of the constitution), I give my signature to many bills, with which my judgment is at variance. In saying this, however, I allude to no particular act. From the nature of the constitution I must approve all the parts of a bill, or reject it in toto. To do the latter can only be justified upon the clear and obvious ground of propriety; and I never had such confidence in my own faculty of judging, as to be ever tenacious of the opinions I may have imbibed in doubtful cases.1

Mrs. Washington, who enjoys tolerable health, joins me most cordially in best wishes to you and Mrs. Pendleton. I wish you may live long, continue in good health, and end your days, as you have been wearing them away, happily and respected. Always and very affectionately yours, &c.

[1 ]“I am an utter stranger to the gentleman at the head of that department, and pretty much so to the detail of his conduct; but I will confess to you, Sir, that all his reports on ways and means, from that on the funding system to the present day, have impressed me with an idea of his having made the system of the British ministry the model of his conduct as assumed American primate, choosing rather to trust to a moneyed interest he has created, for the support of his measures, than to their rectitude. I do not say these were his motives, but such they appear to me; and I fear we shall long feel the effects of the system if it were now to be changed, which it is supposed would be improper, at least as to the funding system.

“The non-discrimination, which he so much labored, appeared to me a sacrifice of the substance of justice to its shadow; its effects to throw unearned wealth into a few unmeriting hands, instead of diffusing it (after repaying them their purchase money) to those, who entitled themselves to it by the most meritorious consideration. The assumption of the State debts in a lump, before it was ascertained that they were created for common benefit (which would make them an equitable charge on the Union), seemed to me unaccountable, unless derived from the Secretary’s position, that increase of public debt is beneficial; a maxim adopted by the British cabinet, but unsupported by reason or other example, and its national effects there strangely misrepresented.

“The various kinds and value of the new certificates I see inconveniences in, but can discover no other reason for, than to give the rich speculators at or near the seat of government an advantage over the distant, uninformed, unwary, or distressed citizens; and the recommended irredeemable quality, as a means of increasing their credit in circulation, is a paradox of which no solution has yet occurred to my mind.”—Pendleton to Washington, 11 September, 1793.

[1 ]In the eight years of his service as President, Washington resorted to the use of the veto but twice. In 1792 he returned the apportionment of representatives, and in 1797 the military establishment bill. In both cases Congress modelled new measures in accord with the President’s suggestions.