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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.

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 HENRY LEE, GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA.

[PRIVATE.]

Mount Vernon, 16 October, 1793.

Dear Sir,

Since my arrival at this place I have been favored with your letters of the 17th ultimo and 7th instant. For your kind attentions to me I pray you to receive my sincere acknowledgments.

I have always, (from the accounts given of it,) entertained a high opinion of Colonel Taliaferro’s threshing machine, but knew at the same time I had no stream that could supply water for one on any of my farms. This was confirmed when Mr. Payne came hither and examined them. The model brought over by the English farmers may also be a good one, but the utility of it among careless negroes and ignorant overseers will depend absolutely upon the simplicity of the construction; for, if there is any thing complex in the machinery, it will be no longer in use than a mushroom is in existence. I have seen so much of the beginning and ending of new inventions, that I have almost resolved to go on in the old way of treading, until I get settled again at home, and can attend myself to the management of one. As a proof in point, of the almost impossibility of putting the overseers of this country out of the track they have been accustomed to walk in, I have one of the most convenient barns in this, or perhaps any other country, where thirty hands may with great ease be employed in threshing. Half of the wheat of the farm was actually stowed in this barn in the straw, by my order, for threshing; notwithstanding, when I came home about the middle of September, I found a treading-yard not thirty feet from the barndoor, the wheat again brought out of the barn, and horses treading it out in an open exposure, liable to the vicissitudes of weather. I am now erecting a building for the express purpose of treading. I have sanguine expectations of its utility; and, if I am not deceived in them, it may afford you some satisfaction, when you come into this part of the country, to call and look at it.

I have a grateful sense of your kind offer of Mr. Workman. Previous, however, to the communication, I had engaged a manager from the eastern shore of Maryland; but the impression on my mind for the favor intended me is not lessened on that account.

I have not, as you will perceive, touched the subject of politics in this letter. The reasons are, your letter of the 17th has expressed precisely my ideas of the conduct and views of those, who are aiming at nothing short of the subversion of the government of these States, even at the expense of plunging this country in the horrors of a disastrous war; and because I wish to wait a little longer to see what may be the sense of legally constituted bodies, at the meetings which are about to take place.

The public service requiring it, I shall set off in about ten days for Philadelphia or the vicinity. Though unknown to your lady, I beg my respectful compliments may be presented to her. I wish an agreeable and harmonious session, and am, with much truth, your affectionate humble servant.