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

TO FRANCIS WILLIS. - 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 FRANCIS WILLIS.

Mount Vernon, 25 October, 1793.

Sir,

Your letter of the 4th of August had to go to Philadelphia and come back, before I received it.

The mistakes which have happened respecting the Negroes of the late Mrs. Samuel Washington are somewhat singular; and it is not a little surprizing after the first mistake had happened, and so much pains had been taken to account for, and set it right, that now, after a lapse of five or six years, the whole matter should assume quite a different face. It should be Discovered at this late hour that, that lady herself had no right to the Negroes, which by the bye, I believe possession alone would give her.

If I had ever intended to avail myself of the Law for my own benefit (which made me heir to those Negroes,) I would not have relinquished my claim without a thorough investigation of the subject of defective title. For presuming that all Law is founded on equity, and being under a conviction that if Mrs. Washington had survived her husband, she would have released nothing to which she would have been entitled by law, I saw no injustice or impropriety upon the ground of reciprocity of receiving for my Brother’s Children that which in the other case would have been taken from them. But not having finally resolved in my own mind (as you may readily infer from my long silence) whether to take from Mrs. Washington’s family for the benefit of my Brother’s only daughter (who, from the involved state of his affairs, had left her by his will a very small pittance; and the obtainment of that, even doubtful) the whole or only part of what the law entitled me to, I let the matter rest till your second letter had revived the subject.

I now, in order to close the business finally, have come to the following conclusions. Pay me one hundred pounds which I shall give to my Niece for her immediate support, and I will quit claim to all the Negroes which belonged to Mrs. Saml. Washington, and will release them accordingly. I am, &c.1

[1 ]“I do not as yet know whether I shall get a substitute for William: nothing short of excellent qualities and a man of good appearance, would induce me to do it—and under my present view of the matter, too, who would employ himself otherwise than William did—that is as a butler as well as a valette—for my wants of the latter are so trifling that any man (as William was) would soon be ruined by idleness, who had only them to attend to. Having given these ideas, if your time will permit, I should be glad if you would touch the man upon the strings I have mentioned, probe his character deeper—say what his age, appearance and country is—what are his expectations, and how he should be communicated with, if upon a thorough investigation of matters you should be of opinion he would answer my purposes well—for Kennedy is too little acquainted with the arrangement of a table, and too stupid for a butler, to be continued if I could get a better.”—Washington to Lear, 3 November, 1793.