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The Writings of George Washington, collected and edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890). Vol. XIII (1794-1798).

Author: George Washington
Editor: Worthington Chauncey Ford

Part of: The Writings of George Washington, 14 vols.

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1795.

TO DANIEL CARROLL.

Philadelphia, 7 January, 1795.

Dear Sir,

You will consider this letter as coming from me in my private capacity, at the same time I do not object to the communication of the sentiments to your colleagues in office.

You will recollect no doubt that I yielded my assent to Mr. Greenleaf’s first proposition to purchase a number of lots in the Federal City (altho’ I thought the price he offered for them was too low) because matters at that time seemed to be in a stagnant state, and something was necessary to put the wheels in motion again. To the second Sale which was made to him, my repugnance was greater, in as much as the necessity for making it was not so apparent to my view—and because another thing had become quite evident—Viz: that he was speculating deeply—was aiming to monopolize deeply, and was thereby laying the foundation of immense profit to himself and those with whom he was concerned.

Viewing the matter in this light, you will readily perceive, at the first glance, how much my sentiments are opposed to any more large sales, if there be any other resource by which money can be obtained to carry on your operations.

The sum which will be necessary to compleat the public buildings and other improvements in the City, is very considerable. You have already, if I mistake not, disposed of more than a moiety of the Lots which appertain to the Public; and I fear not a fourth part of the Money necessary for that purpose, is yet provided. The persons to whom you have sold are reselling to others (subjecting them to the conditions to which they are made liable themselves) and this they are doing to an immense profit. Lately, a Gentleman from England, has paid, or is to pay £50,000 for 500 Lots.—Will it not be asked, why are speculators to pocket so much money? Are not the Commissioners as competent to make bargains?

The business, I conceive, is now fairly on its legs—to sell therefore by wholesale faster than is indispensably necessary to keep the machine in proper motion will, probably (as property is rising there), be deemed impolitic. And to part with the legal title to the lots (especially in large sales of them) on personal security, may be hazarding more than prudence will warrant.

For a variety of reasons, unnecessary to be enumerated, tho’ some of them are very important, I could wish to see the force of your means directed toward the capitol in preference to the other public buildings.

With great esteem &c.

TO TOBIAS LEAR.

Philadelphia, 12 January, 1795.

My dear Sir,

On friday last I wrote you a few lines and assigned reasons for not writing more fully.

In addition to what I then said, which was only to inform you that permission had been given by the Canal Company of this state for Mr. Weston to visit the falls of potomac, and that he might be expected at the federal city about the first of next month, I shall notice with concern it being contrary to the heretofore entertained opinion—that the funds for carrying on that navigation are from your view of them likely to fall short £10,000 Stg. of the object.

What expedient had best be adopted for supplying the deficiency, merits serious consideration under existing circumstances.—On an abstract view of the case I should give it as my opinion without hesitation, that the present stockholders ought to continue their advances until the final completion—and for this plain and interesting reason, with me—that no speculation to which money can be applied will be more productive with so much honor and so little risque. But how far the majority of the Company (many of whom probably never bestowed a thought on the subject) may be of this sentiment—or how far their inclination and abilities might induce the adoption of the measure if they were, is not for me to decide—and as individuals of the Company will be as free as others to become purchasers if the shares are increased, it does not appear to be a matter of much moment which of these modes is prefered, or whether by loan, if the money is to be obtained.

No doubt remains in my mind of what will be the productiveness of the tolls when the navigation is in full operation—To the best of my recollection they were calculated to amount (at the time of passing the Acts of incorporation) to 15 p ct on the capital, by an estimate which was then made of the several articles which from their contiguity, it was known, would be water borne. Since that period the population of the Counties bordering on the River, and of course, the produce arising therefrom, has encreased greatly, and when the Shenandoah is added thereto (which formed no part of the original estimate) it must be equal to the most sanguine expectation.

Mr. Claiborne’s Engineers (for it seems he has two for different purposes) are fixed in this City; either of which according to the use for which you want one might be had at any time; but as I am not strongly impressed with a belief that men of eminence would come to this Country in the manner and under the circumstances they have done (but this I say without having any knowledge of the real characters of these Gentlemen—and without design to injure them) might it not be politic to obtain the opinion of the most competent of them, before Mr. Weston, (who is known to be a scientific and experienced engineer gives his? He will not adopt their opinions contrary to his experience and judgment; but if his opinion is first taken, and transpires, it may be given into by them from the want of these in themselves, endeavoring thereby to erect a character on his foundation.

I am much obliged by the trouble of your enquiries respecting my Tobacco in the Warehouses at Alexandria and George Town; and as the disposal of it is somewhat out of my way at present, and in truth is a matter that rarely occurs to me, except when I am reminded of it by Mrs. Washington, you would add to the favor by making sale of it on such terms, and whensoever in your judgment the moment is favorable. I am in no hurry nor under any necessity to precipitate the sale; and to your judgment also it is left, to continue where it is, or to remove the Tobacco from Alexa. to Georgetown.

We are all tolerably well and join in good wishes, and the compliments of the season to you. With regard and affection I am, &c.

TO ELEANOR PARKE CUSTIS.

Philadelphia, 16 January, 1795.

Your letter, the receipt of which I am now acknowledging, is written correctly and in fair characters, which is an evidence that you command, when you please, a fair hand. Possessed of these advantages, it will be your own fault if you do not avail yourself of them, and attention being paid to the choice of your subjects, you can have nothing to fear from the malignancy of criticism, as your ideas are lively, and your descriptions agreeable. Let me touch a little now on your Georgetown ball, and happy, thrice happy, for the fair who were assembled on the occasion, that there was a man to spare; for had there been 79 ladies and only 78 gentlemen, there might, in the course of the evening, have been some disorder among the caps; notwithstanding the apathy which one of the company entertains for the “youth” of the present day, and her determination “never to give herself a moment’s uneasiness on account of any of them.” A hint here; men and women feel the same inclinations towards each other now that they always have done, and which they will continue to do until there is a new order of things, and you, as others have done, may find, perhaps, that the passions of your sex are easier raised than allayed. Do not therefore boast too soon or too strongly of your insensibility to, or resistance of, its powers. In the composition of the human frame there is a good deal of inflammable matter, however dormant it may lie for a time, and like an intimate acquaintance of yours, when the torch is put to it, that which is within you may burst into a blaze; for which reason and especially too, as I have entered upon the chapter of advices, I will read you a lecture drawn from this text.

Love is said to be an involuntary passion, and it is, therefore, contended that it cannot be resisted. This is true in part only, for like all things else, when nourished and supplied plentifully with aliment, it is rapid in its progress; but let these be withdrawn and it may be stifled in its birth or much stinted in its growth. For example, a woman (the same may be said of the other sex) all beautiful and accomplished, will, while her hand and heart are undisposed of, turn the heads and set the circle in which she moves on fire. Let her marry, and what is the consequence? The madness ceases and all is quiet again. Why? not because there is any diminution in the charms of the lady, but because there is an end of hope. Hence it follows, that love may and therefore ought to be under the guidance of reason, for although we cannot avoid first impressions, we may assuredly place them under guard; and my motives for treating on this subject are to show you, while you remain Eleanor Parke Custis, spinster, and retain the resolution to love with moderation, the propriety of adhering to the latter resolution, at least until you have secured your game, and the way by which it may be accomplished.

When the fire is beginning to kindle, and your heart growing warm, propound these questions to it. Who is this invader? Have I a competent knowledge of him? Is he a man of good character; a man of sense? For, be assured, a sensible woman can never be happy with a fool? What has been his walk in life? Is he a gambler, a spendthrift, or drunkard? Is his fortune sufficient to maintain me in the manner I have been accustomed to live, and my sisters live, and is he one to whom my friends can have no reasonable objection? If these interrogatories can be satisfactorily answered, there will remain but one more to be asked, that, however, is an important one. Have I sufficient ground to conclude that his affections are engaged by me? Without this the heart of sensibility will struggle against a passion that is not reciprocated—delicacy, custom, or call it by what epithet you will, having precluded all advances on your part. The declaration, without the most indirect invitation of yours, must proceed from the man, to render it permanent and valuable, and nothing short of good sense and an easy unaffected conduct can draw the line between prudery and coquetry. It would be no great departure from truth to say, that it rarely happens otherwise than that a thorough-faced coquette dies in celibacy, as a punishment for her attempts to mislead others, by encouraging looks, words, or actions, given for no other purpose than to draw men on to make overtures that they may be rejected.

This day, according to our information, gives a husband to your elder sister, and consummates, it is to be presumed, her fondest desires. The dawn with us is bright, and propitious, I hope, of her future happiness, for a full measure of which she and Mr. Law have my earnest wishes.1 Compliments and congratulations on this occasion, and best regards are presented to your mamma, Dr. Stuart and family; and every blessing, among which a good husband when you want and deserve one, is bestowed on you by yours, affectionately.

TO EDMUND PENDLETON.

Philadelphia, 22 January, 1795.

Dear Sir,

From a long acquaintance with and sincere regard for you, I always feel pleasure in hearing from you and of you. Consequently your letter of the 30th ultimo was an acceptable annuity.1

Notwithstanding you have passed your seventy-third year, whilst you enjoy tolerable health, and retain your faculties in the vigor they are, I wish, as well on public as on private account, that length of days may be added to those which you have already numbered. A month from this day, if I should live to see the completion of it, will place me on the wrong (perhaps it would be better to say on the advanced) side of my grand climacteric; and, although I have no cause to complain of the want of health, I can religiously aver, that no man was ever more tired of public life, or more devoutly wished for retirement than I do.

I hope and believe, that the spirit of anarchy in the western counties of this State, (to quell which the force of the Union was called for,) is entirely subdued; and although, to effect it, the community has been saddled with a considerable expense, yet I trust no money could have been more advantageously expended, both as it respects the internal peace and welfare of this country, and the impression it will make on others. The spirit with which the militia turned out in support of the constitution and the laws of our country, at the same time that it does them immortal honor, is the most conclusive refutation, that could have been given to the assertions of Lord Sheffield,1 that, without the protection of Great Britain, we should be unable to govern ourselves, and would soon be involved in confusion. They will see, that republicanism is not the phantom of a deluded imagination. On the contrary, that, under no form of government, will laws be better supported, liberty and property better secured, or happiness be more effectually dispensed to mankind.

The successes of our army to the westward have already been productive of good consequences. They have dispelled a cloud, which lowered very heavily in the northern hemisphere (the Six Nations); and, though we have received no direct advices from General Wayne since November, there is reason to believe, that the Indians, with whom we are or were at war in that quarter, together with their abettors, begin to see things in a different point of view. But what effect these favorable changes may have on the southern Indians, it is not easy at this moment to decide.

I accord fully in opinion with yourself, that the plan of annual presents, in an abstract view, unaccompanied with other measures, is not the best mode of treating ignorant savages, from whose hostile conduct we experience much distress; but it is not to be forgotten, that they in turn are not without serious causes of complaint, from the encroachments which are made on their lands by our people, who are not to be restrained by any law now in being, or likely to be enacted. They, poor wretches, have no press through which their grievances are related; and it is well known, that, when one side only of a story is heard and often repeated, the human mind becomes impressed with it insensibly. The annual presents, however, to which you allude, are not given so much with a view to purchase peace, as by way of contribution for injuries not otherwise to be redressed. These people are very much irritated by the continual pressure of land speculators and settlers on one hand, and by the impositions of unauthorized and unprincipled traders, who rob them, in a manner, of their hunting, on the other. Nothing but the strong arm of the Union, or, in other words, adequate laws can correct these abuses. But here jealousies and prejudices, (from which I apprehend more fatal consequences to this government, than from any other source,) aided by local situations, and perhaps by interested considerations, always oppose themselves to efficient measures.

My communications to Congress, at the last and present sessions, have proceeded upon ideas similar to those expressed in your letter, namely, to make fair treaties with the savage tribes, (by this I mean, that they shall perfectly understand every article and clause of them, from correct and repeated interpretations;) that these treaties shall be held sacred, and the infractors on either side punished exemplarily; and to furnish them plentifully with goods, under wholesome regulations, without aiming at higher prices than are adequate to cover the cost and charges. If measures like these were adopted, we might hope to live in peace and amity with these borderers; but not whilst our citizens, in violation of law and justice, are guilty of the offences I have mentioned, and are carrying on unauthorized expeditions against them; and when, for the most atrocious murders, even of those of whom we have the least cause of complaint, a jury on the frontiers can hardly be got to listen to a charge, much less to convict a culprit.

The madness of the European powers, and the calamitous situation into which all of them are thrown by the present ruinous war, ought to be a serious warning to us to avoid a similar catastrophe, so long as we can with honor and justice to our national character. What will be the result of Mr. Jay’s mission is more than I am able, at this moment, to disclose. Charged as he has been with all matters in dispute between the two countries, (not, as has been insinuated in some of the gazettes, merely with that of spoliation,) it may easily be conceived, that there would be a large field of discussion. But upon what principle (except that of piracy,) to account for the conduct of the Bermudian privateers, at this stage of the negotiation, is beyond my comprehension on any fair ground of conjecture, as it must swell the bill. With very great esteem and regard, I am, dear Sir, &c.

TO THE COMMISSIONERS OF THE FEDERAL DISTRICT.

Philadelphia, 28 January, 1795.

Gentlemen,

A plan for the establishment of an university in the Federal City has frequently been the subject of conversation; but, in what manner it is proposed to commence this important institution, on how extensive a scale, the means by which it is to be effected, how it is to be supported, or what progress is made in it, are matters altogether unknown to me.

It has always been a source of serious reflection and sincere regret with me, that the youth of the United States should be sent to foreign countries for the purpose of education. Although there are doubtless many, under these circumstances, who escape the danger of contracting principles unfavorable to republican government, yet we ought to deprecate the hazard attending ardent and susceptible minds, from being too strongly and too early prepossessed in favor of other political systems, before they are capable of appreciating their own.

For this reason I have greatly wished to see a plan adopted, by which the arts, sciences, and belles-lettres could be taught in their fullest extent, thereby embracing all the advantages of European tuition, with the means of acquiring the liberal knowledge, which is necessary to qualify our citizens for the exigencies of public as well as private life; and (which with me is a consideration of great magnitude) by assembling the youth from the different parts of this rising republic, contributing from their intercourse and interchange of information to the removal of prejudices, which might perhaps sometimes arise from local circumstances.

The Federal City, from its centrality and the advantages, which in other respects it must have over any other place in the United States, ought to be preferred, as a proper site for such an university. And if a plan can be adopted upon a scale as extensive as I have described, and the execution of it should commence under favorable auspices in a reasonable time, with a fair prospect of success, I will grant in perpetuity fifty shares in the navigation of Potomac River towards the endowment of it.

What annuity will arise from these fifty shares, when the navigation is in full operation, can at this time be only conjectured; and those, who are acquainted with the nature of it, can form as good a judgment as myself.

As the design of this university has assumed no form with which I am acquainted, and as I am equally ignorant who the persons are, that have taken or are disposed to take the maturation of the plan upon themselves, I have been at a loss to whom I should make this communication of my intentions. If the Commissioners of the Federal City have any particular agency in bringing the matter forward, then the information, I now give to them, is in its proper course. If, on the other hand, they have no more to do in it than others, who may be desirous of seeing so important a measure carried into effect, they will be so good as to excuse my using them as the medium for disclosing these intentions; because it appears necessary, that the funds for the establishment and support of the institution should be known to the promoters of it; and I see no mode more eligible for announcing my purpose. For these reasons, I give you the trouble of this address, and the assurance of being, Gentlemen, &c.

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

Philadelphia, 2 February, 1795.

Dear Sir,

After so long an experience of your public services, I am naturally led, at this moment of your departure from office (which it has always been my wish to prevent), to review them. In every relation, which you have borne to me, I have found that my confidence in your talents, exertions, and integrity has been well placed. I the more freely render this testimony of my approbation, because I speak from opportunities of information, which cannot deceive me, and which furnish satisfactory proof of your title to public regard.1

My most earnest wishes for your happiness will attend you in your retirement, and you may assure yourself of the sincere esteem, regard, and friendship of, dear Sir, your affectionate, &c.

TO ROBERT LEWIS.

Philad’a, 22 February, 1795.

Dear Sir:

Your letter of the 17th Ult. came duly to hand—but the pressure of business in which I am always involved whilst Congress are in session has prevented my acknowledging the receipt of it at an earlier date; and now, I may not be so full as you might wish; but shall touch upon the several points of your letter and in the order they stand there.

If the tenants are not punctual in the discharge of their Rents, when they become due, destrain for them without delay, or hesitation; unless their disability to pay proceeds from some providential interposition, or from some other obvious cause which entitles them to indulgence, for it may be depended upon, if the failure proceeds from idleness, the man who is unable to pay one rent, will never pay two, willingly; and generally, when it goes beyond that the score is wiped out.

With respect to the Sheriffs, shew them no indulgence; of all descriptions of men in this Country, I think them (tho’ there may, and undoubtedly there are exceptions) the least entitled to favor; I mean to be understood as speaking of under sheriffs, and those who farm the office, merely to grind the people and get money into their hands, for speculative and other purposes of their own, instead of rendering it where due.

I shall expect the accounts of all the monies collected, and of the arrearages as soon as you can make it out, that I may know precisely how the matter stands on this and on the replevy bonds.

Mrs. Haney1 should endeavor to do what she can for herself—this is a duty incumbent on every one; but you must not let her suffer, as she has thrown herself upon me; your advances on this account will be allowed always, at settlement; and I agree readily to furnish her with provisions and for the good character you give of her daughter make the latter a present in my name of a handsome but not costly gown, and other things which she may stand mostly in need of.—You may charge me also with the worth of your tenement on which she is placed, and where perhaps it is better she should be, than at a great distance from your attentions to her.

I have already given you my ideas with respect to the purchasing of leases; but to these I will add, that if you can make advantageous bargains, conclude them; as far as you have means in your own hands to carry them into effect.—Beyond this, make them conditionally only leaving the ratification to me; that I may decide from the prospect I have of commanding money; whether to carry them into execution or not. In conducting this business, there are two things which you should never loose sight of. The first is, that the sum given to purchase in the lease, is fixed and certain; and the rent which can be had for the tenement is often uncertain. To go upon the supposition, therefore, that it will rent for this or that sum, is fallacious ground unless there is unequivocal evidence on which to form an opinion. The second thing is, that the rent, whatever it may be, must be more than will afford 6 pr. ct. interest for the sum advanced for the purchase, in addition to the rent—first, because 6 pr. ct. is the legal interest of the United States.—Secondly because any person who has money to lend, and will adopt the usual modes, may obtain much more; and thirdly because the rent which is received, and which I am entitled to without any advance, is equivalent to a certain principal—for instance, if I was to give an hundred pounds for a lease, the rent of which was £6, if I did not receive £12 rent, the deficiency would be lost upon legal ground, because the land is equal to £6, and the £100 paid by way of purchase is equal to £100 more. But those who possess money, can turn it (where they are disposed to do it) to more profit than lending it at 6 pr. ct.—I have no inclination however to fall into those practices—therefore after this explanation of my ideas, go on and purchase as far as you have means, absolutely; and conditionally, afterwards, for the reasons given.

I had no conception that at this day my leases were so full of lives as would appear from your account of them; I wish my confidence in placing blank leases signed into the hands of Mr. Muse may not have been abused. I have not to the best of my recollection, sanctioned more than the rental for lives of two leases—one to Mr. Aires; and another to a person who was formerly an overseer to my brother John; the rest were formed for a term of years which must have expired. I am, &c.

TO JOSEPH CERACCHI.1

Philadelphia, 9 March, 1795.

Sir:

I am directed by the President of the United States to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 7th inst., and that of the present date;—and to express to you his regret at your despair of bringing your plan of a national monument to a fortunate issue.

Whether there are sufficient grounds for despair, or whether more time may not be necessary to give the subscription papers a fair trial, and to ascertain the result with more precision; you can decide with more accuracy than he, who has not taken and cannot take, any active part in this business. He has formed no Opinion thereon, much less is he enabled to offer you any advice on this subject.

But as you hold out strong indications of deception, and complain of ill treatment without pointing to the instances, he thinks it necessary that an explanation should be had between you and himself; that no charges hereafter may lie at his door.—To do this it requires nothing more than to draw your attention to circumstances which cannot have escaped your recollection.

Of your intention of coming to this Country originally, the President could have had no knowledge—and you had been in the City some time before he was informed of it.1 Whilst here your name was frequently mentioned to him in very advantageous terms.—He was told of a design you had projected for the erection of a National Monument;—that you were preparing the Busts of particular characters in this City; and that you had expressed an earnest desire to take his. This request being reiterated he, with the reluctance which he has always felt on these occasions, yielded his assent; and accordingly sat for you; without having any other motive than to accommodate your views, or without perceiving any other object on your part, than a desire to take copies from it, if, thereafter, any advantages were likely to result therefrom.

What more (if any thing) might have passed between you and others, on this occasion he knows not;—and with respect to the public edifice, he does not now recollect whether a memorial, which you had prepared for congress, was ever presented; or if presented, what the reception of it was;—much less does he know of any specific encouragement that could have induced you to return to this country in expectation of prosecuting the plan.

As a public character he had no power to offer any, because the means of accomplishment were to flow from legislative authority; and as a private man he never could, or would have committed himself in this affair further than as a Subscriber.—Thus much relates to the first part of this transaction.—With respect to the subsequent part, that is, your return to this Country, and what has happened since; the President desires me to remark, that these are events which were adopted without any consultation with him or his knowledge, and he heard thro’ a variety of channels of the model of the proposed monument, the likenesses of the Busts, &c., &c.—before the pressure of business in which he was engaged, would permit him to see them;—or to comply with a second request that he would set for some alteration in the Bust which was intended for himself, and with which he complied, on the same principle which had produced the first sitting;—always conceiving it was for purposes of your own it was wanted, untill hints were given that it was designed to be presented to Mrs. Washington. Then for the first time he knew, [he] declared, that he could not, and would not accept it as a present.

The preceeding facts are necessary to acquit the President of having had any agency in your deception (if you have been deceived,) or of involving you in a situation which seems to have become irksome and inconvenient. What follows will shew the ground on which he declines to discharge the account which is inclosed in your letter of the 7th before mentioned.

You cannot have forgot, Sir, that when you sent the busts of Bacchus and Ariadne to the President in 1792, and requested his acceptance of them, that they were refused, and returned to you.—Upon which with earnestness (being on the point of your departure and not knowing what to do with them) you requested that they might be permitted to remain in his house.—To this he assented.—And supposing the object was that they might be exhibited as specimens of your abilities, as a sculptor, he had temporary pedestals made for them to stand on;—and always announced them as your workmanship and your property.

On Monday next they will be sent to you;—this would have been done to-day, but company will occupy the servants and prevent their being taken down.—The Bust intended for the P.— is also at your disposal.—Or if you incline to receive for it the highest value that the best artist, or the most skilful connoiseurs in the city will say is the intrinsic worth, he will, notwithstanding this true recital of the case, pay the amount: although it is just to observe, and it may well be supposed he would have been desirous of knowing the cost, and consulting his own inclination and convenience, before it was undertaken, if he had not conceived that it was intended for your own use, and not for his.—

He desires me to add, that it is with real concern he finds the abilities of our infant republic, will not afford employment for a person of your talents. The cause probably is that the United States are just emerging from the difficulties and expenses of a long and bloody war—and cannot spare money for those gratifications and ornamental figures,—as in the wealthy countries of Europe.—He is sorry also that you should quit them under any embarrassments or with discontent.—For myself, I am, &c.,

B. Dandridge.

TO CHARLES CARTER.

Philadelphia, 10 March, 1795.

Dear Sir,

Your favor of the 23d ulto. came duly to hand.—I wish, sincerely it was in my power to comply with your request in behalf of your son, but it really is not, to the extent of it.

My friends entertain a very erroneous idea of my pecuniary resources, when they set me down for a money lender, or one who (now) has a command of it. You may believe me when I assert that the bonds which were due to me before the Revolution, were discharged during the progress of it—with a few exceptions in depreciated paper (in some instances as low as a shilling in the pound.) That such has been the management of my Estate, for many years past, especially since my absence from home, now six years, as scarcely to support itself. That my public allowance (whatever the world may think of it) is inadequate to the expence of living in this City; to such an extravagant height has the necessaries as well as the conveniences of life arisen.—And, moreover that to keep myself out of debt; I have found it expedient now and then to sell Lands, or something else to effect this purpose.

These are facts I have no inclination to publish to the World, nor should I have disclosed them on this occasion, had it not been due to friendship, to give you some explanation of my inability to comply with your request. If, however by joining with nine others, the sum required can be obtained—notwithstanding my being under these circumstances—and notwithstanding the money will be to be withdrawn from another purpose—I will contribute one hundred pounds towards the accommodation of your son’s wants, without any view to the receipt of interest therefrom.

With very great esteem and regard, I am, &c.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Philadelphia, 15 March, 1795.

Dear Sir,

I received your letter of the 23d ultimo1 ; but not at so early a period as might have been expected from the date of it. My mind has always been more disposed to apply the shares in the inland navigation of Potomac and James Rivers, which were left to my disposal by the legislature of Virginia, towards the endowment of an university in the United States, than to any other object it had contemplated. In pursuance of this idea, and understanding that other means are in embryo for establishing so useful a seminary in the Federal City, I did, on the 28th of January last, announce to the commissioners thereof my intention of vesting in perpetuity the fifty shares I hold under that act in the navigation of Potomac, as an additional mean of carrying the plan into effect, provided it should be adopted upon a scale so liberal as to extend to and embrace a complete system of education.

I had little hesitation in giving the Federal City a preference of all other places for the institution, for the following reasons. 1st, on account of its being the permanent seat of the government of this Union, and where the laws and policy of it must be better understood than in any local part thereof. 2d, because of its centrality. 3d, because one half (or near it) of the District of Columbia is within the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the whole of the State not inconvenient thereto. 4th, because, as a part of the endowment, it would be useful, but alone would be inadequate to the end. 5th, because many advantages, I conceive, would result from the jurisdiction, which the general government will have over it, which no other spot would possess. And, lastly, as this seminary is contemplated for the completion of education and study of the sciences, (not for boys in their rudiments,) it will afford the students an opportunity of attending the debates in Congress, and thereby becoming more liberally and better acquainted with the principles of law and government.

My judgment and my wishes point equally strong to the application of the James River shares to the same object at the same place; but, considering the source from whence they were derived, I have, in a letter I am writing to the executive of Virginia on this subject, left the application of them to a seminary within the State, to be located by the legislature.

Hence you will perceive, that I have in a degree anticipated your proposition. I was restrained from going the whole length of the suggestion by the following considerations. 1st, I did not know to what extent or when any plan would be so matured for the establishment of an university, as would enable any assurances to be given to the application of M. D’Ivernois. 2d, the propriety of transplanting the professors in a body might be questioned for several reasons; among others, because they might not be all good characters, nor all sufficiently acquainted with our language. And again, having been at variance with the levelling party of their own country, the measure might be considered as an aristocratical movement by more than those, who, without any just cause that I can discover, are continually sounding the bell of aristocracy. And, 3d, because it might preclude some of the first professors in other countries from a participation, among whom some of the most celebrated characters in Scotland, in this line, might be obtained.

Something, but of what nature I am unable to inform you, has been written by Mr. Adams to M. D’Ivernois. Never having viewed my intended donation as more than a part of the means, that were to set this establishment afloat, I did not incline to go too far in the encouragement of professors, before the plan should assume a more formal shape, much less to induce an entire college to migrate. The enclosed is the answer I have received from the commissioners; from which, and the ideas I have here expressed, you will be enabled to decide on the best communication to be made to M. D’Ivernois.

My letter to the commissioners has bound me to the fulfilment of what is therein engaged; and if the legislature of Virginia, in considering the subject, should view it in the same light I do, the James River shares will be added thereto; for I think one good institution of this sort is to be preferred to two imperfect ones, which, without other aid than the shares in both navigations, is more likely to fall through, than to succeed upon the plan I contemplate; which, in a few words, is to supersede the necessity of sending the youth of this country abroad for the purpose of education, (where too often principles and habits unfriendly to republican government are imbibed, and not easily discarded,) by instituting such an one of our own, as will answer the end, and associating them in the same seminary, will contribute to wear off those prejudices and unreasonable jealousies, which prevent or weaken friendships and impair the harmony of the Union. With very great esteem, I am, &c.

P. S. Mr. Adams laid before me the communications of M. D’Ivernois; but I said nothing to him of my intended donation towards the establishment of an university in the Federal District. My wishes would be to fix this on the Virginia side of the Potomac River; but this would not embrace or accord with those other means, which are proposed for the establishment.

TO ROBERT BROOKE, GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA.

Philadelphia, 16 March, 1795.

Sir,

Ever since the General Assembly of Virginia were pleased to submit to my disposal fifty shares in the Potomac, and one hundred in the James River Company, it has been my anxious desire to appropriate them to an object most worthy of public regard.

It is with indescribable regret, that I have seen the youth of the United States migrating to foreign countries, in order to acquire the higher branches of erudition, and to obtain a knowledge of the sciences. Although it would be injustice to many to pronounce the certainty of their imbibing maxims not congenial with republicanism, it must nevertheless be admitted, that a serious danger is encountered by sending abroad among other political systems those, who have not well learned the value of their own.

The time is therefore come, when a plan of universal education ought to be adopted in the United States. Not only do the exigencies of public and private life demand it, but, if it should ever be apprehended, that prejudice would be entertained in one part of the Union against another, an efficacious remedy will be, to assemble the youth of every part under such circumstances as will, by the freedom of intercourse and collision of sentiment, give to their minds the direction of truth, philanthropy, and mutual conciliation.

It has been represented, that a university corresponding with these ideas is contemplated to be built in the Federal City, and that it will receive considerable endowments. This position is so eligible from its centrality, so convenient to Virginia, by whose legislature the shares were granted and in which part of the Federal District stands, and combines so many other conveniences, that I have determined to vest the Potomac shares in that university.

Presuming it to be more agreeable to the General Assembly of Virginia, that the shares in the James River Company should be reserved for a similar object in some part of that State, I intend to allot them for a seminary to be erected at such place as they shall deem most proper. I am disposed to believe, that a seminary of learning upon an enlarged plan, but yet not coming up to the full idea of an university, is an institution to be preferred for the position which is to be chosen. The students who wish to pursue the whole range of science, may pass with advantage from the seminary to the university, and the former by a due relation may be rendered cooperative with the latter.

I cannot however dissemble my opinion, that if all the shares were conferred on an university, it would become far more important, than when they are divided; and I have been constrained from concentring them in the same place, merely by my anxiety to reconcile a particular attention to Virginia with a great good, in which she will abundantly share in common with the rest of the United States.

I must beg the favor of your Excellency to lay this letter before that honorable body, at their next session, in order that I may appropriate the James River shares to the place which they may prefer. They will at the same time again accept my acknowledgments for the opportunity, with which they have favored me, of attempting to supply so important a desideratum in the United States as an university adequate to our necessity, and a preparatory seminary. With great consideration and respect, I am, Sir, &c.1

TO MAJOR-GENERAL DANIEL MORGAN.

Philadelphia, 27 March, 1795.

Dear Sir,

The interest which you have taken in the safety of John Mitchell, as expressed in your letter of the 19th of January last, would be an inducement to me to go as far, in relieving him, as public propriety will admit. But, the attorney-general having made a report, of which the enclosed is a copy, I think it advisable to postpone the further consideration until his trial shall have taken place.

It has afforded me great pleasure to learn, that the general conduct and character of the army have been temperate and indulgent, and that your attention to the quiet and comfort of the western inhabitants has been well received by them. Still it may be proper constantly and strongly to impress upon the army, that they are mere agents of civil power; that, out of camp, they have no other authority than other citizens; that offences against the laws are to be examined, not by a military officer, but by a magistrate; that they are not exempt from arrests and indictments for violations of the laws; that officers ought to be careful not to give orders, which may lead the agents into infractions of law; that no compulsion be used towards the inhabitants in the traffic carried on between them and the army; that disputes be avoided, as much as possible, and be adjusted as quickly as may be, without urging them to an extreme; and that the whole country is not to be considered as within the limits of the camp.

I do not communicate these things to you for any other purpose, than that you may weigh them, and, without referring to any instructions from me, adopt the measures necessary for accomplishing the foregoing objects. With great regard and esteem, I am, dear Sir, &c.

TO ALEXANDER WHITE.

[PRIVATE.]

Philadelphia, 17th May, 1795.

Dear Sir:

Your letter of the 11th inst. came to hand by the post of yesterday.

With pleasure I received your acceptance of the office of Commissioner of the Federal City. The commission will be forwarded to you from the department of State, and the sooner you can enter upon the duties of the trust, the more convenient and agreeable it will be.

With the candor which I am sure will be agreeable to you, I shall intimate (for reasons which I shall not at this time enumerate, but which will appear evident after you have been there a while) that a residence in the City, if a house is to be had, will be more promotive of its welfare, than your abode in George Town.—I shall add, that the motives which induced a fixed salary (which the first commissioner did not receive) were, that they should reside on the spot;—that they were not only to plan and regulate the affairs of the City,—but to look to the execution of them also; to accomplish which with the greatest ease to themselves, and best advantage to the public; I presumed that after measures were decided on by the board they would have been so arranged as that each member would have attended to the execution of a particular part; or if found more convenient, that in rotation each would have superintended the whole.—I could not perceive however when in the City last, (the only time since the change in the Board) that any such arrangement had been adopted.—In short, the only difference I could perceive between the proceedings of the old and the new Commissioners resulted from the following comparison.—The old met not oftener than once a month, except on particular occasions; the new meet once or twice a week.—In the interval the old resided at their houses in the Country; the new resided at their houses in George Town. The old had too much of the business done by daily wages, and were obliged to trust to Overseers and Superintendants to look to the execution; the new have gone more into the execution of it by contracts, and piece work, but rely equally, I fear, on others to see to the performance. These changes (tho’ for the better) by no means apply a radical cure to the evils that were complained of; nor will they justify the difference of compensation from six dollars per diem for every day’s attendance in the City and sixteen hundred per annum.

My time will not permit me to go more into detail on this subject;—nor is it necessary; your own good judgment will supply all, and more than I could add.—

The year 1800 will be soon upon us; The necessity therefore of hurrying on the public buildings, and other works of a public nature, and executing of them with economy; the propriety of preventing idleness in those who have day or monthly wages, and imposition by others, who work by measure—by the piece, or by contract—and seeing that all contracts are fulfilled with good faith, are too obvious to be dwelt on,—and are not less important than to form plans, and establish rules, for conducting, and bringing to a speedy and happy conclusion this great and arduous business.1 I am, &c.

TO SECRETARIES OF STATE, TREASURY, AND WAR, AND THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL.1

Philadelphia, 29 June, 1795.

Sir,

I enclose to you a copy of the resolution of the Senate, advising that the late treaty with Great Britain be ratified. Upon this resolution two questions arise.

First, is or is not that resolution intended to be the final act of the Senate; or do they expect, that the new article which is proposed shall be submitted to them before the treaty takes effect?

Secondly, does or does not the constitution permit the President to ratify the treaty, without submitting the new article, after it shall be agreed to by the British King, to the Senate for their further advice and consent?

I wish you to consider this subject as soon as possible, and transmit to me your opinion in writing, that I may without delay take some definitive step upon the treaty. I am, &c.1

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

[PRIVATE AND PERFECTLY CONFIDENTIAL.]

Philadelphia, 3 July, 1795.

My dear Sir,

The treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation, which has lately been before the Senate, has, as you will perceive, made its public entry into the Gazettes of this City.—Of course the merits, and demerits of it will (especially in its unfinished state), be freely discussed.

It is not the opinion of those who were determined (before it was promulgated) to support or oppose it, that I am sollicitous to obtain; for these I well know rarely do more than examine the side to which they lean; without giving the reverse the consideration it deserves;—possibly without a wish to be apprised of the reasons on which the objections are founded.—My desire is to learn from dispassionate men, who have a knowledge of the subject, and abilities to judge of it, the genuine opinion they entertain of each article of the instrument; and the result of it in the aggregate. In a word, placed on the footing the matter now stands, it is, more than ever, an incumbent duty on me to do what propriety, and the true interest of this country shall appear to require at my hands, on so important a subject, under such delicate circumstances.

You will be at no loss to perceive from what I have already said, that my wishes are to have the favorable and unfavorable side of each article stated and compared together; that I may see the bearing and tendency of them;—and ultimately, on which side the balance is to be found.

This treaty has, I am sensible, many relations, which, in deciding thereon ought to be attended to;—some of them too are of an important nature.—I know also, that to judge with precision of its commercial arrangements, there ought likewise to be an intimate acquaintance with the various branches of commerce between this country and Great Britain as it now stands;—as it will be placed by the treaty,—and as it may affect our present, or restrain our future treaties with other nations.—All these things I am persuaded you have given as much attention to as most men; and I believe that your late employment under the General government afforded you more opportunities of deriving knowledge therein, than most of them who have not studied and practiced it scientifically, upon a large and comprehensive scale.

I do not know how you may be occupied at present;—or how incompatible this request of mine may be to the business you have in hand. All I can say is, that however desirous I may be of availing myself of your sentiments on the points I have enumerated, and such others as are involved in the treaty, and the resolution of the Senate; (both of which I send you, lest they should not be at hand) it is not my intention to interrupt you in that business; or, if you are disinclined to go into the investigation I have requested, to press the matter upon you: for of this you may be assured, that with the most unfeigned regard—and with every good wish for your health and prosperity

I am, Your Affectc. friend &c

P. S.—Admitting that his B: Majesty will consent to the suspension of the 12th Article of the treaty, is it necessary that the treaty should again go to the Senate? or is the President authorized by the resolution of that body to ratify it without.1

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

[PRIVATE.]

Philadelphia, 13th July, 1795.

My dear Sir,

I have, in the regular course of the Posts, been duly favoured with your letters of the 9th, accompanying your observations on the several articles of the treaty, with Great Britain,—and of the 10th supplementary thereto.—

For both, I offer you my sincere thanks, as they have afforded me great satisfaction. Altho’ it was my wish that your observations on each article should be diffusive, yet I am really ashamed when I behold the trouble it has given you, to explore and to explain so fully as you have done, the whole of them.

The most obnoxious article (the 12th) being suspended by the Senate, there is no occasion to express any sentiment thereon.—I wish, however, it had appeared in a different form.—And altho’ it is but fair to presume that, no further advantage could have been obtained in the 3d article, yet the exclusion of the vessels belonging to the United States from all the “Seaports, Harbours, Bays, or Creeks of His Majesty,” when theirs are admitted into all ours, to the highest Ports of entry, is not marked with reciprocity.—It may be urged and truly, that under the existing regulations of the B. government, we are not, at this time, allowed those privileges; except when they are made to subserve their own purposes: whilst from Quebec (but how we are to get there I know not,) and upwards,—the lakes, and the waters on their side of the line, are open to our commerce, and that we have equal advantages in the Indian trade on both sides; except within the limits of the Hudson’s bay company.

All this looks very well on paper; but I much question whether in its operation it will not be found to work very much against us.

1st. What are the limits of that company?—are they so defined, and so clearly understood, as that our traders when they are in the Wilderness can with precision say, thus far I may of right go, without let or hindrance?

2nd. Admitting the fact, will they not, having possession of the trade, and the Indians being in their interest, by every artifice of their traders, prevent ours from extending themselves into the country—sharing in the profit, and thereby bringing on disputes which may terminate seriously.—

3d. Does not the hitherto (I might add present) improper interference of the British, within our territory, and the sollicitude that that government has manifested upon all occasions to get a footing on the Mississippi; and on the waters and carrying places leading thereto, evince, in a most unequivocal manner, that disputes may be expected to arise within our territory as well as their own, from the attempts of their Traders to monopolize the trade; and from the overbearing support, or underhand countenance, they will give, not only in what is right, but in what is convenient, to its views also.—

My opinion of this article therefore is, that it would have been more for our peace, if not for our interest, to have restrained the traders of both nations to their own side of the line, leaving the Indians on each, to go to whichsoever their interest, convenience, or inclination, might prompt them. This would have thwarted the views of the British on the Mississippi, whilst all the doors into upper Canada, and the Western Country would have been as wide open then, as they are now made by the treaty;—and no difficulty I am persuaded would have been found by our people, of introducing goods across the line, after they had got them to it, and the Posts possessed by us, if this avenue should be found the most convenient and cheapest.

I wish too the 2nd article had been more definite with respect to the terms “Precincts or Jurisdiction.”—Except that the shortness of its duration for operation may afford a remedy, I should expect many disputes would arise therefrom.

I asked, or intended to ask in my letter of the 3d whether you conceived (admitting the suspension of the 12th Article should be agreed to by the B. government) there would be a necessity for the treaty going before the Senate again for their advice and consent? This question takes its birth from a declaration of the minority of that body, to that effect.

With much truth and sincerity
I am always your affectionate &c.

P. S. I was almost in the act of sending the enclosed letter to the Post Office when your favor of the 11th was put into my hands.

Query—Whether the passage, which you have quoted from the 15th article in your letter of the above date does not mean that no prohibition shall be imposed on the exportation or importation of any articles to or from the U. S. which shall not be also imposed on the like exportation or importation to or from other foreign nations? That is:—that the U. S. shall be under no other disability, than any other foreign nations.—If so, there would seem to be no privilege granted, but only an engagement, that other nations shall not be rivals to the U. S. by being freed from the prohibition.—For example—Your idea is, that whatever of its own produce Spain may carry from their territory; that is, they may re-export to England Spanish produce.—I wish this could be made clear; for I readily see the advantage of it in one sense; tho’ I am not sure that we can bring any Country, except the East Indies, into our own, the produce of it, and reexport it to England so as to make a profit from this circuitous voyage.

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

Philadelphia, 14 July, 1795.

My dear Sir,

I received your favor of yesterday, this moment, when I am on the eve of a journey to Virginia.1

The opinion which you have given as to its being necessary to submit the new article to the Senate, being in direct opposition to that of the Secretaries and the Attorney-general, has occasioned some embarrassment with me.—For I always understood it to be the sense of the majority of the Senate, that they were not to pass their judgment upon the new article further than they have done.—But as I shall be absent, and Mr. Randolph has before him the bringing of this business to a close; I wish you to write to him your ideas, if upon mature reflection you shall think differently from the gentlemen around me; or you find the sense of the Senate to be different from what I have been led to expect.—I have told Mr. Randolph that your sentiments do not agree with those which I received from the Officers of government; and have desired him to revise them.—

I have also told him that I have requested the favor of you to write to him on this subject.

Very affectionately &c.

P. S. Notwithstanding one great object of my visit to Mount Vernon, is relaxation; yet, to hear from you, the sentimts. entertained of the treaty—and in short on any other interesting subject, with which the public mind is occupied would be a considerable gratification.—The state of our pecuniary matters in Holland, at this time, is a bar to Mr. Adams’s leaving that country—but the next best step will be adopted.—

Yours as before.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH, SECRETARY OF STATE.

Mount Vernon, 22 July, 1795.

Dear Sir,

Both your letters, dated the 17th instant, found me at this place, where I arrived on Monday. The letter from the commissioners to you, I return, as I also do the gazettes of Pittsburg and Boston. The proceedings at the latter place are of a very unpleasant nature. The result I forwarded to you from Baltimore, accompanied with a few hasty lines, written at the moment I was departing from thence; with a request that it might be considered by the confidential officers of government, and returned to me with an answer thereto, if an answer should be deemed advisable.1

In my hurry, I did not signify the propriety of letting those gentlemen know fully my determination with respect to the ratification of the treaty, and the train it was in; but as this was necessary, in order to enable them to form their opinions on the subject submitted, I take it for granted that both were communicated to them by you as a matter of course. The first, that is, the conditional ratification (if the late order, which we have heard of, respecting provision vessels, is not in operation,) may, on all fit occasions, be spoken of as my determination, unless from any thing you have heard or met with since I left you, it should be thought more advisable to communicate further with me on the subject. My opinion respecting the treaty is the same now that it was, namely, not favorable to it, but that it is better to ratify it in the manner the Senate have advised, and with the reservation already mentioned, than to suffer matters to remain as they are, unsettled. Little has been said to me on the subject of this treaty along the road I passed, and I have seen no one since, from whom I could hear much concerning it; but, from indirect discourses, I find endeavors are not wanting to place it in all the odious points of view, of which it is susceptible, and in some, which it will not admit. * * *

As you have discovered your mistake, with respect to the dates of the French decrees, I shall add nothing on that, nor on any other subject at this time, further than a desire to know if you have heard any thing more from M. Adet on the treaty with Great Britain; and whether Mr. Jaudenes has replied to your letter to him on the score of his inconsistency. I am, &c.1

P. S. A Solomon is not necessary to interpret the design of the oration of Mr. Brackenridge.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH, SECRETARY OF STATE.

Mount Vernon, 24 July, 1795.

Dear Sir,

My letter from Baltimore, and the one written by Friday’s post, dated the 22d instant, renders it in a manner unnecessary for me to add more on the score of the treaty with Great Britain, or on the movements which are taking place thereupon in different parts, than to inform you, that, if circumstances should make it more eligible for me to repair to Philadelphia, than for you to come to this place, I can set out as well on a day’s as a month’s notice for the seat of government; where, if matters are peculiarly embarrassed, I should be on the theatre of information, with documents and other aids about me, that could not be had here.

I have not, as I mentioned to you in my last, heard much respecting the treaty since I left Philadelphia. At Baltimore I remained no longer than to breakfast. In Georgetown my whole time was spent on business with the commissioners; and in Alexandria I did not stop. Yet the same leaven, that fermented a part of the town of Boston, is at work, I am informed, in other places; but whether it will produce the same fruit remains to be decided.

I shall expect, agreeably to the assurances you have given me, to be well and regularly advised of the pros and cons in this business, and the preponderancy thereof. * * *

The introduction of A. R. H.1 to you was, I conceive, more the effect of design, than of ignorance or inadvertency. The impropriety of the measure was too palpable, even if instances in abundance had not announced, that characters in the predicament that gentleman was could not be noticed by the officers of government without giving umbrage. The conduct of Mr. M. is of a piece with that of the other; and one can scarcely forbear thinking, that these acts are part of a premeditated system to embarrass the executive government. I am, &c.

TO TIMOTHY PICKERING, SECRETARY OF WAR.

Mount Vernon, 27 July, 1795.

Dear Sir,

On Saturday morning I received your letter of the 21st instant with its enclosures. The post of tomorrow from Alexandria is the first by which I could answer it.

If the meeting of the commissioners appointed to treat with the Onondaga, Cayuga, and Oneida Indians took place at Albany the 15th instant, as was expected, by the extract from General Schuyler’s letter to the Governor of New York, any further sentiment now on the unconstitutionality of the measure would be received too late. If it did not take place according to expectation, it is my desire that you would obtain the best advice you can on the case, and do what prudence, with a due regard to the constitution and laws, shall dictate.1

With respect to the meeting, which is proposed to be held with the St. Regis Indians, the proposition of Governor Jay is regular, and I can think of no better character than Colonel Wadsworth, or Mr. Boudinot, to attend it on the part of the United States. If both should decline the service, any other respectable and well-known disinterested character would meet my approbation equally.

The extract from Mr. Higginson’s2 letter, which you were so obliging as to send to me, places the proceedings of the town of Boston in a different point of view, from what might have been entertained from the resolutions, which were sent to me by express, accompanied with a letter from the selectmen of that place. But, much indeed to be regretted, party disputes are now carried to such a length, and truth is so enveloped in mist and false representation, that it is extremely difficult to know through what channel to seek it. This difficulty to one, who is of no party, and whose sole wish is to pursue with undeviating steps a path, which would lead this country to respectability, wealth, and happiness, is exceedingly to be lamented. But such, for wise purposes it is presumed, is the turbulence of human passions in party disputes, when victory more than truth is the palm contended for, that “the post of honor is a private station.” With much esteem and regard, I am, &c.

TO EZEKIEL PRICE, THOMAS WALLEY, WILLIAM BOARDMAN, EBENEZER SEAVER, THOMAS CRAFTS, THOMAS EDWARDS, WILLIAM LITTLE, WILLIAM SCOLLAY, AND JESSE PUTNAM, SELECTMEN OF THE TOWN OF BOSTON.

United States, 28 July, 1795.

Gentlemen,

In every act of my administration, I have sought the happiness of my fellow citizens. My system for the attainment of this object has uniformly been to overlook all personal, local, and partial considerations; to contemplate the United States as one great whole; to confide, that sudden impressions, when erroneous, would yield to candid reflection; and to consult only the substantial and permanent interests of our country.

Nor have I departed from this line of conduct, on the occasion which has produced the resolutions contained in your letter of the 13th instant.

Without a predilection for my own judgment, I have weighed with attention every argument, which has at any time been brought into view. But the constitution is the guide, which I never can abandon. It has assigned to the President the power of making treaties, with the advice and consent of the Senate. It was doubtless supposed that these two branches of government would combine, without passion, and with the best means of information, those facts and principles upon which the success of our foreign relations will always depend; that they ought not to substitute for their own conviction the opinions of others, or to seek truth through any channel but that of a temperate and well-informed investigation.

Under this persuasion, I have resolved on the manner of executing the duty before me. To the high responsibility attached to it, I freely submit; and you, Gentlemen, are at liberty to make these sentiments known as the grounds of my procedure. While I feel the most lively gratitude for the many instances of approbation from my country, I can no otherwise deserve it, than by obeying the dictates of my conscience. With due respect, I am, Gentlemen, &c.1

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

[PRIVATE.]

Mount Vernon, 29 July, 1795.

My dear Sir,

Your letters of the 20th and 21st Instt. found me at this place, after a hot and disagreeable ride.

As the measures of the government respecting the treaty were taken before I left Philadelphia, something more imperious than has yet appeared, must turn up to occasion a change.—Still, it is very desirable to ascertain, if possible, after the paroxysm of the fever is a little abated, what the real temper of the people is, concerning it; for at present the cry against the Treaty is like that against a mad-dog; and every one, in a manner, seems engaged in running it down.—

That it has received the most tortured interpretation, and that the writings against it (which are very industriously circulated) are pregnant of the most abominable mis-representations, admits of no doubt;—yet, there are to be found, so far as my information extends, many well disposed men who conceive, that in the settlement of old disputes, a proper regard to reciprocal justice does not appear in the Treaty; whilst others, also well enough affected to the government, are of opinion that to have had no commercial treaty would have been better, for this country than the restricted one, agreed to; in as much, say they, the nature of our Exports and imports (without any extra, or violent measures) would have forced or led to a more adequate intercourse between the two nations without any of those shackles which the treaty has imposed. In a word, that as our exports consist chiefly of provisions and raw materials, which to the manufacturers in G. Britain, and to their Islands in the West Indies, affords employment and food; they must have had them on our terms, if they were not to be obtained on their own; whilst the imports of this country, offers the best mart for their fabrics; and of course, is the principal support of their manufacturers; but the string which is most played on, because it strikes with most force the popular ear, is the violation, as they term it, of our engagements with France; or in other words the predilection shown by that instrument to G. Britain at the expence of the French nation.

The consequences of which are more to be apprehended than any, which are likely to flow from other causes, as ground of opposition; because, whether the fact is, in any degree true or not, it is the interest of the French (whilst the animosity, or jealousies between the two nations exist) to avail themselves of such a spirit to keep us and G. Britain at variance; and they will in my opinion accordingly do it.—To what length their policy may induce them to carry matters, is too much in embryo at this moment to decide:—but I predict much embarrassment to the government therefrom—and in my opinion, too much pains cannot be taken by those who speak, or write, in favor of the treaty, to place this matter in its true light.—

I have seen with pleasure, that a writer in one of the New York papers under the signature of Camillus, has promised to answer,—or rather to defend the treaty—which has been made with G. Britain.—To judge of this work from the first number, which I have seen, I auger well of the performance and shall expect to see the subject handled in a clear, distinct and satisfactory manner:—but if measures are not adopted for its dissemination a few only will derive lights from the knowledge or labor of the author; whilst the opposition pieces will spread their poison in all directions; and Congress, more than probable, will assemble with the unfavorable impressions of their constituents. The difference of conduct between the friends and foes of order and good government, is in nothing more striking than that the latter are always working like bees, to distil their poison; whilst the former, depending often times too much and too long upon the sense and good dispositions of the people to work conviction, neglect the means of effecting it.

With sincere esteem & regard
I am, your Affecte.1

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH, SECRETARY OF STATE.

[PRIVATE.]

Mount Vernon, 29 July, 1795.

My dear Sir,

Your private letters of the 24th and 25th instant have been received, and you will learn by the official letter of this date my determination of returning to Philadelphia after Monday, if nothing in the interim casts up to render it unnecessary.

I am excited to this resolution by the violent and extraordinary proceedings, which have and are about taking place in the northern parts of the Union, and may be expected in the southern; because I think that the Memorial, the Ratification, and the Instructions, which are framing, are of that vast magnitude as not only to require great individual consideration, but a solemn conjunct revision. The latter could not take place if you were to come here; nor would there be that source of information, which is to be found at, and is continually flowing to the seat of government; and besides, in the course of deliberation on these great objects, the examination of official papers may more than probable be found essential, which could be resorted to at no other place than Philadelphia.

To leave home so soon will be inconvenient. A month hence it would have been otherwise; and was, as I hinted to you before I left the city, in contemplation by me for the purpose of Mrs. Washington’s remaining here till November, when I intended to come back for her. But whilst I am in office, I shall never suffer private convenience to interfere with what I conceive to be my official duty.

I view the opposition, which the treaty is receiving from the meetings in different parts of the Union, in a very serious light; not because there is more weight in any of the objections, which are made to it, than was foreseen at first, for there are none in some of them, and gross misrepresentations in others; nor as it respects myself personally, for this shall have no influence on my conduct, plainly perceiving, and I am accordingly preparing my mind for it, the obloquy which disappointment and malice are collecting to heap upon me. But I am alarmed on account of the effect it may have on, and the advantage the French government may be disposed to make of, the spirit which is at work to cherish a belief in them, that the treaty is calculated to favor Great Britain at their expense. Whether they believe or disbelieve these tales, the effect it will have upon the nation will be nearly the same; for, whilst they are at war with that power, or so long as the animosity between the two nations exists, it will, no matter at whose expense, be their policy, and it is to be feared will be their conduct to prevent us from being on good terms with Great Britain, or from her deriving any advantages from our trade, which they can hinder, however much we may be benefited thereby ourselves. To what length this policy and interest may carry them is problematical; but, when they see the people of this country divided, and such a violent opposition given to the measures of their own government pretendedly in their favor, it may be extremely embarrassing, to say no more of it.

To sum the whole up in a few words, I have never, since I have been in the administration of the government, seen a crisis, which in my judgment has been so pregnant of interesting events, nor one from which more is to be apprehended, whether viewed on one side or the other. From New York there is, and I am told will further be, a counter current; but how formidable it may appear, I know not. If the same does not take place at Boston and other towns, it will afford but too strong evidence, that the opposition is in a manner universal, and would make the ratification a very serious business indeed. But, as it respects the French, counter resolutions, even would, for the reasons I have already mentioned, do little more than weaken, in a small degree, the effect the other side would have.

I have written and do now enclose the letter, the draft of which was approved by the heads of departments, to the selectmen of the town of Boston; but if new lights have been had upon the subject, since it was agreed to, or if upon reconsideration any alteration should be deemed necessary, I request you to detain it until I see you. Let me also request, that the same attention may be given to the draft of a letter to Portsmouth and the Chamber of Commerce at New York, as was recommended on that occasion. I am, &c.

P.S. I add to the paper sent, Chancellor Livingston’s letter,1 and wish, if it is best to give it an answer, that one may be prepared. Although this letter is a hurried as well as a private one, I have no objection to the confidential officers seeing it, and wish them to prepare their minds on the several subjects mentioned therein against I arrive.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH, SECRETARY OF STATE.

[PRIVATE.]

Mount Vernon, 31 July, 1795.

My dear Sir,

On Wednesday evening I sent the packet, now under cover with this, to the post-office in Alexandria, to be forwarded next morning at the usual hour, four o’clock, by the Baltimore mail. But, behold! when my letter-bag was brought back from the office and emptied, I not only got those which were addressed to me, among which yours of the 27th was one, but those also which I had sent up the evening before.

I have to regret this blunder of the postmaster, on account of the enclosures, some of which I wished to have got to your hands without delay, that they might have undergone the consideration and acting upon, which was suggested in the letter accompanying them. On another account I am not sorry for the return of the packet to you, as I resolved thereupon, and reading some letters, which I received at the same time, to wait your acknowledgment of the receipt of my letter of the 24th instant, before I would set out; as I should thereby be placed on a certainty whether your journey hither, or mine to Philadelphia, would under all circumstances be deemed most eligible; or whether the business could not be equally well done without either: repeating now, what I did in my letter of the 24th, that I do not require more than a day’s notice to repair to the seat of government, and that, if you and the confidential officers with you are not clear in the measures which are best to be pursued in the several matters mentioned in my last, my own opinion is, and for the reasons there given, that difficult and intricate or delicate questions had better be settled there, where the streams of information are continually flowing in, and that I would set out accordingly.

To be wise and temperate, as well as firm, the present crisis most eminently calls for. There is too much reason to believe, from the pains which have been taken before, at, and since the advice of the Senate respecting the treaty, that the prejudices against it are more extensive than is generally imagined. This I have lately understood to be the case in this quarter, from men, who are of no party, but well-disposed to the present administration. How should it be otherwise, when no stone has been left unturned, that could impress on the minds of the people the most arrant misrepresentation of facts; that their rights have not only been neglected, but absolutely sold; that there are no reciprocal advantages in the treaty; that the benefits are all on the side of Great Britain; and, what seems to have had more weight with them than all the rest, and most pressed, that the treaty is made with the design to oppress the French, in open violation of our treaty with that nation, and contrary, too, to every principle of gratitude and sound policy? In time, when passion shall have yielded to sober reason, the current may possibly turn; but, in the mean while, this government in relation to France and England may be compared to a ship between the rocks of Scylla and Charybdis. If the treaty is ratified, the partisans of the French, (or rather of war and confusion,) will excite them to hostile measures, or at least to unfriendly sentiments; if it is not, there is no foreseeing all the consequences, which may follow, as it respects Great Britain.

It is not to be inferred from hence, that I am or shall be disposed to quit the ground I have taken, unless circumstances more imperious than have yet come to my knowledge should compel it; for there is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily. But these things are mentioned to show, that a close investigation of the subject is more than ever necessary, and that they are strong evidences of the necessity of the most circumspect conduct in carrying the determination of government into effect, with prudence as it respects our own people, and with every exertion to produce a change for the better from Great Britain.

The memorial seems well designed to answer the end proposed; and by the time it is revised and new-dressed, you will probably (either in the resolutions, which are or will be handed to me, or in the newspaper publications, which you promised to be attentive to,) have seen all the objections against the treaty, which have any real force in them, and which may be fit subjects for representation in the memorial, or in the instructions, or both. But how much longer the presentation of the memorial can be delayed without exciting unpleasant sensations here, or involving serious evils elsewhere, you, who are at the scene of information and action, can decide better than I. In a matter, however, so interesting and pregnant of consequences as this treaty, there ought to be no precipitation; but, on the contrary, every step should be explored before it is taken, and every word weighed before it is uttered or delivered in writing.

The form of the ratification requires more diplomatic experience and legal knowledge than I possess, or have the means of acquiring at this place, and therefore I shall say nothing about it. I am, &c.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH, SECRETARY OF STATE.

Mount Vernon, 3 August, 1795.

Dear Sir,

No mail at two o’clock yesterday had been received in Alexandria from Philadelphia since the 29th ultimo. I am sending up this afternoon to see if the expected mail of this day is in; although I have little hope of it, as the violence and continuance of the rains since Thursday last has been such, as to sweep every thing before them, and to do great damage to the gathered and growing grain, as well as other things. Of course, by swelling the waters and carrying away bridges, the intercourse between one place and another, where these were, has been entirely cut off. This circumstance, added to the inexcusable blunder of the postmaster in Alexandria, will prevent my despatches, which ought to have been in Philadelphia on Saturday last, from getting to your hands until Thursday next at soonest.

To these impediments is to be attributed, I presume, the non-reception of the Baltimore resolutions, for resolutions I am told have been passed at that place. And the like may be expected from Richmond, a meeting having been had there also, at which Mr. Wythe, it is said, was seated as moderator; by chance more than design, it is added. A queer chance this for the chancellor of a State.1

All these things do not shake my determination with respect to the proposed ratification, nor will they, unless something more imperious and unknown to me should, in the judgment of yourself and the gentlemen with you, make it advisable for me to pause. But let me again repeat my desire, that, as fast as these kind of resolutions or addresses (call them what you will) appear in the papers pro or con, answers if thought advisable may be drafted and sent to me, approved by all of you, without waiting for individual applications on each one separately; for this would occasion a considerable lapse of time, in the first place; and, in the second, would be saving me from some writing on this subject, which is an object, as I have no aid (Mr. Dandridge being with his friends in New Kent). I am, &c.

TO OLIVER WOLCOTT, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.

August, 1795.1

At what time should Mr. F’s. letter be made known to Mr. R.?

What will be the best mode of doing it? In presence of the Secretaries and Attorney-General?

If the explanations given by the latter are not satisfactory, whether, besides removal, are any other measures proper to be taken, and what?

Would an application to Mr. A. to see the paragraphs in Nos. 3 and 6, alluded to in Fauchet’s letter, be proper? These might condemn or acquit unequivocally, and if innocent, whether R. will not apply for them if I do not?

If upon the investigation of the subject, it should appear less dark than at present, but not so clear as to restore confidence, in what light, and on what ground is the removal to appear before the public?

What immediate steps are necessary to be taken as soon as R. is resolved on, if that should be the case, with respect to the archives in that office?

If the letter of F. is the only evidence and that thought sufficient to the removal, what would be the consequence of giving the letter to the public without any comments, on the ground on which the measure of the Executive respecting the removal is founded? It would speak for itself; a part, without the whole, might be charged with unfairness. The public would expect reasons for the sudden removal of so high an officer, and it will be found not easy to avoid saying too little or too much upon such an occasion, as it is not to be expected that the removed officer will acquiesce without attempting a justification, or at least to do away by explanation the sting of the letter of accusation; unless he was let down easily, to do which I see no way; for if guilty of what is charged, he merits no favor, and if he is not, he will accept none; and it is not difficult to perceive what turn he and his friends will give to the act, namely, that his friendship for the French nation, and his opposition to a complete ratification have been the cause.1

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, 20 August, 1795.

Sir,

Your resignation of the office of State is received. Candor induces me to give you in a few words the following narrative of facts.

The letter from Mr. Fauchet, with the contents of which you were made acquainted yesterday, was, as you supposed, an intercepted one. It was sent by Lord Grenville to Mr. Hammond, by him put into the hands of the Secretary of the Treasury, by him shewn to the Secretary of War and the Attorney-General; and a translation thereof was made by the former for me.

At the time Mr. Hammond delivered the letter, he requested of Mr. Wolcott an attested copy, which was accordingly made by Mr. Thornton, his late secretary, and which is understood to remain at present with Mr. Bond. Whether it is known to others I am unable to decide.

Whilst you are in pursuit of means to remove the strong suspicions arising from this letter, no disclosure of its contents will be made by me; and I will enjoin the same on the public officers, who are acquainted with the purport of it; unless something shall appear to render an explanation necessary on the part of the government; of which I will be the judge.

A copy of Mr. Fauchet’s letter shall be sent to you. No. 6, referred to therein, I have never seen.

I am, &c.

TO JOHN ADAMS, VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Philadelphia, 20 August, 1795.

Dear Sir,

I have received your favor of the 10th instant with its enclosures. They contain a great deal of interesting matter, and No. 9 discloses much important information and political foresight. For this proof of your kindness and confidence, I pray you to accept my best and most cordial thanks.

Mr. John Adams,1 your son, must not think of retiring from the walk he is now in. His prospects, if he pursues it, are fair; and I shall be much mistaken if, in as short a time as can well be expected, he is not found at the head of the diplomatic corps, let the government be administered by whomsoever the people may choose.

The embarrassment into which he was thrown by the unforeseen events, which so soon took place in Holland after he had received his first instructions and had arrived in that country, have long since been removed, and he can be at no loss now as to the course to pursue.

Long before this letter can have reached you, my answer to the Boston resolutions will, I presume, have been published in the gazettes of that place, notwithstanding the delays it met with in getting thither; first, from a mistake of the postmaster in Alexandria, who, mixing it with the despatches that were addressed to me, returned it by the messenger, who carried my letters to his office, which necessarily detained it three days; and the immense falls of rain and destruction of bridges which followed, and prevented all travelling for at least three days more.

Whether it was from the spark, which kindled the fire in Boston, that the flames have spread so extensively, or whether the torch by a preconcerted plan was lit ready for the explosion in all parts, so soon as the advice to ratify the treaty should be announced, remains to be developed; but, as the ratification thereof, agreeably to the advice of the Senate, has passed from me, the meetings in opposition to the constituted authorities are as useless at all times, as they are improper and dangerous.1 My best respects to Mrs. Adams, and, with sincere regard, I am, &c.

TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

Philadelphia, 20 August, 1795.

Dear Sir,

I received your favor dated the 8th of July, on the subject of the treaty with Great Britain, the day preceding my departure for Mount Vernon, from whence I intended to have acknowledged the receipt of it; but so many letters of a public nature were poured upon me at that place, and the urgency of the business in which I have since been engaged, have prevented my doing it till now.

Aiming only to promote and secure the true interests of my country, I willingly receive information concerning those interests from my fellow-citizens. The opinions and reasonings of enlightened men are particularly acceptable; but, as it happens in other matters, so in this, they are extremely variant. You deem the treaty palpably defective and pregnant with evils; others think it contains substantial good. For myself, I freely own, that I cannot discern in it the mischiefs you anticipate. On the contrary, although it does not rise to all our wishes, yet it appears to me calculated to procure to the United States such advantages, as entitle it to our acceptance. My final act of course conforms to this opinion.

I feel myself greatly obliged by your expressions of respect, esteem, and attachment, and, if the unvarying integrity of my views have deserved them, they will not now be withdrawn; for I can merit your good opinion, and the general approbation of my fellow-citizens, only by a conscientious discharge of what I conceive to be my duty. With great esteem and regard, I am, &c.

TO JAMES ROSS.

Philadelphia, 22 August, 1795.

Dear Sir,

I have been favored with your letter of the 3d instant. I am perfectly satisfied with all your transactions with Colonel Shreve, and will ratify them whensoever the papers shall be produced.

The seaport towns, or rather parts of them, are involved, and are endeavoring as much as in them lies to involve the community at large, in a violent opposition to the treaty with Great Britain, which is ratified as far as the measure depends upon me. The general opinion, however, as far as I am able to come at it is, that the current is turning.

The consequences of such proceedings are more easily foreseen than prevented, if no act of the constituted authorities is suffered to go into execution unaccompanied with the poison of malignant opposition. If one could believe that the meetings, which have taken place, spoke the general sense of the people on the measure they condemned, it might with truth be pronounced, that it is as difficult to bear prosperity as adversity, and that no situation or condition in life can make them happy. But, being hurried, I shall not dwell on this subject, and only add, that with much truth I am, dear Sir, yours, &c.

TO CHARLES COTESWORTH PINCKNEY.1

Philadelphia, 24 August, 1795.

My dear Sir,

The office of Secretary of State has become vacant by the resignation of Mr. Randolph. Is the period yet arrived when the situation of your private concerns would permit you to accept it? As a preliminary mean of information, I have resorted to your letter of the 24th of February, 1794; and, though the time there allotted for arranging them is not quite accomplished, there is not much wanting of it. And I have heard, besides, that you were in a manner retiring from the pursuits of your profession.

It is unnecessary for me to repeat sentiments, which you have so often heard me express, respecting my wishes to see you in the administration of the general government; the sincerity of which you can have no doubt. Equally unnecessary is it for me to observe to you, that the affairs of this country are in a violent paroxysm, and that it is the duty of its old and uniform friends to assist in piloting the vessel in which we are all embarked between the rocks of Scylla and Charybdis; for more pains never were taken, I believe, than at this moment, to throw it upon one or the other, and to embroil us in the disputes of Europe.

I shall add nothing further, however, on this subject; for nothing, I am certain, I could say, would be new to a person of your observation and information. I will come, therefore, to the point at once. Can you, or can you not, make it comport with your convenience and inclination to accept the appointment of Secretary of State? If you answer in the affirmative, it will occur to you instantly, that an office of such dignity and high importance ought not to be without a head at such a crisis as this a moment, if it could well be avoided. If (which I should sincerely regret) your answer should be in the negative, the less there is said of the offer the better, (for reasons which will readily occur to you.) In either case, be so good as to favor me with an answer as soon as your mind is made up relative thereto. With very sincere esteem and regard, I am, &c.1

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

[PRIVATE.]

Philadelphia, 31 August, 1795.

My dear Sir,

Since my return to this city, I have received a letter from you dated — August.

We know officially, as well as from the effects, that an order for seizing all provision vessels going to France has been issued by the British goverment; but so secretly, that as late as the 27th of June it had not been published in London: It was communicated to the cruisers only, and not known until the captures brought it to light.—By these high handed measures of that government, and the outrageous, and insulting conduct of its officers, it would seem next to impossible to keep peace between the United States and G. Britain.

To this moment we have received no explanation of Home’s conduct from their chargé des affaires here; altho’ application was made for it before the departure of Mr. Hammond; on the statement of Govr. Fenner, and complaint of the French Minister.—Conduct like this, disarm the friends of Peace and order, while they are the very things which those of a contrary description are wishing to see practiced.—

I meant no more than barely to touch upon these subjects, in this letter, the object of it being, to request the favor of you to give me the points on which, in your opinion, our new Negociator is to dwell; when we come into the field of negociation again,—agreeably to the recommendation of the Senate;—agreeably to what appears to have been contemplated by Mr. Jay and Lord Grenville at the close of the treaty subscribed by them; and agreeably also to what you conceive ought to be brought forward, and insisted upon, on this occasion.

I am sorry I have been so late in applying for this opinion; but a coincidence of unexpected events have involved me in more than usual business; and some of it not of a very pleasant nature. This has occasioned the delay:—but the pro’s and con’s relative to the Treaty that is and the treaty that ought to be, in the judgment of the opponents, are so much in your view, that if you wanted a remembrancer, you would be at no loss from these discussions to advert to them; and you will require but little time to furnish me with what I have here asked. This I press with more earnestness, inasmuch as circumstances will render it very inconvenient for me to remain here longer than the present week, (before I return to Mount Vernon for my family) but which I must do, until the Instructions for the new Negociator is compleated.

Altho’ you are not in the Administration—a thing I sincerely regret—I must, nevertheless (knowing how intimately acquainted you are with all the concerns of this country) request the favor of you to note down such occurrences, as in your opinion are proper subjects for communication to Congress at their next session; and particularly as to the manner in which this treaty should be brought forward to that body; as it will in any aspect it is susceptible of receiving be the source of much declamation; and will I have no doubt produce a hot session. With sincere regard I am, my dear Sir, your affecte. and obedt.

TO JOHN JAY.

[PRIVATE.]

Philadelphia, 31 August, 1795.

My dear Sir,

You will have learnt from the public gazettes, and through other more authentic channels, that all that rested with me to do to give ratification to the treaty between this country and Great Britain is already accomplished. Mr. Pinckney’s absence from the court of London, the information and aids it was expected he would derive from Mr. Short’s presence and acquaintance with matters at that of Madrid, the pecuniary situation of our affairs in Holland requiring the attention of Mr. Adams in that country, and the little knowledge we had of the character and qualifications of Mr. Deas,1 have occasioned no little embarrassment in this business. However, a mode is adopted which I hope will be effectual.

It has not been the smallest of these embarrassments, that the domineering spirit of Great Britain should revive again just at this crisis, and the outrageous and insulting conduct of some of her officers should combine therewith to play into the hands of the discontented, and sour the minds of those, who are friends to peace, order, and friendship with all the world; but this by the by.

The object of this letter is to pray you to aid me with such hints, relative to those points, which you conceive to be fit subjects for the further friendly negotiations on the trade with Great Britain, agreeably to the recommendation of the Senate; and which appear to have been in contemplation by the concluding part of the treaty signed by yourself and Lord Grenville.

I intended to have asked this favor of you at an earlier day; but a coincidence of unexpected circumstances has involved me in so much business and perplexity, that it has been delayed from time to time, (since my arrival in this city), until the present moment. But as nothing is now asked, that you have not, I am sure, revolved over and over again during your negotiation, and since the decision of the Senate thereupon, I persuade myself it will require but very little time for the digest I ask, and which I beg to receive as soon as you can make it convenient to give it to me—Circumstances making it necessary for me to leave this place if possible on Monday next for Virginia, in order to bring back my family; but instructions for the new negotiation must be prepared before I go. With very great esteem and regard, I am, &c.

TO GEORGE CABOT.

[PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL.]

Philadelphia, 7 September, 1795.

Dear Sir,

The enclosed letters, which, after reading, be so good as to return to me, will be the best apology I can offer for the liberty I am about to take, and for the trouble, which, if you comply with my request, it must necessarily give.1

To express all the sensibility, which has been excited in my breast by the receipt of young Lafayette’s letter, from the recollection of his father’s merits, services, and sufferings, from my friendship for him, and from my wishes to become a friend and father to his son is unnecessary. Let me in a few words declare, that I will be his friend; but the manner of becoming so, considering the obnoxious light in which his father is viewed by the French government, and my own situation as the executive of the United States, requires more time to consider in all its relations, than I can bestow on it at present, the letters not having been in my hands more than an hour, and I myself on the point of setting out for Virginia to fetch my family back, whom I left there about the 1st of August.

The mode, which at the first view strikes me as the most eligable to answer his purposes and to save appearances, is, first, to administer all the consolation to the young gentleman, that he can derive from the most unequivocal assurances of my standing in the place of and becoming to him a father, friend, protector, and supporter. But, secondly, for prudential motives, as they may relate to himself, his mother and friends, whom he has left behind, and to my official character, it would be best not to make these sentiments public; and of course it would be ineligable, that he should come to the seat of the general government, where all the foreign characters (particularly that of his own nation) are residents, until it is seen what opinions will be excited by his arrival; especially, too, as I shall be necessarily absent five or six weeks from it on business in several places. Thirdly, considering how important it is to avoid idleness and dissipation, to improve his mind, and to give him all the advantages, which education can bestow, my opinion and my advice to him are, if he is qualified for admission, that he should enter as a student at the university in Cambridge, although it should be for a short time only; the expense of which, as also of every other means for his support, I will pay. And I now authorize you, my dear Sir, to draw upon me accordingly; and, if it is in any degree necessary or desired, that M. Frestel, his tutor, should accompany him to the university in that character, any arrangements which you shall make for the purpose, and any expense thereby incurred for the same, shall be borne by me in like manner.

One thing more, and I will conclude. Let me pray you, my dear Sir, to impress upon young Lafayette’s mind, and indeed upon that of his tutor, that the reasons why I do not urge him to come to me have been frankly related, and that their prudence must appreciate them with caution. My friendship for his father, so far from being diminished, has increased in the ratio of his misfortunes; and my inclination to serve the son will be evidenced by my conduct. Reasons, which will readily occur to you, and which can easily be explained to him, will account for my not acknowledging the receipt of his or M. Frestel’s letter. With sincere esteem and regard, I am, dear Sir, &c.

P. S. You will perceive, that young Lafayette has taken the name of Motier. Whether it is best he should retain it, and aim at perfect concealment, or not, depends upon a better knowledge of circumstances than I am possessed of; and therefore I leave this matter to your own judgment, after a consultation with the parties.1

TO TIMOTHY PICKERING, SECRETARY OF WAR.

[PRIVATE.]

Elkton, 9 September, 1795.

Dear Sir,

I had no time yesterday morning to look into the gazettes, nor did I know until the evening that the French frigate Medusa had slipped her cables, and put to sea on the 31st ultimo, and was followed in a few hours by the Africa.

This circumstance, be the result what it may, I regret exceedingly, because the effect of the order for the departure of the latter will be the same, as to the British, as if she had been in the harbor of Newport, and we shall obtain no credit for it from the French and their partisans. For as the appearance, however false, is susceptible of the interpretation, so it will be said, that the order was never intended to be issued until it was known there would be nothing for it to operate upon.

The purpose, however, of my writing you this letter is to request, that Mr. Monroe may be immediately and fully informed of facts, and directed to represent them truly as they are; for it may be relied upon, if the Medusa escapes being captured, M. Fauchet (whose mind is ardent, and who does not leave this country with the most favorable impressions of the views of the government towards his own) will paint this transaction in very high colors; and among other things will say, that, after waiting in vain a month to see if the executive would take effectual notice of the indignity offered to him, and the insult to its own sovereignty, he was obliged to forego his passage, or run the hazards he did to accomplish it. Being in a hurry, and just upon the point of proceeding, I will only add, that, with sincerity and truth, I am, &c.1

TO HENRY KNOX.

Mount Vernon, 20 September, 1795.

My dear Sir,

I received with great pleasure the letter you wrote to me from Boston, dated the 2d of this month, as I always shall do any others you may favor me with. This pleasure was increased by hearing of the good health of Mrs. Knox and your family, and the agreeableness of your establishment at St. George’s, in the Province of Maine. I may add, also, that the account given of the favorable disposition of the people generally in your hemisphere relatively to the treaty with Great Britain, contributed not a little to the satisfaction I derived in hearing from you.

Next to a conscientious discharge of my public duties, to carry along with me the approbation of my constituents would be the highest gratification my mind is susceptible of; but, the latter being a secondary, I cannot make the former yield to it, unless some criterion more infallible than partial (if they are not party) meetings can be discovered, as the touchstone of public sentiment. If any power on earth could, or the Great Power above would, erect the standard of infallibility in political opinions, there is no being that inhabits this terrestrial globe, that would resort to it with more eagerness than myself, so long as I remain a servant of the public. But as I have found no better guide hitherto, than upright intentions and close investigation, I shall adhere to those maxims, while I keep the watch; leaving it to those who will come after me, to explore new ways, if they like or think them better.

The temper of the people of this State, particularly the southern parts of it, and of South Carolina and Georgia, as far as it is discoverable from the several meetings and resolutions, which have been published, is adverse to the treaty with Great Britain; and yet I doubt much whether the great body of yeomanry have formed any opinion on the subject, and whether, if their sense could be fairly taken under a plain and simple statement of facts, nine tenths of them would not advocate the measure. But with such abominable misrepresentations as appear in most of the proceedings, it is not to be wondered at, that uninformed minds should be affrighted at the dreadful consequences that are predicted, and which they are taught to expect from the ratification of such a diabolical instrument, as the treaty is denominated. From North Carolina we hear little concerning it, and from Kentucky nothing. * * *

TO TIMOTHY PICKERING, SECRETARY OF WAR.

[PRIVATE.]

Mount Vernon, 27 September, 1795.

Dear Sir,

Your private letter of the 21st instant did not reach me until yesterday. A late letter of mine to you will have fixed the directorship of the mint upon Mr. Boudinot. The application, therefore, of Major Jackson, however fit he may have been for the office, is too late. But, besides the reasons assigned in your letter against such an appointment at present, I should have preferred a character from another State, if one equally suitable could have been found, for the reasons you have often heard me mention, although they do not apply with the same force now as formerly.

With respect to Mr. D—1 for the office of attorney-general, although I have a very good opinion of his abilities, and know nothing in his moral character or connexions that is objectionable, yet the reason I assigned when his name was first mentioned to me has still weight in my mind; that is, after a long and severely contested election, he could not obtain a majority of suffrages in the district he formerly represented. In this instance, then, the sense of his constituents respecting him personally has been fairly taken; and one of the charges against me relative to the treaty, you know, is, that I have disregarded the voice of the people, although that voice has never yet been heard, unless the misrepresentations of party, or at best partial meetings, can be called so.

I shall not, whilst I have the honor to administer the government, bring a man into any office of consequence knowingly, whose political tenets are adverse to the measures, which the general government are pursuing; for this, in my opinion, would be a sort of political suicide. That it would embarrass its movements is most certain. But of two men equally well affected to the true interests of their country, of equal abilities, and equally disposed to lend their support, it is the part of prudence to give a preference to him, against whom the least clamor can be excited. For such a one my inquiries have been made, and are still making. How far I shall succeed, is at this moment problematical.

I have not relinquished my intention of being in Philadelphia about the middle of next month. With great esteem and regard, I am, &c.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Mount Vernon, 27 September, 1795.

Sir,

I have lately received three letters from you, two bearing date the 15th instant, the other the 21st. One of the former came to hand the 19th, the other the 22d, and the last yesterday.

Your signature as Secretary of State to the ratification of the treaty having been given on the 14th of August, and your resignation not taking place until the 19th, it became necessary in order to be consistent, (the original being despatched,) that the same countersign should appear to the copies, otherwise this act would not have been required of you.

It is not in my power to inform you at what time Mr. Hammond put the intercepted letter of M. Fauchet into the hands of Mr. Wolcott. I had no intimation of the existence of such a letter until after my arrival in Philadelphia the 11th of August. When Lord Grenville first obtained that letter, and when the British minister here received it from him, are facts with which I am entirely unacquainted. I have never seen in whole or in part M. Fauchet’s despatches numbered 3 and 6; nor do I possess any document, or knowledge of papers, which have affinity to the subject in question.

No man would rejoice more than I should to find, that the suspicions which have resulted from the intercepted letter were unequivocally and honorably removed. I am, &c.

TO OLIVER WOLCOTT, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.

[PRIVATE.]

Mount Vernon, 2 October, 1795.

Dear Sir,

Your letter of the 26th ultimo was received yesterday. It is not wonderful, that Mr. Randolph’s late conduct, and the publication of his letter to me, should have excited an anxious curiosity to know what his explanations will be; but it is wonderful, that so much time should be required to give them birth.

Embarrassed, as it is to be apprehended he is in this business, his object, I conceive, must be to gain time, to puzzle, and to try if he cannot discover inconsistencies in the conduct of others relative to it. On no other ground can I account for his letter to me, dated the 21st ultimo, which with his other two of the 15th, and my answer to the whole, I herewith enclose for the information of yourself and Colonel Pickering only.

His letters of the 15th received no acknowledgment, and at first I hesitated whether to give any to that of the 21st. After a while I thought of referring him to you for information on those points, which it was evidently as much or more in your power than in mine to give him; but finally I conceived it most eligible to furnish him with no pretexts, and therefore wrote what you will see. I did it, because, if delay was his object, it would be promoted by my silence; and because (which probably would have answered his purposes still better), it might have afforded him some ground for saying he was doomed to be a victim, and, with a view to accomplish it, the means to his vindication were denied or withheld.

These reasons, added to a disposition to do him all manner of justice, induced me to give him concise answers to all his queries, as far as the means were within my knowledge, although fully convinced in my own mind of the insidious tendency of them.

Whether similar inquireies have been made of you of Colonel Pickering, or of both, by him, I know not. If they have, to see if he could involve inconsistency in the answers has been his aim. And to know what kind of superstructure he might build on information, he has, if any, obtained from M. Fauchet, it was necessary to ascertain in the first place, whether the government was in possession of any part of that gentlemen’s letters, numbered 3 and 6, by which this superstructure might be endangered. I was on the point once of hinting to him, that I hoped nothing in his vindication would render it necessary to publish the whole of M. Fauchet’s letter; but, on second thoughts I declined it, lest he should consider it as a threat, and make an improper use of it.

As I shall shortly be in Philadalphia, I will not add on this subject; but from you, if any thing more transpires, I should be glad to hear. The present enclosures may remain in your hands until my return to the city. I am, &c.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Mount Vernon, 4 October, 1795.

Dear Sir,

Your letter of the 12th ulto. after travelling to Philadelphia and back again was received by me at this place, the 1st Instant.

The letter from Madame de Chastellux to me is short, referring to the one she has written to you, for particulars respecting herself and infant son. Her application to me is unquestionably misplaced, and to Congress it would certainly be unavailing, as the Chevalier Chastellux’s pretensions (on which her’s must be founded) to any allowance from this country were no greater than that of any and every other Officer of the French army who served in America the last war. To grant to one therefore would open a wide door to applications of a similar nature, and to consequent embarrassments. Probably the sum granted at the last session of Congress to the daughter of the Count de Grasse, has given rise to this application—that it has done so in other instances I have good reasons to believe.

I am much pleased with the account you have of the succory. This, like all other things of the sort with me since my absence, from home, have come to nothing: for neither my Overseers, nor Manager will attend properly, to anything but the crops they have usually cultivated; and in spite of all I can say, if there is the smallest discretionary power allowed them, they will fill the land with Indian Corn, altho’ even to themselves there are the most obvious traces of its baneful effects.—I am resolved however, as soon as it shall be in my power, to attend a little more closely to my own concerns, to make this Crop yield in a degree to other grain,—to pulses—and to grasses.—I am beginning again with Chicory, from a handful of seed given to me by Mr. Strickland; which though flourishing at present, has no appearance of seeding this year. Lucern has not succeeded better with me than with you; but I will give it another and a fairer tryal before it is abandoned altogether. Clover, when I can dress lots well, succeeds with me, to my full expectation, but not on the fields in rotation. Altho’ I have been at much cost in seeding them,—this has greatly disconcerted the system of rotation on which I had decided;—I wish you may succeed in getting good seed of the winter Vetch;—I have often imported it but the seed never vegitated or in so small a proportion as to be destroyed by weeds—believe it wou’d be an acquisition if it was once introduced properly, in our farms.—The Albany pea which is the same as the field pea, of Europe, I have tried and found it will grow well, but is subject to the same bug which perforates the Garden pea, and eats out the Kernel;—so it will happen I fear with the pea you propose to import,—I had great expectation from a green dressing with Buck-wheat as a preparatory fallow for a crop of wheat; but it has not answered my expectation yet; I ascribe this, however, more to mismanagement in the times of seeding and plowing in, than any defect in the system. The first ought to be so ordered in point of time, as to meet a convenient season for ploughing it in while the plant is in its most succulent state, but this has never been done on my farms, and consequently has drawn as much from as it has given to the earth.—It has always appeared to me that there were two modes in which Buck wheat might be used advantageously as a manure.—One to sow early and as soon as a sufficiency of seed ripened, to stock the ground a second time, to turn the whole in, and when the succeeding growth is getting in full bloom, to turn that in also (before the seed begins to ripen) and when the fermentation and putrefaction ceases to sow the ground in that state and plow in the wheat.—The other mode is to sow the Buck wheat so late as that it shall be generally about a foot high, at the usual seeding of wheat, then turn it in, and sow thereon immediately, as on a clover lay, harrowing in the seed lightly to avoid disturbing the buried Buck wheat—I have never tryed the last method but see no reason against its succeeding.—The other, as I observed above, I have prosecuted, but the Buck wheat has always stood too long, and consequently had got too dry and sticky to answer the end of a succulent plant.

But of all the improving and ameliorating crops, none in my opinion, are equal to Potatoes on stiff and hard bound land (as mine is). I am satisfied from a variety of instances, that on such land a crop of potatoes is equal to an ordinary dressing. In no instance have I failed of good wheat, Oats or clover that followed potatoes;—and I conceive they give the soil a darker hue.—I shall thank you for the result of your proposed experiment relatively, the winter Vetch and pea; when they are made.

I am sorry to hear of the depredation committed by the Weavil in your parts, it is a great calamity at all times, and this year when the demand for wheat is so great and the price so high, must be a mortifying one to the farmer;—The rains have been very general, and more abundant, since the first of August than ever happened in a summer within the memory of man. Scarsely a mill dam or bridge between this and Philadelphia, was able to resist them and some were carried off a second and third time.

Mrs. Washington is thankful for your kind remembrance of her, and unites with me in best wishes for you. With very great esteem and regard, &c.

TO EDWARD CARRINGTON.

[PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL.]

Mount Vernon, 9 October, 1795.

Dear Sir,

Your letter of the 2d instant came duly to hand, and I shall wait the result of the proposed inquiries.

One request frequently begets another, and that is the case at present. You know full well, that the office of State is vacant, but you may not know, that I find difficulty in filling it. In the appointments to the great offices of the government, my aim has been to combine geographical situation, and sometimes other considerations, with abilities and fitness of known characters. In pursuance of this system, I have tried to bring Judge Patterson, Mr. Johnson (of Maryland), and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina into this office, all have declined; the latter by the post of Wednesday.1 I would have made an offer of it to Mr. Henry in the first instance-but two reasons were opposed to it; 1st, ignorance of his political sentiments (for I should consider it an act of governmental suicide to bring a man into so high a office, who was unfriendly to the constitution and laws, which are to be his guide; and, 2d, be, cause I had no idea, that he would accept the office, until General (late Governor) Lee gave some reasons, which have induced me (in a degree) to draw a different conclusion, assuring me at the same time, that he believed Mr. Henry’s sentiments relative to the constitution were changed, and that his opinion of the government was friendly. Of these matters, however, (so important in their nature,) I wish to learn the opinion of others. And of whom can I inquire more likely to know than yourself?

Let me then come to the point. If, in the judgment of yourself and General Marshall, Colonel Innes is a fit character for Attorney-General of the United States, will accept the office, and enter upon the duties of it without delay, no application is to be made to Mr. Henry, be his sentiments what they may.1 If, on the contrary, that event does not take place, I impose upon you the task, and pray you to have the goodness to forward the enclosed letter to him by express (the cost of which I will pay), provided you accord in sentiment with General Lee, with respect to the political opinions of that gentle man, and have reason to believe, he has expressed no opinions adverse to the treaty with Great Britain, but is disposed to the adoption of it; for, otherwise, it would place both him and me in embarrassed situations.

From the instances, which have fallen within your own knowledge, you can form some idea of the difficulties I experience in finding out, and prevailing on, fit characters to fill offices of importance. In the case before us, I am sensible that I am imposing a delicate task upon you; but, from the peculiar circumstances thereof, it is in some measure a necessary one; and, having a high opinion of General Marshall’s honor, prudence, and judgment, I consent to your consulting him on this occasion, as you did in the case of Colonel Innes.

I have, I must confess, but little expectation that Mr. Henry will accept the offer if it gets to him, and therefore I must look forward to the consequence of his refusal. Let me ask, therefore, if another trial should be made, and a refusal ensue, and ultimately it should be found eligible to remove the present Secretary of War to the office of State, if it should be agreeable to himself, would you fill his place as Secretary of War?

You will, my dear Sir, perceive, that the whole of this letter is perfectly confidential, written perhaps with more candor than prudence; but I rely on your goodness and prudence to appreciate my motives. My letter to Mr. Henry is left open for your perusal, that the whole matter may be before you. If it goes forward, seal it; if not, return it to, dear Sir, your friend, &c.1

TO PATRICK HENRY.

Mount Vernon, 9 October, 1795.

Dear Sir,

Whatever may be the reception of this letter, truth and candor shall mark its steps. You doubtless know, that the office of State is vacant; and no one can be more sensible, than yourself, of the importance of filling it with a person of abilities, and one in whom the public would have confidence.

It would be uncandid not to inform you, that this office has been offered to others; but it is as true, that it was from a conviction in my own mind, that you would not accept it, (until Tuesday last, in a conversation with General, late Governor, Lee, he dropped sentiments which made it less doubtful,) that it was not offered first to you.

I need scarcely add, that if this appointment could be made to comport with your own inclination, it would be as pleasing to me, as I believe it would be acceptable to the public. With this assurance, and with this belief, I make you the offer of it. My first wish is, that you would accept it; the next is, that you would be so good as to give me an answer as soon as you conveniently can, as the public business in that department is now suffering for want of a Secretary.

I persuade myself, Sir, it has not escaped your observation, that a crisis is approaching, that must, if it cannot be arrested, soon decide whether order and good government shall be preserved, or anarchy and confusion ensue. I can most religiously aver I have no wish, that is incompatible with the dignity, happiness, and true interest of the people of this country. My ardent desire is, and my aim has been, (as far as depended upon the executive department,) to comply strictly with all our engagements, foreign and domestic; but to keep the United States free from political connexions with every other country, to see them independent of all and under the influence of none. In a word, I want an American character, that the powers of Europe may be convinced we act for ourselves, and not for others. This, in my judgment, is the only way to be respected abroad and happy at home; and not, by becoming the partisans of Great Britain or France, create dissensions, disturb the public tranquillity, and destroy, perhaps for ever, the cement which binds the union.

I am satisfied these sentiments cannot be otherwise than congenial to your own. Your aid therefore in carrying them into effect would be flattering and pleasing to, dear Sir, &c.1

TO TIMOTHY PICKERING, SECRETARY OF WAR.

Mount Vernon, 12 October, 1795.

Sir,

Your letters of the 2d and 5th instant came to my hands on Thursday last; but it was not in my power conveniently to acknowledge the receipt of them by the succeeding post.1 It is a very singular occurrence, that Mr. Pinckney should make use of a cipher to which there is no counterpart in the office of State. A kind of fatality seems to have pursued this negotiation, and, in short, all our concerns with Spain, from the appointment of Mr. Carmichael under the new government, as minister to that country, up to the present day. If the ciphers, which have been furnished Mr. Gouverneur Morris, Mr. Jay, Mr. Adams, and Colonel Humphreys, or any of them, are different from those, by which the letter of Mr. Pinckney has been tried, let them also be resorted to. Otherwise, as the business has commenced in error, the continuance therein is highly probable, until that gentleman is informed of this extraordinary inattention, and is thereby led to correct it, and of course the most material and interesting parts of his communications will be lost. Enough, however, appears already, to show the temper and policy of the Spanish court, and its undignified conduct, as it respects themselves, and insulting as it relates to us; and I fear will prove, that the late treaty of peace with France portends nothing favorable to these United States.

I am glad to find, however, that matters are going on well in Morocco, but much concerned to hear of the unfavorable decision in the High Court of Appeals, on one of the spoliation cases in London.1

I shall (as mentioned in one of my last letters) set out for Philadelphia this day; but business with the commissioners of the Federal City will detain me in Georgetown to-morrow, and of course keep me a day longer from the seat of government than I expected. I am, &c.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, 21 October, 1795.

Sir,

In several of the public gazettes I had read your note to the editor of the Philadelphia Gazette, with an extract from a letter, addressed to me, of the 8th instant; but it was not until yesterday that the letter itself was received.2

It is not difficult from the tenor of the letter to perceive what your objects are; but, that you may have no cause to complain of the withholding any paper (however private and confidential) which you shall think necessary in a case of so serious a nature, I have directed that you should have the inspection of my letter of the 22d of July, agreeably to your request, and you are at full liberty to publish without reserve any and every private and confidential letter I ever wrote to you; nay, more, every word I ever uttered to or in your hearing, from whence you can derive any advantage in your vindication. [I grant this permission, inasmuch as the extract alluded to manifestly tends to impress on the public mind an opinion, that something has passed between us which you should disclose with reluctance, from motives of delicacy with respect to me.]1

You know, Sir, even before the treaty was laid before the Senate, that I had difficulties with respect to the commercial part of it, with which I professed to be the least acquainted, and that I had no means of acquiring information thereon without disclosing its contents, not to do which until it was submitted to the Senate had been resolved on. You know, too, that it was my determination, previous to this submission, to ratify the treaty, if it should be so advised and consented to by that body; and that the doubts, which afterwards arose and were communicated verbally to Mr. Hammond, proceeded from more authentic information of the existence of what is commonly called the “Provision Order” of the British Government. [And finally, you know the grounds on which my ultimate decision was taken, as the same were expressed to you, the other Secretaries of departments, and the late Attorney-General, after a thorough investigation of the subject in all the aspects in which it could be placed.]1

As you are no longer an officer of the government, and propose to submit your vindication to the public, it is not my desire, nor is it my intention, to receive it otherwise than through the medium of the press. Facts you cannot mistake, and, if they are fairly and candidly stated, they will invite no comments.

The extract of your letter to me, dated the 8th instant, being published in all the gazettes, I request that this letter may be inserted in the compilation you are now making; as well to show my disposition to furnish you with every means I possess towards your vindication, as that I have no wish to conceal any part of my conduct from the public.2 That public will judge, when it comes to see your vindication, how far and how proper it has been for you to publish private and confidential communications, which oftentimes have been written in a hurry, and sometimes without even copies being taken; and it will, I hope, appreciate my motives, even if it should condemn my prudence, in allowing you the unlimited license herein contained. I am, &c.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, 25 October, 1795.

Sir,

Your letter of the 24th has been received. It is full of innuendoes. I shall, therefore, once more, and for the last time, repeat, in the most unequivocal terms, that you are at full liberty to publish any thing that ever passed between us, written or oral, that you think will subserve your purposes. A conscious rectitude, and an invariable endeavor to promote the honor, welfare, and happiness of this country, by every means in the power of the executive, and within the compass of my abilities, leaves no apprehension on my mind from any disclosure whatsoever.

To whom, or for what purpose, you mean to apply the following words of your letter, “I have been the meditated victim of party spirit,” will be found, I presume, in your defence; without which I shall never understand them. I cannot conceive they are aimed at me; because an hundred and an hundred times you have heard me lament, from the bottom of my soul, that difference of sentiments should have occasioned those heats, which are disquieting a country, otherwise the happiest in the world; and you have heard me express the most ardent wish, that some expedient could be devised to heal them. The disclosure to me, by an officer of government, of M. Fauchet’s intercepted letter, after the contents were communicated to him, was an act of such evident propriety, that no man of candor, entertaining a proper sense of duty, can possibly condemn. I do not see, then, how this will apply to the case, more than the first.

You have, Sir, entirely mistaken the principle, upon which (in contravention of the opinion of the gentleman, who is discharging the duties of Secretary of State,) I gave you the inspection of what you declared to be the only paper you were in want of, to complete your defence. My sole motive in furnishing it was, that it might not be imputed that any thing, which you conceived necessary to your vindication, was withheld; for, however differently the matter may appear in the sequel, I am free to declare, that I cannot, at this moment, see what relation there is between the treaty with Great Britain and the details and suggestions, which are contained in the intercepted letter of M. Fauchet. I am still more at a loss to understand the meaning of these other words in your letter: “But I shall disclose even what I am compelled to disclose, under the operation of the necessity, which you yourself have created.” Can these expressions allude to my having put M. Fauchet’s letter into your hands, in presence of the heads of departments, for explanation of the passages which related to your conversations with him? Or to the acceptance of your resignation, voluntarily and unexpectedly offered? Or to the assurance, given in my letter of the [20th] of August in answer to yours of the [19th] (and most religiously observed on my part), not to mention any thing of the matter, until you had had an opportunity of clearing it up; whilst you, on the other hand, were making free communications thereof in all quarters, and intimating to your friends, that, in the course of your vindication, you should bring things to view, which would affect me more than any thing, which had yet appeared? If neither of these, nor an expectation that I should have passed the matter over unnoticed, or in a private explanation only between ourselves, I know nothing to which the sentiment can have the least reference. But I do not write from a desire to obtain explanations; for it is not my meaning, nor shall I proceed any farther in discussions of this sort, unless necessity should call for a simple and candid statement of the business, to be laid before the public. I am, &c.

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

[PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL.]

Philadelphia, 29 October, 1795.

My dear Sir:

A voluminous publication is daily expected from Mr. R[andolph]. The paper alluded to in the extract of his letter to me of the 8th inst., and inserted in all the gazettes, is a letter of my own to him, from which he intends (as far as I can collect from a combination of circumstances) to prove an inconsistency in my conduct, in ratifying the Treaty with G. Britain, without making a rescinding (by the British government) of what is commonly called the Provision order, equally with the exception of the 12th article by the Senate, a condition of that ratification, intending thereby to show, that my final decision thereon was the result of party advice; and that that party was under British influence. It being a letter of my own which he has asked for, I did not hesitate a moment to furnish him therewith, and to authorize him to publish every private letter I ever wrote, and every word I ever uttered, if he thought they would contribute to his vindication. But the paper he asked for is but a mite of the volume that is to appear; for without any previous knowledge of mine, he had compiled every official paper (before this was asked) for publication, the knowledge of which can subserve the purposes he has in view; and why they have not made their appearance before this, I know not, as it was estimated in the published extract of his letter to me, that nothing retarded it but the want of the paper then applied for, which was furnished the day after my arrival in this city, where (on the 20th inst.) I found his letter, after it had gone to Alexandria, and had returned.1

I shall now touch upon another subject as unpleasant as the one I have just quitted. What am I to do for a Secretary of State? I ask frankly, and with solicitude; and shall receive kindly any sentiments you may express on the occasion. That there may be no concealment, and that the non-occupancy of the office until this time may be accounted for, (I tell you in confidence that,) Mr. Patterson, of New Jersey; Mr. Thomas Johnson, of Maryland; General Pinckney, of South Carolina; and Mr. Patrick Henry, of Virginia; in the order they are mentioned, have all been applied to, and refused. Would Mr. King accept it? You know the objections I have had to the nomination, to office, of any person from either branch of the Legislature, and you will be at no loss to perceive, that at the present crisis, another reason might be adduced against this appointment. But maugre all objections, if Mr. King would accept, I would look no further. Can you sound, and let me know soon, his sentiments on this occasion? If he should feel disposed to listen to the proposition, tell him candidly, all that I have done in this matter; that neither he nor I may be made uneasy thereafter from the discovery of it; he will, I am confident, perceive the ground upon which I have acted, in making these essays; and will, I am persuaded, appreciate my motives. If he should decline also,1 pray learn with precision from him, what the qualifications of Mr. Potts, the Senator,2 are, and be as diffusive as you can with respect to others, and I will decide on nothing until I hear from you—pressing as the case is.

To enable you to judge of this matter with more lights still; I add, that Mr. Marshall, of Virginia, has declined the office of Attorney General, and I am pretty certain, would accept of no other, and I know that Col. Carrington would not come into the War Department (if a vacancy should happen therein.) Mr. Dexter, it is said, would accept the office of Attorney General.1 No person is yet absolutely fixed on for that office. Mr. Smith of South Carolina, some time ago, would have had no objection to filling a respectable office under the General Government, but what his views might lead to, or his abilities particularly fit him for, I am an incompetent judge; and besides, on the ground of popularity, his pretensions would, I fear, be small.2 Mr. Chase, of Maryland, is, unquestionably, a man of abilities; and it is supposed by some that he would accept the appointment of Attorney-General. Though opposed to the adoption of the constitution, it is said, he has been a steady friend to the general government since it has been in operation. But he is violently opposed in his own State by a party, and is besides, or to speak more correctly, has been accused of some impurity in his conduct.1 I might add to this catalogue that Col. Innes is among the number of those who have passed in review; but his extreme indolence renders his abilities (great as they are said to be) of little use. In short, what with the non-acceptance of some,—the known dereliction of those who are most fit; the exceptionable drawbacks from others;—and a wish (if it were practicable) to make a geographical distribution of the great offices of the administration, I find the selection of proper characters an arduous duty.

The period is approaching, indeed is already come, for selecting the proper subjects for my communications to Congress at the opening of next session—and the manner of treating them merits more than the consideration of a moment. The crisis, and the incomplete state in which most of the important affairs of this country are at present, make the first more difficult, and the latter more delicate than usual.

The treaty with Great Britain is not yet concluded. After every consideration, however, I could bestow on it (and after entertaining very serious doubts of the propriety of doing it on account of the provision order), it has been ratified by me; what has been or will be done by the government of Great Britain, relative to it, is not now, and probably will not be known by the meeting of Congress. Yet such perhaps is the state of that business, as to make communication thereof to the legislature necessary; whether in the precise form, or to accompany it with some expression of my sense of the thing itself, and the manner in which it has been treated, merits deep reflection. If good would flow from the latter, by a just and temperate communication of my ideas to the community at large, through this medium, guarded so as not to add fuel to passions prepared to blaze, and at the same time so expressed as not to excite the criticisms or animadversions of European powers, I would readily embrace it. But, I would decidedly avoid every expression which could be construed into a dereliction of the powers of the President with the advice and consent of the Senate to make treaties,—or into a shrinking from any act of mine relative to it.—In a word, if a conciliatory plan can be assimilated with a firm, manly, and dignified conduct in this business, it would be desirable; but the latter I will never yield. On this head it may not be amiss to add, that no official (nor indeed any other) accounts have been received from France of the reception of the treaty with Great Britain, by the National Convention. Perhaps it is too early to expect any.

Our negotiations with Spain, as far as accounts have been received from Mr. Pinckney (soon after his arrival there, but after a conference with the Duke de la Alcudia on the subject, before, however, the peace between France and that country was publicly known), stand upon the same procrastinating, trifling, undignified (as it respects that government), and insulting as it relates to this country, ground as they did at the commencement of them. Under circumstances like these, I shall be at a loss (if nothing more decisive shall arrive between this and the assembling of Congress) what to say on this subject, especially as this procrastination and trifling has been accompanied by encroachments on our territorial rights. There is no doubt of this fact; but persons have, nevertheless, been sent both by Gov. Blount and Gen. Wayne, to know by what authority it is done. The conduct of Spain (after having herself invited this negotiation, and throughout the whole of its progress) has been such, that I have, at times, thought it best to express this sentiment at once in the speech, and refer to the proceedings. At other times, to say only that matters are in the same inconclusive state they have been; and that if no alteration for the better, or a conclusion of it, should take place before the session is drawing to a close, that the proceedings will be laid fully before Congress.

From Algiers, no late accounts have been received; and little favorable, it is to be feared, is to be expected from that quarter.

From Morocco, the first communications, after our agent arrived there, were pleasing; but the final result, if any has taken place, is yet unknown—and are more clouded.

Our concerns with the Indians will tell well. I hope, and believe, the peace with the Western Indians will be permanent, unless renewed difficulties with Great Britain should produce (as it very likely would do) a change in their conduct. But whether this matter can be mentioned in the speech with propriety, before it is advised and consented to by the Senate, is questionable; and nothing, I am sure, that is so, and is susceptible of cavil or criticism, will escape the anonymous writers, if it should go unnoticed elsewhere. It will be denominated by these gentry a bolster. All the hostile Indians to the southward have renewed the treaties of amity and friendship with the United States, and have given the best proof in their power of their sincerity, to wit, a return of prisoners and property; and peace prevails from one end of our frontier to the other. Peace also has been produced between the Creeks and Chickasaws by the intervention of this government; but something untoward and unknown here has occasioned a renewal of hostilities on the part of the Creeks.

The military establishment is of sufficient importance to claim a place in the general communication, at the opening of the session; and my opinion is, that circumstanced as things are at present, and the uncertainty of what they may be next year, it would be impolitic to reduce it, but whether to express any opinion thereon, or leave it entirely to their own decision, may be considered.

Whether a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, relative to fiscal matters, particularly on the loans of money, and another from the Secretary of War respecting the frigates, arsenals, military stores directed to be provided; and the train in which the trade with the Indians is, agreeably to the several acts of Legislature, may not be proper, and to be referred to in the speech.

Having desired the late Secretary of State to note down every matter as it occurred, proper either for the speech at the opening of the session, or for messages afterwards, the inclosed paper contains everything I could extract from that office. Aid me, I pray you, with your sentiments on these points, and such others as may have occurred to you relative to my communications to Congress.

With affectionate regard, I am always yours.

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

Philadelphia, 23 November, 1795.

My dear Sir,

Enclosed are letters for Mr. de la Fayette, and his Tutor. I leave them open for your perusal; and notwithstanding the request in my letter of the 18th I shall cheerfully acquiesce in any measures respecting them which you (and others with whom you may be disposed to consult) may deem most eligable.—

As there can be no doubt, that the feelings of both are alive to every thing which may have the semblance of neglect or slight;—and indeed, expectant as they must have been, (without adverting perhaps to the impediments) of an invitation to fly to me without delay—and distressing and forlorn as the situation of one of them is—it is necessary that every assurance and consolation should be administered to them.—For these reasons I pray you to send my letters to them by Express, the expence of which I will repay with thankfulness.

The doubt which you have expressed of the propriety of an open and avowed conduct in me towards the son of Mr. de la Fayette, and the subject it might afford to malignancy to misinterpret the cause, has so much weight that I am distrustful of my own judgment in deciding on this business lest my feelings should carry me further than prudence (while I am a public character) will warrant.—

It has, however, like many other things in which I have been involved, two edges, neither of which can be avoided without falling on the other.

On one side, I may be charged with countenancing those who have been denounced the enemies of France;—on the other with not countenancing the son of a man who is dear to America.—

When I wrote to you last1 I had resolved to take both the pupil and Tutor into my own family, supposing it would be most agreeable to the young gentlemen, and congenial with friendship.—At the same time that it would have given me more command over him—been more convenient—and less expensive to myself than to board them out.—But now, as I have intimated before, I confide the matter entirely to your decision, after seeing, and conversing with them.—

Mr. Adet has been indirectly sounded on the coming over of the family of Fayette generally, but not as to the exact point—His answer was, that as France did not make war upon women and children, he did not suppose their emigration could excite any notice. The case, however, might be different, if one of them (with his Tutor, whose character, conduct and principles may, for aught I know to the contrary, be very obnoxious) was brought into my family, and of course, into the company that visited it.—But as all these things will be taken into consideration by you I shall not dwell upon them, and only add that with esteem, regard, and sincere affn. I am ever yours.

P. S. I have no doubt but that young Fayette and his Tutor might be boarded at German Town—or in the vicinity of this City, and would be at hand to receive assistance and advice as occasion might require although he might not be a resident under my roof.

TO JOHN H. STONE, GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND.

Philadelphia, 6 December, 1795.

Dear Sir:

By Thursday’s post I was favored with your letter of the 27th ultimo, enclosing a Declaration of the General Assembly of Maryland. At any time the expression of such a sentiment would have been considered as highly honorable and flattering. At the present, when the voice of malignancy is so high-toned, and no attempts are left unessayed to destroy all confidence in the constituted authorities of this country, it is peculiarly grateful to my sensibility; and, coming spontaneously, and with the unanimity it has done from so respectable a representation of the people, it adds weight as well as pleasure to the act.

I have long since resolved, for the present time at least, to let my calumniators proceed without any notice being taken of their invectives by myself, or by any others with my participation or knowledge. Their views, I dare say, are readily perceived by all the enlightened and well-disposed part of the community; and by the records of my administration, and not by the voice of faction, I expect to be acquitted or condemned hereafter.

For your politeness in making the unofficial and friendly communication of this act, I pray you to receive my thanks, and assurances at the same time of my being, with very great esteem and regard, dear Sir, &c.1

SPEECH TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS, DECEMBER 8TH, 1795.1

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:

I trust I do not deceive myself, while I indulge the persuasion, that I have never met you at any period, when, more than at the present, the situation of our public affairs has afforded just cause for mutual congratulation, and for inviting you to join with me in profound gratitude to the Author of all good, for the numerous and extraordinary blessings we enjoy.

The termination of the long, expensive, and distressing war, in which we have been engaged with certain Indians, northwest of the Ohio, is placed in the option of the United States, by a treaty, which the commander of our army has concluded provisionally with the hostile tribes in that region.

In the adjustment of the terms, the satisfaction of the Indians was deemed an object worthy no less of the policy, than of the liberality of the United States, as the necessary basis of durable tranquillity. This object, it is believed, has been fully attained. The articles agreed upon will immediately be laid before the Senate for their consideration.

The Creek and Cherokee Indians, who alone of the southern tribes had annoyed our frontier, have lately confirmed their preexisting treaties with us; and were giving evidence of a sincere disposition to carry them into effect, by the surrender of the prisoners and property they had taken. But we have to lament, that the fair prospect in this quarter has been once more clouded by wanton murders, which some citizens of Georgia are represented to have recently perpetrated on hunting parties of the Creeks, which have again subjected that frontier to disquietude and danger; which will be productive of further expense, and may occasion more effusion of blood. Measures are pursuing to prevent or mitigate the usual consequences of such outrages, and with the hope of their succeeding, at least to avert general hostility.

A letter from the Emperor of Morocco announces to me his recognition of our treaty made with his father the late Emperor; and, consequently, the continuance of peace with that power. With peculiar satisfaction I add, that information has been received from an agent deputed on our part to Algiers, importing, that the terms of a treaty with the Dey and Regency of that country had been adjusted in such a manner, as to authorize the expectation of a speedy peace, and the restoration of our unfortunate fellow-citizens from a grievous captivity.

The latest advices from our envoy at the court of Madrid give, moreover, the pleasing information, that he had received assurances of a speedy and satisfactory conclusion of his negotiation. While the event, depending upon unadjusted particulars, cannot be regarded as ascertained, it is agreeable to cherish the expectation of an issue, which, securing amicably very essential interests of the United States, will at the same time lay the foundation of lasting harmony with a power, whose friendship we have uniformly and sincerely desired to cultivate.

Though not before officially disclosed to the House of Representatives, you, Gentlemen, are all apprized, that a treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation has been negotiated with Great Britain; and that the Senate have advised and consented to its ratification, upon a condition which excepts part of one article. Agreeably thereto, and to the best judgment I was able to form of the public interest, after full and mature deliberation, I have added my sanction. The result on the part of his Britannic Majesty is unknown. When received, the subject will, without delay, be placed before Congress.

This interesting summary of our affairs, with regard to the foreign powers, between whom and the United States controversies have subsisted; and with regard also to those of our Indian neighbors, with whom we have been in a state of enmity or misunderstanding, opens a wide field for consoling and gratifying reflections. If, by prudence and moderation on every side, the extinguishment of all the causes of external discord, which have heretofore menaced our tranquillity, on terms compatible with our national rights and honor, shall be the happy result; how firm and how precious a foundation will have been laid for accelerating, maturing, and establishing the prosperity of our country.

Contemplating the internal situation, as well as the external relations, of the United States, we discover equal cause for contentment and satisfaction. While many of the nations of Europe, with their American dependencies, have been involved in a contest unusually bloody, exhausting, and calamitous; in which the evils of foreign war have been aggravated by domestic convulsion and insurrection; in which many of the arts most useful to society have been exposed to discouragement and decay; in which scarcity of subsistence has embittered other sufferings; while even the anticipations of a return of the blessings of peace and repose are alloyed by the sense of heavy and accumulating burthens, which press upon all the departments of industry, and threaten to clog the future springs of government; our favored country, happy in a striking contrast, has enjoyed general tranquillity; a tranquillity the more satisfactory, because maintained at the expense of no duty. Faithful to ourselves, we have violated no obligation to others. Our agriculture, commerce, and manufactures prosper beyond former example; the molestations of our trade (to prevent a continuance of which, however, very pointed remonstrances have been made) being overbalanced by the aggregate benefits which it derives from a neutral position. Our population advances with a celerity, which, exceeding the most sanguine calculations, proportionally augments our strength and resources, and guarantees our future security. Every part of the Union displays indications of rapid and various improvement; and with burthens so light as scarcely to be perceived, with resources fully adequate to our present exigencies, with governments founded on the genuine principles of rational liberty, and with mild and wholesome laws, is it too much to say, that our country exhibits a spectacle of national happiness never surpassed, if ever before equalled?

Placed in a situation every way so auspicious, motives of commanding force impel us, with sincere acknowledgment to Heaven, and pure love to our country, to unite our efforts to preserve, prolong, and improve our immense advantages. To coöperate with you in this desirable work is a fervent and favorite wish of my heart.

It is a valuable ingredient in the general estimate of our welfare, that the part of our country, which was lately the scene of disorder and insurrection, now enjoys the blessings of quiet and order. The misled have abandoned their errors, and pay the respect to our constitution and laws, which is due from good citizens to the public authorities of the society. These circumstances have induced me to pardon, generally, the offenders here referred to; and to extend forgiveness to those, who had been adjudged to capital punishment. For, though I shall always think it a sacred duty, to exercise with firmness and energy the constitutional powers with which I am vested, yet it appears to me no less consistent with the public good, than it is with my personal feelings, to mingle in the operations of government every degree of moderation and tenderness, which the national justice, dignity, and safety may permit.

Gentlemen, Among the objects, which will claim your attention in the course of the session, a review of our military establishment is not the least important. It is called for by the events which have changed, and may be expected still further to change, the relative situation of our frontiers. In this review, you will doubtless allow due weight to the considerations, that the questions between us and certain foreign powers are not yet finally adjusted; that the war in Europe is not yet terminated; and that our western posts, when recovered, will demand provision for garrisoning and securing them. A statement of our present military force will be laid before you by the department of war.

With the review of our army establishment is naturally connected that of the militia. It will merit inquiry, what imperfections in the existing plan further experience may have unfolded. The subject is of so much moment in my estimation, as to excite a constant solicitude, that the consideration of it may be renewed, till the greatest attainable perfection shall be accomplished. Time is wearing away some advantages for forwarding the object, while none better deserves the persevering attention of the public councils.

While we indulge the satisfaction, which the actual condition of our western borders so well authorizes, it is necessary that we should not lose sight of an important truth, which continually receives new confirmations, namely, that the provisions heretofore made with a view to the protection of the Indians from the violences of the lawless part of our frontier inhabitants are insufficient. It is demonstrated that these violences can now be perpetrated with impunity; and it can need no argument to prove, that, unless the murdering of Indians can be restrained by bringing the murderers to condign punishment, all the exertions of the government to prevent destructive retaliations by the Indians will prove fruitless, and all our present agreeable prospects illusory. The frequent destruction of innocent women and children, who are chiefly the victims of retaliation, must continue to shock humanity; and an enormous expense, to drain the treasury of the Union.

To enforce upon the Indians the observance of justice, it is indispensable that there shall be competent means of rendering justice to them. If these means can be devised by the wisdom of Congress, and especially if there can be added an adequate provision for supplying the necessities of the Indians on reasonable terms, (a measure, the mention of which I the more readily repeat, as in all the conferences with them they urge it with solicitude,) I should not hesitate to entertain a strong hope of rendering our tranquillity permanent. I add, with pleasure, that the probability even of their civilization is not diminished by the experiments which have been thus far made, under the auspices of government. The accomplishment of this work, if practicable, will reflect undecaying lustre on our national character, and administer the most grateful consolations that virtuous minds can know.

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:

The state of our revenue, with the sums which have been borrowed and reimbursed, pursuant to different acts of Congress, will be submitted from the proper department; together with an estimate of the appropriations necessary to be made for the service of the ensuing year.

Whether measures may not be advisable to reinforce the provision for the redemption of the public debt, will naturally engage your examination. Congress have demonstrated their sense to be, and it were superfluous to repeat mine, that whatsoever will tend to accelerate the honorable extinction of our public debt, accords as much with the true interest of our country as with the general sense of our constituents.

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:

The statements, which will be laid before you, relative to the mint, will show the situation of that institution, and the necessity of some further legislative provisions for carrying the business of it more completely into effect, and for checking abuses which appear to be arising in particular quarters.

The progress in providing materials for the frigates, and in building them; the state of the fortifications of our harbors; the measures which have been pursued for obtaining proper sites for arsenals, and for replenishing our magazines with military stores; and the steps which have been taken towards the execution of the law for opening a trade with the Indians, will likewise be presented for the information of Congress.

Temperate discussion of the important subjects, which may arise in the course of the session, and mutual forbearance where there is a difference of opinion, are too obvious and necessary for the peace, happiness, and welfare of our country to need any recommendation of mine.

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

Philadelphia, 22 December, 1795.

My dear Sir,

Have you seen or heard more of young Fayette since you last wrote to me on that subject? Where did he go to? Did you deliver him the letter I sent under cover to you for him? His case gives me pain, and I do not know how to get relieved from it.—His sensibility I fear is hurt, by his not acknowledging the receipt of my letter to him; and yet, if considerations of a higher nature are opposed to a more uncovert countenance, it must be submitted to.—If he wants money, I am ready to furnish it.

’Ere this, I presume you have seen the long promised vindication, or rather accusation. What do you think of it? and what notice should be taken of it. You are fully acquainted with my Sentiments relative to the rival and warring powers of F[rance] and E[ngland]; and have heard as strong sentiments from me with respect to both, as ever he did. His declaration that he was always opposed to the Commercial part of the Negociation is as impudent and insolent an assertion as it is false, if he means more than that it was contingent (as the Instructions to Mr. Jay declare), and to apply the knowledge of it to me. But if you have seen his performance, I shall leave you to judge of it, without any comments of mine.1

With much sincerity and truth
I am always and affect’ly Yours.

TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.

Philadelphia, 22 December, 1795.

My dear Sir,

I am become so unprofitable a correspondent, and so remiss in my correspondencies, that nothing but the kindness of my friends, in overlooking these deficiencies, could induce them to favor me with a continuance of their letters; which to me are at once pleasing, interesting, and useful. To a man immersed in debt, and seeing no prospect of extrication but by an act of insolvency (perhaps absolvency would be a better word), I compare myself; and like him, too, afraid to examine the items of the account, I will at once make a lumping acknowledgment of the receipt of many interesting private letters from you, previous to your last arrival in England, and will begin with those subsequent thereto of the 3d of July and 22d of August.

As the British government has repealed the order for seizing our provision vessels, little more need be said on that head, than that it was the principle, which constituted the most obnoxious and exceptionable part thereof, and the predicament in which this country was thereby placed in her relations with France. Admitting, therefore, that the compensation to some individuals was adequate to what it might have been in another quarter, yet the exceptions to it on these grounds remained the same.

I do not think Colonel Innes’s report to the governor of Kentucky was entirely free from exceptions. But let the report be accompanied with the following remarks. 1, that the one, which Lord Grenville might have seen published, was disclaimed by Colonel Innes, as soon as it appeared in the public gazettes, on account of its incorrectness. 2, an irritable spirit at that time pervaded all our people at the westward, arising from a combination of causes (but from none more powerful, than the analogous proceedings of Great Britain in the north, with those of Spain in the south, towards the United States and their Indian borderers), which spirit required some management and soothing. But, 3d and principally, Lord Grenville if he had adverted to the many remonstrances, which have gone from this country against the conduct of his own, which I will take the liberty to say has been as impolitic for their nation, (if peace and a good understanding with this was its object,) as it has been irritating to us. And, that it may not be conceived I am speaking at random, let his Lordship be asked, if we have not complained,—That some of their naval officers have insulted and menaced us in our own ports? That they have violated our national rights, by searching vessels and impressing seamen within our acknowledged jurisdiction, and in an outrageous manner have seized the latter by entire crews in the West Indies, and done the like, but not so extensively, in all parts of the world? That the Bermudian privateers, or to speak more correctly, pirates, and the admiralty court of that island, have committed the most atrocious depredations and violences on our commerce, in capturing, and in their adjudications afterwards, as were never tolerated in any well-organized or efficient government? That their governor of Upper Canada has ordered in an official and formal manner settlers within our own territory, (and far removed from the posts they have withheld from us,) to withdraw, and forbid others to settle on the same? That the persons, to whom their Indian affairs are intrusted, have taken unwearied pains and practised every deception to keep those people in a state of irritation and disquietude with us; and, to the latest moment, exerted every nerve to prevent the treaty, which has lately been concluded between the United States and them from taking effect?

These complaints were not founded in vague and idle reports, but on indubitable facts; facts, not only known to the government, but so notorious as to be known to the people also, who charge to the last item of the above enumeration the expenditure of a million or more of dollars annually for the purpose of self-defence against Indian tribes thus stimulated, and for chastising them for the ravages and cruel murders, which they had committed on our frontier inhabitants. Our minister at the court of London has been directed to remonstrate against these things with force and energy. The answer, it is true, has been (particularly with respect to the interferences with the Indians) a disavowal. Why then are not the agents of such unauthorized, offensive, and injurious measures made examples of? For wherein, let me ask, consists the difference to us between their being the acts of government, or the acts of unauthorized officers or agents of the government, if we are to sustain all the evils, which flow from such measures?

To this catalogue may be added the indifference, nay, more than indifference, with which the government of Great Britain received the advances of this country towards a friendly intercourse with it, even after the adoption of the present constitution, and since the operation of the government; and, also, the ungracious and obnoxious characters, (rancorous refugees, as if done with design to insult the country,) which they have sent among us as their agents, who, retaining all their former enmity, could see nothing through a proper medium, and becoming the earwigs of their minister (who, by the by, does not possess a mind capacious enough, or a temper sufficiently conciliatory, to view things and act upon a great and liberal scale), were always laboring under some unfavorable information and impression, and probably not communicating them in a less exceptionable manner than they received or conceived them themselves.

I give you these details (and, if you should again converse with Lord Grenville on the subject you are at liberty, unofficially to mention them, or any of them, according to circumstances), as evidences of the impolitic conduct (for so it strikes me) of the British government towards these United States; that it may be seen how difficult it has been for the executive, under such an accumulation of irritating circumstances, to maintain the ground of neutrality, which had been taken; at a time when the remembrance of the aid we had received from France in the revolution was fresh in every mind, and when the partisans of that country were continually contrasting the affections of that people with the unfriendly disposition of the British government. And that, too, as I have observed before, while the recollection of their own sufferings during the war with the latter had not been forgotten.

It is well known, that peace (to borrow a modern phrase) has been the order of the day with me since the disturbances in Europe first commenced, My policy has been, and will continue to be, while I have the honor to remain in the administration of the government, to be upon friendly terms with, but independent of, all the nations of the earth; to share in the broils of none; to fulfil our own engagements; to supply the wants and be carrier for them all; being thoroughly convinced, that it is our policy and interest to do so. Nothing short of self-respect, and that justice which is essential to a national character, ought to involve us in war; for sure I am, if this country is preserved in tranquillity twenty years longer, it may bid defiance in a just cause to any power whatever; such in that time will be its population, wealth, and resources.

If Lord Grenville conceives, that the United States are not well disposed towards Great Britain, his candor, I am persuaded, will seek for the causes, and his researches will fix them, as I have done. If this should be the case, his policy will I am persuaded be opposed to the continuance or renewal of the irritating measures, which I have enumerated; for he may be assured, (though the assurance will not, it is probable, carry conviction with it from me to a member of the British administration,) that a liberal policy will be one of the most effectual means of deriving advantages to their trade and manufactures from the people of the United States, and will contribute, more than any thing else, to obliterate the impressions, which have been made by their late conduct towards us.

In a government as free as ours, where the people are at liberty, and will express their sentiments oftentimes imprudently, and, for want of information, sometimes unjustly, allowances must be made for occasional effervescences; but, after the declaration which I have here made of my political creed, you can run no hazard in asserting, that the executive branch of this government never has, or will suffer, while I preside, any improper conduct of its officers to escape with impunity, or will give its sanctions to any disorderly proceedings of its citizens.

By a firm adherence to these principles, and to the neutral policy which has been adopted, I have brought on myself a torrent of abuse in the factious papers in this country, and from the enmity of the discontented of all descriptions therein. But, having no sinister objects in view, I shall not be diverted from my course by these, nor any attempts which are, or shall be made to withdraw the confidence of my constituents from me. I have nothing to ask; and, discharging my duty, I have nothing to fear from invective. The acts of my administration will appear when I am no more, and the intelligent and candid part of mankind will not condemn my conduct without recurring to them.

The treaty entered into with Great Britain has, as you have been informed, undergone much and severe animadversion; and, though a more favorable one were to have been wished, which the policy perhaps of Great Britain might have granted, yet the demerits thereof are not to be estimated by the opposition it has received; nor is the opposition sanctioned by the great body of the yeomanry in these States. For they, whatever their opinions of it may be, are disposed to leave the decision where the constitution has placed it. But an occasion was wanting, and the instrument, by those who required it, was deemed well calculated, for the purpose of working upon the affections of the people of this country towards those of France, whose interests and rights under our treaty with them they represented as being violated; and, with the aid of the provision order, and other irritating conduct of the British ships of war and agents, as mentioned before, the means were furnished, and more pains taken, than upon any former occasion, to raise a general ferment with a view to defeat the treaty.1

But knowing that you have other correspondents, who have more leisure, and equally capable of detailing these matters, I will leave you to them and the gazettes for fuller information there and a more minute account of the prevailing politics. And thanking you for the interesting intelligence and opinions contained in your letter of the 22d of August, I shall only add, that, with sincere esteem and regard, I am, dear Sir, your affectionate friend.

P. S. We have not heard through any other channel than your Letter, of the intended resignation of Mr. Skipwith and of the proposed recommendation of Mr. Montflorence.

LETTERS TO WILLIAM PEARCE, 1795.1

* * * After getting out as many of your best qualified Oats for seed as the ground by the rotations, and such other as you shall allot for them, may require,—take care that the residue is not used so near as to disfurnish my horses when I may come to Mount Vernon; which, probably, will be twice between the adjournment of Congress on the 3d of March, and their meeting again in autumn.—The first for a flying trip (as soon as the roads will permit me to travel after the adjournment) with not more than five horses;—the other, during the hot weather, for a longer term; and with more than double that number of horses; as Mrs. Washington and the family will accompany me.—

What chimney has fallen, by which negro children were hurt, and how are they now?—Under real or pretended sickness, I perceive Doll, at the Ferry, rarely does any work;—it would be well to place her in a situation where her ways can be attended to—if she is really unable to work, none will be required of her; if she is able, deceitful complaints, which she is very capable of making, ought not to avail her. * * * 4 January, 1795.

* * * As it is my wish to plant many Irish potatoes this year, be sure to reserve enough for seed, by making ample allowance for thefts, waste, and rotting.—I shall send you by the first vessel a bushel and half of clean honey locust seed; which I would have raised in a nursery for the purpose of hedging.—By an experiment I have made a (large) quart contains 4,000 seed; this, allowing ten seed to a foot, would sow, or plant, four rows of 500 feet each;—at this rate, 40 quarts (which I think you may count upon, at least) would require 160 rows; ground for which I would have you prepare whenever you shall find most convenient, that the seed may be put in as soon as it arrives:—two feet apart will be enough for the rows, as to weed the plants until they are fit to transplant is all that will be required—and this will be done in two years.

I am sorry to hear that French Will is resuming his old tricks again.—The lye he tells, respecting my promise of freedom to him, after seven years of service, carries its conviction along with it;—inasmuch as I had no certainty of holding him an hour after Mrs. French’s death; which might have happened within the year I hired him; how then could I promise freedom to a person I held under such tenure?—Harsh treatment will not do with him; you had better, therefore, let him piddle, and in this way (though I believe little trust is to be placed in him) get what you can out of him. * * * 11 January, 1795.

* * * I never saw Donaldson’s son, but from what you have said respecting him, I am very willing to allow him his victuals and coarse cloathing:—but ascertain the quantum, and sort of both, in writing, to prevent mistakes and grumbling hereafter.—I am always ready, and willing, to fulfil every engagement I enter into;—and hating disputes, I wish always that contracts may be clearly understood;—for this reason also, it is necessary he should know that the boy must work duly and truely.—And whilst I am on this subject, I would repeat my expectation that he will take pains to teach those who work with him (especially Isaac and the boy Jem) in the principles of the several kinds of work they are employed in;—particular[ly] in carts, wheels, Plows, harrows, wheel barrows, and such kinds of implements as are used about a farm, or dwelling house.—I would also have him cautioned against an error which I have felt no small inconvenience from;—and that is, that rather than persevere in doing things right themselves, and being at the trouble of making others do the like, they will fall into the slovenly mode of executing work which is practiced by those among whom they are.—I have experienced this not only from European tradesmen,—but from farmers also, who have come from England; and from none in a greater degree than from Mr. Whiting, and one Bloxham, who preceeded him;—and who, tho’ perfectly acquainted with every part of a farmer’s business;—and peculiarly so (the latter, I mean) in the management and use of Oxen for the Cart or plow, double or single, with yokes or with harness; yet, finding it a little troublesome to instruct the Negros, and to compel them to the practice of his modes, he slided into theirs; and at length (which I adduce as a proof) instead of using proper flails for threshing the grain, I have found my people at this work with hoop polls—and other things similar thereto. * * * 25 January, 1795.

* * * It is my earnest wish to have my land on four-mile run re-surveyed, and the bounds thereof ascertained; that the pretence of not knowing the lines may no longer be an excuse for the trespasses which are committed thereon, to the great diminution of its value;—the wood being the more important, as the land is of a mean quality.—For the purpose of surveying, it was that I left the papers with you; and more than once have called your attention to this business.—It might be well to agree upon some day with Mr. [Lund] Washington and others, (amongst whom a Mr. Terret joins) that are knowing to the lines and interested in the business; that it may be effectually done if everything is clear, and no difficulties should arise with respect to title, or bounds.—If these, or either of them, should happen, enter into no agreement that will be obligatory on me.—I attempted, as will appear by some notes amongst the papers I left with you, to survey this land myself; but having no person with me who was acquainted with the lines, I was unable to find more than two or three of the corners.—A Moses Ball, if living, must have some knowledge of the lines:—Mr. Terret also, but as he is interested in this business, and is accused of being a pretty considerable trespasser on the part which joins him, it would not be strange if corner and line trees both are cut down; nor very strange, if it has not happened from entire ignorance, if he should not endeavor to perplex and mislead thereabouts.—As the survey is not in consequence of a law suit, and made by order of the court, there is no necessity of employing the County Surveyor, unless he possesses more skill than any other who can readily be got; and will do it upon as moderate terms, as any other.—Do not let my papers go out of your hands—or any copies be taken from them.—The Surveyor, if he is a man of science, will know what the variation of the compass is, and what allowance to make for it, if any difficulty should arise from the want of the corner and line trees. * * * 15 February, 1795.

I was afraid the open weather we have had, with frost, would have injured the Wheat.—A short crop of this article two years running, would fall heavy on me; as it seems to be the only thing, to any sort of amount, from which the means is derived, by which the various, and heavy expences of my estate, is borne.—If the Wheat is thrown much out of the ground, and the roots exposed, try the roller thereon—repeatedly—as soon as the earth is a little settled, and the roller will pass over it without its sticking thereto;—over the parts I mean (of the fields) that are injured. I tried this method one year with very good success; and it is a practice strongly recommended by all the Books on farming.—I have, myself, seen bunches of wheat the roots of which have been entirely out of the ground, take again by the Roller’s compressing them to the earth: and the chance of doing it is well worth the expence and time which is required by the Roller, drawn with Oxen. * * *

I am sorry my letter was so long getting to the hands of my nephew Colo. Washington;—for if I have not formed a very erroneous, and unjust opinion of the conduct of my negro carpenters—there is not to be found so idle a set of Rascals.—In short, it appears to me, that to make even a chicken coop, would employ all of them a week;—buildings that are run up here in two or three days (with not more hands) employ them a month or more. * * * 22 February, 1795.

* * * If the absconding of French’s Paul did not proceed from a quarrel with, or threats from, his overseer, it will be found, I expect, that he has been guilty of some piece of roguery; of the discovery of which he was afraid:—pains therefore ought to be taken to apprehend and bring him to punishment.

What sort of lameness is Dick’s (at D. Run); that he should have been confined with it for so many weeks?—and what kind of sickness is Betty Davis’s, that it should have had a similar effect upon her?—If pretended ailments, without apparent causes, or visible effects, will screen her from work, I shall get no service at all from her; for a more lazy, deceitful and impudent huzzy, is not to be found in the United States than she is. * * * 8 March, 1795.

* * * All grasses ought to be sown on clean and well prepared ground, especially those near a dwelling house, which attract the eyes of all visitors.—This observation applies to grain as well as grass;—for which reason, however desirable it might have been, to have got the oats in the ground soon, I had rather hear it was delayed than that it should be sown before every thing was in perfect order for it; for it is a fixed principle with me, that whatever is done should be well done. Unless this maxim is attended to, our labor is but in vain, and our expectation of a return, is always deceptious; whilst we are ascribing our disappointments to anything rather than the true cause, namely—not laying (by proper preparations) a good foundation on which to build our hopes.

I observe what you say of Betty Davis, &ct.—but I never found so much difficulty as you seem to apprehend, in distinguishing between real and feigned sickness;—or when a person is much afflicted with pain. Nobody can be very sick without having a fever, nor will a fever or any other disorder continue long upon any one without reducing them. Pain also, if it be such as to yield entirely to its force, week after week, will appear by its effects; but my people (many of them) will lay up a month, at the end of which no visible change in their countenance, nor the loss of an oz. of flesh, is discoverable; and their allowance of provision is going on as if nothing ailed them.—There cannot, surely be any real sickness under such circumstances as I have described; nor ought such people to be improperly endulged.—It should be made one of the primary duties of every Overseer to attend closely, and particularly to those under his care who really are, or pretend to be, sick; to see that they first receive aid and comfort in time, and before it is too late to apply them; and that the others do not impose upon him. In the first case you ought to be immediately notified, as delay is often dangerous; and in the second, where the matter is at all doubtful, you ought to be the judge, for I am as unwilling to have any person, in my service, forced to work when they are unable, as I am to have them skulk from it, when they are fit for it.—* * * 22 March, 1795.

* * * Considering the quality of my flour this year, and the smallness of the quantity, I am very well satisfied that you have got it off your hands at the prices it sold; altho’ flour at this market is at 12 dollars a barrel and rising.—In short, the scarcity of this article in Europe, and demand for it; added, to the failure of the last wheat crop in this Country will enable the holders to get any price they please.—Let me know the quantity of the midlings and ship-stuff you disposed of.—And tell Davenport to make out, and to have sent to me, the mill account for last year, that I may see what wheat has gone into, and what flour has come out of, the mill.—I have no reason to suspect that Davenport is otherwise than an honest man; but regular and fair accounts should be stated, and rendered by all men.—In doing this with him, the Overseers’ accounts of the wheat sent to, and his of what is received in the mill, should agree; so likewise ought his charges of the flour, Bran, &c., sent to Mansion House, the Overseers, &c., to agree with what is reported and credited.—This being done, and added to the different kinds of flour that are sold, and the shorts and Bran used, will (accounting also for the Toll Wheat) show the state of the manufacturing business—which is not only satisfactory, but absolutely necessary;—for I strongly suspect, notwithstanding it would appear by the experiments which have been made of an hundred bushels that the balance is in favor of flour,—that the case is otherwise on the aggregate quantity which is ground.—That it is so this year, can admit of no doubt;—it would be inconceivable otherwise that the [NA] of my last year’s crop of wheat, and [NA] that of the year before, should yield only [NA] barrels of flour, besides what was consumed in the family.

If the boy at the Mill is to go into the Garden, at Mansion house, the sooner it happens the better;—and I really (considering the little work my Mill does) see no reason why he should not.—I am sorry to find by your last reports that there has been two deaths in the family since I left Mount Vernon;—and one of them a young fellow.—I hope every necessary care and attention was afforded him.—I expect little of this from McKoy,—or indeed from most of his class; for they seem to consider a Negro much in the same light as they do the brute beasts, on the farms; and often times treat them as inhumanly. * * * 10 May, 1795.

* * * Davy’s lost lambs carry with them a very suspicious appearance;—and it will be to be regretted, if he betakes himself to Rogueries of that sort;—for in that case, nothing will escape, if he can avoid detection; and grain will be less liable to it than animals.—If the lambs had been poisoned, or had died a natural death, or their deaths had been occasioned by any accident, their bones would have been forth coming, and his not being able to produce them, is an argument, both of his guilt, and of his not expecting to be called upon for that evidence of the truth of his assertion, and fair dealing.—This circumstance will make it necessary to watch him a little closer.—He has some very sly, cunning and roguish negroes under him; among whom none has a greater disposition to be so, or who he can make a more useful agent of, than Nathan; his mother and father.— * * *

What is the matter with Ruth and Ben, (not the Ben that cut himself) at River farm, that week after week they are returned sick?—The first of them, Ruth, has been aiming, for some time, to get herself excused from work.—More than they are able to do in reason, I do not expect;—but I have no idea of their being totally exempted, whilst work proportioned, and adapted to their strength and situation, can be found for them.—The example is bad, and will be too readily (as is the case at present with several more of them) attempted; if, under the plea of pains, &c., &c., they find they can carry their point.— * * * 5 July, 1795.

* * * At the proper season let all the English thorn, in the vineyard, be transplanted (I do not care where, so it be) to places where the strongest inner fences are required.—Let the long string of fence from the gate at Union Farm (going into No. I) quite through to the branch be planted with the honey locust, if they are of a size proper for it.—Continue the Cedar hedge from the barn at that place, to the Mill road; or as far as you have plants for that purpose:—and then (on both sides of that lane) in ground properly spaded, or well hoed up, and formed into a bed, sow the Cedar berries in a single straight row; after rubbing off the skin, or glutinous substance which surrounds the seed, in the manner which has been mentioned to you; and which, it is said, is necessary to their vegitation.—But with respect to these, and other berries, the vegitation of which is said to be promoted by their passing through the body of an animal, I have often thought, that if they were put into a pot with water sufficient to moisten the whole mass of them, and kept warm (but not hot), from morning until night, and then to have the skin rubbed off as before mentioned, it would answer as well as the heat of the animal body.—The only danger would be from carelessness, in letting them get so hot as to destroy vegitation altogether. * * *

No hedge, alone, will, I am persuaded, do for an outer inclosure, where two, or four footed hogs find it convenient to open a passage; but I am equally satisfied, that any hedge will do for partition fences, where no hogs are suffered to run; consequently those that can be quickest raised, will answer my purposes best; if I am even obliged to have a double hedge, in the manner before mentioned, to be ready for the decline of the first. * * * 22 November, 1795.

I wish you to make the most you can of the materials you have within yourself, for hedging; for I do not believe you will get any berries of the white thorn from Newcastle; for the reason given in one of my letters after I arrived at this place from Mount Vernon last.—I hope the Cedar berries will prove better than you expect, that you may, as soon as possible, get the lane from the New barn (at Union farm) to the Mill road compleated with that kind of hedge on both sides.—Make good the hedges as you proceed, in this business; otherwise you will have incomplete ones, that will render no service.—Anxious as you perceive I am, to substitute hedges instead of dead fences, I have full confidence in your exertion to raise them;—and as I have observed in a former letter, those for inner and cross fences, where no hogs are suffered to run, may, in the first instance, be made of anything that suits the soil, and will grow quick,—altho’ they should be doubled hereafter.—When I speak of tilling too much land, and add that a less quantity would be more productive than the greater quantity, which is now tended in order to produce an adequate quantity of Corn; I would not be understood to mean that half of one of your fields in the condition they now are, would produce you as much corn (or other things) as the whole of it would do;—that would be absurd;—but for example, suppose ten hands are necessary to cultivate a field of 100 acres (more or less) and that this quantity, in common seasons, can be cultivated as well as usually is done, but will allow no spare time, or labor for any extra work—my idea then is, that by turning half that field out, or rather let it be enclosed, and nothing suffered to run upon it, (that all the grass and weeds it produces may fall, rot, and ameliorate the soil)—Cultivate the other half better than you could do the whole;—and bestow all the spare labor of the ten hands in raking—scraping,—collecting and carrying out all the manure that can be obtained from swamps, ponds, trash about the house, and in the lanes,—and even leaves and rotten trees from the woods; that more would be produced in a year or two from the 50 acres, than is now got from the hundred:—and by this means gullies might be filled up—and many other improvements made on the farms that are not, nor cannot be done with a full crop.—Is it not better to get 20 bushels of Wheat (and other things in proportion) from one acre of ground, than from two acres?—That worn land, undressed and unimproved will not produce the latter, that is 20 bushels, and when well cultivated and manured, will produce the former, is known to every man who has attended to these things;—and yet, such is the force of habit, that people will not quit the path their fathers have trod in.—Besides, I am so well persuaded of the injury land sustains from the growth of Indian Corn, I never desire to raise more than enough for my Negros (who cannot do without it;) substituting other species of food for Horses, Hogs, &c.—or even buying from the sales of other crops, if I cannot do this. * * * 6 December, 1795.

[1 ]Elizabeth Parke Custis married Mr. Law, a nephew of Lord Ellenborough.

[1 ]From Mr. Pendleton’s Letter.—“Lest I should suffer the year to expire, I take up the pen to congratulate you on your safe return from the westward, and on your having, as we hope, quelled the spirit of anarchy and disorder in that quarter, without shedding other blood than what shall be found on a legal trial to have been justly forfeited to the laws, a circumstance which affords considerable consolation under the enormous expense incurred on the occasion, which, though inevitable, is yet grievous in the present situation of America.

“The success of our army under General Wayne is also gratifying, affording a fair prospect of peace in that quarter with the Indians. I fear a radical peace with those to the southward will only be attained by a similar proceeding. Will you permit me, Sir, to suggest a doubt, whether the policy of contracting to pay an annual tribute to neighboring Indians be sound, and adapted to the genius and temper of that people. It conveys an idea of inferiority, which most nations indeed will take advantage of; but these people, having been in a train of beneficial plunder upon us, will only be restrained by their fear of offending our government, and not by concessions. The old counsellors will profess to be at peace, and continue to receive their annuity, whilst their young men continue their depredations, and the others will say they cannot restrain them. A fair and well-supplied trade with them, a strict adherence to treaties on our part, and a demand of the same on theirs, a fair purchase of their lands when they choose to sell, a prohibition of all speculations upon them, either in trade or buying their lands, and occasional presents in their necessity, which they will consider as a bounty, and not view it in the light of the other, as a stipulated price of peace with them, seem to me the true system.

“I hope we are to continue at peace with the nations of Europe, though they shall be mad enough to continue their war. But if the papers retail the truth, is it not strange that the Bermudian privateers should yet be capturing American vessels?”—December 30th.

[1 ]In his Observations on the Commerce of the American States. This tract was published shortly after the peace at the end of the revolution, and within two years it passed through six editions. Its object was to disparage the importance of the English trade with the United States, and to prevent a commercial treaty. It contained an elaborate array of details respecting the American trade, stated and arranged in such a manner as to give the author’s reasoning a plausible aspect, and to produce a considerable influence on the public mind, especially as his views accorded with the prevalent feeling in England. Several pamphlets were written in reply to Lord Sheffield’s Observations.

[1 ]Mr. Hamilton resigned the office of Secretary of the Treasury on the 31st of January. The following is his answer to the above letter:

“Philadelphia, February 3d, 1795. Sir: My particular acknowledgments are due for your very kind letter of yesterday. As often as I may recall the vexations I have endured, your approbation will be a great and precious consolation. It was not without a struggle, that I yielded to the very urgent motives, which impelled me to relinquish a station, in which I could hope to be in any degree instrumental in promoting the success of an administration under your direction; a struggle, which would have been far greater, had I supposed that the prospect of future usefulness was proportioned to the sacrifices to be made.

“Whatever may be my destination hereafter, I entreat you to be persuaded, (not the less for my having been sparing in professions,) that I shall never cease to render a just tribute to those eminent and excellent qualities, which have been already productive of so many blessings to your country; that you will always have my fervent wishes for your public and personal felicity, and that it will be my pride to cultivate a continuance of that esteem, regard, and friendship, of which you do me the honor to assure me. With true respect and affectionate attachment, I have the honor to be, &c.”

Oliver Wolcott, Jr., was appointed as successor to Mr. Hamilton on the 3d of February.

[1 ]Elizabeth Haynie, who died 29 April 1796. I have not been able to trace her relationship to Washington. A daughter, Sally Ball Haynie, is mentioned in his will.

[1 ]Although signed by his secretary, this letter was one of Washington’s, and the draft is entirely in his writing. Joseph Ceracchi was a sculptor of some pretensions, who, in 1795, sought the aid of Congress in the erection of a monument to the American Revolution. Failing to secure the recognition of that body, he was advised to attempt a popular subscription, and in June, 1796, prepared an elaborate circular descriptive of the intended work, with a letter of recommendation signed by the President, the members of the Cabinet, and many leading members of both houses of Congress.—Historical Magazine, 1859, 234. “Just as the circular address was about to be despatched, it was put into his head that the scheme was merely to get rid of his importunities, and being of the genus irritabile, he suddenly went off in anger and disgust, leaving behind him heavy drafts on General Washington, Mr. Jefferson, &c., &c., for the busts, &c., he had presented to them. His drafts were not the effect of avarice, but of his wants, all his resources having been exhausted in the tedious pursuit of his object. He was an enthusiastic worshipper of Liberty and Fame; and his whole soul was bent on securing the latter by rearing a monument to the former, which he considered as personified in the American Republic. Attempts were made to engage him for a statue of General W., but he would not stoop to that.”—Madison to St. George Tucker, 30 April, 1830. Ceracchi was guillotined for a supposed connection with an attempt on Bonaparte’s life.

[1 ]Ceracchi came to Philadelphia in 1791.

[1 ]Respecting a plan of several professors of Geneva for migrating to the United States.

[1 ]This letter was accordingly communicated by the Governor of Virginia to the Assembly at their next session, when the following resolves were passed:—

“In the House of Delegates, 1 December, 1795.

“Whereas the migration of American youth to foreign countries, for the completion of their education, exposes them to the danger of imbibing political prejudices disadvantageous to their own republican forms of government, and ought therefore to be rendered unnecessary and avoided;

“Resolved, that the plan contemplated of erecting a university in the Federal City, where the youth of the several States may be assembled, and their course of education finished, deserves the countenance and support of each State.

“And whereas, when the General Assembly presented sundry shares in the James River and Potomac Companies to George Washington, as a small token of their gratitude for the great, eminent, and unrivalled services he had rendered to this commonwealth, to the United States, and the world at large, in support of the principles of liberty and equal government, it was their wish and desire that he should appropriate them as he might think best; and whereas, the present General Assembly retain the same high sense of his virtues, wisdom, and patriotism;

“Resolved, therefore, that the appropriation by the said George Washington of the aforesaid shares in the Potomac Company to the university, intended to be erected in the Federal City, is made in a manner most worthy of public regard, and of the approbation of this commonwealth.

“Resolved, also, that he be requested to appropriate the aforesaid shares in the James River Company to a seminary at such place in the upper country, as he may deem most convenient to a majority of the inhabitants thereof.”

[1 ]Alexander White was appointed to succeed Daniel Carroll. While seeking a man for the office Washington wrote to William Deakins: “That the duties of a commissioner of the Federal City would have been discharged with ability and fidelity by the gentleman whose name you have mentioned to me, I cannot harbor a doubt; but the An[ge]l Gab[rie]l, in his situation, would have been charged with partiality. From a thorough conviction of this, I have never turned my attention to a character who, at the time of his appointment, was a resident either in George Town, or the Federal City.”

[1 ]Jay had closed his English mission by signing a treaty on 19 November, 1794. Of the objects of that mission, but one was secured—that of a surrender of the western posts; and even this was not to be until June, 1796. The treaty instead of recognizing the maxim “free ships make free goods,” agreed that French goods in American vessels should be liable to seizure by Great Britain—in direct contravention of the treaty with France. It also extended the list of contraband; the right of impressment was not surrendered by Great Britain; and finally what concessions were obtained in the trade with the British West Indies were neutralized, and in some cases made oppressive, by subsequent events. The full text may be found in American State Papers, Foreign Relations, i., 520. The treaty was long on its passage, for it was not received by the President till 7 March, 1795, a few days after the adjournment of Congress. Washington summoned the Senate to convene on Monday, the 8th of June, and on that day laid before it the treaty and accompanying documents. The French Minister, Fauchet, then awaiting his successor, wrote to Randolph, asking that the Senate should not vote on the treaty until Adet should arrive and make known his instructions (June 8th). Such a delay could hardly have been made by the President with propriety; and the Senate entered into a consideration of the treaty, while Adet, who arrived on the 13th, amused the Executive by a promise of certain French acts relative to commerce with the United States, a promise that was not fulfilled when the Senate rose on June 26th.

The proceedings of the Senate was held behind closed doors, but this did not prevent an agitation, chiefly hostile to the document, from being carried on in the newspapers and in public meetings. In the Senate, Aaron Burr wished a further negotiation with Great Britain, while Henry Tazewell moved that the President be advised not to sign. Compensation for negroes and other property carried away during the war was also urged, but all opposition was voted down, and on the 24th of June, by a vote of twenty to ten, the Senate advised and consented to its conditional ratification. “An insuperable objection existed to an article regulating the intercourse with the British West Indies, founded on a fact which is understood to have been unknown to Mr. Jay. The intention of the contracting parties was to admit the direct intercourse between the United States and those Islands, but not to permit the productions of the latter to be carried to Europe in the vessels of the former. To give effect to this intention, the exportation from the United States of those articles, which were the principal productions of the Islands, was to be relinquished. Among these was cotton. This article, which a few years before was scarcely raised in sufficient quantity for domestic consumption, was becoming one of the richest staples of the southern States. The Senate, being informed of this fact, advised and consented that the treaty should be ratified on condition that an article be added thereto, suspending that part of the twelfth article which relates to the intercourse with the West Indies.”—Chief-Justice Marshall.

The Senate had agreed to keep the treaty a secret; but a few days after its rising, a sketch of the document appeared in the Aurora, and led Senator Stevens Thomson Mason, a strong opponent of the treaty, to send to that paper his copy, and on July 1st it was issued by Bache in a pamphlet.

In the meantime “the English papers contained an account, which, though not official, was deemed worthy of credit, that the order of the 8th of June, 1793, for the seizure of provisions going to French ports, was renewed. In the apprehension, that this order might be construed and intended as a practical construction of that article in the treaty, which seemed to favor the idea, that provisions, though not generally contraband, might occasionally become so, a construction in which he had determined not to acquiesce, the President thought it wise to reconsider his decision. Of the result of this reconsideration there is no conclusive testimony. A strong memorial against this objectionable order was directed; and the propositions to withhold the ratifications of the treaty until the order should be repealed, to make the exchange of ratifications dependent upon that event, and to adhere to his original purpose of pursuing the advice of the Senate, connecting with that measure the memorial which had been mentioned, as an act explanatory of the sense in which his ratification was made, were severally reviewed by him. In conformity with his practice of withholding his opinion on controverted points, until it should become necessary to decide them, he suspended his determination on these propositions until the memorial should be prepared and laid before him.”—Marshall’s Life of Washington, 2d edition, vol. ii., p. 361.

[1 ]“On Monday the 8th of June,” says Chief-Justice Marshall, “the Senate, in conformity with the summons of the President, convened in the Senate-chamber, and the treaty, with the documents connected with it, were submitted to their consideration.

“On the 24th of June, after a minute and laborious investigation, the Senate, by precisely a constitutional majority, advised and consented to its conditional ratification.”

[1 ]Hamilton’s reply is printed in his Writings (Lodge’s edition), iv., 322. It was not, however, a “cabinet paper,” as Mr. Lodge describes it.

[1 ]He set out for Mt. Vernon on the next day.

[1 ]He had written: “The application is of an unusual and disagreeable nature, and moreover is intended, I have no doubt, to place me in an embarrassed situation, from whence an advantage may be taken.”

[1 ]A few days previous to the date of the above letter, a conversation had taken place between M. Adet and the Secretary of State, which was reported by the latter to the President as follows:

“M. Adet came to the office and told me, that he had come to express to me in an amiable manner the uneasiness, which the treaty with Great Britain had excited in him. Professing not to have seen it, I promised him a copy, and that day delivered it to him. He stated some days afterwards in writing three objections. 1. That we had granted to Great Britain liberty to seize our naval stores going to France; while France, by her commercial treaty with the United States, could not seize naval stores of the United States going to England. 2. That Engish privateers may find an asylum in our ports, even during the present war with France. 3. That France could not open a new negotiation with us, as we were prevented from departing, in a new treaty, from this stipulation in favor of British privateers; and France would not give up her prior right.

“In answer to the first objection, I have written to him, that contraband is left unchanged, where it stands by the law of nations; that the working of our treaty with France is reciprocal, inasmuch as if we were at war with England, France would be just where we are now; and that this working of our treaty was plainly foreseen, when it was made. Still I tell him, that, upon the principles of hardship, or injury to a friend, it shall be a subject of our new negotiation; shall not wait for the general treaty; and I doubt not that some modification may be devised.

“In answer to the second, I have written to him, that English privateers will not be admitted into our ports, during this or any other war with France; that our stipulation is exactly the same with that in the treaty of France with England in 1786; that the French treaty is protected from infraction by a positive clause in the treaty with Great Britain, and that it never shall be violated.

“In answer to the third objection, I have written to him, that we would not ask him to renounce the advantages given to French privateers, in exclusion of the enemies of France; and that the old treaty might be continued in force respecting this particular, so as still to give this right a priority to the like right, stipulated by the treaty with Great Britain.

“In the last paragraph of my letter I desire, that, if any embarrassment still hangs upon these points, he may afford me an opportunity of meeting them, before his communications are despatched to the Committee of Public Safety. While I was transcribing my letter, he came to see me; and I read to him the observations on the last point. He exclaimed that they were very good, very good; and, I inferred, satisfactory. I met him at the President’s some time afterwards, and asked him if he had received my letter. He said, ‘Yes.’ I told him that I hoped I had placed the subject upon a satisfactory footing. He expressed a degree of satisfaction; but not so pointed, as what he had said to me as to the part of the letter relative to the third objection. He added something about his not intending to discuss the law of the 23d of March; but he spoke in so low a voice, that I did not catch his meaning.”—July 14th.

[1 ]The person here alluded to, Archibald Hamilton Rowan, Mr. Randolph describes as having been convicted of sedition in Ireland, and just arrived in Philadelphia from France. Senator Butler, Mr. Randolph adds, “brought him to my office to introduce him. This inaccuracy of this member of the Senate did not surprise me, nor did it betray me into more than decent civility to a man, who brought a recommendatory letter from Mr. Monroe, dated in April.”

[1 ]The legislature of New York had authorized the governor to appoint commissioners to treat with those Indians respecting the purchase of their lands. It was a question whether such a negotiation could be legally held without the intervention of the United States. The attorney-general had given an opinion that such a measure would be unconstitutional.

[2 ]Mr. Stephen Higginson of Boston, formerly a member of Congress. The extracts are printed in Life of Pickering, iii., 177.

[1 ]The same letter, in substance, was sent in reply to several addresses similar to that from the selectmen of Boston.

“Not willing to lose a post day, I hasten to send these resolutions above alluded to, late as it is, to Alexandria, to go on to-morrow, with a request similar to the one made from Baltimore. A day or two more will, I presume, bring to me the result of the meeting proposed to be held in Philadelphia, which probably will be followed by one from Baltimore and other towns; although I have no advice thereof further than the papers contained, as being in agitation at Baltimore before I left Philadelphia. If one comes from the last mentioned place, and is immediately published, as the others have been, before delivery, let an answer thereto, if answers are advisable, follow it without waiting for my request. I have no time to add more, than that the commercial part of the treaty, as far as my information goes, is generally disliked.”—Washington to Randolph, 27 July, 1795.

There had lately been a public meeting in Philadelphia for the purpose of passing resolves against the treaty. After the business of the meeting was closed, a copy of the treaty was suspended on a pole and carried about the streets by a company of people, who at length stopped in front of the British minister’s house, and there burnt the treaty, and also before the door of the British consul, amidst the huzzas and acclamations of the multitude. Mr. Hammond, the British minister, complained of this indignity to the Secretary of State. “I have sent this representation,” said Mr. Randolph, in a letter to the President, “for the opinion of the attorney-general. But I am convinced, that neither law nor expediency will support any movement of the government. Indeed, in the conversation which I had with him, he was very calm, and appeared to concur in the impossibility of a public measure in relation to the event.” He had written two days previously: “Mr. Hammond yesterday received his letters of recall. He came over to state to me, that he had several things to communicate by order, relative to the treaty, on the supposition of its being ratified, and that he would impart them to me in a few days; as he expects to be ready for his departure in about a fortnight or three weeks. We entered into some conversation on the occurrences at Charleston, upon which he spoke with moderation, and declared that he should represent, when he returned to England, the sincerity of this government in the business of the treaty.”—July 29th.—Sparks.

[1 ]Camillus was Hamilton himself.

[1 ]Expressing disapprobation of the treaty. See the answer, dated August 20th.

[1 ]“Some hours after my messenger was despatched for Alexandria, the Richmond production was delivered to me by the express sent for that purpose. They have outdone all that has gone before them; but, according to the account given by the express, the meeting was not numerous, and some of the principal characters not in town. I send the proceedings to Alexandria to-day, to go on by the first mail, to be acted upon as mentioned in former letters.”—Washington to Randolph, 4 August, 1795.

[1 ]Late in March, 1795, a French corvette was captured by a British man-of-war off Pesmarque, and some of Fauchet’s despatches to his government were taken. These despatches were sent to the British minister in the United States, Hammond, and by him were given to Wolcott, 28 July, 1795. On the same day Wolcott showed one despatch to Pickering, and on the next day to the Attorney-General, when a decision was reached to summon Washington to Philadelphia. On the 31st Wolcott and Pickering waited upon Randolph, and urged him to write to Washington requesting his return. On this Randolph, voicing the opinion of the Cabinet, thought it expedient for the President to return to Philadelphia, at the earliest possible day, as some decisive step might be necessary in consequence of the communications from Mr. Hammond, then about to sail for England. And not satisfied with that, Pickering wrote a letter for Washington’s “own eye alone,” saying: “On the subject of the treaty I confess that I feel extreme solicitude; and for a special reason, which can be communicated to you only in person. I entreat, therefore, that you will return, with all convenient speed, to the seat of government. In the meantime, for the reason above referred to, I pray you to decide on no important political measure, in whatever form it may be presented to you.”

Washington reached the city on August 11th, and Pickering gave him an account of the intercepted despatch, and a translation of it made by Pickering was left with him. For some days the President considered the matter, and the best manner of bringing it before Randolph, and submitted to Wolcott, and probably to the other members of the Cabinet, the questions printed in the text.

The intercepted despatch was No. 10, dated 10 Brumaire (31 October, 1794), and purported to give some “precieuses confessions” of Mr. Randolph on the Western insurrection. After giving an account of the two political parties—the federalist and the anti-federalist—the fiscal interest and the agricultural—he asserted the preponderance of the treasury in government and in legislation. Under the influence of the French Revolution the anti-federalists became the republicans or patriots, and, attacking the treasury and its policy, suffered a momentary check. The popular societies formed a point of union and centralization, strengthened by the commercial stress, the subjection of navigation, and the audacity of Great Britain; and resolutions of censure were passed against the government. The growing complaints of the republicans came to a head on the passage of the excise law; and by the measures of repression, under the pretext of giving energy to the government, as Randolph had said, it was intended to introduce absolute power and mislead the President into paths that would conduct him to unpopularity. Of the measures of repression Hamilton was the adviser; Randolph favored pacific negotiation. “Two or three days before the proclamation was published, and of course before the Cabinet had resolved on its measures, Mr. Randolph came to see me with an air of great eagerness, and made to me the overtures of which I have given you an account in my No. 6. Thus with some thousands of dollars, the republic could have decided on civil war or on peace! Thus the consciences of the pretended patriots of America already have their prices! It is very true that the certainty of these conclusions, painful to be drawn, will forever exist in our archives! What will be the old age of this government if it is thus early decrepit!” The cause of all this was laid at Hamilton’s door, who had made of the whole nation a stock-jobbing, speculating, selfish people. Some patriots might be found, like Monroe, Madison, and Jefferson. The true question to be settled was the destruction or the triumph of the treasury policy. The President’s marching against the insurrection was an act of wisdom; the conduct of Hamilton was a piece of deep policy, to establish a more perfect intimacy with the President, whose name was alone a sufficient shield against attack.

The despatch is printed in full in Conway, Edmund Randolph, 272.

[1 ]On August 19th, in the presence of Wolcott, Pickering, and Bradford, Washington gave to Randolph the intercepted despatch, and the Secretary requested an opportunity to throw his ideas on paper. Instead of so doing, he sent in his resignation that evening. On the 22d Washington gave him a copy of Fauchet’s No. 10, and the ex-Secretary at once set out for Newport to see Fauchet, and obtain from him a denial of the insinuations contained in that despatch. In this he claimed to have succeeded. “I trust that I am in possession of such materials, not only from Mr. Fauchet, but also from other sources, as will convince every unprejudiced mind that my resignation was dictated by considerations which ought not to have been resisted for a moment; and that everything connected with it, stands upon a footing perfectly honorable to myself.”—Randolph to Washington, 15 September, 1795.

[1 ]John Quincy Adams, then Minister from the United States in Holland.

[1 ]The ratification of the treaty was signed by the President on the 18th of August. The question was brought before the cabinet the day after his arrival in Philadelphia, and discussed anew. “The Secretary of State maintained singly the opinion, that, during the existence of the provision order, and during the war between England and France, this step ought not to be taken. This opinion did not prevail. The resolution was adopted to ratify the treaty immediately, and to accompany the ratification with a strong memorial against the provision order, which should convey in explicit terms the sense of the American government on that subject. By this course the views of the executive were happily accomplished. The order was revoked, and the ratifications of the treaty were happily exchanged.”—Marshall’sLife of Washington, 2d edit., vol. ii., p. 368.

[1 ]The position was first tendered to Thomas Johnson.

[1 ]After a brief statement of his private affairs, Mr. Pinckney added in reply:

“Under these circumstances it is not in my power to accept the elevated station, in which you have so obligingly offered to place me; and while I decline this reiterated instance of your friendship and partiality, I confess I do it with regret; for stormy clouds overhanging the political horizon, so far from preventing me from coming forward in public office, would rather induce me to accept one, did not the reasons mentioned in the letter I have above referred to still operate. I lament they do so; but, thus circumstanced, I can only repeat my thanks for your many favors, and offer my best wishes for the prosperity of our happy constitution, and for him who, I doubt not, will with his usual ability pilot safely the vessel in which we are all embarked.”—Charleston, September 16th.

[1 ]Chargé d’Affaires in London, during Mr. Pinckney’s absence at Madrid.

[1 ]The letters here alluded to were from George Washington Lafayette, the son of General Lafayette, and from M. Frestel, who had recently arrived together in Boston from France, and had written to President Washington, giving notice of their arrival.

[1 ]Lafayette and his tutor determined to go to New York, where they expected to reside with a friend, M. La Colombe, until further directions might be received from Washington.

“It was at this moment of solicitude, that I arrived to testify to them the benignity of your intentions, by expressing those unequivocal assurances of friendship, which your goodness had dictated, and which were received with every emotion of the most lively sensibility. A conversation succeeded, which had for its object a relief from their present perplexity with the least possible deviation from the path you had proposed. In addition to the motives already explained for removing further than Cambridge, it was urged that the studies now actually pursuing by M. Motier are entirely different from those prescribed in any of our universities, and that your desires therefore will be best accomplished by a continuance in his present course under M. Frestel. It was admitted, however, that other aids would be requisite in those branches of education, which M. Frestel does not profess. With a view to these, and to combine with them abstinence from society, it is thought best to seek a position near some principal town, where all the desiderata can be found.”—George Cabot to Washington, 16 September, 1795.

[1 ]The Medusa was blockaded in the harbor of Newport by the British frigate Africa. A storm drove the Africa from her position near the shore, and the commander of the Medusa took advantage of this circumstance, cut his cables, and put to sea. M. Fauchet embarked for France on board this vessel. She was chased by the Africa, but not overtaken.

[1 ]Samuel Dexter. The office was eventually filled by Charles Lee.

[1 ]On November 19th a tender was made to John Eager Howard of the War Department, Pickering becoming Secretary of State.

[1 ]A previous letter had been written to Mr. Carrington making inquiry about Colonel James Innes, in relation to the office of Attorney-General. The reason why the President did not wish any advances to be made to Mr. Henry, if Colonel Innes concluded to accept that office, doubtless was, that two of the high officers of state could not with propriety be taken from Virginia. Colonel Innes declined the appointment.

[1 ]From Mr. Carrington’s Reply.—“I have been honored with yours of the 9th instant, and immediately consulted General Marshall thereon. As to a change in Mr. Henry’s opinions upon the constitution, he has been so little within the circle of our movements, that we must rather rely on the intelligence of General Lee, who has had much communication with him, than our own observations. Mr. Henry has for several years been in a degree silent on public topics; nor have we heard of anything whatever as coming from him relating to the treaty. We are not without apprehensions, that General Lee estimates too highly the affections of Mr. Henry towards the constitution. General Marshall being, however, decidedly of opinion, in which I cordially joined, that your letter should be forwarded to him, I have this morning despatched it by express. In this determination we were governed by the following reasons.

“First, his non-acceptance, from domestic considerations, may be calculated on. In this event, be his sentiments on either point what they may, he will properly estimate your letter, and, if he has any asperities, it must tend to soften them, and render him, instead of a silent observer of the present tendency of things, in some degree active on the side of government and order.

“Secondly, should he feel an inclination to go into the office proposed, we are confident, very confident, he has too high a sense of honor to do so with sentiments hostile to either of the points in view. This we should rely on, upon general grounds; but under your letter a different conduct is, we conceive from our knowledge of Mr. Henry, impossible.

“Thirdly, we are fully persuaded that a more deadly blow could not be given the faction in Virginia, and perhaps elsewhere, than that gentleman’s acceptance of the office in question, convinced as we are of the sentiments he must carry with him. So much have the opposers of the government held him up as their oracle, even since he has ceased to respond to them, that any event, demonstrating his active support to government, could not but give the party a severe shock.

“To these reasons we think it not inapplicable to add, that, in the present crisis, Mr. Henry may reasonably be calculated on as taking the side of government, even though he may retain his old prejudices against the Constitution. He has indubitably an abhorrence of anarchy; to be at the head of a popular assembly we know is his delight; but there is much difference between that situation, and scrambling for pre-eminence in a state of confusion, for which he is ill fitted. This we know Mr. Henry is fully sensible of. We know, too, that he is improving his fortune fast, which must additionally attract him to the existing government and order, the only guarantees of property. Add to this, that he has no affection for the present leaders of the opposition in Virginia.

“You will perceive, Sir, that we have changed the order in which you directed the propositions to Colonel Innes and Mr. Henry to stand. The fact is, we have as yet had no opportunity of acting with respect to the first gentleman, nor do we know when we shall. This was likely to suspend operations longer than the nature and importance of the objects admitted, even had we supposed you particularly attached to the order directed; this consideration, together with the observations made in regard to Mr. Henry, appeared naturally to dictate the course we have taken. Should Colonel Innes arrive before the return of the express, General Marshall will hold his preliminary conversations, as preparatory to a proposition, in case of a refusal in the other instance.”—Richmond, October 13th.

[1 ]Mr. Henry declined the offer. His opinions may be inferred from the following extract from Mr. Carrington’s letter, which accompanied Mr. Henry’s answer. “It gives us pleasure to find that, although Mr. Henry is rather to be understood as probably not an approver of the treaty, his conduct and sentiments generally, both as to the government and yourself, are such as we calculated on, and that he received your letter with impressions, which assure us of his discountenancing calumny and disorder of every description.”—Richmond, October 20th. Henry’s reply is printed in Henry, Life, Correspondence, and Speeches of Patrick Henry, ii., 558.

“The offer of the Secretaryship of State to P. Henry is a circumstance which I should not have believed, without the most unquestionable testimony. Col. Coles tells me Mr. Henry read the letter to him on that subject.”—Madison to Jefferson, 6 December, 1795.

[1 ]At this time, Mr. Pickering, though Secretary of War, discharged the duties also of Secretary of State. The letters above referred to related to Mr. Pinckney’s negotiations in Spain. “Mr. Pinckney had obtained,” said he, “two interviews with the Duke de Alcudia, but to no purpose. That court appears to be playing the old game of delay. The Duke said he could not negotiate until he received from Mr. Jaudenes the answers of this government to the propositions he was directed to make. Mr. Pinckney assured the Duke, that no such propositions had been made. A number of passages are in a cipher, which Mr. Taylor could find no key to explain.”—October 2d.

[1 ]“A letter from Mr. Simpson,” said Mr. Pickering, “promises well for the treaty he is negotiating with the Emperor of Morocco. The military presents were delivered in the presence of an army of ten thousand men, and were well received.”

[2 ]Mr. Randolph’s note to the editor of the Philadelphia Gazette was as follows. “Sir, the letter, from which the enclosed is an extract, relates principally to the requisition of a particular paper. My only view at present is to show my fellow citizens what is the state of my vindication.”—October 10th.

Extract—“You must be sensible, Sir, that I am inevitably driven to the discussion of many confidential and delicate points. I could with safety immediately appeal to the people of the United States, who can be of no party. But I shall wait for your answer to this letter, so far as it respects the paper desired, before I forward to you my general letter, which is delayed for no other cause. I shall also rely, that any supposed error in the general letter, in regard to facts, will be made known to me, that I may correct it if necessary; and that you will consent to the whole of the affair, howsoever confidential and delicate, being exhibited to the world. At the same time I prescribe to myself the condition not to mingle any thing, which I do not sincerely conceive to belong to the subject.”—Randolph to Washington, 8 October, 1795.

The delay of Mr. Randolph’s letter in coming to the President’s hands was occasioned by its passing the latter on his way from Mount Vernon to Philadelphia, where he arrived on the 20th. But the extract was sent to the printer on the 10th, two days after the letter was written, and before it could, in any event, have reached the President.—Sparks.

[1 ]Sentences enclosed in brackets were suggested by Pickering.

[1 ]Pickering’s suggestions.

[2 ]The following was a sentence of the draft, but omitted in the letter as sent: “I am induced to make this request inasmuch as the extract above alluded to appears to me to have a manifest tendency to impress on the public mind an opinion that something misterious has passed between us which you reluctantly bring forward whilst others are kept back.”

[1 ]Memorandum attached to this letter, as recorded in the letter-book. “The following is the rough draft of a letter to Edmund Randolph, but, upon reconsideration, it was not sent.”

[1 ]The paper referred to was Washington’s letter to Randolph of July 22d. On applying at the Department of State for a sight of it Randolph was denied by Pickering on the ground that it could have no relation to the intercepted despatch of Fauchet; “and Mr. Randolph perfectly well knows that his resignation was occasioned solely by the evidence of his criminal conduct exhibited in Mr. Fauchet’s letter. The inspection of the President’s letter then cannot be necessary for Mr. Randolph’s vindication.”

In December a pamphlet was published, entitled A Vindication of Mr. Randolph’s Resignation. In this pamphlet are contained a narrative of the principal events relating to the case, the correspondence between the President and Mr. Randolph, the whole of Fauchet’s letter, and Mr. Randolph’s remarks upon the parts touching his conduct. Some parts of the pamphlet show a bitterness of feeling, and a warmth of temper, which weaken the force of the author’s statements, and render it at least doubtful in the reader’s mind whether candor in every instance prevailed over resentment.

“As the asperity,” says Chief Justice Marshall, “with which Mr. Randolph spoke of the President on other occasions as well as in his ‘Vindication,’ was censured by many, it may rescue the reputation of that gentleman from imputations, which might be injurious to it, to say, that, some time before his death, he had the magnanimity to acknowledge the injustice of those imputations. A letter to the Honorable Bushrod Washington, of July 2d, 1810, a copy of which was transmitted by Mr. Randolph to the author, contains the following declarations among others of similar import. ‘I do not retain the smallest degree of that feeling, which roused me fifteen years ago against some individuals. For the world contains no treasure, deception, or charm, which can seduce me from the consolation of being in a state of good-will towards all manklnd; and I should not be mortified to ask pardon of any man with whom I have been at variance for any injury, which I may have done him. If I could now present myself before your venerated uncle, it would be my pride to confess my contrition, that I suffered my irritation, let the cause be what it might, to use some of those expressions respecting him, which, at this moment of my indifference to the ideas of the world, I wish to recall, as being inconsistent with my subsequent conviction. My life will I hope be sufficiently extended for the recording of my sincere opinion of his virtues and merit, in a style which is not the result of a mind merely debilitated by misfortune, but of that Christian philosophy, on which alone I depend for inward tranquillity.’ ”—Marshall’s Life of Washington, 2d edition, vol. ii., note.

[1 ]King declined. “Circumstances of the moment conspire with the disgust which a virtuous and independent mind feels at placing itself en but to the foul and venomous shafts of calumny which are continually shot by an odious confederacy against virtue, to give Mr. King a decided disinclination to the office.”—Hamilton to Washington, 5 November, 1795.

[2 ]Richard Potts. “We both think well of his principles and consider him as a man of good sense. But he is of a cast of character ill-suited to such an appointment, and is not extensive either as to talents or information. It is also a serious question whether the Senate at this time ought to be weakened.”—Hamilton’s Reply.

[1 ]“Either Mr. Dexter or Mr. Gore would answer [for Attorney General]. They are both men of undoubted probity. Mr. Dexter has most natural talent, and is strong in his particular profession. Mr. Gore, I believe, is equally considered in his profession, and has more various information. No good man doubts Mr. Gore’s purity, but he has made money by agencies for British houses in the recovery of debts, etc., and by operations in the funds, which a certain party object to him. I believe Mr. Dexter is free from everything of this kind. Mr. King thinks Gore on the whole preferable. I hesitate between them.”—Hamilton’s Reply.

[2 ]“Smith, though not of full size, is very respectable for talent, and has pretty various information. I think he has more real talent than the last incumbent of the office [Randolph]. But there are strong objections to his appointment. I fear he is of an uncomfortable temper. He is popular with no description of men, from a certain hardness of character; and he, more than most other men, is considered as tinctured with prejudices towards the British.”—Hamilton’s Reply.

[1 ]Samuel Chase, when in Congress, had speculated upon the necessities of the Continental army, using the information of its needs he acquired as a member of Congress for his own pecuniary advantage. It is not a little remarkable that it was Hamilton who had publicly exposed this abuse, for the Publius letters of 1778 were written against Chase, and were instrumental in having him dropped from the Maryland delegation in Congress. In his reply Hamilton took no notice of this suggestion of Chase’s appointment.

[1 ]On the 18th of November.

[1 ]The Declaration of the General Assembly of Maryland, referred to in this letter, was expressed in the following language, and was unanimously adopted by the House of Delegates and the Senate:—

“Resolved unanimously, that the General Assembly of Maryland, impressed with the liveliest sense of the important and disinterested services rendered to his country by the President of the United States; convinced that the prosperity of every free government is promoted by the existence of rational confidence between the people and their trustees, and is injured by misplaced suspicion and ill-founded jealousy; considering that public virtue receives its best reward in the approving voice of a grateful people, and that, when this reward is denied to it, the noblest incentive to great and honorable actions, to generous zeal and magnanimous perseverance, is destroyed; observing, with deep concern, a series of efforts, by indirect insinuation, or open invective, to detach from the first magistrate of the Union the well-earned confidence of his fellow citizens; think it their duty to declare, and they do hereby declare, their unabated reliance on the integrity, judgment, and patriotism of the President of the United States.”

This Declaration was brought forward in the House of Delegates by William Pinckney. Mr. McHenry, in a letter giving an account of the matter to the President, wrote: “Mr. Pinckney, a man of real talents and genius, and a fascinating speaker, took charge of the Declaration. He originated it in the House, and supported it beautifully and irresistibly. His influence and conduct on the occasion overawed some restless spirits, and reached even into the Senate.”—Annapolis, December 5th.

[1 ]This speech was written by Hamilton.

[1 ]“I have read with care Mr. Randolph’s pamphlet. It does not surprise me. I consider it as amounting to a confession of guilt; and I am persuaded this will be the universal opinion. His attempts against you are viewed by all whom I have seen, as base. They will certainly fail of their aim, and will do good, rather than harm, to the public cause and to yourself. It appears to me that, by you, no notice can be, or ought to be, taken of the publication. It contains its own antidote.”—Hamilton to Washington, 24 December, 1795.

[1 ]On the 14th of December, Mr. Jay wrote as follows to President Washington: “I have lately received much intelligence from several quarters. Some allowances are to be made for zeal; but all my accounts agree in representing the public mind as becoming more and more composed, and that certain virulent publications have caused great and general indignation, even among many who had been misled into intemperate proceedings, and had given too much countenance to factious leaders. The latter, however, persevere with great activity, though with less noise and clamor. These are political evils, which in all ages have grown out of such a state of things, as naturally as certain physical combinations produce whirlwinds and meteors.”

[1 ]In continuation of page 24.

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1795. - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. XIII (1794-1798) [1892]

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1795.

TO DANIEL CARROLL.

Dear Sir,

TO TOBIAS LEAR.

My dear Sir,

TO ELEANOR PARKE CUSTIS.

TO EDMUND PENDLETON.

Dear Sir,

TO THE COMMISSIONERS OF THE FEDERAL DISTRICT.

Gentlemen,

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

Dear Sir,

TO ROBERT LEWIS.

Dear Sir:

TO JOSEPH CERACCHI.1

Sir:

TO CHARLES CARTER.

Dear Sir,

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Dear Sir,

TO ROBERT BROOKE, GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA.

Sir,

TO MAJOR-GENERAL DANIEL MORGAN.

Dear Sir,

TO ALEXANDER WHITE. [PRIVATE.]

Dear Sir:

TO SECRETARIES OF STATE, TREASURY, AND WAR, AND THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL.1

Sir,

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON. [PRIVATE AND PERFECTLY CONFIDENTIAL.]

My dear Sir,

I am, Your Affectc. friend &c

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON. [PRIVATE.]

My dear Sir,

With much truth and sincerity I am always your affectionate &c.

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

My dear Sir,

Very affectionately &c.

Yours as before.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH, SECRETARY OF STATE.

Dear Sir,

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH, SECRETARY OF STATE.

Dear Sir,

TO TIMOTHY PICKERING, SECRETARY OF WAR.

Dear Sir,

TO EZEKIEL PRICE, THOMAS WALLEY, WILLIAM BOARDMAN, EBENEZER SEAVER, THOMAS CRAFTS, THOMAS EDWARDS, WILLIAM LITTLE, WILLIAM SCOLLAY, AND JESSE PUTNAM, SELECTMEN OF THE TOWN OF BOSTON.

Gentlemen,

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON. [PRIVATE.]

My dear Sir,

With sincere esteem & regard I am, your Affecte.1

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH, SECRETARY OF STATE. [PRIVATE.]

My dear Sir,

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH, SECRETARY OF STATE. [PRIVATE.]

My dear Sir,

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH, SECRETARY OF STATE.

Dear Sir,

TO OLIVER WOLCOTT, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Sir,

I am, &c.

TO JOHN ADAMS, VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Dear Sir,

TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

Dear Sir,

TO ALEXANDER WHITE.

[PRIVATE.]

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

[PRIVATE AND PERFECTLY CONFIDENTIAL.]

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

[PRIVATE.]

With much truth and sincerity
I am always your affectionate &c.

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

[PRIVATE.]

With sincere esteem & regard
I am, your Affecte.1

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH, SECRETARY OF STATE.

[PRIVATE.]

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH, SECRETARY OF STATE.

[PRIVATE.]

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

[PRIVATE.]

TO JOHN JAY.

[PRIVATE.]

TO GEORGE CABOT.

[PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL.]

TO TIMOTHY PICKERING, SECRETARY OF WAR.

[PRIVATE.]

TO TIMOTHY PICKERING, SECRETARY OF WAR.

[PRIVATE.]

TO OLIVER WOLCOTT, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.

[PRIVATE.]

TO EDWARD CARRINGTON.

[PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL.]

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

[PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL.]

With much sincerity and truth
I am always and affect’ly Yours.