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

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

Edition used:

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

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

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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. * * *