Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow TO TIMOTHY PICKERING, SECRETARY OF WAR. [PRIVATE.] - The Writings of George Washington, vol. XIII (1794-1798)

Return to Title Page for The Writings of George Washington, vol. XIII (1794-1798)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

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

TO TIMOTHY PICKERING, SECRETARY OF WAR. [PRIVATE.] - 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.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


TO 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.

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