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

TO THOMAS PINCKNEY. [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 THOMAS PINCKNEY.

[PRIVATE.]

Dear Sir:

To my letters of the 20th of February and 5th of March I beg leave to refer you for the disclosure of my sentiments on the subjects then mentioned to you. Very soon afterwards a long and animated discussion in the House of Representatives respecting the treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation with Great Britain, took place, and continued in one shape or another untill the last of April, suspending in a manner all other business, and agitating the public mind in a higher degree than it has been at any period since the revolution. And nothing, I believe, but the torrent of petitions and remonstrances, which were pouring in from all the eastern and middle States, and were beginning to come pretty strongly from that of Virginia, requiring the necessary provisions for carrying the treaty into effect, would have produced a division (fifty-one to forty-eight) in favor of the appropriation.

But as the debates, which I presume will be sent to you from the department of State, will give you a view of this business more in detail than I am able to do, I shall refer you to them. The enclosed speech, however, made by Mr. Ames at the close of the discussion, I send to you; because, in the opinion of most, who heard it delivered or have read it since, his reasoning is unanswerable.1

The doubtful issue of the dispute, and the real difficulty in finding a character to supply your place at the court of London, has occasioned a longer delay than may have been convenient or agreeable to you. But as Mr. King of the Senate, who it seems had resolved to quit his seat at that board, has accepted the appointment, and will embark as soon as matters can be arranged, you will soon be relieved.

In my letter of the 20th of February, I expressed in pretty strong terms my sensibility on account of the situation of the Marquis de Lafayette. This is increased by the visible distress of his son, who is now with me, and grieving for the unhappy fate of his parents. This circumstance, giving a poignancy to my own feelings, has induced me to go a step farther than I did in the letter above mentioned, as you will perceive by the enclosed address (a copy of which is also transmitted for your information) to the Emperor of Germany, to be forwarded by you in such a manner, and under such auspices, as in your judgment shall be deemed best; or to arrest it, if from the evidence before you, derived from former attempts, it shall appear clear that it would be of no avail to send it.

Before I close this letter, permit me to request the favor of you to embrace some favorable occasion to thank Lord Grenville in my behalf, for his politeness in causing a special permit to be sent to Liverpool for the shipment of two sacks of the field peas, and the like quantity of winter vetches, which I had requested our consul at that place to send me for seed, but which it seems could not be done without an order from government; a circumstance which did not occur to me, or I certainly should not have given it the trouble of issuing one for such a trifle. With very great esteem, I am, &c.

[1 ]This speech is printed in the Works of Fisher Ames.