Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow TO JAMES ANDERSON. - 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 JAMES ANDERSON. - 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 JAMES ANDERSON.

City ofWashington, 18 August, 1796.

Mr. Anderson,

In passing through Alexandria yesterday, on my way to Philadelphia, I saw Colo. Fitzgerald, who informed me of a letter he had received from you in consequence of one which Doctr. Stuart had written to his relation, Mr. Fitzhugh of Stafford.—It might have promoted both our views, if you had come immediately to my house upon the receipt of that letter as more satisfaction would have resulted from the conversation of an hour or two, than from all the letters that can be written on this subject.

As this however was not the case and as I shall not be at Mount Vernon again until the latter end of next month, and consequently cannot see you sooner; I will be candid and explicit in what I am going to say to you; from whence, and your answer, some opinion may be formed of the probability of our mutual expectations being answered.—

Mr. Pearce who at present looks after my business, is a person with whose management I am very well pleased.—He is a man of property, of great integrity; very great industry; and much experience in the superintendence of a large concern, having been the manager for a Gentn. on the E[astern Shore] fifteen or 18 years, before he came to me.

In consideration of these qualifications and on account of my being absent from home, when a confidential character was peculiarly necessary for my concerns, I agreed to give him, as an inducement to remove from the Eastern shore and on account of his established character as an experienced Manager—One hundred Guineas a year—although a hundred pounds (Virginia money currency) was the most I had ever given before. He superintends all my concerns which appertain to the Estate of Mount Vernon; consisting besides Tradesmen of four lay Farms and the Mansion house farm, the last of which (though not much is raised at it) is not the least troublesome part of his duty in [NA].

At and over each of these seperate farms and workmen there is as good an Overseer as has been in the power of the superintendent to procure, to reside constantly on their respective farms &c., and to obey his orders.

This, in general is the outline of the business—to detail the particular parts, would be tedious;—and to a man of experience would be unnecessary. I am altogether in the farming and meadowing line;—the last of which I have much grounds proper for and want to encrease them considerably.

I will now tell you frankly what kind of a person I must engage to conduct my business well.—Besides being sober and a man of integrity he must possess a great deal of activity and firmness, to make the under Overseers do their duty, strictly.—He must be a man of foresight and arrangement; to combine and carry matters on to advantage, and he must not have these things to learn after he comes to me.—He must be a farmer bred,—and understand it in all its part.—I would wish him too to understand grasing—and particularly the care and management of Stock.—How to Ditch—Hedge &ca—and how to conduct a Dairy.

Now let me request you to declare truly, whether from practice the matters here detailed are, or could soon be made familiar to you—designating those which you have a competent practical knowledge of, from those which you may be less perfect in.—A letter put into the Post Office at Fredericksburgh, directed to me in Philadelphia will be certain of arriving, safe, and may enable me to say something more decisive to you in my next, by way of reply to your answer to this letter.

I ought to have added, that the only cause of Mr. Pearce’s leaving my business, is an increasing Rheumatic affection, which he says will not allow him to discharge his duty as he conceives he ought; for which reason and thinking it the part of an honest man to retire.—He has, at one of my farms a good dwelling house, pleasantly situated; and every thing comfortably about him. I am, &c.