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

TO JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. - 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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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 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

Philadelphia, 12 September, 1796.

Dear Sir,

To open a correspondence with you on so trifling a subject, as that which gives birth to this letter, would hardly be justified, were it not for the singularity of the case. This singularity will, I hope, apologize for the act.

Some time ago, perhaps two or three months, I read in some gazette, but was so little impressed with it at the time (conceiving it to be one of those things, which get into newspapers nobody knows how or why), that I cannot now recollect whether the gazette was of American or foreign production, announcing, that a celebrated artist had presented, or was about to present, to the President of the United States a sword of masterly workmanship, as an evidence of his veneration, &c.

I thought no more of the matter afterwards, until a gentleman with whom I have no acquaintance, coming from and going to I know not where, at a tavern I never could get information of, came across this sword (for it is presumed to be the same), pawned for thirty dollars, which he paid, left it in Alexandria, nine miles from my house in Virginia, with a person who refunded him the money, and sent the sword to me.

This is all I have been able to learn of this curious affair. The blade is highly wrought, and decorated with many military emblems. It has my name engraved thereon, and the following inscription, translated from the Dutch, “Condemner of despotism, Preserver of Liberty, glorious Man, take from my Son’s hands this Sword, I beg you. A. Sollingen.” The hilt is either gold, or richly plated with that metal, and the whole carries with it the form of an horseman’s sword or long sabre.

The matter, as far as it appears at present, is a perfect enigma. How it should have come into this country without a letter, or an accompanying message, how afterwards it should have got into such loose hands, and whither the person having it in possession was steering his course, remain as yet to be explained. Some of them, probably, can only be explained by the maker, and the maker is no otherwise to be discovered than by the inscription and name, “A. Sollingen,” who, from the impression which dwells on my mind, is of Amsterdam.

If, Sir, with this clew you can develope the history of this sword, the value of it, the character of the maker, and his probable object in sending it, it would oblige me; and, by relating these facts to him, might obviate doubts, which otherwise might be entertained by him of its fate or its reception. With great esteem and regard, I am, dear Sir, &c.1

[1 ]When Mr. Adams received this letter he was at the Hague, as minister from the United States in Holland. Meanwhile General Washington obtained intelligence of the word from a letter written to him by the manufacturer, whose name was Theophilus Alt, and who resided at Sollingen, near Dusseldorf.

It seems that, in the year 1795, a son of Mr. Alt had come to America; and his father sent by him a sword of curious workmanship, made at his own manufactory, and inscribed as above, directing him to present it to the President, as “the only man, whom he knew of, that had acted in a disinterested manner for the happiness of his country.” The son arrived in Philadelphia; and, not understanding the language, either through timidity, or for some other cause not known, he did not call on the President with the sword, but sold it at a tavern, and went away without giving notice of the place at which he might be found. More than a year afterwards the father wrote a letter to Washington inquiring about him. The sword is now in the possession of Miss Alice L. Riggs, of Washington, D. C.