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

TO JOHN H. STONE, GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND. - 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 H. STONE, GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND.

Philadelphia, 23 December, 1796.

Dear Sir,

Yesterday I received your letter of the 16th instant, covering the resolutions of the Senate and House of Delegates of the State of Maryland, passed on the 13th and 14th. The very obliging and friendly terms, in which you have made this communication, merit my sincere thanks.1

The manner, in which the two branches of the legislature of Maryland have expressed their sense of my services, is too honorable and too affectionate ever to be forgotten. Without assigning to my exertions the extensive influence they are pleased to ascribe to them, I may with great truth say, that the exercise of every faculty I possessed was joined to the efforts of the virtue, talents, and valor of my fellow-citizens to effect our independence; and I concur with the legislature in repeating with pride and joy, what will be an everlasting honor to our country, that our revolution was so distinguished for moderation, virtue, and humanity, as to merit the eulogium they have pronounced, of being unsullied with a crime.

With the same entire devotion to my country, every act of my civil administration has been aimed to secure to it the advantages, which result from a stable and free government; and, with gratitude to Heaven, I unite to the legislature of Maryland in the pleasing reflection, that our country has continued to feel the blessings of peace, liberty, and prosperity, whilst Europe and the Indies have been convulsed with the horrors of a dreadful and desolating war. My ardent prayers are offered, that those afflicted regions may now speedily see their calamities terminated, and also feel the blessings of returning peace.

I cannot omit my acknowledgements to the Senate and House of Delegates for the manner in which they have noticed my late Address to my fellow-citizens. This notice, with similar acts in other States, leads me to hope that the advice, which therein I took the liberty to offer as the result of much experience and reflection, may produce some good.

Their kind wishes for my domestic happiness, in my contemplated retirement, are entitled to my cordial thanks.

If it shall please God to prolong a life already far advanced into the vale of years, no attending felicity can equal that, which I shall feel in seeing the administration of our government operating to preserve the independence, prosperity, and welfare of the American people. With great respect and consideration, I am, dear Sir, &c.

1797.

[1 ]Resolutions had been unanimously adopted by the legislature of Maryland, approving in the highest terms the public services of the President, and particularly the sentiments advanced by him in the Farewell Address. It was “resolved, that, to perpetuate this valuable present in the most striking view to posterity, it be printed and published with the laws of this session, as an evidence of our approbation of its political axioms, and a small testimony of the affection we bear to the precepts of him, to whom, under Divine Providence, we are principally indebted for our greatest political blessings.”