Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow TO ALEXANDER WHITE. - 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 ALEXANDER WHITE. - 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 ALEXANDER WHITE.

Mount Vernon, 25 March, 1798.

Dear Sir,

Your favors of the 10th and 14th Inst. have been duly received, and for the information contained therein I feel grateful.—Rarely going from home I have nothing in the way of news to offer you in return.—

It has always been my opinion, and so I have expressed it, that the proprietors of the City of Washington (with some exceptions) are by their jealousies and the modes they pursue to promote their local Interests, amongst its worst enemies.—But if your present exertion to obtain a loan from Congress should succeed, of which the prospect seems good, all doubts respecting the intentions of that body towards the permanent establishment of the Government, at that place will be removed;—confidence will take place in every mind; and the Public buildings will be accompanied by private ones for the accommodation of its members.—My wishes and my labors have always tended to the accomplishment of these points; the first is all I have left to offer, and these shall be fervent.—The principle which operated for fixing the site for the two principal buildings, were understood and found necessary at the time to obtain the primary object, i.e., the ground and means for either purpose.—But it is always easy from an ignorant or partial view of a measure, to distort and place it in an unfavorable attitude. Nothing short of insanity can remove Congress from the building intended for its sittings to any other part of the city in the present progress of the work.—Where or how the houses for the President and other public officers may be fixed is to me as an individual a matter of moonshine; but the reverse of the President’s reason for placing the latter near the Capitol was my motive for fixing them by the former. The daily intercourse which the Secretaries of the Departments must have with the President, would render a distant situation extremely inconvenient to them; and not much less so would one be close to the Capitol; for it was the universal complaint of them all, that while the Legislature was in Session, they cou’d do little or no business;—so much were they interrupted by the individual visits of members (in office hours) and by calls for papers.—Many of them have declared to me that they have been obliged often to go home and deny themselves in order to transact the current business.—

No person will congratulate you more sincerely than I shall on the final success of your mission if it answers your expectations; nor is there any one who reprobates more than I do improper interferences of all sorts. As your perseverance however is likely to be accepted, and as this will open a view which promises a pleasing prospect, I hope you will suffer no difficulties or differences, to divert you from your course, and that you will not give out the business until you see the Legislature seated in the Capitol of the United States.

The last message from the President to the Houses of Congress has brought the matter to an issue.—