The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Note.
• The Writings of George Washington.
• 1798.
• To James Anderson.
• To Alexander Hamilton.
• To Jeremy Belknap.
• To John Adams, President of the United States.
• To James Lloyd.
• To James Lloyd.
• To John Adams, President of the United States.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War.
• To Sir John Sinclair.
• To Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State.
• To John Adams, President of the United States.
• To Alexander Hamilton. [private and Confidential.]
• To Henry Knox.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War.
• To James Anderson.
• To James Mchenry. [private.]
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War.
• To Henry Knox.
• To Alexander Hamilton.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War. [private and Confidential.]
• To William Vans Murray.
• To Jonathan Boucher.
• To Bushrod Washington.
• To — Mcdowell. 1
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War.
• To Alexander Spotswood.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War. [private and Confidential.]
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War. [private and Confidential.]
• To John Adams, President of the United States.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War.
• To James Mchenry.
• To Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State.
• To Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State.
• To Henry Knox.
• To James Mchenry. [private and Confidential.]
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War.
• To G. W. Snyder. 1
• To Timothy Pickering, Secretary of War.
• To Alexander Spotswood.
• To General Lafayette.
• To William Vans Murray. 1
• To David Stuart.
• To Bushrod Washington.
• 1799.
• To Patrick Henry. [confidential]
• To Bryan, Lord Fairfax.
• To James Washington.
• To David Stuart.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War. [private].
• To Timothy Pickering.
• To Alexander Hamilton, Major General. [private.]
• To Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State. [confidential.]
• To John Adams, President of the United States.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War.
• To Charles C. Pinckney, Major-general.
• To James Welch.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War. [private.]
• To John Marshall.
• To Alexander Hamilton, Major-general.
• To Archibald Blair. 2
• To John Trumbull.
• To Governor Jonathan Trumbull.
• To James Mchenry.
• To Robert Lewis.
• To Governor Jonathan Trumbull.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War. [private.]
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War.
• To Alexander Hamilton, Major-general.
• To Lawrence Lewis.
• To Burges Ball.
• To William Vans Murray.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War. [private.]
• To James Anderson.
• River Farm
• To Alexander Hamilton.
• Extract From a Diary.
• Last Illness and Death. 1
• Particular Account of the Late Illness and Death of George Washington.
• Tobias Lear to William Augustine Washington.
• Tobias Lear to Col. Burges Ball.
• In Congress.
• Mrs. Washington to President Adams.
• Mrs. Washington to Governor Trumbull.
• The Will of George Washington. 1
• Appendix.
• To Lund Washington.
• The Washington Family.
• Washington’s Aides-de-camp.

TO JAMES WELCH.

Mount Vernon, 7 April, 1799.

Sir:

I have received your letters of the 10th of March from Rockingham County, and although I have no expectation of deriving any payment from your Kentucky Expedition, yet, I will (inconvenient as it is to me) wait a while longer to know the result of it; desiring you to be persuaded in the mean time, that you have not got a person now, that will be trifled with in your dealings.

It would be uncandid, Mr. Welch, not to inform you, that I have heard too much of your character lately not to expect tale after tale, and relation after relation, of your numerous disappointments, by way of excuses for the non compliance of your agreement with me;—but this I can assure you will not answer your purposes.

It is not difficult for a person who has no ground on which to expect a thousand cents, to talk with facility and ease of his expectation of receiving ten times as many dollars—the relation of disappointments in which, according to his account, he conceives is quite sufficient to ward off the payment of his own solemn contracts, and to satisfy his Creditors.

I am not unacquainted, Sir, with your repeated declarations of your having purchased my Lands on the Great Kanahwa and endeavoring by that means, and such like impositions, and misrepresentations, to abtain extensive credit where you were not known.—Letters, to enquire into the truth of these things, have been written to me on the subject. Be cautious therefore how you provoke explanations that must inevitably end in your disgrace and entire loss of character.—A character is valuable to all men, and not less so to a Speculator.

I will before I conclude, assure you in the most unequivocal terms of two things.

First, that I am in extreme want of the money which you gave me a solemn promise I should receive the first of January last; and secondly—that however you may have succeeded in imposing upon, and deceiving others, you shall not practice the like game with me with impunity.

To contract new Debts is not the way to pay old ones.—nor is it a proof that you have any disposition to do it, when you are proposing to buy lands, &c. &c. on credit (or partial advances) which can answer no other purpose than that of speculation—or (if you have them) of withholding the means which ought to be applied in the discharge of engagements & debts, proceeding therefrom, which you are bound by every tie to do.

Consider this letter well;—and then write without any deception to, Sir.