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

162: TO BENJAMIN LINCOLN - George Washington, George Washington: A Collection [1988]

Edition used:

George Washington: A Collection, compiled and edited by W.B. Allen (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1988).

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.


162

TO BENJAMIN LINCOLN

Mount Vernon, January 31, 1789

My dear Sir:

Antifederalist intriguesYour two letters of December 20th and January 4th are before me. I am much obliged to you for the intelligence contained in them: because it enabled me to contradict a report in circulation among the Antifederalists, that your State had made choice of only one Representative to Congress, that no more would probably be appointed and that every thing was in very great confusion. Though facts will ultimately become known; yet much mischief to the federal cause may be done, by suffering misrepresentation to pass unnoticed or unrefuted. Last winter the Antifederalists in Philadelphia published, that Connecticut had been surprised into an adoption of the Constitution, while a great majority of the freemen were opposed to it. Now it is certain, nothing can fix the stigma of falsehood upon that assertion better than the late respectable appointments in that State. Much the same thing has happened in Maryland. The Federal Ticket has been carried by a Majority of thousands. In the County which bears my name, there was not a dissenting vote.

By the best information I can obtain, federal sentiments are spreading perhaps, faster than ever in this Commonwealth. It is generally supposed that six, if not seven, of the Representatives from it to Congress, will be decided friends to the Constitution. I will only add, that, in Maryland and this State, it is probable Mr. John Adams will have a considerable number of the votes of the Electors. Some of those gentlemen will have been advised that this measure would be entirely agreeable to me, and that I considered it to be the only certain way to prevent the election of an Antifederalist. With sentiments of the greatest esteem &c.