31To James Madison from George Washington, 12 May 1789 (Madison Papers)
To draw such a line for the conduct of the President as will please every body, I know is impossible; but to mark out and follow one (which by being consonant with reason) will meet general approbation, may be as practicable as it is desireable. The true medium I conceive must lye in pursuing such a course as will allow him time for all the official duties of his station. This should be the...
32From George Washington to William Fitzhugh, 14 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 26th of April was handed to me but a few days ago. Your congratulations and the good wishes of yourself, Mrs Fitzhugh & your family deserve, & receive my warmest acknowledgments. Amidst the numerous applications which are made for offices I shall leave no means in my power untried to gain such information & knowledge of Character & pretensions as will enable me to nominate...
33From George Washington to William Heth, 14 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
I have duly received your favor of the 3 inst. dated at Mount Vernon. I am much pleased with the arrangement you have made for Mrs Washington’s coming on here with stage horses—and must beg you to accept of my best thanks for your attention and trouble in this business. The previous settlement of the price with the proprietors of the horses was a very prudent and a very necessary step—and I...
34From George Washington to Joseph Jones, 14 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 21st Ulto came duly to hand, and should have received an earlier acknowledgement had not the new and busy scenes in which I have been engaged since my arrival in this place, rendered it impossible for me to pay that early attention to the favors of my friends which I should be pleased to do. The numerous and friendly congratulations which I have received from respectable...
35From George Washington to George Plater, 14 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
I have received your letter of the 29th of April, and must beg you to accept of my best thanks for your kind gratulations and good wishes. I foresaw the numerous applications which would be made for nominations to offices—and readily conceived that amidst the variety of candidates, it would be one of the most delicate and difficult duties of the President, to discriminate those characters...
36From George Washington to Beverley Randolph, 16 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
A letter of the 4th instant from Lt Governor Wood has been received with its inclosures, containing the information of some murders committed by the Indians on the 23d of last month at Dunkard creek which runs into the Monongahala River. It is with concern that I learn this circumstance, as a treaty has been lately concluded by the Governor of the western territory with the Wiandot, Delawar,...
37From George Washington to James Madison, 17 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
Mr Madison having been so obliging as to draw the answer to the address of the House of Representatives—G.W. would thank him for doing the same to that of the Senate. If he receives it any time this day or tomorrow morning it will be sufficient. AL , DLC : Madison Papers. The date of this document is conjectural. Madison docketed the letter—apparently some years after the fact—“G. Washington...
38To James Madison from George Washington, [17 May] 1789 (Madison Papers)
Mr. Madison having been so obliging as to draw the answer to the Address of the House of Representatives—GW. would thank him for doing the same to that of the Senate. If he receives it any time this day or tomorrow morning it will be sufficient. RC ( DLC ); Tr ( MH ). Late in life JM docketed the RC : “G. Washington without date—(perhaps 1789,) 90 or 91.” Fitzpatrick ( Writings of Washington ,...
39From George Washington to Clement Biddle, 18 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
Mrs Washington proposing to leave Mount Vernon as this day, will, I expect, be in Philadelphia on Thursday; and as she proposes to lodge at Mr Morris’s I would be obliged to you for having the enclosed letter for her lodged there against her arrival as she may find it necessary to write to me by Fridays Post. I am Dr Sir Yr most obedt Servt ALS , PWacD . Letter not found. Mrs. Washington...
40From George Washington to the United States Senate, 18 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
I thank you for your Address, in which the most affectionate sentiments are expressed in the most obliging terms. The coincidence of circumstances which led to this auspicious Crisis, the confidence reposed in me by my Fellow-citizens, and the assistance I may expect from counsels which will be dictated by an enlarged and liberal policy, seem to presage a more prosperous issue to my...
41Reply of the President to the Senate, [18 May] 1789 (Madison Papers)
I thank you for your Address, in which the most affectionate sentiments are expressed in the most obliging terms. The coincidence of circumstances which led to this auspicious Crisis, the confidence reposed in me by my Fellow-citizens, and the assistance I may expect from counsels which will be dictated by an enlarged and liberal policy, seem to presage a more prosperous issue to my...
42From George Washington to Mathew Carey, 21 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
However desireous I am to encourage or promote useful publications, it is not in my power to comply with the request made in your letter of the 21st ulto—to select from my papers such documents of interesting circumstances, skirmishes & battles of the Revolution, as would enable you to prosecute the design which you have begun of publishing in the American Museum a series of documents and...
43From George Washington to Christian Theodor Sigismund von Molitor and Georg Hermann Vulteius, 21 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 18th Inst, setting forth your distressed condition, and requesting some pecuniary assistance, has been put into my hands. The distresses of my fellow creatures are never known to me without giving pain, to whatever nation or Country they belong; and happy should I be could I releive the wants & necessities of every one—but, Gentlemen, that is out of my power—and there are...
44From George Washington to Mary Wooster, 21 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
I have duly received your affecting letter, dated the 8th day of this Month. Sympathysing with you, as I do, in the great misfortunes which have befallen your family in consequence of the war; my feelings, as an individual, would forcibly prompt me to do every thing in my power to repair those misfortunes. But as a public man, acting only with a reference to the public good, I must be allowed...
45From George Washington to Mathew Carey, 22 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
In addition to what I wrote to you formerly on the subject of a loan, I now inform you (and desire that this letter which conveys the information, may be destroyed as soon as read) that my utmost exertions were ineffectually used to borrow a sum of money (even at a high interest, and for me, disadvantageous terms) to comply with contracts of my own, before I left Virginia. Having made this...
46From George Washington to James Warren, 23 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
I have duly received your very friendly letter of the 2d inst. and beg you to accept of my sincere acknowledgment and best thanks for the kind congratulations and good wishes which were contained in it. It affords me peculiar satisfaction to see the union of sentiment which seems to prevail in favor of our new system of Government. I find that the good and respectable characters from every...
47From George Washington to Warner Lewis, 24 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
Your favor of the 9th instant, enclosing a duplicate of the letter you were so obliging as to write to me on the 11th of March came duly to hand, and I sincerely thank you for the attention you have bestowed on the matter I took the liberty of troubling you with. I thought I had acknowledged the receipt of the last mentioned letter before I left Mount Vernon, but suppose from the multitude of...
48From George Washington to Moustier, 25 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
What circumstances there may be existing between our two nations, to which you allude on account of their peculiarity, I know not. But as those nations are happily connected in the strictest ties of Amity, not less by inclination & interest, than by the solemnity of a Treaty; and as the United States are too remote from Europe to take any share in the local politics of that Continent; I had...
49From George Washington to the United States Senate, 25 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
In pursuance of the order of the late Congress, Treaties between the United States, and several nations of Indians, have been negociated and signed. These Treaties, with sundry papers respecting them, I now lay before you, for your consideration and advice, by the hands of General Knox, under whose official superintendence the business was transacted, and who will be ready to communicate to...
50From George Washington to John Gabriel Gebhard, 26 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
I have received your letter of the 18th inst: and thank you very sincerely for your good wishes & favourable sentiments, as well as for the polite offer which you make of rendering me any service in your power while you may be in Europe. So far as relates to me personally I know of nothing, at present, that I wish to have transacted in that part of the world; and as to the offer of your...
51From George Washington to Mathew Carey, 29 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
In the course of my whole existence, I never have before been made the subject of such extraordinary conduct as that which I have been obliged to suffer by your sending to me unsealed, through a public conveyance, my letter of the 22nd and yours of the 27th of this month. After the candid, and my heart witnessed for me not unfriendly part I had always acted towards you, I hoped, for the credit...
52From George Washington to the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 29 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
I return to you individually, and (through you) to your Society collectively in the United States my thanks for the demonstrations of affections, and the expressions of joy, offered in their behalf, on my late appointment. It shall still be my endeavor to manifest, by overt acts, the purity of my inclinations for promoting the happiness of mankind, as well as the sincerity of my desires to...
53From George Washington to George Walton, 29 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
I have received by Colonel Gunn your honors letters of the 11th and 15th of March, and the enclosures therein contained respecting the conduct of Joseph Martin Esqr. late agent of the United States to the Cherokee and Chickasaw nations of Indians. It appears by the Resolve of Congress of the 19th of June 1788 that the said Joseph Martin was appointed an agent for the Cherokee nation of Indians...
54From George Washington to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, 30 May-5 June 1789 (Washington Papers)
I receive with great sensibility the testimonial, given by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, of the live and unfeigned pleasure experienced by them on my appointment to the first office in the nation. Although it will be my endeavor to avoid being elated by the too favorable opinion which your kindness for me may have induced you to express of the...
55From George Washington to John Campbell, 31 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
I have received your very polite letter of the 18th —and the obliging manner in which you have consented to dispose of your favorite horse to me deserves my warmest acknowledgments and best thanks. I am perfectly satisfied with the price (of thirty five guineas) and shall forward the money to you by Mr William Hunter junior of Alexandria, who says he shall set off for that place tomorrow. The...
56From George Washington to Lambert, 31 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
I have received your letter of the 26th —and must inform you, that however desireous I may be to releive the wants of those who have served this country in a military or civil line—Yet the multiplicity of these applications would put it beyond the reach of my private fortune to gratify them—and as I receive no emoluments for my public services—and the expences which I have necessarily incurred...
57From George Washington to Robert R. Livingston, 31 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
The new and busy scenes in which I have been constantly engaged since my arrival in this place, and which will not allow me to pay that pointed attention to the favors of my friends that my inclination would lead me to do, will, I trust apologize for this late acknowledgment of your letter of the 15th instant. To you, Sir, and others who know me, I believe it is unnecessary for me to say, that...
58From George Washington to James Madison, 31 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
As far as a momentary consideration has enabled me to judge, I see nothing exceptionable in the proposed amendments. Some of them, in my opinion, are importantly necessary; others, though of themselves (in my conception) not very essential, are necessary to quiet the fears of some respectable characters and well meaning men. Upon the whole, therefore, not foreseeing any evil consequences that...
59From George Washington to Gabriel Peterson Van Horne, 31 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
The particular care which you have taken in furnishing horses to bring Mrs Washington from Virginia to this place—and more especially the very polite attention which you were so good as to pay her personally through the most dangerous and difficult part of the journey, has made a grateful impression upon her—and she desires you will please to accept of her warmest acknowledgments and best...
60To James Madison from George Washington, [ca. 31 May] 1789 (Madison Papers)
… As far as a momentary consideration has enabled me to judge, I see nothing exceptionable in the proposed amendments. Some of them, in my opinion, are importantly necessary, others, though in themselves (in my conception) not very essential, are necessary to quiet the fears of some respectable characters and well meaning Men. Upon the whole, therefore, not foreseeing any evil consequences...