52651To George Washington from Anonymous, 12 June 1794 (Washington Papers)
The genius and spirit of the constitution of the United States requires, not only that the government should be administered for the general good of the people, but that the mode of doing it, and the instruments employed in it, should be accomodated to the general Will. This general Will is properly declared by general suffrage so far as the choice of the administrators of the government is...
52652Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
GW suspected that British commander in chief Henry Clinton would immediately launch an offensive in the Hudson River region upon returning from South Carolina with part of his army. GW’s intelligence led him to believe that Clinton’s objective would be the strategically important post of West Point. When he learned that the British commander had returned to New York City, GW ordered the...
52653Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
Under the terms of the Residence Act, GW was directed to select the site for the permanent seat of the federal government on the Potomac and to appoint commissioners to superintend the planning of the Federal City and the construction of the necessary federal buildings. Before he arrived in Philadelphia on 27 Nov. 1790, GW apparently had decided on the location of the federal district and...
52654Enclosure: Newspaper Publication, 1779 (Washington Papers)
Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) —, 1779. > Some QUERIES, political and military, humbly offered to the consideration of the Public. The Maryland Journal, and Baltimore Advertiser, 6 July 1779. This anonymous attack on GW provoked an outcry, and William Goddard, publisher of The Maryland Journal, and Baltimore Advertiser, issued an apology in which he identified Charles Lee as the author of the...
52655Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
In the weeks after GW’s return from his journey to the French commandant, reports of further French infiltration into the Ohio Valley continued to reach Williamsburg and Gov. Robert Dinwiddie made preparations to resist. He appealed to other colonial governors for aid in repelling the French. DINWIDDIE R. Alonzo Brock, ed. The Official Records of Robert Dinwiddie, Lieutenant-Governor of the...
52656Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
Editorial Note David Humphreys wrote GW from France on 30 Sept. 1784 about the utility of having a biography of George Washington, particularly one written by GW himself. In early 1785 Humphreys began suggesting himself as a possible biographer, to which GW agreed ( Humphreys to GW, 15 Jan. 1785 , GW to Humphreys, 25 July 1785 ). Humphreys apparently started work on the biography when he...
52657Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
Congress’s presentation of “An Act for an apportionment of Representatives among the several States according to the first enumeration” to Washington for his approbation on 26 Mar. 1792 set the scene for the first presidential veto in U.S. history. Recognizing the controversial nature of the bill, which increased the U.S. House of Representatives to 120 members, gave the size of each state’s...
52658To George Washington from an unidentified person, 6 Aug. 1779 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found : from an unidentified person, 6 Aug. 1779. On 9 Aug., GW wrote an unidentified person: “I was favored with your letter of the 6th Inst. and its inclosure from Governor Trumbul.”
52659Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
In preparation for the writing of this letter, GW composed a list of topics which he wished to be covered in it. Those undated notes, which are printed here, apparently were then used by Joseph Reed to make a rough draft of the letter. Reed’s draft has not been found, but a draft written by him was reported to be in the possession of James Wilkinson in the early nineteenth century. The...
52660Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
[New York, 30 April 1789] By early 1789 GW reluctantly accepted the inevitability of his election as president, and as early as January he began consideration of the remarks to Congress that would serve as his first inaugural address. Evidently he requested David Humphreys, at this time in residence at Mount Vernon, to draft for him remarks that could be delivered to Congress in the event of...
52661Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
After GW in December 1769 secured from Governor Botetourt and the Virginia council authorization to survey, in no more than twenty parcels, 200,000 acres in the Ohio Valley for the officers and soldiers of the Virginia Regiment of 1754, he and the officers met in Fredericksburg in August 1770 to decide how they should proceed. It was agreed that GW should accompany their surveyor, William...
52662To George Washington from the committee on the mustering department, 5 July 1779 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found : from the committee on the mustering department, 5 July 1779. GW wrote the committee on 20 Aug.: “I was duly honored with your letter of the 5th of last month.”
52663Proceedings of a Board of General Officers, 29 September 1780 (Washington Papers)
Proceedings of A Board of General officers held by Order of His Excellency General Washington, Commander in Chief of the Army of the United States of America; respecting Major Andre Adjutant General of the Brittish Army September 29th 1780 at Tappan in the State of New York. Present Major General Green President Major General Lord Sterling Major Genl St Clair Major General The Marquis de la...
52664Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
GW began considering the schedule and route of his intended Southern Tour at least as early as the fall of 1790. William Blount, governor of the Southwest Territory, who visited Mount Vernon in September 1790, reported to his brother John Gray Blount in a letter of 20 Sept. 1790 that GW planned to tour the South in March, April, and May 1791, adding that the president would “proceed by the...
52665Military, 1775-1783. Intelligence re strength of Sir Guy Carleton’s troops, May 1782 (Washington Papers)
1782 Men 42d Regt R&F 480 40. Do Do 320 Foreign Battns 300 ea 3300 York Island— 4100
52666Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
With the aid of Sir James Jay, Lady Huntingdon in 1784 developed a proposal to send out from Britain at her expense pious men and women to settle on the American frontier. There, by example and by their efforts, they would convert the Indians to Christianity and at the same time improve the conditions in which the Indians lived. Even before she developed this plan, Lady Huntingdon had sought...
52667Errata (Washington Papers)
Volume 1—p. xxiv, line 33: 1949–57 is 1948–57; p. 55, n.3: Thomas Nelson (1716–1782) is Thomas Nelson (1715–1787); p. 70: letter to Richard Corbin should be dated 28 January 1754 (see Francis Corbin to GW, 7 July 1798); p. 144, n.8: Henry Van Meter (died c.1759) is Henry Van Meter (died c.1757); p. 208, n.4: n.16 is n.15; p. 219, n.13: Maudit is Mauduit; p. 284, n.7: of Hampton is of Norfolk;...
52668Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
E ditorial N ote . GW’s brief journal for 30 Sept.—20 Oct. 1794 records his journey from Philadelphia to western Pennsylvania with the militia raised to suppress the so-called Whiskey Insurrection that erupted in the fall of 1794 in the Pennsylvania counties of Westmoreland, Fayette, Washington, and Allegheny. The Excise Act, passed by Congress 3 Mar. 1791, had imposed substantial duties on...
52669To George Washington from “A Sincere Friend,” 11 February 1797 (Washington Papers)
Knowing your regard for all Public utility & benefit; I beg leave to acquaint you of my having a prescription for the Dropsy, it’s great simplicity & mild performance of the cure, is very remarkable. In what manner or mode, I should communicate it, to the Legislature of this Country, is what I would be happy in being inform’d of. With great Respect—I am Yr Excellency’s—Most Obedt Servt AL ,...
52670Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
On 15 May 1784 the Virginia house of delegates agreed “to draw up an address to his excellency General Washington, expressive of the thanks and gratitude of the House of Delegates for his unremitted zeal and services in the cause of liberty; congratulating him on his return to his native country, and the exalted pleasures of domestic life.” A committee of nine delegates was named, and the...
52671Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
Lieutenant General Rochambeau had suggested in August that he and Rear Admiral Ternay meet GW to devise a strategy for taking New York City from the British. GW promised to meet them when it was safe to do so and directed Rochambeau to specify a location. Rochambeau chose Hartford, and GW then picked 20 Sept. for the gathering. Erroneously convinced that a fleet under French rear admiral...
52672To George Washington from “A Friend to the People,” 13 September 1796 (Washington Papers)
Have we not a right as a nation, to demand the Marquis La’ Fayette as a Citizen of our Country. The People love him—we all love him—and our God knows his goodness and virtue. ALS , DNA : RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters. For efforts to free Lafayette from prison, see Justus Erick Bollman to GW, 1 April , and La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt to GW, 25 July ; see also GW to La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, 8...
52673Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
GW’s nomination on 22 Dec. 1791 of Thomas Pinckney, Gouverneur Morris, and William Short as ministers at London, Paris, and The Hague, respectively, occasioned significant Senate debates that ultimately involved the meaning of the “advice and consent” provision of the Constitution and the extent of presidential authority over foreign affairs. Early in his first administration the president had...
52674To George Washington from Officers among the Sappers and Miners, 19 December 1780 (Washington Papers)
[ West Point, 19 Dec. 1780 ]. Capt. Lt. David Bushnell and four other officers write about “the many disagreeable circumstances that attend us and the many embarrasments under which we labour.” They do not receive “equal priviledges with the rest of the Officers in the Continental Army,” and their service “has hitherto been such as not to entitle us to any great share of Military respect.”...
52675Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
Upon his marriage to the widow of Daniel Parke Custis on 6 Jan. 1759, GW assumed the management of what was at the time one of the most profitable estates in Virginia. The Custis estate, which included plantations in six counties in eastern Virginia worked by slaves valued at nearly £9,000 Virginia currency, was largely the creation of Martha Custis’s father-in-law, the eccentric John Custis...
52676Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
E ditorial note . In Feb. 1795 GW resumed making notations on the calendar pages of his almanacs and continued to do so until the end of 1798. In some cases the notations are clear. For example, in Jan. 1797, he temporarily kept some daily temperature readings on that month’s calendar, and during 1795 and 1796 he occasionally recorded stops on his journeys between Mount Vernon and...
52677To George Washington from the Philadelphia Society for the Information and Assistance of Persons Emigrating from Foreign … (Washington Papers)
You are now approached by a society thro their Committee whose province it is to take the Emigrant stranger by the hand on his arrival to our happy shores, and point him to such objects as may render him servicable to society and himself; and to assist those in more indigent circumstances until they can engage in useful employment. Such a society uniting with others of their fellow citizens in...
52678Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
The unwillingness of the French expeditionary force to leave Rhode Island to combine with the Continental army for a concerted effort to oust the British from New York City frustrated both Major General Lafayette and GW. The two men again felt frustration when logistical failures foiled an opportunity to overwhelm an enemy force on Staten Island, New York. Not wanting to see the entire...
52679Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
In the years immediately preceding the American Revolution, GW devoted considerable time and effort to the acquisition of large tracts of land in western Virginia and in the Ohio Valley. By 1775 he laid claim to over 37,000 acres in the West, acquired under the proclamations of 1754 and 1763 for his military services during the French and Indian War or through purchases from other veterans. In...
52680Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
GW’s older half brother Lawrence had been in poor health during the decade following the British assault upon Spanish bases in the Caribbean, an encounter commonly termed the War of Jenkins’ Ear. He had led a Virginia military company in the 1741 attack on Cartagena, becoming so fond of Vice Admiral Edward Vernon, naval commander of the expedition, that he later named his own home Mount...
52681Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
The effectiveness of an army rests in large measure on the quality of its officers. GW recognized this truth. He held that only gentlemen should serve as officers, insisted that officers not fraternize with their men, and consistently encouraged officers to study to improve their martial skills. Major General Steuben’s military manual, which GW carefully reviewed during its creation, served as...
52682The Washingtons in Barbados (Washington Papers)
The arrival at Bridgetown, on Carlisle Bay, is not well documented because pages are missing from the diary at this point. There are no collateral data such as newspaper listings of shipping arrivals, for not a single copy of the Barbados Gazette for 1751 is known to exist. The first two diary entries after the Washingtons disembarked are supplied by Jared Sparks, who obviously saw them while...
52683Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
E ditorial N ote The Society of the Cincinnati was instituted at Fishkill-on-Hudson on 13 May 1783 when a group of army officers adopted an Institution (or constitution) based on a draft drawn up by Henry Knox the month before. On 19 June 1783 the founders of the society elected GW its president. Although GW signed the Institution, he appears to have done nothing about the society until 23...
52684Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
The following opinions concerning the defense of Philadelphia and the Delaware River apparently were solicited by GW on or before 6 Aug. 1777, when the first one was written, although no direct evidence has been found of GW requesting the opinions, or that the matter was discussed in a formal council of war. GW used these opinions and referred to them when writing to John Hancock on the...
52685Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
Maj. Gen. Benedict Arnold recruited Joshua Hett Smith—who came from a family with significant Loyalist connections but had served as a spy for the Continental army—to assist with the consummation of his Fig. 3. The Beverly Robinson House, on the east bank of the Hudson and just downriver from West Point, played a key role in the Arnold conspiracy (see map 5). (Appleton’s Cyclopædia of American...
52686Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
GW’s Farewell Address, published on 19 Sept. 1796, officially announced his decision not to seek re-election to the U.S. presidency. In his final days in office, which ended on 3 March 1797, GW compared himself to a “wearied traveller.” This sentiment likely was occasioned by the events of the last half of GW’s second term, during which he faced heavy opposition to, and slow implementation of,...
52687Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
The network of spies and couriers that has come to be known as the Culper ring, on account of the code names of its spies, had its genesis in GW’s need to provide reliable intelligence to Vice Admiral d’Estaing on British naval movements at New York during the fall of 1778. Recognizing the provision of quality intelligence as a critical aspect of the new military partnership, GW sought...