To George Washington from Timothy Pickering, 16 December 1795
From Timothy Pickering
[Philadelphia] Decr 16. 1795.
Sir,
I have read the letter of General Morgan &c. & the Frederick County Resolutions; and the answer which those papers, combined with present circumstances, dictated, I have the honour to inclose.1 I was led to express my own feelings, upon the ungrateful conduct of many, and the shameless slander of others, respecting the first magistrate of the Union. If the sentiments expressed do not meet your approbation, and I can change them satisfactorily, I will receive your directions personally.2 I should have waited on you with the papers, had not Mr Dandridge been the bearer. I am most respectfully yr obt servt
T. Pickering
ALS, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, GW’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State.
1. See Frederick County, Va., Citizens to GW, 2 Dec., and n.1. Pickering’s draft for GW’s reply to them of this date reads: “I received with great satisfaction your obliging & affectionate letter dated the 2d instant at Winchester, inclosing a resolution of the citizens of Frederick county, who met the preceeding day at the County Court-House, expressing their entire approbation of my conduct, in ratifying the treaty lately negociated between the United States and Great Britain.
“Next to the approbation of my own mind, arising from a consciousness of having uniformly, diligently & sincerely aimed, by doing my duty, to promote the true interests of my country, the approbation of my fellow citizens is dear to my heart. In a free country, such approbation should be a citizen’s best reward; and so it would be, if Truth and Candour were always to estimate the connduct of public men. But the reverse is so often the case, that he who, wishing to serve his country, is not influenced by higher motives, runs the risk of being miserably disappointed. Under such discouragements, the good citizen will look beyond the applauses and reproaches of men, and persevering in his duty, stand firm in conscious rectitude, and in the hope of approving Heaven. I am gentlemen with much respect your fellow citizen & friend” (Df, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW).
2. The reply as printed at Winchester on 15 Jan. 1796 and reprinted in other newspapers, including the Aurora General Advertiser (Philadelphia), 22 Jan. 1796, does not differ from Pickering’s draft.