1From George Washington to William Gordon, 1 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I have recd your letter of the 6th of Septr together with flower-seeds accompanying it for which I beg you will accept of my best thanks. I am glad to find by your letter that you have begun printing your history of the revolution—you have my best wishes for its success. Our information from Europe is so various and contradictory as to render it still doubtful whether a rupture will take place...
2From George Washington to Thomas Jefferson, 1 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I have received your favor of the 15th of August, and am sorry that it is not in my power to give you any further information relative to the practicability of opening a communication between Lake Erie and the Ohio, than you are already possessed of. I have made frequent enquiries since the time of your writing to me on that subject while Congress were sitting at Annapolis, but could never...
3To George Washington from Lafayette, 1 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I am fortunate in this Opportunity to wish you a Happy New year, and to devote the first Moments of this day to the Heartfelt pleasure to Remind you, My Beloved General, of your Adoptive Son and Most Affectionate, devoted friend. I Beg you will present My Best Respects to Mrs Washington. Madame de Lafayette joins in the Most tender Compliments to you and to Her and I Hope, My dear General,...
4To George Washington from Nicolas Pike, 1 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
Although a Permission to dedicate my Book to your Excellency, the honor of which, however, I had no right to claim, would have afforded me the highest gratification, yet your Excellency’s declining to grant it, though in the most obliging and condescending terms, was mortifying to a Breast glowing with Affection and Esteem. you will undoubtedly observe, Sir, that the date of my Dedication is...
5To George Washington from Lafayette, 2 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I Have writen to You By way of England, and will only inclose a duplicate of the arrêt of the Council and letter to Mr Jefferson which I Hope May Serve the Commerce of the United States —I Am the More wishing for an Encrease of intercourse Betwen the two Nations, as Mr Jefferson and Myself Have pledged ourselves with the Ministry that it would Be the Case. And indeed it is Equally Necessary to...
6From George Washington to Benjamin Fitzhugh Grymes, 5 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
As you have not yet sent for your Jenny, the presumption is that the many letters which have been written to you requiring of it, have all miscarried; and therefore, you have the trouble of this. She is now in good order, and with foal, which may be lost (as several of my own have been) from the number that are together, struggling for what little I have it in my power from the scantiness of...
7From George Washington to Peterson & Taylor, 5 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
When I wrote to you last upon the subject of furnishing me with scantling, Plank &c. agreeable to the enclosed bill we could not come to any determination with respect to the matter, because the price of herrings, in which I proposed to make payment, could not be fixed. I now make the following proposal, viz.—I will allow you 6/ per Hundred for the scantling, reduced measure, 6/ per Hundred...
8To George Washington from Charles Willson Peale, 6 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
Having bussiness in the line of my Profession which will detain me some time in this Place, therefore I take the liberty of intimating, that in case any of your rare Birds should die, that you will oblige me much by sending their remains directed to the care of Captn Elliott of this Town. I am with the greatest regard Dr Sir your much obliged Humble Servant ALS , DLC:GW . Capt. Thomas Elliott...
9From George Washington to William Peacey, 7 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I have received your letter of the 2d of Feby 1787. I am much obliged to you for your attention in sending me the seeds, which arrived agreeable to the bill. Mrs Bloxham received of Wakelin Welch Esqr. of London £10.1.10, which sum, she informed him, was what she paid you for the seeds on my account. I am not sorry that Caleb Hall did not come out, for I proposed his coming more to please...
10From George Washington to Samuel Athawes, 8 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I have received your letter of the 20th of July last informing me of the death of our much esteemed & worthy friend, George William Fairfax Esqr. I sincerely condole with you and his other friends in England upon the occasion. Altho’ the precarious state of his health for several years past must have prepared his friends, in some measure, for his death, yet the event could not take place...
11From George Washington to Bourdon de Vatry, 8 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I have recd your letter of the 6th of Decr 1786, wherein you request me to represent your situation to Congress, and apply to that body, in your behalf, for a grant of land in some part of the United States where you may form a settlement. Altho’ no incident in life could afford me more pleasure than to see all those who have exerted themselves in the cause of this country amply recompenced...
12From George Washington to Mauduit Du Plessis, 8 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I have to acknowledge the reception of your three letters, viz. of the 12th of Feby the 26th of March and the 20th July. I was exceedingly sorry to hear of the disasters which you met with after you left this place, before you reached Georgia, and was very unhappy to find, when you arrived there, that your expectations, with respect to your property were so much disappointed, and that your...
13From George Washington to Edmund Randolph, 8 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
The letter which you did me the honor of writing to me on the 27th Ulto, with the enclosure, came duly to hand. I receive them as a fresh instance of your friendship and attention. For both I thank you. The diversity of Sentiments upon the important matter which has been submitted to the People, was as much expected as it is regretted, by me. The various passions and medium by which men are...
14From George Washington to Rochambeau, 8 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I have recd your letters of the 28th of June 1786 & 12th of may 1787. In the former you mentinon your having just returned from Holland and were so obliging as to give me an account of the state of political affairs in that Country. Since the time of your writing their intestine disputes have been brought to a crisis and appear to have terminated rather against the Patriots; What changes may...
15From George Washington to Nicholas Simon van Winter and Lucretia Wilhelmina van Winter, 8 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I have recd your letter of the 26th of Feby accompanied by a Poem entitled Germanicus. I consider your sending the latter to me as a mark of polite attention which merits my warmest acknowledgment, and I beg you to accept my thanks for that, as well as for the many obliging expressions in your letter. The Muses have always been revered in every age, & in all Countries where letters &...
16From George Washington to Wakelin Welch & Son, 8 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I have recd your letter of the 7th of March and 14th of July, the former enclosing my acct current, in which my drafts upon you &c. are justly and properly Stated. The seeds, Ploughs &c. sent by the Mary Capt. Andrews, arrived safe, but some of the former were injured by being put into the hold of the Vessel; they were in casks, and the Capt. said he did not know the contents of them or they...
17From George Washington to John Fitzgerald, 9 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
In a card I sent you the other day, at the sametime that I enquired if your express brought any answer from Govr Johnson and Lee I requested to be informed at what precise spot the meeting of the directors was appointed to be held, I should be glad now to know. I had made my arrangements for setting of on Saturday to proceed on this side of the River; and will do so if I am able but having...
18To George Washington from Benjamin Lincoln, 9–13 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I have, my dear General, been some time in this town with my son Benjn who has been exceedingly sick for about four weeks. On thursday last we thought his days were fully numbered, and that his last moments were rolling rapidly on and that they would have been terminated before the evening; but in the afternoon he revived, he yet lives, his situation, we trust, is not so critical as it has...
19To George Washington from George Lux, 9 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I beg leave to introduce to your Excy Mr OConnor, who is writing an History of America, & means to make some stay with you—Mrs OConnor, a Niece of Sir Charles Hardy, who commanded the British Fleet last War, means to set up an Academy for the instruction of young Ladies in Alexandria, & I must request your Excellency’s patronage & attention—Mr OConnor is warmly recommended to me by my...
20To George Washington from Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., 9 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
With great satisfaction I have the Honor to inform—that last Evening the Convention of this State, by a great Majority, Voted to ratify & adopt the new proposed Constitution for the United States—Yeas 127—Nays 40. With additional pleasure I can inform that the Debates on this subject, have been conducted with a spirit of great Candour, Liberality & fairness—and the Decision received with the...
21From George Washington to Richard Butler, 10 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I have received your letter of the 30th of November accompanied by the Indian Vocabulary which you have been so obliging as to forward to me. I am so far from thinking any apology necessary on your part for not having furnished me with the Vocabulary at an earlier period, that I assure you it is a matter of surprise to me to find that you have been able to compleat a work of such difficulty...
22From George Washington to Henry Knox, 10 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I beg you to accept of my thanks for your obliging favor of the 11th Ult.; which, owing to the dullness of the season, and want of matter to amuse you, has lain unacknowledged till this time. Three States—to wit—Pensylvania New Jersey, and Delaware having adopted the New Constitution in so decisive a manner and those of New Hampshire, Massachusetts & Connecticut having discovered such...
23From George Washington to Lafayette, 10 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I fear my dear marqs, you will believe me to have been remiss in attentions to you. my last letters, I find, have been unaccountably concentered in the same hands and unreasonably delayed; entirely contrary to my expectation. when you shall have received them by the Chevalier Paul Jones, you will acquit me of any intended or real neglect. one of these letters containing the form of Government...
24From George Washington to James Madison, 10 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I stand indebted to you for your favors of the 20th & 26th Ult.; and I believe for that of the 14th also, & their enclosures. It does not appear to me that there is any certain criterian in this State, by which a decided judgment can be formed of the opinion which is entertained by the mass of its Citizens with respect to the New Constitution. My belief on this occasion is, that whenever the...
25From George Washington to Frederick Weissenfels, 10 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I have received your letter of the 10th of December in answer to that, as well as those which you wrote to me in June last, I am sorry to inform you that I cannot, with any propriety, make application to Congress had [I] the offices to bestow or any other publick body in your behalf for an appointment; because it would be acting directly contrary to a resolution which I made, when I quitted...
26From George Washington to William Irvine, 11 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
When I had the pleasure to see you in Philadelphia last summer, I think (if my memory serves me) that you mentioned, in the course of conversation, your having lately been in that part of the Western Country which lies between the sources of the Cayahoga, the muskingum and Big-[Beaver] River. As I am desireous of learning some particulars relative to that part of the Country (as well to...
27From George Washington to John Francis Mercer, 11 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
The People on board Mr Spriggs Vessel have been already supplied with Provisions, and shall receive every other aid they may require, and I can give. The conduct either of the Skipper, or your Overseer, has been egregiously wrong. The Vessel, it seems, came up in the night of thursday; but not till near dusk on friday had I any information of it, and then by [way] of enquiry from your People...
28From George Washington to Charles Carter, 12 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I find that an extract of my letter to you, is running through all the news papers; and published in that of Baltimore with the addition of my name. Altho’ I have no dis-inclination to the promulgation of my Sentiments on the proposed Constitution (not having concealed them on any occasion) yet I must nevertheless confess, that it gives me pain to see the hasty, and indigested production of a...
29From George Washington to William Thompson, 12 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I have recd your letter of the 7th inst. When I requested my nephew to apply to you for a craft, I expected that he would have engaged your largest, which he had last winter, upon the same terms that he then employed her viz.—at £20 for the trip and allow her to be detained below for four days on his account if she exceeded that time by his desire, he was to give 20/ per day for every day she...
30To George Washington from Henry Knox, 14 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
Some time has elapsed since my writing to you as I had nothing to offer but what you were acquainted with through the medium of the public papers. The new constitution has hitherto been as well received as could have been expected, considering the various existing opinions prejudices, and parties in the respective states. In addition to Delaware Pensylvania, and New Jersey, Connecticut has...