George Washington Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-18-02-0260

To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 16 July 1795

From Gouverneur Morris

London 16 July 1795

My dear Sir

It has been impossible for me, owing to an Ague and fever, to write to you as I intended a very long Letter. This will I expect be delivered to you by Mr Livingston my late Secretary while in France who will be able to give you much useful Intelligence respecting that Country.1 I regret his Absence from London just now as I would otherwise give him some matter which must not be written. I am in the Intention to see this Country so as to judge of it for myself and may perhaps next Autumn go to Vienna so as to see on the Spot some Persons and Things about which as yet I have only Hearsays. Perhaps in the Winter I may take a Tour thro Italy whereve[r] I am and in whatever Situation beleive me always &ca.2

on conversing with Mr Livingston you will I think find him of a Judgment ripe beyond his years. He is modest polite sensible and brave. Should he incline to pursue diplomatic Life am perswaded that he will become a most useful Person. Already his Prudence may be relied on.

LB, in Morris’s hand, DLC: Gouverneur Morris Papers.

1Morris referred to Henry Walter Livingston (1768–1810), a graduate of Yale College who had been Morris’s secretary at Paris from 1792 to 1794. Livingston, a lawyer, served two terms in Congress, 1803–7.

2Morris traveled through England and into Scotland until late November before returning to London, where he remained for the rest of the year (see Miller, Diaries of Gouverneur Morris, description begins Melanie Randolph Miller et al., eds. The Diaries of Gouverneur Morris: European Travels, 1794-1798. Charlottesville, Va., 2011. description ends 123–232).

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