1To George Washington from Benjamin Lincoln, 23 May 1789 (Washington Papers)
I was early convinced, upon your Excellencys retirement from public life, that too much of your time, for your own happiness was engrossed by a correspondence as extensive as is the knowledge of letters, and by the frequent visits of people throughout the equally extended limits. An idea that these visits were multiplied by the ease with which people obtained letters of introduction to your...
2To George Washington from Benjamin Lincoln, 16 July 1789 (Washington Papers)
Boston, 16 July 1789. “When I had the honour of addressing your Excellency on the subject of returning to public life I did not suggest a wish to hold one office in preference to an other —Indeed at that time it was not ascertained what offices would be established under the new constitution. It was however the general idea that the union would be formed into different districts and that there...
3To George Washington from Benjamin Lincoln, 18 July 1789 (Washington Papers)
I consider, my dear General, that not only the happiness of the people under the new government but that the very existance of it depends in a great measure upon the characters and abilities of those who may be employed in the judiciary and executive branches of government. Under this government I hope yet to live and to leave in its arms a large and an extensive family I cannot therefore be...
4To George Washington from Benjamin Lincoln, 9 August 1789 (Washington Papers)
I was the last night honoured by the receipt of your Excellencys commission appointing me collector for the port of Boston —It shall be my study early to obtain, a perfect knowledge of the duties of the office and my constant care so to discharge them as thereby to secure the approbation of my own mind and the confidence of my country. No circumstance could be more pleasing than the one which...
5To George Washington from Benjamin Lincoln, 16 August 1789 (Washington Papers)
I received this morning your Excellencys very welcome favour of the 11th there on I beg leave to observe that immediately on my receiving the commission with which I was honoured appointing me Collector for the port of Boston & Charlestown I entered upon the duties of the office—I have appointed Majr Rice, not him of the late army, my deputy, he is a Gentleman very pleasing to the people, of...
6To George Washington from Benjamin Lincoln, 28 August 1789 (Washington Papers)
A few moments since I arrived here on my way to New York the packet sets off at 3 oClock perhaps I might arrive sooner should I take passage in her than by the stages but as that is attended with a degree of uncertainty I have determined to pursue my first intentions of coming on by land—I have thought it my duty to give your Excellency this information & that I shall, probably, be in the City...
7To George Washington from Benjamin Lincoln, 24 December 1789 (Washington Papers)
Docr Oliphant was during the war at the head of the medical department at the southward —He always supported the character as master of his profession a Gentleman of arangment, of Justice, œconomy & industry—He is among those unhappy men who have suffered by the late war and has seen better days If there should be an opening for him again in the public line I have no doubt but he would honour...
8To George Washington from Benjamin Lincoln, 23 January 1790 (Washington Papers)
Knowing that your Excellency must be greatly burdened by the weight of public affairs and that the pressure is increased by various other avocations I should hardly have been persuaded to have broken in so much upon your time as to have given any other Gentleman, going from among us, a line of introduction But when I considered your Excellencys love of science & your partiality for scientific...
9To George Washington from Benjamin Lincoln, 10 June 1791 (Washington Papers)
Boston, 10 June 1791. Recommends for any “opening in the public line” Francis Cabot, his aide during the disorders of 1787 in Massachusetts, “a Gentleman of information & of great probity,” who “has justly merited the esteem & confidence of a very extensive acquaintance” and is “a Gentleman of a respectable family, brother to Mr Cabot one of our Senators in Congress.” Cabot “left this part of...