From George Washington to James Anderson, 22 January 1797
To James Anderson
Philadelphia 22d Jany 1797
Mr Anderson,
Your letter of the 18th instant, with the Inventory & Reports of the preceeding week, came to my hands yesterday;1 and being satisfied from your observations, and indeed (on reflection) from what had occured to me before, of the necessity of water passing thro’ the Distillery, I cannot do otherwise than approve of the establishment at the Mill, for temporary purposes. The result of wch, must decide for, or against a more permanent one, on a larger Scale at that place.2
How far have you got, or is it likely you will get, with the new Road before the labourers must be taken off for other purposes, which cannot be dispensed with? The manner in which you propose (in your last letter) to open it, will be sufficient, and quite satisfactory to me.3
The Cellar under the North end of the House, has a Well in it which I sunk some years ago for the purpose of keeping Ice; and an attempt was made to do it; but from a mistaken idea (which prevailed in those days) of excluding the external Air, it was, from the humidity within, occasioned by a close stopper, all dissolved before I opened it:4 I wish therefore (if the Ice is sound & good after this letter gets to your hands) that you would again fill & ram it well, putting a thin layer of straw all round, & some at bottom on blocks; & leave it uncovered. While this work is about, make Allison remain in the Cellar; otherwise, as it is the present receptacle of the Pork, there will be a large Toll taken from it, by the Negros who are employed.
It is pretended here, that a new kind of red clover has been discovered by an English Farmer in the Jerseys. It grows, according to his account, much ranker than the common red clover; blooms much later; but yields at one cutting nearly as much as the other does at two.5 I will send you (along with the other clover, & the early Potatoes) half a bushel of this seed, as soon as the navigation is open; of which indeed there seems to be little prospect at present; and will make them come to you, I fear, very unseasonably; but as you may rely on the Potatoes & the above clover seed (five bushels and an half in all) you will, of course be prepared for the reception of them.6
I will write to Mr Landon Carter of Cleve (opposite to Port Royal) and request him to inform you decisively, by letter, directed to the Post Office in Alexandria, whether I may depend upon 30 bushels of Peas before you send the Waggon for them.7 The sooner after he authorises it, it goes, the better; as the Road will be extremely deep on the breaking up of the frost.
You ask my opinion with respect to cutting down the thorn hedges. I leave the decision of this matter to your own experience, which must be much greater than mine—If the doing it will not destroy the stock, it certainly will thicken the hedge, & of course add to the efficacy of it; but I have doubts whether cutting the Cedar down may not be a means of destroying the plants, which would be unfortunate.
In looking over the Inventory you sent me, I see no mention of my large Boat. If it is not in being, it will be the second of the kind I shall have lost within a short time.8 It will be prudent to have the fishing Boats drawn up, or, more than probable, the Ice will take them off.
In the Alexandria Store Accounts, transmitted to me by Mr Pearce, I perceive an amazing number of Spades, Shovels, Scythes and Carpenters tools of various kinds &ca &ca charged to me.9 Hence, It is to be feared these things have sometimes been got without his orders. If this has been practiced, an absolute stop must be put to it; and nothing got without a written order from you. This used to be an invariable practice. nay more, when I was at home & could attend to my own business, no new thing (not even a file) was ever given out without having the old, of the same kind, brought in, or a satisfactory account rendered of it. Without rules of this sort are observed, there will not only be great profusion in getting, and inattention to things when got, but there may be, by those into whose hands they are placed, great embezzlement also.
How does the grain in the ground, and vetch, look after the severe drought in the fall, & hard weather since?10 The several matters which, (in your last letter) you propose to do, seem to me to be judicious, & are approved accordingly. I wish you health & remain Your friend
Go: Washington
ALS, NNGL, on deposit at NNPM; ALS (letterpress copy), ViMtvL.
1. Neither Anderson’s letter to GW dated 18 Jan. nor the inventory has been found. The Mount Vernon farm reports for 8–14 Jan. also have not been found. Anderson commented on the inventory at the close of the farm report for 1–7 Jan.: “I observe these reports, & my Inventory will not fully agree, which I will Advise in my next.” Anderson specified that one discrepancy between the documents pertained to cattle (DLC:GW). Though separate from the inventory, the farm report for 1–7 Jan. listed all horses and livestock on the Mount Vernon farms, information that GW had asked William Pearce to provide Anderson (see Memorandum for Anderson and Pearce, 5 Nov. 1796). For GW’s direction to make the inventory, see GW to Anderson, 8 Jan. 1797.
2. For the Mount Vernon distillery, see GW to Anderson, 8 Jan., and n.2.
3. For the new road at Mount Vernon, see Memorandum for Anderson and Pearce, 5 Nov., and n.8 to that document.
4. GW wrote on 7 Jan. 1785 that he was preparing “the Well in my New Cellar for the reception of Ice” (, 4:74). The cellar well, however, proved inadequate. On 5 June 1785, GW wrote: “Opened the Well in my Cellar in which I had laid up a store of Ice, but there was not the smallest particle remaining. I then opened the other repository (called the dry Well) in which I found a large Store” (, 4:148–49). Located at the southeast corner of the river lawn, GW’s dry well, proven to be more efficient, was ultimately used as his icehouse.
5. Englishman John Lambert, a resident of Salem County, N.J., wrote an article on red clover that reads: “There are two sorts of red clover—one sort I call the native American, the other the English red clover. The native red clover will grow double the length of the other, but it is later in the bloom by about a month.” Lambert also announced “a small quantity” of the seed “to be disposed of” in the city, and added that he only had “5 acres of the native sort, but expect to sow about 70 acres more if it in the spring” (Gazette of the United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser, 23 Jan. 1797). Similar ideas on this type of clover appear in Lambert’s publication A Short and Practical Essay, on Farming … (Philadelphia, 1798). Having received seeds and a pamphlet from Lambert in 1792, GW later corresponded with him about “the Large Sort” of red clover (Lambert to GW, 24 Oct. 1798, and the source note to that document, in 3:136).
6. On 8 Feb., a payment was made to Thomas Howard for more than “5 bushels” of “clover seed, to send to virga” (). GW announced an imminent shipment of potatoes and American red clover in his letter to Anderson of 20 February.
For the waterways rendered unnavigable due to ice in the winter of 1797, see GW to Anderson, 8 Jan.; see also Anderson to GW, 11 Jan., and n.11.
7. See GW to Landon Carter, this date. For Carter’s offer to furnish GW with peas, see GW to Anderson, 8 January.
Three miles separated Port Royal, Va., from Carter’s plantation, Cleve (see Carter to GW, 28 Sept., and n.1 to that document).
8. GW’s accounts reflect his ownership of various vessels, including large boats and “fish Boats” (see , 242, 305). In March and early April 1797, he paid shipwright Joshua Humphreys for the construction of another boat (see Tobias Lear to GW, 20 March 1797, in 1:37–39; see also , 7).
9. The store accounts that Pearce sent GW have not been identified; the Mount Vernon Accounts for late 1796 primarily show transactions involving nails, shoes, and alcohol (see ).
10. For the recent drought and cold temperatures, see Pearce to GW, 13 Nov. 1796, and n.11; and GW to Anderson, 8 January.