To George Washington from Solomon Bush, 4 October 1789
From Solomon Bush
No. 7 Boulton Street Piccadilly
May it Please your ExcellencyLondon 4th Octr 1789
I took the liberty to address you some time since, sincerely congratulating your Excellency on your late dignified appointment,1 which be assured proceeded from the effusions of a Heart fervently thankfull to the great Author of all good for the blessings he has been pleas’d to shower down on my Country—The many respectable Patriots in this Country must give the greatest pleasure to every Man of Virtue, among whom I beg leave to mention Atkinson Bush Esqr. of this City to whose humanity many of my suffering Countrymen were much indebted for numerous Comforts they receivd during rigorous confinement in the inhospitable Prisons of this Kingdom at Mr Bushs request I beg leave to transmit the proceedings and interposition of the City of London during our late Glorious Struggle of which he begs your Excellency’s acceptance—as well as a Letter from his son Mr Michael Bush a Gentleman of respectability and one of the Livery of London.2 With every mark of sincere Respect, I have the honour to subscribe Your Excellency’s most Faithfull Obdt Hble Sert
S. Bush
ALS, DNA:PCC, item 78.
1. See Bush to GW, 20 July 1789.
2. Atkinson Bush (c.1735–1811) was a well-known London proctor. He was sending City Petitions, Addresses, and Remonstrances, &c. &c. &c. Commencing In the Year M.DCC.LXIX. And Including the Last Petition, For the Burial of the Right Honble the Earl of Chatham in St. Paul’s Cathedral. with His Majesty’s Answers. also Mr. Alderman Beckford’s Speech to the King, On the Twenty-Third of May, 1770 (London, 1778). The volume, which is now at InU-Li, bears the following presentation note, dated 23 Sept.: "Atkinson Bush of Great Ormond Street London requests that his Excellency George Washington Esquire will accept this Book as a Token of the Veneration and Esteem he has for his truly illustrious Character." Bush added a Latin tag: "Manus hæc inimica Tyrannis."
The letter from Michael Bush, 29 Sept. 1789, requested that GW “permit an obscure Individual, a Native of England but nevertheless a Citizen of the World to join in the general Joy and to gratulate your Excellency on an Event so singularly prosperous & providential—an Event which at the same Time that it chears the Heart of every true American must give Joy to every true Englishman; When I reflect on the various Duties you have discharged, of a Patriot, a General and a Statesman with Honour to yourself and Advantage to your Country, it is impossible to convey one’s genuine Sentiments of a Character so exalted without Adulation.
“Not only you, Sir, but every real Friend to civil and religious Liberty in every Quarter of the Globe has Reason to thank divine Providence for his very wise and gracious Interposition in Favour of a Country which at one Time seemed to be threatned with the Extirpation of Liberty but which ultimately proves to be the Favourite of Heaven; Had it not been for his abundant Goodness Freedom would have been annihilated and the persecuted and oppressed of future Ages left destitute of an Asylum—an Asylum which must flourish because it was gained by the Resistance of Virtue and Valour to vicious Corruption and despotic Tyranny, a Corruption more wickedly devised or a Tyranny more wantonly and cruelly exerted are not to be discovered in the History of the World . . .” (DNA:PCC, item 78).
GW replied to Solomon Bush’s letter on 24 Nov., thanking him for his congratulations, for his assistance during the seizure of an American ship, and for forwarding Atkinson Bush’s enclosure. “I request you to present my thanks to Mr Bush . . . and accept the same for your trouble in transmitting it” (Df, in writing of Tobias Lear, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters).