1From George Washington to John Adams, 13 July 1798 (Washington Papers)
I had the honour on the evening of the 11th instant to receive from the hands of the Secretary of War, your favour of the 7th announcing that you had with the advice and consent of the Senate appointed me “Lieutenant General and Commander in Chief of all the armies raised, or to be raised for the Service of the U. S.” I cannot express how greatly affected I am at this New proof of public...
2From George Washington to John Adams, 21 October 1798 (Washington Papers)
The letter with which you were pleased to honor me—dated the 9th instant—was received by the last Mail; and demands my particular acknowledgments. It was with sincere concern I received the account of Mrs Adams’s low state of health, and your consequent indisposition. If my fervent wishes would restore her, and you, to perfect health, this object would soon be accomplished: and in these...
3To John Adams from George Washington, 13 July 1798 (Adams Papers)
I had the honour on the evening of the 11th. instant to receive from the hands of the Secretary of War, your favour of the 7th. announcing, that you had with the advice and consent of the Senate appointed me “Lieutenant General and Commander in Chief of all the Armies raised, or to be raised, for the Service of the U.S” I cannot express how greatly affected I am at this New proof of public...
4From George Washington to John Adams, 3 March 1799 (Washington Papers)
I have been duly honoured with your favour of the 19th Ulto, mentioning the nomination of Mr Murray to be Minister Plenipotentiary to the French Republic. With the writer of the letter, which I did myself the honour to enclose in my last to you, I truly observed that I had never held any correspondence; and I only knew him in his public mission from this Country to the Barbary States, the...
5From George Washington to John Adams, 4 July 1798 (Washington Papers)
Not being in the habit since my return to private life, of sending regularly to the Post Office (nine miles from hence) every Post-day, it often happens that letters addressed to me lye longer there, on that account, than they otherwise would do. I have delayed no time, unnecessarily, since I had the honor of receiving your obliging favour of the 22d Ulto, to thank you for the polite &...
6To John Adams from George Washington, 25 September 1798 (Adams Papers)
With all the respect which is due to your public station, and with the regard I entertain for your private character, the following representation is presented to your consideration.—If in the course of it, any expression should escape me which may appear to be incompatible with either,—let the purity of my intentions;—the candour of my declarations;—and a due respect for my own character, be...
7To John Adams from George Washington, 1 February 1799 (Adams Papers)
The letter herewith enclosed from Mr Joel Barlow (though of old date) came to my hands only yesterday.— I have conceived it to be my duty to transmit it to you without delay;—and without a comment;—except that it must have been written with a very good, or a very bad design:—which of the two, you can judge better than I.—For, from the known abilities of that Gentleman, such a letter could not...
8To John Adams from George Washington, 4 July 1798 (Adams Papers)
Not being in the habit since my return to private life, of sending regularly to the Post Office (nine miles from hence) every Post-day, it often happens that letters addressed to me lye longer there, on that account, than they otherwise would do. I have delayed no time, unnecessarily, since I had the honor of receiving your very obliging favour of the 22d. Ulto. to thank you for the polite and...
9From George Washington to John Adams, 17 June 1798 (Washington Papers)
I have heard with much pleasure, that you contemplate a visit to the City designated for the permanent Seat of the Government of the U. States, in the course of the Summer, or early in autumn. It is unnecessary, I hope, for me in that event, to express the satisfaction it would give Mrs Washington & me to see Mrs Adams, yourself & Company in the shade of our Vine & Fig tree; but I shall...
10To John Adams from George Washington, 17 June 1798 (Adams Papers)
I have heard with much pleasure, that you contemplate a visit to the City designated for the permanent Seat of the Government of the U. States, in the course of the Summer, or early in Autumn.— It is unnecessary, I hope, for me in that event, to express the satisfaction it would give Mrs. Washington & me to see Mrs. Adams, yourself & Company in the shade of our Vine & Fig tree;—but I shall...
11From George Washington to John Adams, 25 September 1798 (Washington Papers)
With all the respect which is due to your public station, and with the regard I entertain for your private character, the following representation is presented to your consideration. If in the course of it, any expression should escape me which may appear to be incompatible with either, let the purity of my intentions; the candour of my declarations; and a due respect for my own character, be...
12To John Adams from George Washington, 21 October 1798 (Adams Papers)
The letter with which you were pleased to honor me, dated the 9th. instant—was received by the last Mail; and demands my particular acknowledgments. It was with sincere concern I received the account of Mrs. Adams’s low state of health, and your consequent indisposition—If my fervent wishes would restore her, and you, to perfect health, this object would soon be accomplished:—and in these...
13From George Washington to John Adams, 1 February 1799 (Washington Papers)
The letter herewith enclosed from Mr Joel Barlow (though the old date) came to my hands only yesterday. I have conceived it to be my duty to transmit it to you without delay—and without a comment; except that it must have been written with a very good, or a very bad design: which of the two, you can judge better than I. For, from the known abilities of that Gentleman, such a letter could not...
14To John Adams from George Washington, 3 March 1799 (Adams Papers)
I have been duly honoured with your favour of the 19th Ulto. mentioning the nomination of Mr. Murray to be Minister Plenipotentiary to the French Republic.— With the writer of the letter, which I did myself the honour to enclose in my last to you, I truly observed that I had never held any correspondence;—and I only knew him in his public mission from this Country to the Barbary States, the...
15From George Washington to John Quincy Adams, 20 January 1799 (Washington Papers)
I have been honoured with a letter from you, dated at Berlin the 29th of Octr last; covering one from a namesake of mine, & who, very probably, may be a distant relation; as our families were from the same Country. Mine earlier than his; two brothers migrating during the Commonwealth of England. or rather, during the troubles of Charles the First. Not knowing through what other medium to...
16From George Washington to John Quincy Adams, 25 June 1797 (Washington Papers)
Your favour of the 11th of Feb: and a duplicate thereof, have been duly received; and I pray you to accept my best thanks for the trouble you have had in tracing to its origen, the history of the Sword which came to my hands last year, in the manner communicated in a former letter. As it is more than probable you will have left Holland before this letter can be received, I shall give you no...
17From George Washington to Alexander Addison, 3 June 1798 (Washington Papers)
I was favoured with your letter of the 17th Ulto by the last Post. Not to have received the Instalment due to me on the Bond of the deceased Coll Ritchie (lodged in the Bank of Pennsylvania for collection) at the appointed period, is attended with considerable disappointment to me; and if it should not be paid (in whole) at the time mentioned in your Note, the inconvenience will be sorely felt...
18From George Washington to Alexander Addison, 24 November 1799 (Washington Papers)
Your favour of the 8th instant came duly to hand. Whatever is found to be the contents of the Land I sold to the deceased Colo. Ritchie, by ⟨firm⟩ and actual measurement I shall abide by. I have not heard a tittle from Mrs Ritchie nor her brother in law on the subject of the Instalment, due me, and with pain I add, that if payment of what is due thereon is not immediately made, my own want of...
19From George Washington to Alexander Addison, 4 March 1799 (Washington Papers)
Your favour of the 31st ofjany, enclosing your second charge to the Grand Juries of the County Courts of the fifth Circuit of the State of Pennsylvania, at the last Decr Sessions, has been duly received, and for the Enclosure I thank you. I wish, sincerely, that your good example, in endeavouring to bring the People of these United States more acquainted with the Laws & principles of their...
20From George Washington to Alexander Addison, 29 July 1798 (Washington Papers)
Your favour of the 11th Instant, dated in Philadelphia, has been received; accompanied by one from Colo. Pickering, advising me of his having received, from you, on my A/c, the Sum of Seventeen hundred dollars as part of the Installment due the 1st of June last, on the deceased Colonel Matthew Ritchie’s Bond. For want of the Bond, which was deposited in the Bank of Pennsylvania, at Colo....
21From George Washington to Alexander Addison, 6 December 1798 (Washington Papers)
Your favor of the 21st Ulto enclosing thoughts on the “Liberty of Speech and of the Press in a charge to the Grand Juries of the County Courts of the fifth circuit of the State of Pennsylvania” has been duly received, and I pray you to accept my thanks for this fresh inst[anc]e of your attention & politeness to me. I am persuaded I shall read it with the same pleasure, & marked approbation...
22From George Washington to Alexandria General Assemblies Managers, 12 November 1799 (Washington Papers)
Mrs Washington and myself have been honoured with your polite invitation to the Assemblies in Alexandria, this Winter; and thank you for this mark of your attention. But alas! our dancing days are no more; we wish, however, all those whose relish for so agreeable, & innocent an amusement, all the pleasure the Season will afford them. and I am Gentlemen Your Most Obedient and Obliged Humble...
23From George Washington to Wilson Allen, 17 June 1799 (Washington Papers)
Your favor of the 29th ulto has been duly received, and would have been earlier acknowledged had I not been in daily expectation of seeing Mr Bushrod Washington on his Circuit. Fearing he may have taken another route, or passed by without calling, I delay no longer to declare; that I think as you do, that his advice was given on mistaken ground; and in that case, a Deed from General Lee to me...
24From George Washington to Wilson Allen, 26 May 1799 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to Wilson Allen, 26 May. On 29 May Allen wrote GW that he had received “Your letter of date the 26th inst.”
25From George Washington to James Anderson, 8 September 1799 (Washington Papers)
Mrs Washington passed a good night—is clear of a fever to day—and is taking the Bark—which I hope will prevent a return of it. I am much hurried, and pressed with one thing—or another, but do what humanity requires for Roberts: who ought not to have engaged, in the situation he is in, without first informing me of it. Doctr Craik is not now here, nor expected if Mrs Washington should not...
26From George Washington to James Anderson, 1 October 1799 (Washington Papers)
When you intimated to me your son’s wish to Rent my Distillery & Mill next year, and your inclination to join him therein—and in that case to relinquish the management of my business; I informed you that I had made Mr Lawrence Lewis (after you had declined taking them) an offer of both; together with the Farm at Dogue-run; and that until I received his answer, I did not conceive I was at...
27From George Washington to James Anderson, 1 November 1798 (Washington Papers)
Circumstances may render it necessary for me to make a journey to the Seat of Government: and letters which I expect every Post day, will determine whether I shall take it or not. If I go, my departure will be sudden, and how long I may be absent from home, is uncertain; I do not expect however, that it can exceed four, or at most five Weeks. With respect to the Farms and Meadows I shall say...
28From George Washington to James Anderson (of Scotland), 4 November 1797 (Washington Papers)
Your favours of the 21st of June and 3d of August last, have both been received, and are entitled to my best acknowledgments and thanks. The last was presented by William Spence, who arrived here the 27th Ulto via New York, in very good health and in very good time, my old Gardener having left me, as I wished it might happen, about a fort night before. For the prompt attention you have paid to...
29From George Washington to James Anderson, 3 November 1798 (Washington Papers)
By the way of Boston, I have just received a letter from Mr Richd Parkinson, dated “Liverpool 28th Augt 1798.” The contents of this letter have surprised me; and that you may know from whence this surprise has proceeded, I shall lodge in your hands (as I am going from home, and may be absent four or five weeks) Mr Parkinsons first and second letters to me; and my answer to him; (a duplicate,...
30From George Washington to James Anderson, 6–7 February 1798 (Washington Papers)
It would seem by the reply you handed to me yesterday, in explanation of the observations I had made, in going over your A/cs that you were hurt by the remarks. The notes were not taken with that view—and you were told so in explicit terms. On the contrary, I remarked that the A/cs were perfectly fair, & only required explanation in one or two instances to make them clear. Not having the Bank...
31From George Washington to James Anderson, 11 June 1798 (Washington Papers)
In replying to your letter of yesterday, the following answer, and sentiments are given. Whilest I catch fish at the landing by your house, and make flour & whiskey at my Mill & Distillery, the expence of adding to the former allowance of the two first mentioned articles, in the manner you desire, and allowing a reasonable quantity of the latter, will not be sensibly felt by me, and therefore...
32From George Washington to James Anderson, 18 June 1797 (Washington Papers)
As far as time and circumstances have enabled me to attend to the subject, I have given your Memorial a careful perusal; and what follows is the result of my reflections thereupon. The principles laid down for conducting the different Farms I approve; and the mode of carrying those principles into effect appear to me to be well digested; some modification however, in the execution, may be...
33From George Washington to James Anderson (of Scotland), 25 July 1798 (Washington Papers)
Your favour of the 8th of February came safe, and would have received an earlier acknowledgment if anything had sooner occurred, worthy of communication. I hope you have not only got relieved of the fever from which you were then recovering, but of the langour with which it had affected you; and that you are now engaged in the literary pursuits of which you gave the outlines—and which with...
34From George Washington to James Anderson, 10 September 1799 (Washington Papers)
In a hasty note which I wrote to you on Sunday last, I informed you, that as soon as time and circumstances would permit, I would be more full on a subject which I could then, but barely touch upon. The latter of these has not, yet, put it so fully in my power as I could wish to fulfil this promise. I shall, however, endeavour to explain my meaning without further ⟨delay⟩. I have, for more...
35Enclosure: Washington’s Plans for His River, Union, and Muddy Hole Farms, 10 December 1799 (Washington Papers)
River-Farm Crops for, & operations thereon, for the year 1800 Field No. 1—Is now partly in Wheat. Part thereof is to be sown with Oats. another part may be sown with Pease, broadcast. Part is in meadow, and will remain so. and the most broken, washed, & indifferent part, is to remain uncultivated; but to be harrowed & smoothed in the Spring, and the worst parts thereof (if practicable) to be...
36From George Washington to James Anderson, 22 May 1798 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 19th inst. has been received, but not with the surprise it would otherwise have occasioned, had I not been prepared in some measure for the notice it gave by the intimation contained in a former letter (not now by me, & the date forgotten) of your intention to withdraw from my employment, at the end of the year. I shall repeat now, what I said upon that occasion—viz.—that I...
37From George Washington to James Anderson, 16 September 1799 (Washington Papers)
The indisposition of Mrs Washington—Dispatches of a troublesome kind, which required all my attention—and the house never being clear of company—have put it out of my power to take any notice of your letter of the 13th instant, until now. Health, being amongst (if not the most) precious gift of Heaven; without which, we are but little capable of business, or enjoyment; and as you seem to be...
38From George Washington to James Anderson, 21 December 1797 (Washington Papers)
As the present year is about to close, it is my desire that all the accompts from the commencement of your Management, up to the first of January, may be fully stated and laid before me on, or about that day. In doing this, I shall expect to see, at one view, all the monies which you have received, and all that you have expended (on my a/c); together with the balances which may be due for...
39From George Washington to James Anderson, 16 September 1798 (Washington Papers)
I am too much hurried and perplexed by the variety, and importance of the correspondence which I am thrown into, by recent & unexpected events, to find time to be answering long letters of complaint & remonstrances, at my expressing a sentiment at any time, respecting matters in which my interest is deeply concerned; when a personal conversation of five minutes would, at any time, in the...
40From George Washington to James Anderson, 13 December 1799 (Washington Papers)
I did not know that you were here yesterday morning until I had mounted my horse, otherwise I should have given you what I now send. As Mr Rawlins was going to the Union Farm, to lay off the Clover lots, I sent by him the Duplicate for that Farm to his brother—and as I was going to River Farm myself, I carried a copy for that Farm to Dowdal—Both of them have been directed to consider them...
41From George Washington to James Anderson (of Scotland), 7 April 1797 (Washington Papers)
A few days since, through the Channel of our Minister in London, I was favoured with the receipt of your third volume of Essays relating to Agriculture & rural Affairs for which I pray you to accept my best thanks. I am once more seated under my own Vine and fig tree, and hope to spend the remainder of my days—which in the ordinary course of things (being in my Sixty sixth year) cannot be...
42From George Washington to James Anderson, 17 February 1799 (Washington Papers)
I am not certain that I perfectly understood (when I was speaking to you on the subject the other day) what parts of the Banks in Union Farm Meadow, were sowed with Clover; and therefore make the enquiry now; first, because I am strongly impressed with an idea that that part which is in Wheat, on the North Side of the Branch from the Barn lane downwards (especially as far as the rough plowed...
43From George Washington to James Anderson, 25 November 1797 (Washington Papers)
I have given the scheme which you put into my hands for renting some of my land on the Great Kanhawa, such consideration as time and circumstances would permit. What follows is the result. To require such a rent, and to make it progressive to a certain period as is digested in your Plan of a Rental in a country abounding in unsettled Lands which are open to every purchaser on a more moderate...
44From George Washington to James Anderson, 1 February 1798 (Washington Papers)
Observations in going over Mr Andersons Accounts 1. That there is no Cash A/c raised in his Ledger, which is as essential as any other A/c; because, in a greater or less degree, it is the foundation of all others, or nearly allied to them: and is the one from whence the balance of the receipts and expenditures of money is to appear. And if a column in this a/c be instituted for correspondent...
45From George Washington to Richard Clough Anderson, 30 July 1798 (Washington Papers)
In the course of last Wint⟨er⟩ A Mr Massay passed through Alexandria on his way to Philadelphia, & reported a⟨t⟩ the former place, that I should lose my la⟨nd⟩ in the Northwestern Territory—on the little Miami. Not perceiving how this coul⟨d⟩ happen, fairly —and not supposing th⟨at⟩ it would be taken from me otherwise, ⟨&⟩ without allowing me a hearing; I paid but little attention to the...
46From George Washington to Joseph Anthony, 17 March 1799 (Washington Papers)
I have, lately, received from John Trumbull Esqr. (now in London) four setts of the Battle of Bunkers Hill, and death of General Montgomery; for which I subscribed, & am ready to pay; if I knew who was authorised to receive what is due thereupon. Conceiving it most likely that his brother, Governor Trumbull, was so empowered, I wrote to him on the subject, but received for answer that he was...
47From George Washington to James Ash, 29 July 1798 (Washington Papers)
I have been duly honored with the receipt of your favour of the 23d Instant. As you are known to, and have a reliance on the friendship of the Secretary of War, there can be no doubt but that his recommendation of you to the President of the United States would ensure you a Commission in the line of the army. With respect to the Gentlemen who are to compose my family as Aids de Camp, so many...
48From George Washington to James Athill, 4 September 1798 (Washington Papers)
I had the honor to receive by Captn Evelett, in the Brig Philanthropist, your very polite and obliging favor of the 21st of July—accompanying five Sheep, and a number of Exotic Plants: of which the Captain appears to have been carefull, although a number of the latter have died. Those which have survived look lively, & probably will do well, as all possible care shall be taken of them. This...
49From George Washington to John Avery, 25 September 1799 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 2d instt came duly to hand; but previous thereto, I had written to Mr Jno. Francis of Philadelphia (who report had engaged the houses to, I was building in the Federal City) to know in explicit terms whether he meant to take them, or not, on the conditions I offered them, namely—Seven and an half percent on the whole cost; to which, taxes, if any, and Insurance against fire,...
50From George Washington to Burgess Ball, 22 September 1799 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 16th instt has been received, informing me of the death of my brother. The death of near relations, always produce awful, and affecting emotions, under whatsoever circumstances it may happen. That of my brother’s, has been so long expected, and his latter days so uncomfortable to himself, must have prepared all around him for the stroke; though painful in the effect. I was...