31Virginia Delegates to Benjamin Harrison, 1 November 1783 (first) (Madison Papers)
RC (Virginia State Library). Cover missing. Addressed to “His Excellency Benjamin Harrison Esqr.” In the hand of John Francis Mercer, except for Arthur Lee’s signature. For the absence of JM’s signature, see Delegates to Harrison, 24 June 1783 , ed. n. The present letter and the other one of the same date from the delegates to Governor Harrison were given a single docket, reading “Delegates...
32Virginia Delegates in Congress to Benjamin Harrison, with Petition from Inhabitants of Kentucky, 20 February 1784 (Jefferson Papers)
We have the honor to inclose to your Excellency the copy of a petition from some of the inhabitants of the Kentucky district, lately presented to Congress. It was read when seven States were on the floor and it seem’d to be their disposition to pay no attention to it. Sometime afterwards we mov’d that it might be committed to us to be transmitted to your Excellency and this motion was...
33Virginia Delegates to Benjamin Harrison, 13 September 1783—Missing Letter (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 13 September 1783 . In a letter of 26 September to the Virginia delegates in Congress ( q.v. ), Governor Harrison acknowledged receipt of their letter dated thirteen days earlier. This letter, now missing, was written by Joseph Jones on behalf of the Virginia delegation and forwarded by Harrison on 20 October to John Tyler for submission by him to the Virginia General...
34Virginia Delegates to Benjamin Harrison, 20 September 1783 (Madison Papers)
Printed text ( Burnett, Letters Edmund C. Burnett, ed., Letters of Members of the Continental Congress (8 vols.; Washington, 1921–36). , VII, 301, and n. 1). Probably written by John Francis Mercer, who signed it, and possibly also signed by Joseph Jones and JM. The original manuscript has not been found, although about 1930 it was among the Executive Papers in the Virginia State Library. We...
35Virginia Delegates in Congress to Benjamin Harrison, 23 January 1784 (Jefferson Papers)
The inclosed papers from Oliver Pollock came to our hands a few days ago. Ignorance of the organization of our government probably led him to make this improper address, on a business so foreign to the line of our duty. We take the liberty, on his behalf, of inclosing them to your Excellency with a copy of our answer to him. We have the honour to be with the most profound respect & esteem Your...
36Virginia Delegates to Benjamin Harrison, 8 September 1783 (Madison Papers)
RC (Virginia State Library). In the hand of John Francis Mercer, except for the signatures of Theodorick Bland, Jr., and Arthur Lee. Docketed, “Virginia Delegates Sept. 8th. 1783.” For the absence of JM’s signature, see Delegates to Harrison, 24 June 1783 , ed. n. This Post brought us no Letter from your Excellency, & little has ocurred with us since our last communications, worthy your...
37Virginia Delegates to Benjamin Harrison, 1 November 1783 (second) (Madison Papers)
RC (Virginia State Library). Cover missing. Addressed to “His Excellency Benjamin Harrison.” In the hand of John Francis Mercer, except for Arthur Lee’s signature. For the absence of JM’s signature, see Delegates to Harrison, 24 June 1783 , ed. n. The present letter and the other one of 1 November from the delegates to Governor Harrison were given a single docket, reading “Delegates letters....
38Virginia Delegates in Congress to Benjamin Harrison, 22 March 1784 (Jefferson Papers)
We inclose to your Excellency by the bearer Mr. McAlister an Exemplification of the deed of Cession executed according to the directions of the act of assembly transmitted us, and have the honor to be with very high respect Your Excellency’s Most obedt. & most humble servt. Text from facsimile in Amer. Art Assoc. Catalogue, Turner-Munn Sale, 21–22 Jan. 1926, Lot 271, where it is erroneously...
39From George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 18 December 1785 (Washington Papers)
I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 7th inst: enclosing an Act of the General Assembly, which passed at my request. This new proof of the confidence repos’d in me by my Country, lays me under additional obligations to it; and I am equally sensible of its favors, and the polite & friendly wishes with which you accompanied the act. If the etiquette of business makes it necessary...
40From George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 22 January 1785 (Washington Papers)
It is not easy for me to decide by which my mind was most affected upon the receipt of your letter of the 6th inst.—surprize or gratitude: both were greater than I have words to express. The attention & good wishes which the Assembly have evidenced by their act for vesting in me 150 shares in the navigation of each of the rivers Potomac & James, is more than mere compliment—there is an...
41From George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 9 March 1789 (Washington Papers)
My friendship is not in the least lessened by the difference which has taken place in our political sentiments; nor is my regard for you diminished by the part you have acted. Men’s minds are as varient as their faces, and, where the motives to their actions are pure, the operation of the former is no more to be imputed to them as a crime, than the appearance of the latter: for both being the...
42From George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 14 June 1784 (Washington Papers)
Long as the enclosed letter & petition appear to have been written, they never came to my hands until thursday last; the latter, altho’ called a copy, having the marks of an original paper; another copy accompanying it, inducing a belief that it is so, I delay not a moment to hand it forward. My being perfectly ignorant of the laws of the Commonwealth, & unacquainted, if such confiscations...
43From George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 10 October 1784 (Washington Papers)
GW’s letter to Governor Harrison marks his return to public life as the leader of a movement to form a public company for improving the navigation of the upper Potomac and linking it with the waters of the Ohio. He first became deeply involved in schemes for opening up the Potomac in the early 1770s (see particularly the source note and its references in Thomas Johnson to GW, 18 June 1770 )....
44From George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 22 July 1784 (Washington Papers)
I have had the honor to receive your favor of the 2d—What you have asked of the Secretary at War, if obtained, is all I conceive essential to illucidate the accounts of the old & present impositions on the public—the rolls in the pay office might serve as checks to those of the Musters; but where all these are to be met with, I know not, as the Troops of Virginia were, by order of Congress,...
45From George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 24 September 1787 (Washington Papers)
In the first moments after my return I take the liberty of sending you a copy of the Constitution which the Fœderal Convention has submitted to the People of these States. I accompany it with no observations—your own Judgment will at once descover the good, and the exceptionable parts of it. and your experience of the difficulty’s which have ever arisen when attempts have been made to...
46From George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 18 January 1784 (Washington Papers)
I have just had the pleasure to receive your letter of the 8th—for the friendly & affectionate terms in which you have welcomed my return to this Country & to private life; & for the favourable light in which you are pleased to consider, & express your sense of my past services, you have my warmest & most grateful acknowledgments. That the prospect before us is, as you justly observe, fair,...