From George Washington to Timothy Pickering, 20 July 1796
To Timothy Pickering
Mount Vernon 20th July 1796.
Sir,
Your letters of the 12th & 13th instant, with their enclosures, were received by Mondays Mail, the 18th.
The duplicate Commission for John Trumbull; the blank Commissions for the Revenue Officers; and the Patents passed by the Attorney General; are all signed & returned under cover with this letter.
The want of funds to carry on Commerce with the Indian Tribes (agreeably to a late Act of Congress) is an unanswerable objection to the appointment of Agents, at this time, for that purpose. And in addition to the reasons you have assigned for not appointing a Superintendent of Indian Affairs, in place of Governor Blount; and for Postponing running & marking the line between the United States and the Cherokee Nation of Indians, the want of Power—in the President—to appoint Commissioners to attend the Survey; and a successor to the other, would, I conceive, appear upon investigation; as the first would be an original appointment—and the latter, did not take place in the recess of the Senate. It follows then of course, that these measures must stand suspended, and the best temporary uses made of the present situations, and Services of Colo. Henly and Mr Dinsmore that the nature of things will admit.1
Not knowing myself, the purport of the German letter herewith enclosed, and having no body about me that can translate it, I send it to you for this purpose; in order that I may know what attention to give it.2
Go: Washington
ALS, MHi: Pickering Papers; LS (retained copy), DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, GW’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State.
1. See Pickering to GW, 12 July, found at Pickering to GW, 8 July, n.1.
2. Pickering subsequently wrote GW from Philadelphia on Tuesday, 26 July: “I have the honor to send you a translation of the German letter received from you last Saturday with a pamphlet in the same language by Joachim Detler Wittmack. My clerk who made the translation says he could not find in the English language words to convey the sentiments of extreme humility expressed in the original, and which are familiar in the German: So debasing to the human mind are the absolute, hereditary governments of monarchs & nobles!
“Judge Peters understanding both the language and the subject of Mynheer Wittmack’s pamphlet, I will place it in his hands, to be disposed of afterwards as you shall be pleased to direct. But however considerable may be Mr Wittmack’s practical knowledge of husbandry, he could not have written the pamphlet in its present style; his manuscript letter being (the Clerk says) extremely incorrect” (ALS, DLC:GW; ALS [letterpress copy], MHi: Pickering Papers). GW received this letter on 29 July (see GW to Pickering, 1 Aug.).
The enclosed translation of Jochim Detlev Wittmack’s letter to GW dated 7 March reads: “From my youth I have devoted myself to husbandry and every sort of oeconomy; and by long experience and much practice I have attained a considerable knowledge of this so noble employment. I therefore undertook to publish books upon this subject, in which I demonstrate briefly but comprehensively, that the earth does not produce by far as much as it is capable of. And as the world knows, that Your Excellency’s true object is to promote the best welfare of your subjects, I have ventured to take the humble liberty to send you herewith one of my small books; and as I hope and wish, that it may obtain your most gracious Excellency’s most gracious approbation, I humbly pray that I may have the happiness of an answer from your Excellency, informing me that my small work has been well received; and, as myself and my family are in distress, accompanied with such a present, as your Excellency shall think I deserve: which shall for ever be thankfully acknowledged” (DLC:GW). Pickering probably enclosed Wittmack’s Allgemein nützliches Handbuch von der Landwirthschaft: samt verschiedenen dahin einschlagenden Materien (Odense, Denmark, 1796).