1From George Washington to Lafayette, 25 December 1798 (Washington Papers)
I am indebted to you for the following letters, dated the 6th of October and 20th of December of the last year, and 26th of April, 20th of May, 20th of August & 5th of September in the present. If more have been written, they have fallen into other hands, or miscarried on their passage. Convinced as you must be of the fact, it would be a mere waste of time to assure you of the sincere, &...
2From George Washington to Lafayette, 5 December 1797 (Washington Papers)
Not knowing when, where or whether ever this letter may reach your hands the contents will be small, and the purport merely congratulatory on your releasement from a cruel imprisonment; the official acct of which we have at length received. On what principle you have under gone this rigorous treatment, I have been unable to divine, but be this as it may, no one rejoices more than I do that a...
3From George Washington to Lafayette, 8 October 1797 (Washington Papers)
This letter will, I hope and expect, be presented to you by your Son, who is highly deserving of such Parents as you and your amiable Lady. He can relate, much better than I can describe, my participation in your sufferings—my solicitude for your relief—the measures I adopted (though ineffectually) to facilitate your liberation from an unjust & cruel imprisonment—and the joy I experienced at...
4From George Washington to Lafayette, 10 June 1792 (Washington Papers)
In the revolution of a great Nation we must not be surprized at the Vicissitudes to which individuals are liable; and the changes which they experience will always be in proportion to the weight of their public character; I was therefore not surprised, my dear Sir, at receiving your letter dated at Metz which you had the goodness to write me on the 22d of January. That personal ease & private...
5From George Washington to Lafayette, 21 November 1791 (Washington Papers)
At the earnest request of Mr Jorre I make known to you, that he came over to this Country with an idea of obtaining some appointment under our Government; but he now finds that idea to have been false; for propriety, as you, my dear Sir, well know, would not admit of a foreigners being prefered to Office before one of our own Countrymen, who suffered so much to effect the revolution, and who...
6From George Washington to Lafayette, 21 November 1791 (Washington Papers)
Mr John Trumbull, with whom you are acquainted, is engaged in Painting a series of Pictures of the most important Events of the Revolution in this Country, from which he proposes to have plates engraved. I have taken peculiar satisfaction in giving eve⟨r⟩y proper aid in my power to a subscrip⟨tion⟩ for supporting this work, whic⟨h⟩ has been likewise patronized by the principle people in this...
7From George Washington to Lafayette, 10 September 1791 (Washington Papers)
The lively interest which I take in your welfare, my dear Sir, keeps my mind in constant anxiety for your personal safety amidst the scenes in which you are perpetually engaged. Your letter of the 6th of June by Monsieur de Ternant gave me that pleasure which I receive from all your letters, which tell me that you are well—But from the account you there gave it did not appear that you would be...
8From George Washington to Lafayette, 28 July 1791 (Washington Papers)
I have, my dear Sir, to acknowledge the receipt of your favors of the 7 of March and 3 of May, and to thank you for the communications which they contain relative to your public affairs. I assure you I have often contemplated, with great anxiety, the danger to which you are personally exposed by your peculiar and delicate situation in the tumult of the times, and your letters are far from...
9From George Washington to Lafayette, 19 March 1791 (Washington Papers)
Renewing to you, my dear Sir, assurances of the most perfect esteem and affection, I desire to refer the interruptions which our correspondence has lately sustained, on my part, to causes which I am persuaded you will readily admit as excusable. To the fulfilment of public duties, too interesting to be neglected, and too multiplied to allow me much leisure, I am forced to sacrifice the wishes...
10From George Washington to Lafayette, 11 August 1790 (Washington Papers)
I have received your affectionate letter of the 17 of March by one conveyance, and the token of victory gained by Liberty over Despotism by another: for both which testimonials of your friendship and regard I pray you to accept my sincerest thanks. In this great subject of triumph for the new World, and for humanity in general, it will never be forgotten how conspicuous a part you bore, and...
11From George Washington to Lafayette, 3 June 1790 (Washington Papers)
Your kind letter of the 12th of January is, as your letters always are, extremely acceptable to me. By some chance its arrival had been retarded to this time. Conscious of your friendly dispositions for me and realising the enormous burden of public business with which you was oppressed, I felt no solicitude but that you should progress directly forward and happily effect your great...
12From George Washington to Lafayette, 14 October 1789 (Washington Papers)
This is the first time I have written to you, my dear Marquis, since I have been in this place—and I have not received a line from you in the same space of time. This has been a long interval of silence between two persons whose habits of correspondence have been so uninterruptedly kept up as ours; but the new and arduous scenes in which we have both been lately engaged will afford a mutual...
13From George Washington to Lafayette, 29 January 1789 (Washington Papers)
By the last Post, I was favored with the receipt of your letter, dated the 5th of September last. Notwithstanding the distance of its date, it was peculiarly welcome to me: for I had not, in the mean time received any satisfactory advices respecting yourself or your country. By that letter, my mind was placed much more at its ease, on both those subjects, than it had been for many months. The...
14From George Washington to Lafayette, 27 November 1788 (Washington Papers)
I wrote to you my dear Marquis, on the 15th day of September last, a very long letter, mostly on speculative and political topics. But as [I] knew that communication, by going through the French Post Offices, might be exposed to the inspection of other eyes besides yours, I was careful not to suggest any thing, which it might have been imprudent to divulge to the world. A little after sending...
15GW to Lafayette, 15 September 1788 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: GW to Lafayette, 15 Sept. 1788. On 27 Nov. 1788 GW wrote Lafayette : “I wrote to you my dear Marquis, on the 15th day of September last.”
16From George Washington to Lafayette, 18 June 1788 (Washington Papers)
I cannot account for your not having received some of my letters, my dear Marquis, before you wrote yours of the 18th of March; as I have been writing to you, at short intervals, constantly since last autumn. To demonstrate the satisfaction I enjoy on the receipt of your favours; I always answer them almost as soon as they arrive—Although, on account of my retirement from the busy scenes of...
17From George Washington to Lafayette, 28 May 1788 (Washington Papers)
I have lately had the pleasure to receive two letters by which you introduced to my acquaintance M. Du Pont and M. Vanderkemp and (altho’ those gentlemen have not as yet been to visit me[)], you may be persuaded that whensoever I shall have the satisfaction of receiving them, it will be with all that attention to which their merits and your recommendations entitle them. Notwithstanding you are...
18From George Washington to Lafayette, 28 April–1 May 1788 (Washington Papers)
I have now before me, my dear Marqs your favor of the 3d of August in the last year; together with those of the 1st of January, the 2d of January and the 4th of February in the present—Though the first is of so antient a date, they all came to hand lately, and nearly at the same moment. The frequency of your kind remembrance of me, and the endearing expressions of attachment, are by so much...
19From George Washington to Lafayette, 7 February 1788 (Washington Papers)
You know it always gives me the sincerest pleasure to hear from you, my dear Marquis, and therefore I need only say that your two kind letters of the 9th & 15th of Octr so replete with personal affection and confidential intelligence, afforded me inexpressible satisfaction. I shall myself be happy in forming an acquaintance and culivating a friendship with the new Minister Plenipotentiary of...
20From George Washington to Lafayette, 10 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I fear my dear marqs, you will believe me to have been remiss in attentions to you. my last letters, I find, have been unaccountably concentered in the same hands and unreasonably delayed; entirely contrary to my expectation. when you shall have received them by the Chevalier Paul Jones, you will acquit me of any intended or real neglect. one of these letters containing the form of Government...
21From George Washington to Lafayette, 18 September 1787 (Washington Papers)
In the midst of hurry, and in the moment of my departure from this City I address this letter to you. The principal, indeed the only design of it is, to fulfil the promise I made that I would send you the proceedings of the Fœderal Convention as soon as the business of it was closed. More than this, circumstanced as I am at present is not in my power to do. nor am I inclined to attempt it, as...
22From George Washington to Lafayette, 15 August 1787 (Washington Papers)
Altho’ the business of the Fœderal Convention is not yet clos’d, nor I, thereby, enabled to give you an account of its proceedings; yet, the opportunity afforded by Commodore Paul Jones’ Return to France is too favourable for me to omit informing you, that the present expectation of the members is, that it will end about the first of next month; when, or as soon after as it shall be in my...
23From George Washington to Lafayette, 21 July 1787 (Washington Papers)
This letter will be presented to you by Mr Rucker, Partner in the House of Constable Rucker & Co. of New York and agent for Robert Morris Esqr. in France; on whose business he now is and whose instance I take the liberty of introducing him to your Civilities & to countenance if in the course of his transactions he shall stand in need of the latter. Mr Rucker is represented to me as a Gentleman...
24From George Washington to Lafayette, 30 June 1787 (Washington Papers)
The Gentleman who will do the honor of presenting this letter to you is Mr Shipping—Son of your old acquaintance Doctr Shipping of this City who having been at the Temple proposes to visit Paris, and of course to offer homage to you—He is a very sensible young man and as far as opportunities are offorded me to judge—possesses a well cultivated mind which unduces me without hesitation or...
25From George Washington to Lafayette, 6 June 1787 (Washington Papers)
Not till within this hour was I informed of the intention of Mr Rutledge (son to the Governor Rutledge of South Carolina whom I believe you know) to embark in the Packet for France, or that he was to set out in the morning for New York, to take shipping the day after. Tho’ totally unprepared (immersed as I am in the business of the Convention) I cannot let this Gentleman depart without a...
26From George Washington to Lafayette, 25 March 1787 (Washington Papers)
Since writing you a hasty letter in November last, by a vessel which was then passing my door, I have been honored with your kind and obliging favor of the 26th of October; for the affectionate sentiments with whch it is replite I pray you to accept my warmest and most grateful acknowledgments and the strongest assurances of everlasting Friendship. I am writing to you my Dear Sir but where...
27From George Washington to Lafayette, 19 November 1786 (Washington Papers)
On thursday last I received in very good order, from Baltimore, under the care of Monsr Compoint, the most valuable things you could have sent me, a Jack & two she Asses, all of which are very fine. The Pheasants & Partridges are coming round by water; for these also I pray you to accept my thanks. Words, my dear Marquis, will not do justice to my feelings, when I acknowledge the obligation I...
28From George Washington to Lafayette, 15 August 1786 (Washington Papers)
I will not conceal that my numerous correspondencies are daily becoming irksome to me; yet I always receive your letters with augmenting satisfaction, and therefore rejoice with you in the measures which are likely to be productive of a more frequent intercourse between our two nations. Thus, motives of a private as well as of a public nature conspire to give me pleasure, in finding that the...
29From George Washington to Lafayette, 8 June 1786 (Washington Papers)
You would be surprised at the old date of the letter herewith sent you, were I not to tell you that the vessel which carries it was to have sailed agreeably to the date, & by information was to do so every day since. Nothing new has occurred since it was written, nor should I have given you the trouble of a second letter by the same ship, had I not forgotten to mention in my last that Mrs...
30From George Washington to Lafayette, 10 May 1786 (Washington Papers)
The Letter which you did me the favor to write to me by Mr Barratt dated the 6th of Feby, together with the parcel & packages which accompanied it, came safely to hand; & for which I pray you to accept my grateful acknowledgments. The account given of your tour thro’ Prussia & other States of Germany, to Vienna & back; & of the Troops which you saw reviewed, in the pay of those Monarchs, at...