From George Washington to Edmund Randolph, 29 April 1794

To Edmund Randolph

Philadelphia 29th April 1794

Sir,

I have read the draught of yr letter, intended as an answer to the British Minister’s reply to Mr Pinckneys Memorial, on the Instructions of the 8th of June 1793. Those of the 6th of Novr following stands unconnected with the subject.1

It is essential that all the cited cases should be correct; and that the general statement should be placed on incontrovertible ground; otherwise, the argument will recoil with redoubled force.

Close attention being given to these matters—and the ideas expressed without warmth or asperity, if upon a revision such should be found to have intermingled, I see no objection to the particular answer which is prepared.2

Go: Washington

ALS (letterpress copy), DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, GW’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State.

1. On the draft of Randolph’s letter of 1 May to British minister George Hammond, see Randolph to GW, 28 April (second letter), and notes 1 and 2.

2. For the final version of Randolph’s letter, see DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters; ASP, Foreign Affairs description begins Walter Lowrie et al., eds. American State Papers. Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States. 38 vols. Washington, D.C., Gales and Seaton, 1832–61. description ends , 1:450–54.

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Source Project: Washington Papers
Title: From George Washington to Edmund Randolph, 29 April 1794
Author: Washington, George
Recipient: Randolph, Edmund
Date: 29 April 1794

Reference

Cite as: “From George Washington to Edmund Randolph, 29 April 1794,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-15-02-0539. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 15, 1 January–30 April 1794, ed. Christine Sternberg Patrick. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009, pp. 680–681.]

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