From George Washington to James Wood, 12 September 1796
To James Wood
Philadelphia 12th Septr 1796
Dear Sir
By a recurrence to the Acts of the last Session of Congress, you will find one for disposing of the ungranted lands No. Wt of the Ohio; and for appointing a Surveyor General for the purposes therein mentioned.1 And you may have heard, that Mr DeWitt, who was Geographer to the Army at the close of the War, after the decease of Mr Erskine, and at present the Surveyor General of the State of New York (a man of profound knowledge in Mathematics, and sufficiently skilled in Astronomy) was nominated to that Office, and has declined the acceptance of it.2
It is yet vacant; and you have been mentioned to me, as a Gentleman to whom it might be acceptable.
Without taking then a circuitous rout to ascertain this fact, I shall apply immediately to yourself, for information: and will frankly ask, because I am sure you will candidly answer (if the appointment should meet your wishes) whether your knowledge in Mathematics; practical Surveying; and so much of Astronomy as is useful to a skilful exercise of the latter, for discovering the Latitude, Meridian &ca now are, or easily could be made familiar to you.
These questions are propounded, because affirmative qualifications are essential; for it will readily occur to you, that he who is to examine & employ others—⟨d⟩irect their proceedings—and to inspect their works—ought not to be ignorant of the principles which are to be the rule for their conduct.
It is a very honorable and important Office; none perhaps that requires more integrity and vigilance in the execution, to prevent improper speculations and abuse. The Officer holding it must reside in the Country where the business will be chiefly transacted.
As the Season & circumstances begin now to press for an Appointment, and as my continuance here, and the road I shall travel back to Virginia (for the purpose of returning with my family for the winter) are somewhat uncertain, I request the favor of you, to put your answer to this letter under cover to the Secretary of State, who will be directed to open it, and to fill up the blank Commission which I shall deposit in his Office with your name if you are disposed to accept it; or with that of another Gentleman who is held in contemplation if you do not. You may, if it is not too troublesome, address a duplicate to me, at Mount Vernon, to remain in the Post Office at Alexandria until called for.3 With great esteem & regard I am—Dear Sir Your Very Hble Servant
Go: Washington
ALS, MA; LB, DLC:GW. Forgeries of this document are addressed to Wood, but others are addressed to James Baldwin, James Barnard, James Brooks, James Camp, James Jewett, or James Overton. The forgeries typically omit most of the fourth and all of the fifth paragraphs.
1. GW meant “An Act providing for the Sale of the Lands of the United States, in the territory northwest of the river Ohio, and above the mouth of Kentucky river,” approved 18 May ( 464–69).
2. See GW to the U.S. Senate, 28 May (second letter), and Timothy Pickering to GW, 27 June, and n.2.
3. Wood replied to GW from Richmond on 19 Sept.: “I have had the honor to receive the Letter you were pleased to write me the 12th Instant. while I am highly gratified by your approbation and polite attention, in making me a tender of the Office of Surveyor General; I am Constrained to decline the acceptance of it; from a thorough Conviction that I am not Competent to an honorable discharge of the duties of so important an Office; Candor Obliges me to Confess, that I am Unacquainted with Astronomy or a Knowledge in Mathematics, and that I am superficial in practical surveying. Unfortunately for me, my father died when in my seventeenth year, and immediately after I had Commenced, under him, the study of the Mathematics; before his death I was well grounded in Arithmetic, and had become a good County Court Clerk, having been employed in his office some years previous to that event; since that period, I have been Strugling through the world with a very limited fortune, and after more than thirty years employment in public service, I find myself rather poorer than the day I began. I have Continued in the Office I now fill about thirteen years, for the last three or four years, it has been extremely painful to me, and no Consideration wou’d have induced me to Continue in it, but the Difficulty of working my Farm to advantage, as I had emancipated all my slaves soon after the Conclusion of the war.
“I embrace with pleasure the Occasion which is Offered me of assuring you of the Sentiments of sincere respect and attachment” (ALS, MHi: Pickering Papers; ALS [duplicate], DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters). Secretary of State Timothy Pickering docketed the ALS as “sent to me to be opened by the President’s direction in his absence.” Wood sent a brief letter to Pickering with the duplicate that Pickering docketed as “inclosing one open to the President, by whose verbal directions I read it, and sent the Commission of Surveyor General, to Rufus Putnam, seeing Govr Wood declined the office” (see also Pickering to GW, 29 Sept., in DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters).
Wood’s father, James Wood (1707–1759), had founded Winchester, Virginia. He served as county surveyor and the first clerk of the Frederick County Court.
James Wood joined the council of the state of Virginia in June 1784. As president of that body starting in December 1788, he acted as lieutenant governor of the state.