To George Washington from David Steel, 10 July 1795
From David Steel
London, 10th July 1795.
sir,
A very old and worthy friend of mine, Mr Christopher Richmond, received from me, some months ago, a copy of a new work, “The Elements and Practice of Rigging, Seamanship, and Naval Tactics.”1 Thinking it would serve my interest, he introduced it to the notice of the War Department of your United States; and it became, as I understand, an official deposit there.2 He since suggested to me, that I had an opportunity of shewing, according to my sphere, the very high respect he had often heard me express for you: and I thank him for the hint.
Give me leave therefore, sir, to request that you will place in your library the accompanying volumes.3 The part I have taken in them you will find in the preface; and I hope you will think the work of respectable execution.
Pardon me, if I force into this subject my admiration of your character. The desire of fame (for the sake of fame only) is truly the desire of little minds: but that appetite for applause, which springs from the healthiness and virtue of our actions, is honest, is worthy of the greatest, and ought to be gratified. Such must be yours: and, with the plainness of a man who has lived sixty years, and with the truth of an honest one, I assure you, Sir, that I am Your very sincere admirer And obedt servant
David steel.
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. Steel referred to his work The Elements and Practice of Rigging and Seamanship (2 vols., London, 1794).
2. A copy of Secretary of War Timothy Pickering’s letter to Christopher Richmond of 16 March can be found in DNA: RG 45, Letters Sent by the War Department Relating to Naval Matters. Two days later Pickering informed Bartholomew Dandridge, Jr., that he recently had received a letter and the two volumes from Richmond. Pickering asked that Dandridge “lay them before the President” and wrote that he had informed Richmond the set should go to the War Department (ALS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW).
Dandridge replied to Pickering that same day: “By order of the President Bw Dandridge has the honor to return to The Secy of War, the Letter of C. Richmond Esqr. together with the two volumes on Naval Tactics. The President has not leisure to peruse them; nor is he sufficiently acquainted with the subject of them, to make it worth his while to do it. he thinks with you, however, that it will be well to deposit them in the war office—where they may prove of great advantage to the officers of the navy” (ADf, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW).
3. The volumes remained in GW’s library at the time of his death (see 547).