From George Washington to Metcalf Bowler, 19 August 1786
To Metcalf Bowler
Mount Vernon 19th Augt 1786.
Sir,
I have received your letter of the 21st of July together with the Treatise on Agriculture & practical Husbandry.1 I consider the latter as a mark of attention which merits my warmest acknowledgments.
It is a subject highly worthy the attention of every gentleman in this country who has leisure, abilities, or opportunity to improve it. It is the only source from which we can at present draw any real or permanent advantage; & in my opinion it must be a great (if not the sole) means of our attaining to that degree of respectability & importance which we ought to hold in the world. I am Sir &c.
G: Washington
LB, DLC:GW.
Metcalf Bowler (1726–1789) before the Revolution was a leading commercial figure in Rhode Island and from 1767 to 1776 the speaker of the house in its assembly. In 1786 he published in Providence A Treatise on Agriculture and Practical Husbandry. Designed for the Information of Landowners and Farmers. With a Brief Account of the Advantages Arising from the New Method of Culture Practised in Europe. The eighty-eight-page volume was in GW’s library at Mount Vernon at the time of his death.
1. Letter not found.