From George Washington to James McHenry, 8 July 1796
To James McHenry
Mount Vernon 8th July 1796.
Dear Sir:
Having written a great many letters for this day’s Post, and being a good deal fatigued thereby and with the heat of the weather, I shall do no more, at present, than to inform you that your letters of the 2d and 3d instant1 with the enclosures of the first came perfectly safe, and that my letter to the Secretary of State, of this date, will inform you confidentially of my decision with respect to the recall of Col. M—— and the measures which I am pursuing to provide a Successor.
I am sorry to hear you have been [un]well, and glad to hear you are better—Keep so—one well day is worth a dozen sick ones. I am Yours always
Go. Washington
Transcript (photostat), DLC: James McHenry Papers. Notes on the document indicate that Richard Bassett Bayard made this transcript in 1871 to replace the original letter received from James Howard McHenry.
McHenry replied to GW on 13 July 1796: “I was truely gladdened by your letter of the 8th. The Jacobins gave out that you were to be here on the 4th inst., after which they circulated a report that you had been thrown from your Phaeton, in consequence of which your life was despaired of. I did not beleive a word of all this, and yet I was uneasy till I received your letter. you are in good health and good spirits and god send that both may continue. I know not what new sacrifices we may yet have to require of you. The world grows older, and republicans occupy more and more of its surface, but I do not find that it becomes better.
“I shall endeavour to keep well according to your kind wish” (ALS, DLC:GW).
GW replied to McHenry on 18 July: “Private … I have not segacity enough to discover what end was to be answered by reporting—first, that I was to be in Philadelphia on the 4th July—and secondly, when that report was contradicted by my non-appearance, then to account for it by a fall from my Phæton.
“If any scheme could have originated, or been facilitated by these, or any other reports, however unfounded, I should not have been surprised at the propagation of them; for evidence enough has been given that Mith or falsehood is equally used, and indifferent to that class of men if their object can be obtained” (ALS [facsimile], DLC: James McHenry Papers).