George Washington. George Washington

TO MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE, JUNE 10, 1792

       198 TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, JULY 29, 1792

       199 TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE, AUGUST 23, 1792

       200 TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, AUGUST 26, 1792

       201 TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, AUGUST 26, 1792

       202 PROCLAMATION, SEPTEMBER 15, 1792

       203 TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE, OCTOBER 18, 1792

       204 PROCLAMATION, DECEMBER 12, 1792

       205 PROCLAMATION OF NEUTRALITY, APRIL 22, 1793

       206 TO GOVERNOR HENRY LEE, JULY 21, 1793

       207 PROCLAMATION, MARCH 24, 1794

       208 PROCLAMATION, AUGUST 7, 1794

       209 TO GOVERNOR HENRY LEE, AUGUST 26, 1794

       210 TO BURGESS BALL, SEPTEMBER 25, 1794

       211 PROCLAMATION, SEPTEMBER 25, 1794

       212 TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE, OCTOBER 16, 1794

       213 TO JOHN JAY, NOVEMBER 1794

       214 TO THE COMMISSIONERS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, JANUARY 28, 1795

       215 TO THOMAS JEFFERSON, MARCH 15, 1795

       216 TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON, JULY 3, 1795

       217 TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON, JULY 29, 1795

       218 TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON, OCTOBER 29, 1795

       219 TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS, DECEMBER 22, 1795

       220 TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MARCH 30, 1796

      CHAPTER FOURTEEN A Work Completed 1796–1799

       221 TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON, MAY 8, 1796

       222 TO THE EMPEROR OF GERMANY, MAY 15, 1796

       223 TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON, MAY 15, 1796

       224 TO THOMAS PINCKNEY, MAY 22, 1796

       225 TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON, JUNE 26, 1796

       226 TO THOMAS JEFFERSON, JULY 6, 1796

       227 TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON, AUGUST 25, 1796

       228 TALK TO THE CHEROKEE NATION, AUGUST 29, 1796

       229 TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON, SEPTEMBER 1, 1796

       230 TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON, NOVEMBER 2, 1796

       231 TO JONATHAN TRUMBULL, MARCH 3, 1797

       232 TO MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE, DECEMBER 25, 1798

       233 TO PATRICK HENRY, JANUARY 15, 1799

       Epilogue

       234 TO GOVERNOR JONATHAN TRUMBULL, AUGUST 30, 1799

       235 LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT, JULY 9, 1799

       INDEX OF RECIPIENTS

       SUBJECT INDEX

Acknowledgments

      THIS WORK could not have been compiled as it has, and certainly not so well, without the able direction of Liberty Fund, Inc. Nor can I submit it to the world without acknowledging my debt to them.

      Mr. Eldon Alexander, who is writing a thesis on Washington’s political ideas, assisted me throughout the process of collecting, reviewing, and compiling information for this work. I am grateful for his meticulous care.

      The Earhart Foundation supported my labors by affording me release-time from teaching to carry out the work. Thanks to them, the time it took to complete the project was considerably less than it might have been.

      Mrs. Nathaniel Stein deserves special recognition for generously sharing with me the work of the late Dr. Stein on Washington’s “discarded inaugural” and for providing information which enabled me to close the loop in tracing the derivation and circulation of those fragments in the past thirty to forty years.

      Dr. W. W. Abbot and his able assistant, Dorothy Twohig, of the University of Virginia’s Washington Papers Project at the Alderman Library shared generously their files and graciously received us at their facility.

      The Huntington Library and Art Gallery in San Marino, California, and its reference staff were especially helpful in facilitating our research. And many other collections and repositories responded generously to our requests for information and materials. Those whose contributions deserve special note are:

      Duke University Library

      Lilly Library, Indiana University

      Marblehead Historical Society, Marblehead, Massachusetts

      Stanford University Library, Manuscript Division

      Winthrop College Archives, Dacus Library, Rock Hill, South Carolina.

      I also owe thanks to Harvey Mudd College and to my colleagues, without whose general support I could not have carried out this work.

W.B.A.

Claremont, California

Editor’s Note

      THE MATERIALS reproduced here derive almost entirely from John C. Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington. Where feasible, his versions have been checked against the manuscripts. Some other materials derive directly from manuscripts or other published sources.

      With the exception of Chapter Eleven, where the major addresses of Washington’s presidency are brought together, the materials here are presented in a straightforwardly chronological order. Critical apparatus has been held to an absolute minimum in this collection. This work is designed to be a tool of general information rather than a tool of critical study. While this work has been thoroughly checked to conform to the most recent critical judgments, readers seeking a tool of critical analysis should consult the multivolume Papers of George Washington in progress under the editorship of W. W. Abbot at the University of Virginia Press.

      The reader will note bracketed words and phrases in the text. Except in the discarded inaugural, these are Fitzpatrick’s, used to indicate that portions of the text have been crossed out, mutilated, or left out inadvertently by Washington or an aide to whom he dictated his words. Brackets sometimes enclose words that Fitzpatrick provides to fill the gap, sometimes enclose variant wordings, and sometimes indicate that the handwriting has suddenly shifted to that of another person. In the discarded inaugural, brackets have been inserted by the present editor to indicate similar textual conditions.

      Modernization of spelling and grammar were applied inconsistently in Fitzpatrick. However, because it remains the most complete collection of Washington’s writings published to date, we have adhered to Fitzpatrick. Changes have been introduced only in those very few cases where it is conceived that meaning would otherwise be lost. Of course, materials reprinted from other sources have not been forced to conform to the Fitzpatrick standard.

      ABOUT THE FRONTISPIECE

      This “best” representation of Washington remains clouded in mystery as to its provenance. Said to be the work of David d’Angers, it has also been termed a fake by some scholars. The difficulty is that this particular work, which is in marble, was uncovered earlier in this century as the “lost” David gift to the United States that, reportedly, had burned in a fire at the Library of Congress in 1851. When it surfaced, it was purchased by Henry Huntington and now forms part