Washington in Domestic Life. From Original Letters and ManuscriptsRush, Richard
History
Washington in Domestic Life. From Original Letters and Manuscripts
Rush, Richard
Washington, George, 1732-1799
This letter is on his private affairs. He expresses dissatisfaction at
the conduct of ****** one of his agents in the State of----, in letting
out his property and receiving his rents; he is too well acquainted, he
says, with facts that bear upon the case to be imposed upon by the tale
he tells; and even his own letter proves him to be what he would not
call him.
Mount Vernon, April 3, 1791. This letter is also in part on his private
affairs. It contains further complaints of this agent. In the closing
parts of it [there being at this time growing apprehensions of trouble
with the Indians] he makes the remark, that until we could restrain the
turbulence and disorderly conduct of our own borderers, it would be in
vain he feared to expect peace with the Indians; or that they would
govern their own people better than we did ours.
[It was in the following autumn that General St. Clair's
army was defeated by them in the neighborhood of the Miami
Villages.]
Mount Vernon, April 6, 1791. A short letter. It mentions his intention
of continuing his journey southward the next day; his horses being well
recruited, he hopes they will go on better than they have come from
Philadelphia. He incloses Mr. Lear, who remains in Philadelphia, some
letters to be put on file, and requests him to pay a man who had been
working in the garden.
[The journey southward next day was the commencement of his
tour to the Southern States, having made one into the
Northern States before he became President. Having completed
his tour, he passed several days in Georgetown to execute
the powers vested in him for fixing on a place for the
permanent seat of government for the United States under the
new constitution.]
Richmond, April 12, 1791. This is a letter of four closely written
pages, mainly, though not exclusively, about his servants and the
difficulties with them under the non-slavery laws of Philadelphia; but
as he requests that the knowledge of its contents and the sentiments he
expresses may be confined to Mrs. Lear and Mrs. Washington, I notice no
more of it.
Savannah, May 13, 1791. He here says that the continual hurry into which
he was thrown by entertainments, visits, and ceremonies in the course of
his southern tour, left him scarcely a moment he could call his own. He
gives directions as to where his letters are to be sent that they may
strike him at the proper points whilst travelling; his horses are much
worn down, he says, by the bad roads, especially the two he bought just
before leaving Philadelphia, "and my old white horse."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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