by Alexis Coe
9. “From George Washington to Clement Biddle, 28 July 1784,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-02-02-0014.
10. “From George Washington to the Ladies of Trenton, 21 April 1789,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-02-02-0095.
11. “From George Washington to Bushrod Washington, 27 July 1789,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-03-02-0189.
12. “Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 12 July 1789,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-08-02-0210.
13. For the Conway loan, see “From George Washington to Richard Conway, 4 March 1789,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-01-02-0272, and “From George Washington to Richard Conway, 6 March 1789,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-01-02-0279.
14. On November 4, 1752, Washington paid the Fredericksburg Masonic Lodge two pounds and three shillings to join, and by the next year, he had reached the highest degree of membership: Master Mason. We don’t know what, if any, hazing his brothers subjected him to, or what was discussed at the meetings he attended at various lodges throughout his life. We can’t even pinpoint the origins of Freemasonry, a secretive fraternal organization also known as “the Craft.” All we know is that it originated in Scotland, and that the benefits to a joiner with higher aspirations, like Washington, were obvious. Quite a few Founding Fathers were members, including Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere. For more information, see Ronald E. Heaton and James R. Case, The Lodge at Fredericksburgh: A Digest of the Early Records (Norristown, PA: Ronald E. Heaton, 1975), and J. Travis Walker, A History of Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4, A.F. & A.M., 1752–2002 (Fredericksburg, VA: Sheridan Books Inc., 2002).
15. “To George Washington from Betty Lewis, 24 July 1789,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-03-02-0167.
16. John McVickar, A Domestic Narrative of the Life of Samuel Bard (Carlisle, MA: Applewood Books, 2010), 136–137.
17. Martha Washington to Mercy Otis Warren, June 12, 1790, quoted in Fields, Worthy Partner, 226.
18. Fisher Ames to George Richards Minot, May 3, 1789, quoted in Fisher Ames and John Thornton Kirkland, Works of Fisher Ames: With a Selection from His Speeches and Correspondence, vol. 1 (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1854), 34.
19. For more, see PGW, PS, 4: 56, 102, 132.
CHAPTER 16: INFANT NATION
1. Kenneth R. Bowling and Helen E. Veit, eds., The Diary of William Maclay and Other Notes on Senate Debates (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988), description between 128–130.
2. “To George Washington from Henry Knox, 7 July 1789,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-03-02-0067. [Original source: PGW, PS, 3: 134–141.]
3. Bowling and Veit, The Diary of William Maclay, description between 128–129.
4. “From George Washington to Lafayette, 3 June 1790,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-05-02-0292.
5. When Washington received mail addressed to “The President and Members of the American Congress,” he sent it to Congress, unopened, for legislators to decide which branch of government should have at it first. He even consulted his attorney general when, in the face of a yellow fever outbreak, it seemed as though an emergency session might have to be called: Would an alternative location, removed from disease, be acceptable?
6. “To James Madison from George Washington, 5 May 1789,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-12-02-0082.
7. Martha Washington to Mercy Otis Warren, December 26, 1789, quoted in Joseph E. Fields, ed., “Worthy Partner”: The Papers of Martha Washington (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994), 223–224.
8. Martha Washington to Fanny Bassett Washington, October 23, 1789, quoted in Fields, 219–220.
9. “From George Washington to Tobias Lear, 9 September 1790,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-06-02-0195.
10. “From George Washington to Tobias Lear, 3 April 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-08-02-0035.
11. “To George Washington from Tobias Lear, 24 April 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-08-02-0099.
12. George Washington Parke Custis and Mary Randolph Custis Lee, Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington (New York: Derby & Jackson, 1860), 422–424.
13. “To George Washington from Tobias Lear, 24 April 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-08-02-0099.
14. “To George Washington from Tobias Lear, 5 June 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-08-02-0172.
15. “From George Washington to Tobias Lear, 22 November 1790,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-06-02-0331.
16. While we have no idea what “business plan” that baker operated under, his return policy, at least for Washington, was likely a way to separate himself from other caterers who left the trouble and expense of managing leftovers to the purchaser—a real hassle before refrigeration.
17. “From George Washington to Tobias Lear, 12 April 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-08-02-0062.
18. “From George Washington to Thomas Jefferson, 26 November 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-09-02-0131.
19. There is not a single confident explanation of the derivation of the word “cabinet” for the president’s councilors. In his Thomas Jefferson biography, Dumas Malone notes that Jefferson preferred the term “executive council,” with no comment on how “cabinet” became the common appellation. The word was used in foreign languages, but the OED offers nothing on its transfer to a United States context.
20. “Thomas Jefferson to Walter Jones, 5 March 1810,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-02-02-0223.
21. Fenno ascribed his financial backing generally to Federalists. Many biographers, without citation, name Hamilton alone.
22. “From Alexander Hamilton to Edward Carrington, 26 May 1792,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-11-02-0349. [Original source: PAH, 11: 426–445.] Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe frequently wrote politically sensitive portions of their letters in code; in no small part because of the aggressively partisan press and fears of letters being read by opponents.
23. “From George Washington to Thomas Jefferson, 23 August 1792,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-11-02-0009.
24. “From George Washington to Alexander Hamilton, 26 August 1792,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-11-02-0015.
25. “From Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, 9 September 1792,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed Ap
ril 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-12-02-0267.
26. “To George Washington from Thomas Jefferson, 9 September 1792,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-11-02-0049. Jefferson sent his formal resignation on December 31, 1793.
27. “From Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 23 May 1792,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-23-02-0491.
28. “To George Washington from Elizabeth Willing Powel, 17 November 1792,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-11-02-0225.
29. “To Thomas Jefferson from James Madison, 30 June 1789,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-15-02-0221.
30. The nature of the army and navy was still evolving. Troops were called into federal service from state militias for specific expeditions or purposes.
31. In a letter to his wife, Abigail, the following month, Adams vowed to make better use of the vice presidency this time around: “I am determined in the meantime to be no longer the Dupe, and run into Debt to Support a vain Post which has answered no other End than to make me unpopular,” he wrote. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 28 December 1792 [electronic edition], Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive, Massachusetts Historical Society, www.masshist.org/digitaladams/.
CHAPTER 17: “POLITICAL SUICIDE”
1. See Minutes of a Cabinet Meeting, April 19 1793, PGW, PS 12: 459–460.
2. “Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on a Cabinet Meeting, 6 May 1793,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-12-02-0426. Jefferson’s notes were from the April 19, 1793, meeting.
3. “Enclosure: [Proclamation by George Washington], [April 1793],” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-14-02-0200-0002. It explains authorship and distribution.
4. “From George Washington to George Cabot, 7 September 1795,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-18-02-0425.
5. Benjamin H. Latrobe, July 16, 1796, quoted in WGW, 35: 141.
6. Gilbert Chinard, ed., George Washington as the French Knew Him (New York: Greenwood Press, 1940), 105.
7. PGW, PS, 13: 19.
8. “John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 30 June 1813,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-06-02-0216. Jefferson submitted his official resignation in July, but Washington made a special trip to Monticello to once again compel him to stay; he agreed to another extension. He had some relief from Hamilton, who, along with Eliza, his wife, came down with yellow fever in late summer. (Most of the government raced out of the city; Philadelphia governor Samuel Powel, Elizabeth’s husband, refused to leave, and he, along with four thousand others, died.)
9. “Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 9 June 1793,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-06-02-0216. In the end, Genêt didn’t go home. It seems he was set to stand trial for crimes against the revolution, a sure death sentence. Washington granted him asylum, and Genêt spent the rest of his life in upstate New York, eventually marrying Governor George Clinton’s daughter Cornelia. From there, he lived a quiet life, but his legacy took shape in Democratic-Republican Societies popping up all over the country.
10. Distilling grain was better economically because the product—whiskey—commanded a higher price than raw grain. Excise taxes increased costs at every stage and cut into profits.
11. “To George Washington from Alexander Hamilton, 5 August 1794,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-16-02-0357.
12. See PGW, PS 16: 470, which is Henry Knox to GW, same date, n. 4. The writ eventually led to a proclamation on September 25, 1794. See PGW, PS, 16: 725–727.
13. “From Alexander Hamilton to James McHenry, 18 March 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-22-02-0344.
14. “From George Washington to Henry Knox, 9 October 1794,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-17-02-0027.
15. “From George Washington to Cherokee Nation, 29 August 1796,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-00897. [This is an Early Access document from PGW. It is not an authoritative final version.]
16. “From Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 26 May 1795,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-28-02-0275.
17. “From George Washington to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, 19 November 1794,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-17-02-0125.
18. “From James Madison to James Monroe, 4 December 1794,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-15-02-0306.
19. “From Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, 1 December 1794,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-17-02-0392. [Original source: PAH, 17: 413.] And “To George Washington from Henry Knox, 28 December 1794,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-17-02-0221.
20. Robert R. Rankin, The University of California Chronicle, vol. 9, no. 2 (Berkeley, CA: The University Press, 1907), 30.
21. “To George Washington from John Jay, 25 February 1795,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-17-02-0388.
22. “To George Washington from Petersburg, Va., Citizens, 1 August 1795,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-18-02-0327.
23. “From George Washington to Alexander Hamilton, 29 July 1795,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-18-02-0311.
24. “To George Washington from Edmund Randolph, 19 August 1795,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-18-02-0368.
25. George Washington to Alexander Hamilton, December 22, 1795, WGW, 13: 146, and Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, December 24, 1795, WGW, 13: 147.
26. Madison, who opposed the treaty, would ultimately suffer the most. It was among the chief causes of the War of 1812, which occurred during his presidency and resulted in several embarrassments.
27. William Cobbett, Beauties of Cobbett (London: Cobbett’s Register Office, 1836), 50.
28. “From George Washington to Timothy Pickering, 27 September 1795,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-18-02-0482.
29. Annals of Congress, 4th Cong., 1st Sess., 355. Annals of Congress can be found most easily online at The Century of American Lawmaking, a Library of Congress website: https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/.
CHAPTER 18: FAREWELL TO “CUNNING, AMBITIOUS, AND UNPRINCIPLED MEN”
1. George Washington to Thomas Law, February 10, 1796, PGW, PS, 19: 446.
2. For more on Ona Judge’s story, see Erica Armstrong Dunbar, Never Caught (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017).
3. S. Decatur and T. Lear, Private Affairs of George Washington: Fr
om the Records and Accounts of Tobias Lear, Esquire, His Secretary (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993), 268.
4. Rev. T. H. Adams, “Article Reporting Interview with Ona Judge Staines, Granite Freeman, May 22, 1845,” in Martha Washington, Item #4, http://marthawashington.us/items/show/4 (accessed September 1, 2019). All quotes from Ona Judge Staines come from this source.
5. “To Thomas Jefferson from George Washington, 6 July 1796,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-29-02-0107.
6. “To Thomas Jefferson from George Washington, 28 August 1796,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-29-02-0136.
7. Moncure Daniel Conway, ed., The Writings of Thomas Paine, vol. 3 (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1895), 215, 217, 243.
8. Paul M. Zall, ed., Washington on Washington (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2003), 129.
9. “From Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, 30 July 1796,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-20-02-0181-0001. Hamilton reframed Washington’s idea for a national university that would allow students (meaning men) from all over the country to observe congressional debates and find common ground; Hamilton, who had gone to Columbia, considered the plan influenced by Washington’s military education.
10. George Washington, “Farewell Address to the People of the United States,” September 17, 1796, WGW, 35: 214–238.
11. Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, January 8, 1797, quoted in Thomas Jefferson, The Republic of Letters: The Correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, vol. 2 (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1995), 955.
12. “From George Washington to William Pearce, 14 November 1796,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed April 11, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-00003. [This is an Early Access document from PGW. It is not an authoritative final version.]