The Return of George Washington
Page 37
67. E.g., George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, Sept. 24, 1787, PGW, CS 5: 339.
68. James Madison to George Washington, Nov. 18, 1787, PGW, CS 5: 444.
69. George Washington to David Stuart, Nov. 30, 1787, PGW, CS 5: 467.
70. George Washington to Lafayette, May 28, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 297.
71. George Washington to James Madison, March 2, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 137.
72. At the time, Washington attributed Richard Henry Lee’s decision “to withdraw his opposition” to having found “himself in bad Company,” and noted that Lee’s brother, “Francis H. Lee on whose judgment the family place much reliance, is decidedly in favor of the new form.” George Washington to James Madison, Jan. 10, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 32. Regarding Randolph, Washington predicted in April, “if he opposes it at all [he] will do it feebly.” George Washington to Lafayette, April 28, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 244.
73. George Washington to Lafayette, April 28, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 243.
74. George Washington to Benjamin Lincoln, April 2, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 188.
75. As early as December 1787, Washington’s personal secretary, Tobias Lear, expressed this concern in a letter from Mount Vernon to Washington’s old friend, New Hampshire federalist John Langdon. “If I may be allowed to form an opinion,” Lear wrote of Henry in a message that likely reflected Washington’s thinking as well, “of what would be his wish, it is to divide the Southern States from the others. Should this take place, Virginia would hold the first place among them, & he the first place in Virginia.” Tobias Lear to John Langdon, Dec. 3, 1787, DHRC, 8: 197. Madison regularly expressed this concern in letters to Washington and others and it was often raised in Virginia newspapers. E.g., James Madison to Edmund Randolph, Jan. 10, 1787, PJM, 10: 355; A Freeholder, Virginia Independent Chronicle, April 9, 1788, DHRC, 9: 728.
76. See, e.g., ibid.; Washington to Lincoln, April 2, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 187; George Washington to John Armstrong, April 25, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 226.
77. “The Virginia Convention, Wednesday, 4 June 1788,” DHRC, 9: 929–31 (Patrick Henry).
78. Harlow Giles Unger, Lion of Liberty: Patrick Henry and the Call to a New Nation (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2010), 212.
79. “The Virginia Convention, Wednesday, 4 June 1788,” DHRC, 9: 931–35 (Edmund Randolph).
80. James Madison to George Washington, June 4, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 313–14. In April, Washington had reported not knowing the sentiments of the Kentucky members. Washington to Lincoln, April 2, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 188.
81. Complaining about “the desultory manner in which [Henry] has treated the subject,” at this point Lee noted that Henry “seems to have discarded in a great measure, solid argument and strong reasoning, and has established a new system of throwing those bolts, which he has so peculiar a dexterity at discharging.” “The Virginia Convention, Monday, 9 June 1788,” DHRC, 9: 1072 (Henry Lee). Bushrod Washington made a similar comment in a June 7 letter to George Washington. Bushrod Washington to George Washington, June 7, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 316 (calling the debates “general and desultory” or random).
82. Washington to Washington, June 7, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 316.
83. James Madison to George Washington, June 13, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 326.
84. George Washington to Henry Knox, June 17, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 333.
85. James Madison to George Washington, June 23, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 351–52.
86. James Thomas Flexner, George Washington and the New Nation (Boston: Little, Brown, 1969), 150.
87. “The Virginia Convention, Thursday, 24 June 1788,” DHRC, 10: 1498 (William Grayson).
88. “The Virginia Convention, Wednesday, 18 June 1788,” DHRC, 10: 1375 (George Mason).
89. “The Virginia Convention, Monday, 9 June 1788,” DHRC, 9: 1051 (Patrick Henry); “The Virginia Convention, Thursday, 12 June 1788,” DHRC, 10: 1223 (James Madison).
90. George Washington to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, June 28, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 361.
91. George Washington to Tobias Lear, June 29, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 364.
92. Ibid.
93. E.g., “The Tenth Pillar,” Maryland Journal, July 1, 1788, DHRC, 10: 1719 (reports on the celebration in Baltimore, where “the illustrious George Washington” received the third toast, after only the Constitution and the two last states to ratify, Virginia and New Hampshire).
94. James Monroe to Thomas Jefferson, July 12, 1788, DHRC, 10: 1705.
95. George Washington to Henry Knox, Jan. 10, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 28.
96. Washington to Pinckney, June 28, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 362.
97. George Washington to James Madison, March 31, 1787, PGW, CS 5: 116.
98. George Washington to Alexander Hamilton, Oct. 18, 1787, PGW, CS 5: 380–81. The esteem between Washington and Clinton was mutual. Clinton named one of his sons George Washington Clinton and one of his daughters Martha Washington Clinton. Washington frequently stayed with Clinton in New York and they invested together in real estate on the New York frontier, which proved to be Washington’s most profitable land investment.
99. One week prior to the elections, Jay wrote to Washington, “The Constitution still continues to cause great party Zeal and Ferment.” John Jay to George Washington, April 20, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 217.
100. Pauline Maier, Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787–1788 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), 328.
101. E.g., “A Citizen,” Hudson Weekly Gazette, Jan. 31, 1788, DHRC, 20: 679 (writing about Washington, “Can you, O ye ungrateful people, doubt the constitution you received from his hands?”).
102. Cato, “To the Citizens of the State of New York,” New York Journal, Sept. 27, 1787, p. 3. At the time, many New Yorkers thought that Clinton wrote this article but later historians disagree on its authorship. See “Cato I,” DHRC, 19: 58–59. An essay generally attributed to Hamilton replied to Cato, in an apparent reference to the anarchy that would result without the Constitution, that Americans would be better off accepting Washington as President under a new government “than that he should be solicited again to accept of the command of an army.” Caesar, “For the Daily Advertiser,” New York Daily Advertiser, Oct. 1, 1787, p. 2.
103. George Washington to Alexander Hamilton, Aug. 28, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 481. “I shall certainly consider them as claiming a most distinguished place in my library,” he noted. Ibid., 480–81.
104. A Citizen of New-York, “An Address to the People of the State of New York,” April 15, 1788, DHRC, 20: 941. Although the piece was published under a pseudonym, Jay acknowledged his authorship.
105. George Washington to Henry Knox, May 15, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 275.
106. Ebenezer Hazard to George Washington, June 24, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 354.
107. In his superb biography of Clinton, John Kaminski explores Clinton’s role at the convention and concludes that he released members of his antifederalist party to vote for ratification, thereby allowing it to pass. John P. Kaminski, George Clinton: Yeoman Politician of the New Republic (Madison, WI: Madison House, 1993), 163–64.
108. Washington to Pinckney, June 28, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 362.
109. Washington to Lear, June 29, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 364.
110. George Washington to Benjamin Lincoln, June 29, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 366.
111. John Jay to George Washington, May 29, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 303; John Jay to George Washington, July 4, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 371.
112. John Jay to George Washington, July 8, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 371.
113. Samuel Low, “Ode for the Federal Procession,” and William Pitt Smith, “Ode on the Adoption of the Constitution,” DHRC, 21: 1608, 1614.
114. John Jay to George Washington, July 23, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 394.
115. George Washington to Thomas Jefferson, Aug. 31, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 493.
116. Kaminski, George Clinton, 163–64.
117. Henry Knox to George Washington, July 28, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 405 (emphasis added).
118. “A Federal Song,” Albany Journal, Aug. 4, 1788, p. 3.
119. E.g
., “A Federal Song,” New York Daily Advertiser, Aug. 15, 1788, p. 2.
120. Robert R. Livingston to George Washington, Oct. 21, 1788, PGW, PS 1: 56.
121. Washington to Pinckney, June 28, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 361–62. With respect to Rhode Island, however, Washington added a day later that “he must be a hardy man, indeed, who will undertake to declare what will be the choice of the majority of that State, lest he should be suspected of having participated in their phrensy.” Washington to Lear, June 29, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 364.
122. George Washington to Edward Newenham, Aug. 29, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 387–88.
123. George Washington to John Lathrop, June 22, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 349.
124. George Washington to Lafayette, May 28, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 299.
125. George Washington to Lafayette, June 18, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 338.
Chapter 8: The First Federal Elections
1. George Washington to Samuel Powel, Jan. 18, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 45.
2. George Washington to John Jay, July 385, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 385. See also, George Washington to Jonathan Trumbull Jr., July 20, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 389 (“We shall impatiently wait the result from New York & North Carolina”).
3. “Resolutions of the Convention,” Sept. 17, 1787, Farrand, 2: 665.
4. James Madison to George Washington, July 21, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 392.
5. George Washington to James Madison, Aug. 3, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 420.
6. James Madison to George Washington, Aug. 11, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 438.
7. George Washington to James Madison, Aug. 18, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 455. According to the French minister, Washington’s ally Henry Lee made this argument in Congress, stating, “It is in Virginia’s interest to attract this assembly to the shores of the Potomac, and that it would be much easier to fix it there in the event that it remained in New York, than if it found itself wrapped in the net of the Philadelphians.” Journal of Comte de Mousier, July 31, 1788, DHFFE, 1: 55. Madison favored Philadelphia.
8. Sept. 13, 1788, JCC, 34: 523. In October, Madison wrote to Washington, “It gives me great pleasure to find that . . . the vote fixing N. York for the first meeting of the new Congress has your approbation.” James Madison to George Washington, Oct. 21, 1788, PGW, PS 1: 58.
9. George Washington to Samuel Powel, Sept. 15, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 516. Washington wrote this lament in response to Powel’s letter complaining about the impasse: “Is not this a matter of Proceeding destitute of all Dignity. I confess that as an American I feel mortified at this trifling with the Sensibilities of the Union, which I believe were never more alive than on the present Occasion.” Samuel Powel to George Washington, Aug. 9, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 435–36.
10. George Washington to James Madison, Sept. 23, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 534.
11. “The Virginia Convention, Wednesday, 25 June 1788,” DHRC, 10: 1537 (Patrick Henry).
12. Washington to Madison, Sept. 23, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 534.
13. George Washington to James Madison, Aug. 17, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 454.
14. George Washington to Benjamin Lincoln, Aug. 28, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 483.
15. See, e.g., George Washington to Thomas Jefferson, Aug. 31, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 493.
16. In a late June letter to Washington, written after the Virginia convention, Madison depicted the antifederalists’ new strategy as getting “a Congress appointed in the first instance that will commit suicide on their own Authority.” James Madison to George Washington, June 27, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 356.
17. Washington to Madison, Sept. 23, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 534.
18. Washington to Lincoln, Aug. 28, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 483. For similar comments by Washington, see George Washington to James McHenry, July 31, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 409–10 and Washington to Madison, Sept. 23, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 534.
19. Washington to Madison, Sept. 23, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 534.
20. Benjamin Lincoln to George Washington, Sept. 24, 1788, PGW, PS 1: 6, 8.
21. Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, Sept. 1788, PGW, PS 1: 24. A month earlier, Hamilton had written to Washington about the new government, “It is indispensable you should lend yourself to its first operations—It is to little purpose to have introduced a system, if the weightiest influence is not given to its firm establishment, in the outset.” Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, Aug. 13, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 444.
22. Samuel Vaughan to George Washington, Nov. 4, 1788, PGW, PS 1: 92.
23. Robert R. Livingston to George Washington, Oct. 21, 1788, PGW, PS 1: 56.
24. Washington to Madison, Sept. 23, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 534.
25. George Washington to Charles Pettit, Aug. 16, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 448.
26. George Washington to Alexander Hamilton, Aug. 28, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 481.
27. Hamilton used this as one of many arguments why Washington must accept the presidency. Hamilton to Washington, Sept. 1788, PGW, PS 1: 23.
28. Benjamin Harrison to George Washington, Feb. 26, 1789, PGW, PS 1: 345–46.
29. Explaining his procedure, Washington wrote to one job-seeking former army officer, “It would take up more time than I could well spare, to notice the applications which have been made to me in consequence of the new government. In answer to as many, as I have been at leisure to acknowledge, I have invariably represented the delicacy of my situation, the impropriety of bringing such things before me, the decided resolution I had formerly made, and the ardent wishes I still entertain, of remaining in private life.” George Washington to Henry Emanuel Lutterloh, Jan. 1, 1789, PGW, PS 1: 226–27.
30. George Washington to Samuel Hanson, June 8, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 317.
31. George Washington to Samuel Meredith, March 5, 1789, PGW, PS 1: 367. A well-connected Philadelphia merchant, Meredith was a former member of Congress and brother-in-law of Constitutional Convention delegate George Clymer. Washington appointed him treasurer of the United States. Expanding on this point in a letter to one particularly persistent applicant, Washington wrote that, if he did accept the presidency, “It is my fixed determination to enter there not only unfettered by promises but even unchargeable with creating or feeding the expectations of any man living for my assistance to Office.” George Washington to Samuel Hanson, Jan. 10, 1789, PGW, PS 1: 241.
32. Benjamin Lincoln to George Washington, Feb. 20, 1789, PGW, PS 1: 331.
33. George Washington to Benjamin Lincoln, March 11, 1789, PGW, PS 1: 383.
34. George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, March 9, 1789, PGW, PS 1: 376–77.
35. Benjamin Lincoln to George Washington, April 3, 1789, PGW, PS 2: 14. Harrison’s grandfather and father, also named Benjamin, were members of the Virginia House of Burgesses; his son and great-grandson (the latter also named Benjamin) became Presidents of the United States.
36. In both of these letters dating from early March 1789, Washington used a conditional construction—“if” or “should”—when speaking of becoming President. Washington to Harrison, March 9, 1789, PGW, PS 1: 376; Washington to Lincoln, March 11, 1789, PGW, PS 1: 383.
37. George Washington to James McHenry, July 31, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 410.
38. Hamilton to Washington, Sept. 1788, PGW, PS 1: 23.
39. George Washington to Alexander Hamilton, Oct. 3, 1788, PGW, PS 1: 32.
40. George Washington to Jonathan Trumbull Jr., Dec. 4, 1788, PGW, PS 1: 159. See also George Washington to Benjamin Fishbourn, Dec. 23, 1788, PGW, PS 1: 198 (“The future is all a scene of darkness and uncertainty to me”).
41. E.g., Washington to Hamilton, Oct. 3, 1788, PGW, PS 1: 33.
42. George Washington to Henry Lee Jr. Sept. 22, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 531.
43. George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, Nov. 28, 1788, PGW, PS 1: 136.
44. Benjamin Lincoln to George Washington, June 3, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 310.
45. Jonathan Trumbull Jr. to George Washington, June 20, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 345.
46. James Madison to George Washington, Nov. 5, 1788, PGW, PS 1: 95.
47. Washington to Lincoln, Aug. 28, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 483; Washington to Hamilton, Aug.
28, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 481.
48. Alexander Hamilton to George Washington, Nov. 18, 1788, PGW, PS 1: 119.
49. Gouverneur Morris to George Washington, Dec. 6, 1788, PGW, PS 1: 165.
50. Hamilton to Washington, Nov. 18, 1788, PGW, PS 1: 119.
51. E.g., Washington to Fishbourn, Dec. 23, 1788, PGW, PS 1: 199.
52. George Washington to Lafayette, Jan. 29, 1789, PGW, PS 1: 263.
53. E.g., reporting to Lincoln on Virginia’s ratification of the Constitution, Washington wrote of his joy at every step taken by Americans “to render the Nation happy at home & respected abroad.” George Washington to Benjamin Lincoln, June 29, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 365.
54. George Washington to Richard Henderson, June 19, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 340.
55. George Washington to Rochambeau, Jan. 29, 1789, PGW, PS 1: 266.
56. Washington to Lafayette, Jan. 29, 1789, PGW, PS 1: 264.
57. E.g., George Washington to Annis Boudinot Stockton, Aug. 31, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 497 (“I can never trace the concatenation of causes, which led to these events, without acknowledging the mystery and admiring the goodness of Providence”).
58. Morris to Washington, Dec. 6, 1788, PGW, PS 1: 166.
59. George Washington to William Gordon, Dec. 23, 1788, PGW, PS 1: 201.
60. George Washington to John Langdon, July 20, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 388.
61. George Washington to Edward Newenham, Aug. 29, 1788, PGW, CS 6: 488.
62. For the first of many times when Wilson spoke at the Constitutional Convention in favor of “an election by the people,” see Farrand, June 1, 1787, 1: 68.
63. Farrand, July 25, 1787, 2: 109.
64. Commenting on his state’s electors, Virginia federalist Henry Lee reassured a doubtful Washington, who thought that antifederalists might oppose his election to weaken the new government, “Among the electors will be many antifederal characters, but not one of them will act on the principles you suggest in their choice of president.” Henry Lee to George Washington, Jan. 17, 1789, PGW, PS 1: 247–48. See also “Philadelphia, 6th January,” Federal Gazette, Jan. 6, 1789, p. 3 (“We hear from Virginia, that the anti-federalists intend to vote for General Washington, as president, but that Governor Clinton will have all their votes for vice-president of the United States”). For Clinton’s support for Washington’s election as President, see George Clinton to George Washington, March 10, 1789, PGW, PS 1: 378, and John P. Kaminski, George Clinton: Yeoman Politician of the New Republic (Madison, WI: Madison House, 1993), 172.