First of Men

by Ferling, John;

  72. GW to Jefferson, Nov. 30, 1791, Jan. 15, 18, Feb. 22, 26, and Mr. 14, 1792, WW, 31:432, 459, 462–63, 482–83, 486–87; 32:3–4; GW to L’Enfant, Dec. 13, 1791, and Feb. 28, 1792, ibid., 31:442–44, 488–89; GW to Fed. Dist. Comm., Dec. 18, 1791, ibid., 31:445–48; L’Enfant to GW, Dec. 7, 1791, Kite, L’Enfant, 89–91, 133–34, 152–53; Malone, Jefferson, 2:379–84; “Editorial Note,” Boyd, Papers of Jefferson, 20:57–72.

  73. GW to Fed. Dist. Comm., July 23, 1792, WW, 32:94; Flexner, GW, 3:343.

  74. Jefferson to GW, May 23, 1792, Ford, Writings of Jefferson, 6:1–6; Jefferson, “Anas,” ibid., 1:27.

  75. GW to Jefferson, Aug. 23, 1792, WW, 32:130–32; GW to Hamilton, Aug. 26, 1792, ibid., 32:132–34.

  76. GW to Randolph, Aug. 26, 1792, ibid., 32:136. Jefferson to GW, Sept. 9, 1792, Ford, Writings of Jefferson, 6:101–109; Hamilton to GW, July 30 [–Aug. 3], and Sept. 9, 1792, Syrett and Cooke, Papers of Hamilton, 7:177, 344–46; Freeman, GW, 6:371.

  77. GW Second Inaugural Address, WW, 32:374. Also see, GW to H. Lee, Jan. 20, 1793, ibid., 32:309–10.

  78. GW to Lafayette, July 28, 1791, ibid., 31:324–25; GW to Comte de Moustier, Sept. 5, 1791, ibid., 31:357; GW to Luzerne, Sept. 10, 1791, ibid., 31:361.

  79. GW to Louis Sigeur, May 4, 1792, ibid., 32:33; GW to Jefferson, July 17, 1792, ibid. 32:87; GW to Lafayette, June 10, 1792, ibid., 32:53. On the reports that Washington received on the progress of the French Revolution, see: Louis M. Sears, George Washington and the French Revolution (Detroit, 1960), 47–173.

  17

  The Second Term Begins

  1. GW to George Augustine Washington, Jan. 27, 1793, WW, 32:315–16; GW to Frances Washington, Feb. 24, 1793, ibid., 32:354–55; GW to Bryan Fairfax, Mar. 6, 1793, ibid., 32:376.

  2. Samuel Flagg Bemis, The Jay Treaty: A Study in Commerce and Diplomacy (New Haven, Conn., 1926), 28–50.

  3. A.L. Burt, The United States, Great Britain and British North America: From the Revolution to the Establishment of Peace after the War of 1812 (New York, 1940), 118–23; Peterson, Jefferson, 451–55; Malone, Jefferson, 2:412–19; Bemis, Jay Treaty, 147–82.

  4. De Conde, Entangling Alliance, 81–82.

  5. Ibid., 82; McDonald, Presidency of GW, 119.

  6. GW, Second Inaugural Address, Mar. 4, 1793, WW, 32:374–75; Freeman, GW, 7:9, 26–27.

  7. Malone, Jefferson, 406–407; Whitaker, Spanish–American Frontier, 71–80; Freeman, GW, 7:33.

  8. GW to Humphreys, Mar. 23, 1793, WW, 32:399; GW to G. Morris, Mar. 25, 1793, ibid., 32:402–403.

  9. GW to Humphreys, Mar. 23, 1793, ibid., 32:400; GW to Whiting, Feb. 24 and Jan. 6, 1793, ibid., 32:357–58, 293.

  10. GW to Hamilton, Apr. 12, 1793, ibid., 32:416; GW to Jefferson, Apr. 12, 1793, ibid., 32:415; Hamilton to GW, Apr. 5 and 8, 1793, Syrett and Cooke, Papers of Hamilton, 14:291, 295–96.

  11. Jerald A. Combs, The Jay Treaty, Political Battlefield of the Founding Fathers (Berkeley, Calif., 1970), 31–46, 107–108; Jefferson, “Anas,” Ford, Writings of Jefferson, 1:226–27; Syrett and Cooke, Papers of Hamilton, 14:328–29n; Charles M. Thomas, American Neutrality in 1793: A Study in Cabinet Government (New York, 1931), 15–39.

  12. GW, “Questions . . . ,” Apr. 18, 1793, WW, 32:419–20; GW, Proclamation of Neutrality, Apr. 23, 1793, ibid., 32:430–31; De Conde, Entangling Alliance, 88; Thomas, American Neutrality, 41–49.

  13. For Hamilton’s series of essays entitled “No Jacobin,” see: Syrett and Cooke, Papers of Hamilton, 15:145–51, 184–91, 203–207, 224–28, 243–46, 249–50, 268–70, 281–84, 304–306. Madison’s rejoinders are in Gaillard Hunt, ed., The Writings of James Madison, 9 vols., (New York, 1900–10), 7:133–88.

  14. Charles D. Hazen, Contemporary Opinion of the French Revolution (Baltimore, 1897), 164–73; Greville Bathe, Citizen Genět, Diplomat and Inventor (Philadelphia, 1946), 3–22, 106–18; De Conde, Entangling Alliance, 179.

  15. Harry Ammon, The Genět Mission (New York, 1973), 44–53.

  16. Malone, Jefferson, 2:93–94; Freeman, GW, 7:70–75; Jefferson to Madison, Apr. 28, 1793, Ford, Writings of Jefferson, 6:232; WW, 32:468n; GW to Earl of Buchan, Apr. 22, 1793, ibid., 32:428; Ammon, Genět Mission, 54–59.

  17. De Conde, Entangling Alliance, 157–61.

  18. Ibid., 197–99; Freeman, GW, 7:80–81; Malone, Jefferson, 3:90–113.

  19. De Conde, Entangling Alliance, 200–201, 208–11, 217–26; Malone, Jefferson, 3:103; Ammon, Genět Mission, 67, 80–93.

  20. De Conde, Entangling Alliance, 235; GW, Proc., Mar. 24, 1795, WW, 33:304–305.

  21. McDonald, Presidency of GW, 129–32; GW to Morgan, Oct. 8, 1794, WW, 33:523–24. On the Democratic societies, see: Eugene P. Link, Democratic–Republican Societies, 1790–1800 (New York, 1942).

  22. Adams to Jefferson, June 30, 1813, Adams, Works, 10:47; Adams to William Cunningham, Oct. 15, 1813, Timothy Pickering, ed., A Review of the Correspondence between John Adams and William C. Cunningham, 1803–1812 (Salem, Mass., 1824), 103.

  23. GW to H. Lee, Oct. 16, 1793, WW, 33:133; GW to Charles Thurston, Aug. 10, 1794, ibid., 32:465; GW to Stuart, Sept. 21, 1794, ibid., 33:506.

  24. Jefferson to Madison, July 7, 1793, Ford, Writings of Jefferson, 6:338–39; Jefferson, “Anas,” ibid., 1:243, 247, 252; De Conde, Entangling Alliance, 283–96; Malone, Jefferson, 3:114–29; Bemis, Jay Treaty, 201; Freeman, GW, 7:140, 154; Ammon, Genět Mission, 171–79; Gilbert L. Lycom, Alexander Hamilton and Foreign Policy: A Design for Greatness (Norman, Okla., 1970), 146–74.

  25. Anna C. Clauder, American Commerce as Affected by the War of the French Revolution and Napoleon, 1793–1812 (Philadelphia, 1932), 27–36; McDonald, Presidency of GW, 134.

  26. GW to Lear, May 6, 1794, WW, 33:355; GW to Clinton, Mar. 31, 1794, ibid., 33:310–11; GW to Knox, Apr. 4, 1794, ibid., 33:313–14; Charles, Origins of the Party System, 97, 99; Bemis, Jay Treaty, 257–64; De Conde, Entangling Alliance, 94.

  27. GW to Lear, May 16, 1794, WW, 33:355; Bemis, Jay Treaty, 254–69.

  28. Freeman, GW, 7:160; “Introductory Note,” Syrett and Cooke, Papers of Hamilton, 16:261–65. Subsequently Jefferson called the act of sending an envoy without the backing of retaliatory legislation a “degrading measure.” See Syrett and Cooke, Papers of Hamilton, 16:2 64η.

  29. Combs, Jay Treaty, 125; Brant, Madison, 3:400; Freeman, GW, 7:166.

  30. Hamilton to GW, Apr. 14, 1794, Syrett and Cooke, Papers of Hamilton, 16:266–79; Cooke, Hamilton, 140.

  31. GW to Jay, Apr. 15, 1794, WW, 33:329; GW to the Senate, Apr. 16, 1794, ibid., 33:332; GW to Randolph, Apr. 15, 1794, ibid., 33:329; GW to Lear, May 6, 1794, ibid., 33:355.

  32. Hamilton to GW, Apr. 23, 1794, Syrett and Cooke, Papers of Hamilton, 16:319–23, 323–28n; Hamilton to Jay, May 6, 1794, ibid., 16:381–85; McDonald, Presidency of GW, 142–43; Jefferson to GW, May 14, 1794, Ford, Writings of Jefferson, 6:510; GW to R.H. Lee, Apr. 15, 1794, WW, 33:332.

  33. GW to Humphreys, Mar. 23, 1793, WW, 32:399; GW to G. Morris, Mar. 25, 1793, ibid., 32:402; Franklin to Galloway, Feb. 25, 1775, Labaree, Papers of Franklin, 21:509; Paine, Common Sense, in Foner, Writings of Paine, 1:81–82; John Ferling, “The American Revolution and American Security: Whig and Loyalist Views,” The Historian, 60 (1978), 492–507.

  34. Washington’s successor, John Adams, who had never soldiered, offers a revealing contrast. See: John Ferling, “Oh that I was a Soldier’: John Adams and the Anguish of War,” American Quarterly, 36 (1984), 258–75.

  35. GW to G. Morris, Mar. 25, 1793, WW, 32:403; GW to Buchan, May 26, 1794, ibid., 33:383.

  36. GW to McHenry, Aug. 12, 1792, ibid., 32:110; Maclay, Journal of Maclay, 137, 206; Decatur, Private Affairs, 43, 72–73, 267; Custis, Recollections, 395~96, 406407; Ford, True GW, 174.

  37. Jefferson, “Anas,” Ford, Letters of Jefferson, 1:245; Freeman, GW, 7–58–59, 106, 227, 437; “Washington’s Household Account Book, 1793–1797,” PMHB, 30 (1906), 161, 183–84, 327; 31 (1907), 70, 326.

  38. GW to Richard Chich
ester, Aug. 8, 1792, and Nov. 23, 1793, WW, 32:109–10; 33:155.

  39. GW to Whiting, Oct. 14 and Dec. 2, 1792, ibid., 32:177, 246; GW to Wm. Tilghman, July 21, 1793, ibid., 33:26; GW to Pearce, Dec. 18, 1793, ibid., 33:192.

  40. GW to Tilghman, July 21, 1793, ibid., 33:25–26; GW to Pearce, Aug. 26, 1793, and Nov. 2, 1794, ibid., 33:68–70; 34:11; “Agreement with Wm. Pearce,” Sept. 23, 1793, ibid., 33:97–101.

  41. GW to Th. Peter, Aug. 31, 1794, ibid., 33:487; GW to Ch. Carter, Mar. 10, 1795, ibid., 34:139–40; GW to Lear, May 6, 1794, ibid., 33:358.

  42. GW to Stuart, Feb. 7, 1796, ibid., 34:453; GW to James Anderson, Feb. 15, 1796, ibid., 34:464; GW to Young, Dec. 12, 1793, ibid., 33:174–83; Freeman, GW, 7:231–32n, 307–308, 586.

  43. Withey, Dearest Friend, 217; Jefferson, “Anas,” Ford, Writings of Jefferson, 1:73.

  44. Bradford Perkins, ed., “A Diplomat’s Wife in Philadelphia: Letters of Henrietta Liston, 1796–1800,” WMQ, 3d ser., 11 (1954), 592, 606, 609, 613, 614, 628; Flexner, GW, 4:283.

  45. Nathaniel Burt, The Perennial Philadelphians: The Anatomy of an American Aristocracy (Boston, 1963), 153; Eliza Powel to MW, Nov. 30, 1787, and Aug. 9, 1793, MVL; Eliza Powel to GW, Nov. 17, 1792, MVL; GW to Eliza Powel, Feb. 2, 1777, WPPV; Samuel Powel to GW, Jan. 16, 1786, May 10 and June 30, 1787, WPPV.

  46. For a different view, see: Flexner, GW, 3:314–22.

  47. GW to G.W.M. Lafayette, Nov. 22, 1795, and Feb. 28, 1796, WW, 34:367–68, 478; GW to Geo. Cabot, Sept. 7, 1795, ibid., 34:299–301; Thane, Potomac Squire, 341, 356, 373; Perkins, “Diplomat’s Wife,” WMQ, 11:603; Flexner, GW, 4:350.

  48. GW to John Dandridge, July 11, 1796, WW, 35:135–36; GW to Wolcott, Aug. 1, 1796, ibid. 35:162; Thane, Potomac Squire, 235, 239, 285, 299, 321, 352.

  49. Flexner, GW, 4:91, 404n; Thane, Potomac Squire, 340, 352.

  50. William S. Baker, Washington after the Revolution, 1784–1799 (Philadelphia, 1898), 349–50; Weld, Travels, 6on; Freeman, GW, 7:267η 383–84.

  51. WW, 32:478η; GW to Knox, June 25, 1794, ibid., 33:411; GW to Th. Pinckney, Feb. 25, 1795, ibid., 34:125.

  52. GW to John Greenwood, Jan. 20 and 25, 1797, WW, 35:370–71, 374–75; Flexner, GW, 4:308–309; MW to Eliza Powel, Apr. 24, 1793, MVL; MW to Fanny Bassett, Feb. 10, 1794, ibid., MW to Whitlock, Apr. 17, 1794, ibid.

  53. GW to John Howard, Aug. 25, 1793, WW, 33:66; GW to Buchan, May 26, 1794, ibid., 34:382; GW to Knox, Sept. 9, 1793, ibid., 33:86; GW to Lear, Sept. 25 and Nov. 8, 1798, ibid., 33:104, 150; Eliza Powel to MW, Aug. 9, 1793, MVL. The paragraph on the epidemic is based on J.H. Powell, Bring Out Your Dead: The Great Plague of Yellow Fever in Philadelphia in 1793 (Philadelphia, 1949).

  54. Miller, Federalist Era, 155–56; McDonald, Presidency of GW, 145–46.

  55. Hamilton to GW, Sept. 1, 1792, Syrett and Cooke, Papers of Hamilton, 12:312; GW to Hamilton, Sept. 17, 1792, WW, 32:153–54. On the historiography of the Whiskey Rebellion, see: Jacob E. Cooke, “The Whiskey Insurrection: A Re–Evaluation,” Pennsylvania History 30 (1963), 316–46.

  56. Richard H. Kohn, “The Washington Administration’s Decision to Crush the Whiskey Rebellion,” Journal of American History 59 (1972), 567–84. The quotation is on p. 568.

  57. Mary K. Bonsteel Tachau, “George Washington and the Reputation of Edmund Randolph,” Jrnl. Am. Hist., 73 (1986), 21.

  58. “Conference Concerning the Insurrection in Western Pennsylvania,” Aug. 2, 1794, Syrett and Cooke, Papers of Hamilton, 17:9–13; Hamilton to GW, Aug. 2 and 5, 1794, ibid., 17:15–19, 24–58; Hamilton and Knox to GW, Aug. 5, 1794, ibid., 17:21; Freeman, GW, 7:188–90; Kohn, “Decision to Crush the Whiskey Rebellion,” Jrnl. Am. Hist., 59:572.

  59. Tachau, “GW and Randolph,” Jrnl. Am. Hist., 73:22.

  60. GW, Proclamation, Aug. 7, 1794, WW, 33:457–61.

  61. GW to H. Lee, Aug. 26, 1794, ibid., 33:47ο. Syrett and Cooke, Papers of Hamilton, 17:23η.

  62. The “Tully” essays are in Syrett and Cooke, Papers of Hamilton, 17:132–35, 14850, 159–61, 175–80.

  63. GW to H. Lee, Aug. 26, 1794, WW, 33:476; Hamilton, “Minutes . . . ,” Aug. 24, 1794, Syrett and Cooke, Papers of Hamilton, 17:135–38. On Washington’s thinking, see: GW to Hamilton, Aug. 21, 1794, WW, 33:472; GW to Morgan, Oct. 8, 1794, ibid., 33:523–24; GW, State of Union Message, Nov. 19, 1794, ibid., 33:34; GW to Burgess Ball, Sept. 25, 1794, ibid., 33:506; Miller, Hamilton, 407; McDonald, Presidency of GW, 145–46; Charles, Origins of the Party System, 84; Leland D. Baldwin, The Whiskey Rebels (Pittsburgh, 1939), 215.

  64. GW, Proclamation, Sept. 25, 1794, WW, 33:507–509; Hamilton to Mifflin, Sept. 9, 1794, Syrett and Cooke, Papers of Hamilton, 17:210–11.

  65. DGW, 6:178–79, 179n.

  66. Prucha, Sword of the Republic, 29–38; Nelson, Wayne, 228–68; Sword, GW’s Indian War, 299–311, 335.

  67. DGW, 6:178–98.

  68. Miller, Hamilton, 408–13; Miller, Federalist Era,159.

  69. GW to Randolph, Oct. 16, 1794, WW, 34:3–4; GW, Sixth Annual Message, Nov. 19, 1794, ibid., 34:34.

  70. GW to Jay, Sept. 1[–5], and Dec. 18, 1794, ibid., 34:16, 61.

  18

  Last Years in Office

  1. Quoted in Flexner, GW, 4:193.

  2. DeConde, Entangling Alliance,251.

  3. On Pickering, see Gerald H. Clarfield, Timothy Pickering and the American Republic (Pittsburg, 1980).

  4. In the absence of a modern biography of Wolcott, see the Dictionary of American Biography (New York, 1928–37), 20:443–45.

  5. Paul A. Varg, Foreign Policies of the Founding Fathers (East Lansing, Mich., 1963), 105–106.

  6. Combs, Jay Treaty, 145–49.

  7. Ibid., 153–58; DeConde, Entangling Alliance, 105; Jensen, Founding of the American Republic, 571.

  8. DeConde, Entangling Alliance, 106–109; Bemis, Jay Treaty, 279–87, 368–73.

  9. GW to R. Livingston, Aug. 20, 1795, WW, 34:278; GW to Randolph, July 22, 1795, ibid., 34:244; Bemis, Jay Treaty, 252–71; Burt, Anglo–American Relations, 145–51.

  10. Combs, Jay Treaty, 165.

  11. GW to Hamilton, July 29, 1795, WW, 34:262; Combs, Jay Treaty, 159; Charles, Origins of the Party System, 104–105; Varg, Foreign Policies, 111–13.

  12. Donald L. Robinson, Slavery in the Structure of American Politics (New York, 1971), 348–52, 358; Lycan, Hamilton and American Foreign Policy, 240–46; Combs, Jay Treaty, 162–64; Bradford Perkins, The First Rapprochement: England and the United States, 1795–1805 (Philadelphia, 1955), 34–35.

  13. Freeman, GW, 7:260–62; W.C. Ford, ed., “Edmund Randolph on the British Treaty, 1795,” AHR, 12 (1906–1907), 587–99.

  14. GW to Hamilton, July 29, 1795, WW, 34:262; GW to George Lewis, July 27, 1795, ibid., 34:249.

  15. GW to Randolph, July 29, 1795, ibid., 34:258; GW to R. Lewis, July 27, 1795, ibid., 34:252; Freeman, GW, 7:277–78.

  16. GW to Randolph, Aug. 20 and Sept. 27, 1795, WW, 34:276–77, 316; Moncure Conway, ed., Omitted Chapters of History Disclosed in the Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph (New York, 1888), 271–81.

  17. Irving Brant, “Edmund Randolph, Not Guilty!,” WMQ, 3d ser., 7 (1950), 180.

  18. Peter Daniel, ed., A Vindication of Edmund Randolph, Written by Himself and Published in 1795 (Richmond, Va., 1855), 1–4.

  19. McDonald, Presidency of GW, 165.

  20. GW to the Boston Selectmen, July 28, 1795, WW, 34:253; GW to Hamilton, July 3 and 29, 1795, ibid., 34:227, 262–63; Alexander Hamilton, “Remarks on the Treaty . . . ,” Syrett and Cooke, Papers of Hamilton, 18:404–54; Cooke, Hamilton, 163; De Conde, Entangling Alliance, 116; Freeman, GW, 7:275. The seven letters that Hamilton wrote to Washington that July have been lost. See Syrett and Cooke, Papers of Hamilton, 17:403, 456, 460, 464, 473, and 475.

  21. Daniel, Vindication, 1–4; Conway, Omitted Chapters, 282–89.

  22. Miller, Hamilton, 44. On the background of the new cabinet officers, see: Bernard C. Steiner, The Life and Career of James McHenry (Cleveland, 1907); James Haw et
al., Stormy Patriot: The Life of Samuel Chase (Baltimore, 1890); William G. Brown, The Life of Oliver Ellsworth (New York, 1905).

  23. GW to Randolph, Oct. 25, 1795, WW, 34:344; Freeman, GW, 7:319.

  24. Randolph to GW, Aug. 19, Oct. 2, 8, and 24, 1795, Daniel, Vindication, 2–4, 13, 15–16, 17–18, 36–45; GW to Randolph, Oct. 25, 1795, WW, 34:34.

  25. Daniel, Vindication, 4–6, 7–10; Brant, “Randolph,” WMQ, 7:190–98; Tachau, “GW and Randolph,” Jrnl. Am. Hist., 73:24–34.

  26. Daniel, Vindication, 43–44.

  27. Harry M. Tinkcom, The Republicans and Federalists in Pennsylvania, 1790–1801 (Harrisburg, Pa., 1950), 30; Daniel, Vindication, 44.

  28. Samuel Flagg Bemis, Pinckney’s Treaty: America’s Advantage from Europe’s Distress, 1783–1800 (New Haven, Conn., 1926), 245–84, 343–62; McDonald, Presidency of GW, 166–67. For another explanation of Spain’s motivation, see: Arthur P. Whitaker, “Godoy’s Knowledge of the Terms of Jay’s Treaty,” AHR, 35 (1930), 804–10, and Whitaker, Spanish–American Frontier, 201–202.

  29. GW to the Senate, Feb. 26, 1796, WW, 34:477–78; GW to Pinckney, Mar. 5, 1795, ibid., 34:485; Malone, Jefferson, 3:254.

  30. Hamilton to GW, Mar. 29, 1796, Syrett and Cooke, Papers of Hamilton, 20:85–103; Charles, Origins of the Party System, 109–12; GW to Pinckney, May 22, 1796, WW, 35:62; Freeman, GW, 7:354, 363.

  31. DeConde, Entangling Alliance, 342–79; Harry Ammon, James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity (New York, 1971), 112–50.

  32. GW to Monroe, Aug. 25, 1796, WW, 35:182; DeConde, Entangling Alliance, 380–86.

  33. GW to Hamilton, May 8, 1796, WW, 35:41; Pickering, Wolcott, and McHenry to GW, July 2, 1796, Ford, Writings of GW, 216n; DeConde, Entangling Alliance, 383; Ammon, Monroe, 153.

  34. [Phil.] Aurora, Jan. 12, 19, Mar. 3, Apr. 7, 21, and June 8, 1796; Jefferson, “Anas,” in Ford, Writings of Jefferson, 1:68; GW to Jefferson, July 6, 1796, WW, 35:120; GW to Jay, May 8, 1796, ibid., 35:37.

  35. [GW–Madison], Farewell Address [first draft], May 15, 1796, WW, 35:51–61; GW to Hamilton, May 15, 1796, ibid., 35:48–51.

  36. GW to Hamilton, Aug. 25, Sept. 2 and 6, 1796, ibid., 35:190–92, 199–201, 204–20; Hamilton, “Draft of GW’s Farewell Address,” Syrett and Cooke, Papers of Hamilton, 20:265–88; Hamilton, “Draft on the Plan of Incorporating,” ibid., 20:294–303. See also: “Introductory Note,” ibid., 20:169–73, and Victor Hugo Palsits, Washington’s Farewell Address (New York, 1935).