PTJ: Julian P. Boyd et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 43 vols. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1950–).
PTJ-RS: Jefferson Lobney et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, 15 vols. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005–). The first fifteen volumes in this series, running through May 31, 1820, have been published as of 2019. The unpublished volumes are available unpaginated online at the Jefferson Papers section of founders.archives.gov and are cited here by date with volume and page numbers left blank.
WGW: John Clement Fitzpatrick et al., eds., The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799, 39 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1931–1944).
Preface: “My Dear Friend”
1.Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Jefferson, April 19, 1787, PBF, 46:---.
2.E.g., George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, September 24, 1787, PGW-CfS, 5:339. In this letter, Washington wrote that “the political concerns of this Country are, in a manner, suspended by a thread” and that if the Convention had not agreed on the Constitution, “anarchy would soon have ensued.” On the same day, Washington sent virtually identical letters to former Virginia governors Patrick Henry and Thomas Nelson.
3.Benjamin Franklin to Jane Mecom, September 21, 1786, PBF, 45:---.
4.Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, October 4, 1803, PTJ, 41:471.
Chapter One: Great Expectations
1.Gilbert Stuart and George Washington, quoted in James MacGregor Burns and Susan Dunn, George Washington (New York: Times/Holt, 2004), 58.
2.William Pierce, “Character Sketches of the Delegates to the Federal Convention,” in Farrand, 3:91.
3.George Washington, quoted in Paul K. Longmore, The Invention of George Washington (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 181.
4.Gilbert Stuart, quoted in Carrie Rebora Barratt and Ellen G. Miles, Gilbert Stuart (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004), 137.
5.H. W. Brands, The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin (New York: Doubleday, 2000), 8.
6.Joseph J. Ellis, Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation (New York: Random House, 2000), 53, 163.
7.Gary Wills, James Madison (New York: Times, 2002), 164; Gordon S. Wood, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin (New York: Penguin Press, 2004), 54.
8.Wood, Americanization of Franklin, 246.
9.John Adams to Benjamin Rush, April 4, 1790, Founders Online, National Archives, Washington, D.C. Eighteenth-century spelling and capitalization in quotations left as per original here and throughout.
10.Silence Dogood [Benjamin Franklin] to the Author of the New-England Courant, New-England Courant, April 16, 1722, in PBF, 1:12–13.
11.Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964), 119.
12.Ibid., 125–26.
13.Ibid., 88.
14.[Benjamin Franklin], “Dialogue Between Two Presbyterians,” Pennsylvania Gazette, April 10, 1735, in PBF, 2:30.
15.[Benjamin Franklin], Poor Richard, 1739 An Almanack For the Year of Christ 1739, in ibid., 2:224.
16.Franklin, Autobiography, 115.
17.Benjamin Franklin, “Advice to a Young Tradesman, Written by an Old One,” July 21, 1748, in PBF, 3:308.
18.Benjamin Franklin, “Old Mistresses Apologue,” June 25, 1745, in ibid., 3:27. In this satirical writing, beyond his seemingly sincere comments on marriage, Franklin argued the practical advantages of taking an old mistress to a young one without any reference to physical attraction.
19.On Franklin’s wealth, see Wood, Americanization of Franklin, 54.
20.Benjamin Franklin to Abiah Franklin, April 12, 1750, PBF, 3:475.
21.Franklin, Autobiography, 197.
22.Benjamin Franklin, “Opinions and Conjectures Concerning the Properties and Effects of the Electrical Matter, Arising from Experiments and Observations Made in Philadelphia, 1749,” July 29, 1750, in PBF, 4:13.
23.Carl van Doran, Benjamin Franklin (New York: Viking, 1961), 171.
24.Franklin, Autobiography, 153.
25.For the new or modern Prometheus quote, see Walter Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003), 145; Claude-Anne Lopez and Eugenia W. Herbert, The Private Franklin: The Man and His Family (New York: Norton, 1975), 47; van Doran, Franklin, 171.
26.For an analysis of Franklin’s college admissions prospects, see Isaacson, Franklin, 18–20.
27.George Washington, “Remarks,” 1787–1788, in PGW-CfS, 5:516.
28.George Washington to Marquis de Lafayette, December 8, 1784, ibid., 2:175.
29.Ibid.
30.George Washington, “A Journal of My Journey over the Mountains Begun Fryday the 11th of March 1747/8,” in DGW, 1:10.
31.Ibid., 1:12.
32.Ibid., 1:13.
33.On Washington as a Freemason, see Ron Chernow, Washington: A Life (New York: Penguin Press, 2010), 28.
34.“The Second Charter of Virginia,” May 23, 1609, in The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and Other Organic Laws of the States, Territories, and Colonies Now or Heretofore Forming the United States of America, ed. Francis Newton Thorpe (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1909), 7:3795.
35.Earl of Holderness to Robert Dinwiddie, August 28, 1753, DGW, 1:126.
36.Washington, “Remarks,” in PGW-CS, 5:116 (Washington’s remarks accepting these words written by his aide David Humphreys, about the reaction of some to his choice for this mission).
37.George Washington, “The Journal of Major George Washington,” in DGW, 1:137.
38.Robert Dinwiddie to French Commandant, October 30, 1753, ibid., 1:127; Legardeur de St. Pierre to Robert Dinwiddie, December 15, 1753, ibid., 1:151.
39.Washington, “The Journal,” December 14, 1753, in ibid., 1:150.
40.Washington, “The Journal,” December 15, 1753, in ibid., 1:151.
41.Christopher Gist, “Diary,” December 21 and 22, 1753, in ibid., 1:154n60.
42.Washington, “The Journal,” December 23, 1753, in ibid., 1:154.
43.Ibid.
44.Washington, “The Journal,” December 15, 1753, in ibid., 1:152.
45.Washington, “The Journal,” December 23, 1753, in ibid., 1:155.
46.Ibid.
47.Gist, “Diary,” December 27, 1753, in ibid., 1:157n65.
48.Washington, “The Journal,” December 23, 1753, in ibid., 1:155.
49.Gist, “Diary,” December 29, 1753, in ibid., 1:158n65.
50.Joseph J. Ellis, His Excellency: George Washington (New York: Random House, 2004), 7.
51.James Thomas Flexner, George Washington: The Forge of Experience (Boston: Little, Brown, 1965), 80.
52.Benjamin Franklin, “Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, &c., 1751,” in PBF, 4:228, 233.
53.E.g., “Williamsburg, February 8,” Pennsylvania Gazette, March 12, 1754, 1–2; “The Commandant’s Answer,” Pennsylvania Gazette, March 26, 1754, 1 (printed in French and English); “Charles-Town (in South Carolina), March 26,” Pennsylvania Gazette, May 2, 1754, 1 (quoted passage).
Chapter Two: Lessons from the Frontier
1.George Washington, “Journal of the Expedition to the Ohio,” April 20, 1754, in DGW, 1:177.
2.George Washington to James Hamilton, April [24], 1754, PGW-CS, 1:83; George Washington to Horatio Sharpe, April 24, 1754, ibid., 1:86.
3.George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, March 9, 1754, ibid., 1:73–74.
4.George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, May 27, 1754, ibid., 1:105.
5.George Washington to John Augustine Washington, May 31, 1754, ibid., 1:118.
6.George Washington, “The Journal of George Washington,” May 26, 1754, in ibid., 1:197–98.
7.Tanacharison, as reported in the journal of Conrad Weiser, in Stephen Brumwell, George Washington: Gentleman Warrior (New York: Quercus, 2012), 57.
8.G. Washington to J. A. Washing
ton, May 31, 1754, 1:118.
9.“Articles of Capitulation,” July 3, 1754, in PGW-CS, 1:166.
10.Ibid., 1:165.
11.Marquis de Duquesne to Seigneur de Contrecoeur, September 8, 1754, DGW, 1:172.
12.[Benjamin Franklin], “Philadelphia, May 9,” Pennsylvania Gazette, May 9, 1754, 2.
13.Benjamin Franklin to James Parker, March 20, 1751, PBF, 4:119.
14.Walter Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003), 160–61.
15.Benjamin Franklin to William Shirley, December 4, 1754, PBF, 5:444.
16.Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964), 210.
17.Ibid., 211.
18.Edward Braddock to Thomas Robinson, June 5, 1755, PBF, 6:14.
19.Benjamin Franklin, “Advertisement,” April 26, 1755, in ibid., 6:20–22.
20.William Shirley Jr. to Robert Hunter Morris, May 14, 1755, ibid., 6:22n3.
21.Franklin, Autobiography, 223–24.
22.George Washington to William Fitzhugh, November 15, 1754, PGW-CS, 1:226.
23.George Washington to John Augustine Washington, June 28–July 2, 1755, ibid., 1:319, 324.
24.Philip Hughes to correspondent, July 23, 1955, in Public Advertiser (London), October 31, 1755, reprinted in N. Darnell Davis, “British Newspaper Accounts of Braddock’s Defeat,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 23 (1899): 324.
25.George Washington to John Augustine Washington, July 18, 1755, PGW-CS, 1:343.
26.Adam Stephen to John Hunter, July 18, 1755, in Fred Anderson, Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766 (New York: Knopf, 2001), 103.
27.George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, July 18, 1755, PGW-CS, 1:339.
28.Ibid., 1:339–40.
29.George Washington, “Biographical Memorandum, c. 1789,” in ibid., 1:332–33.
30.G. Washington to Dinwiddie, July 18, 1755, 1:340.
31.Benjamin Franklin to Jared Eliot, August 31, 1755, PBF, 6:172.
32.Jean-Daniel Dumas to the Minister, July 24, 1755, in Paul A. W. Wallace, Conrad Weiser: Friend of Colonist and Mohawk (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1945), 385.
33.“The Governor’s Speech,” July 24, 1755, in Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania (Harrisburg: Fenn, 1851), 6:487.
34.[Benjamin Franklin], Reply to the Governor, August 8, 1755, in PBF, 6:138.
35.[Benjamin Franklin], Reply to the Governor, August 19, 1755, in ibid., 6:162.
36.[Benjamin Franklin], Reply to the Governor, November 11, 1755, in ibid., 6:242.
37.George Glewell et al. to Robert Hunter Morris, October 20, 1755, ibid., 6:648.
38.Peter Spycker to Conrad Weiser, November 16, 1755, in Wallace, Conrad Weiser, 410.
39.Robert Hunter Morris to Colonial Governors, [November 1755], ibid., 413.
40.Benjamin Franklin to Peter Collinson, August 27, 1755, PBF, 6:169.
41.See, e.g., Thomas Lloyd to [John Hughes], January 30, 1756, ibid., 6:381.
42.Benjamin Franklin to Capt. Vanetta, January 12, 1756, PBF, 6:354.
43.For commentary on Franklin’s military success, see J. A. Leo Lemay, The Life of Benjamin Franklin (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), 3:514.
44.Christopher Gist to George Washington, October 15, 1755, PGW-CS, 2:115.
45.Robert Dinwiddie to George Washington, Commission, August 14, 1755, ibid., 2:4.
46.George Washington, “Orders,” October 6, 1755, in ibid., 2:76.
47.George Washington to Adam Stephen, February 1, 1756, ibid., 2:310.
48.Benjamin Franklin to Peter Collinson, November 5, 1756, PBF, 7:13–15.
49.George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, October 11, 1755, PGW-CS, 2:102.
50.Benjamin Franklin to George Washington, August 19, 1756, PBF, 6:488.
51.Adam Stephen to George Washington, October 4, 1755, PGW-CS, 2:72.
52.George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, April 19, 1756, PGW-CS, 3:20.
53.George Washington, “Remarks,” 1787–1788, in PGW-CfS, 5:524–25.
54.Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Pownall, August 19, 1756, PBF, 6:487.
55.Benjamin Franklin, “Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, &c., 1751,” in PBF, 4:234.
56.George Washington to Robert Dinwiddie, March 10, 1757, PGW-CS, 4:113. For a second such petition related to this conference, see George Washington to Lord Loudoun, March 23, 1757, ibid., 4:120–21.
57.Thomas Penn to Richard Peters, May 14, 1757, PBF, 7:111n9.
58.For a similar conclusion, see Ron Chernow, George Washington: A Life (New York: Penguin, 2010), 92–93.
59.Franklin, Autobiography, 226.
Chapter Three: From Subjects to Citizens
1.The term “Sons of Liberty” is attributed to Isaac Barré, quoted in Jared Ingersoll to Thomas Finch, February 11, 1765, in “A Selection from the Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers of Jared Ingersoll,” in Papers of the New Haven Colony Historical Society (New Haven: Tuttle, Morehouse, and Tayler, 1918), ed. Franklin B. Dexter, 9:312.
2.George Washington to James Gildart, April 26, 1763, PGW-CS, 7:201.
3.“Council and Burgesses of Virginia to King George III,” December 18, 1754, Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1761–65 (Richmond: Virginia State Library, 1907), 302.
4.“Memorial of the Council and Burgesses of Virginia,” December 18, 1754, in ibid., 302.
5.Ingersoll to Finch, February 11, 1765, 9:312.
6.Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Galloway, October 11, 1766, PBF, 13:448.
7.Barré, quoted in Ingersoll to Finch, February 11, 1765, 9:311; “Diary of Nathanial Ryder,” in Proceedings of the Debates of the British Parliament Respecting North America, 1754–1783, eds. R. C. Simmons and Peter D. G. Thomas (Millwood, N.Y.: Kraus, 1983), 2:13 (punctuation altered).
8.This version of the legend is from the printed caption of “Patrick Henry Delivers His Celebrated Speech,” a popular nineteenth-century engraving by Alfred Jones, after a painting by P. F. Rothermel, c. 1852, copy in the Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
9.The text for these resolutions is from the July 4, 1765, issue of the Maryland Gazette and, along with a discussion of variations in the text and content of the Virginia resolves, appears in the revised edition of the classic account of this episode, Edmund J. Morgan and Helen M. Morgan, The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution, rev. ed. (New York: Collier, 1963), 120–32 (text from Gazette on 128–29). For the official text of the first four resolutions as they appear in the assembly journal, see “Thursday, the 30th of May, 5 Geo. III, 1765,” in Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, 1761–1765, ed. John Pendleton Kennedy (Richmond: State Library, 1907), 360.
10.Deborah Franklin to Benjamin Franklin, September 22, 1765, PBF, 12:271.
11.Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, November 9, 1865, PBF, 12:361.
12.George Washington to Robert Cary & Co., September 20, 1765, PGW-CS, 7:401–2.
13.Benjamin Franklin, “Examination Before the Committee of the Whole of the House of Commons,” February 13, 1766, in PBF, 13:135.
14.Ibid., 13:142.
15.Ibid., 13:147.
16.Ibid., 13:144.
17.Ibid., 13:156.
18.Ibid., 13:141.
19.George Washington to Robert Cary & Co., July 21, 1766, PGW-CS, 7:457.
20.Franklin, “Examination,” 13:150.
21.Writing as Poor Richard in his Almanack, Franklin often made comments to the effect that, to have a friend, be a friend; not to throw stones at your neighbor’s if your own windows are glass; and people who sow thorns should not go barefoot.
22.“Friday, the 21st of November, 7 Geo. III, 1766,” in Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, 1766–1769, ed. John Pendleton Kennedy (Richmond: State Library, 1906), 34.
23.G. Washington to Cary, September 20, 1765, 7:401.
24.Franklin, �
��Examination,” 13:143.
25.George Washington to George Mason, April 5, 1769, PGW-CS, 8:179. The passage quoted was written in the first person to apply to Virginia planters generally, but clearly applies to Washington himself as well.
26.Ibid., 8:178.
27.George Mason to George Washington, April 5, 1769, ibid., 8:182.
28.“Virginia Non-Importation Resolutions,” May 17, 1769, in PTJ, 1:29. In contrast, the Philadelphia nonimportation agreement was addressed to “The Merchants and Traders of the City of Philadelphia”: see Stanislaus Murray Hamilton, ed., Letters to Washington and Accompanying Papers (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1901), 3:351.
29.George Washington to Robert Cary & Co., July 25, 1769, PGW-CS, 8:229.
30.“Wednesday, the 17th of May, 9 Geo. 1769,” in Journals of the House, 1766–1769, 218.
31.“Thursday, May 18,” in ibid., xliii. They also toasted the king, queen, and royal family, as well as Lord Botetourt.
32.Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, April 6, 1766, PBF, 13:233.
33.Benjamin Franklin to Jane Mecom, March 1, 1766, ibid., 13:188.
34.[John Dickinson], Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies (London: Almon, 1768), 7, 17.
35.Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, March 13, 1768, PBF, 15:75–76.
36.Benjamin Franklin to Samuel Cooper, June 8, 1770, ibid., 17:162–63.
37.Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, October 6, 1773, ibid., 20:437.
38.Benjamin Franklin to Charles Thomson, March 18, 1770, ibid., 17:113.
39.Benjamin Franklin to William Straham, November 29, 1769, ibid., 16:244–45.
40.George Washington to Jonathan Boucher, July 30, 1770, PGW-CS, 8:361. For the modifications, compare “Virginia Resolutions,” May 17, 1769, in PTJ, 1:29 with “Virginia Non-Importation Resolutions,” June 22, 1770, in ibid., 1:44.
41.George Washington to Jonathan Boucher, July 30, 1770, PGW-CS, 8–361 (first quotation); George Washington to Robert Cary & Co., August 20, 1770, ibid., 8:371 (second quotation).
42.George III to Lord North, February 4, 1774, in The Correspondence of King George the Third with Lord North from 1768 to 1783, ed. W. Bodham Dunne (London: Murray, 1867), 1:164 (source of both quotations).
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