Richard Rush

“ We see that he was truly hospitable; kind; devoted to his kindred whom he gathers around him, interesting himself in their education and welfare; cheering them with a welcome at Mount Vernon, and soothing them in sickness and sorrow. The kindred of Mrs. Washington alike share his solicitudes, paternal care, and constant kindness. All this is discernible from the facts that drop out in these letters. They point to a heart affectionately alive to the best social and family feelings. We see his attention to the comfort of his servants, slaves, and others. ”

“ Poor George [the General is here supposed to allude to Mr. George Lewis, one of his nephews, then staying at Mount Vernon] , he fears, is not far from that place whence no traveller returns; he is but the shadow of what he was; has not been out of his room, scarcely out of his bed, for six weeks; has intervals of ease which flatter us a little, but he, the General, has little hope of his surviving the winter. ”

“ If there be too many pupils, justice cannot be done to them whatever the ability of the masters, adding that what ought to be the due proportion is in some measure matter of opinion, but that an extreme must be obvious to all. He leaves it with Mr. Lear to decide that point if nothing else should be finally resolved upon by himself before he reaches Philadelphia. He next incloses a letter from Mr. Gouverneur Morris, then in Paris [but not our minister at the French court at that time] with the bill of charges for certain articles which he had requested him to send from Paris. ”

“ Besides that the general tenor of the correspondence might have supplied occasions for such allusions, special opportunities were at hand while skirting the battlegrounds and other localities of his military operations in the war, even in his journeys between Mount Vernon and Philadelphia; yet they are never once made. The casual mention of his "Old Sergeant Cornelius," whom he happened to want as a workman about his grounds at Mount Vernon, is the sole reference that could wake up the mind to his having had anything to do with the Revolution. ”

“ As his family on removing to Philadelphia will have new connections to form with tradespeople, he requests Mr. Lear to find out those in each branch who stand highest for skill and fair dealing, saying it is better to be slow in choosing than be under any necessity of changing. ”

“ Lear he is glad to learn he has put in writing his views in regard to it, as that will protect him against misconception on any point.
Mount Vernon, October 7, 1791. He writes again about the blankets; some have been offered to him in Alexandria, but he likes neither the size nor price, and speaks of those to be had in Philadelphia as intolerably narrow. He cannot think of being disappointed in his supply, as his people would suffer in the ensuing winter. He wants one hundred of the largest size and best quality, and one hundred of the middle size but good in quality. ”

“ He bedaubed with ink the face of one of the justices, who, with Cromwell himself, had just been condemning Charles to the block. Peter the Great travelled about with a pet monkey, which unceremoniously jumped upon the King of England's shoulder when the latter visited the Czar in London. Some great men have played leap-frog; some practised this affectation, some that. The book of history records too amply the child-like diversions among those who have flourished on the summits of renown. We hear of none of this in Washington ”

“ When others are acting disingenuously towards him, though seeing through it, he is considerate and forbearing, not taking steps hastily, but ready to make allowances where they could be made. Dishonesty or suspicion of it he never overlooks. In the second letter he suspects his steward of extravagance in spending too much for supplies of the table kept for his upper servants; yet he authorizes Mr. Lear to retain him, if, on looking into his accounts, he finds him honest ”

“ When the French troops arrived at Rhode Island, I had intelligence from New York that General Clinton intended to make an attack upon them before they could get themselves settled and fortified. In consequence of that, I was determined to attack New York, which would be left much exposed by his drawing off the British troops; and accordingly formed my line of battle, and moved down with the whole army to King's ferry, which we passed. ”

“ The manuscript or paper here published was prepared from a collection of original letters from General Washington on matters, for the most part, purely domestic and personal, addressed to Colonel Tobias Lear, his private Secretary for a part of the time he was President; and then, and during periods much longer, his confidential friend. They came into my hands through the voluntary kindness of Mrs. Lear, of the city of Washington, the estimable relict of Colonel Lear, and niece of Mrs. Washington, whose friendship it was my good lot and that of my family to enjoy ”

“ Lear to use his endeavors for ascertaining the best schools in Philadelphia with a view to placing Washington Custis, Mrs. Washington's grandson, at the best. If the college is under good regulations, and they have proper tutors to prepare boys of his standing for the higher branches of education, he makes a quaere if it would not be better to put him there at once, the presumption being that a system may prevail there by which the gradations are better connected than in schools which have no correspondence with each other. Adverting again to his servants, he reminds Mr. ”

“ This verdict is already more than half pronounced by the most enlightened and scrutinizing portions of mankind, and time is silently extending its domain as he is longer tried by the parallels of history, and by the philosophy of greatness itself. ”

“ He tells Mr. Lear that on his return from a twelve days' excursion up the Potomac, he finds three letters from him, which he acknowledges under their dates, and is very glad to learn that he had arrived in Philadelphia, and that the servants and furniture had got safely there. It is equally agreeable to him that the steward and his wife had come. He leaves to Mr. L. the arrangement of the furniture, with remarks of his own as to its disposition in some of the rooms; and wishes the rent of Mr. Morris's house to be fixed before the day of his going into it. He desired to pay a just value ”

“ Nothing, indeed, in authentic connection with Washington's great name can ever be unwelcome to the American people; and although it may have happened that some few of these letters have heretofore found their way into print in whole or in part, the number, as far as was known to Mrs. Lear, is believed to be very small. ”

“ Frederick thought coffee too expensive an indulgence for common use in his kingdom, saying he was himself reared on beer soup, which was surely good enough for peasants and common fellows, as he called his people. ”

“ He again repeated that he did not think his wound would permit him to do active duty, and intimated a desire to have the command at West Point. I told him I did not think that would suit him, as I should leave none in the garrison but invalids, because it would be entirely covered by the main army. The subject was dropt at that time, and he returned to Philadelphia. It then appeared somewhat strange to me, that a man of Arnold's known activity and enterprise, should be desirous of taking so inactive a part. ”

“ The synopsis of the letters which I have given may perhaps tend in some small degree to supply this desideratum in his illustrious life alongside of the more copious anecdotes and reminiscences supplied by the patriotic and filial devotion of Mr. Custis. ”

“ Lear will inform him, by return of post, what he has to expect with certainty as to the coach hired for taking on a part of his family to Philadelphia. His house is full of company, he adds, and concludes as usual.
Mount Vernon, November 14, 1790. This letter manifests his concern about the house in Philadelphia; for, besides that it is still unfinished, the rent, he says, has not yet been fixed, though he has long since wished it; he is at a loss to understand it all. He hopes that the additions and alterations made on his account whilst neat, have not been in an extravagant style. ”

“ The letter is of more length than usual and marked "private;" being, with one other, the only ones in the collection so marked. I will, therefore, notice its contents no further than barely to add, that in a part where he alludes to the still possible intention of making the public in Philadelphia pay his rent, his terms of dissent become very emphatic. ”

“ 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.] ”

“ The General then touches on our home affairs. [He was still President, it will be remembered.] He says that to tell him the British order in council of the 8th of June last respecting neutral vessels had given much discontent in the United States; and that that of the 6th of November had thrown the people into a flame, could hardly be new to him. In reference to all the existing difficulties with England he tells him that many measures had been moved in Congress, some of which had passed into acts, and others were pending ”

“ Mount Vernon, March 25, 1797. The General is now relieved from all public duties and cares. On the 3d of March of this year he ceased to be President by voluntarily retiring from the post after writing that farewell address which a British historian [D] has pronounced unequalled by any composition of uninspired wisdom. He is now a private citizen returned to his country estate at Mount Vernon on the banks of the Potomac. Mr. Lear is in Georgetown. ”

“ With two or three exceptions, no copies appear to have been kept; yet everything is frank and straight-forward. Understanding human nature thoroughly under all its phases, he deals wisely with men in small things as in great ”

“ Lear's son] and his "lottery tickets," which, "poor little fellow!" he exclaims, will never be likely to build him a baby-house even; the whole Washington lottery business having turned out a bed of thorns rather than roses. He terminates the letter by telling him that his public avocations will not admit of more than a flying trip to Mount Vernon this summer, and that this not suiting Mrs. Washington he has taken a house in Germantown [the vicinity of Philadelphia] to avoid the heat of Philadelphia in July and August, and that Mrs. ”

“ Washington's hands and his own, and would be supported in the line of their duty, whilst any attempt to counteract them would be considered as the strongest evidence the other servants could give of their unworthiness. A good and faithful servant, he adds, was never afraid of having his conduct looked into, but the reverse.
Mount Vernon, June 19, 1791. He acknowledges the receipt of several letters from Mr. Lear, and approves what he has done. He tells him that in the fall he shall want blankets for his servants and people [C] at Mount Vernon ”

“ This session of Congress passed over. It was the long one, and ran into May 1792. I find in the collection only three letters to Mr. Lear dated in that year. The first is from Mount Vernon, July 30, '92, soon after he had left Philadelphia, and is familiarly descriptive of his journey homewards. His horses plagued him a good deal, he says, and the sick mare, owing to a dose of physic administered the night he reached Chester, was so much weakened as to be unable to carry Austin [one of the postilions] further than the Susquehannah ”

“ 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. ”

“ One to raise an army of twenty-five thousand men in addition to it; and 3d. A bill to organize, put in training, and hold in readiness at a minute's warning a select corps of eighty thousand militia. He seemed to think that the first and last would pass, but that the result of the second could not be so well predicted. He mentions the appointment of Mr. Jay as special minister to England in the hope of settling all our difficulties in a temperate way by fair and firm negotiation, and that he would sail in a few days, with Mr. ”

“ Alluding to the house in which he had lived in New York, the lease of which was unexpired, he says that he expected ***** would endeavor to impose his own terms when he found he could not get it off his hands; we are in his power and he must do what he pleases with us. As the "Lustre" is paid for and securely packed up, and may suit the largest drawing-room at Mr. ”