His Excellency: George Washington (53 page)

40. Washington to Secretary of State, 1 July 1796,
WW
35:112. See also
PWP
8:49, 57–58, where Washington reiterates his conviction that culpability for most of the frontier violence rests with the whites.

41. 
PWP
10:349–55, 399–403, 478–84.

42. 
PWP
10:69–73, 588–92, 594–96;
PWP
11:28–32, 38–40, 91–94, 182–85. See also,
Hamilton
12:229–58 and
Jefferson
20:718–53, for editorial notes on the political division from each respective side. The Jefferson quotation is from Thomas Jefferson to Washington, 9 September 1792,
PWP
11:104.

43. Three accounts of the emergence of political parties inform my interpretation here: Joseph Charles,
The Origins of the American Party System
(Williamsburg, 1950); Richard Hofstadter,
The Idea of the Party System: The Rise of Legitimate Opposition in the United States, 1780–1840
(Berkeley, 1969); Richard Buel,
Securing the Revolution: Ideology in American Politics, 1789–1815
(Ithaca, 1972). The Jefferson quotation is in Thomas Jefferson to Frances Hopkinson, 15 March 1789,
Jefferson
14:650.

44. See
Jefferson
17:205–7, for Jefferson’s postmortem on the “dinner bargain” as a disaster for Virginia’s interests. For a report on the converging sentiment against Hamilton’s program in Virginia, see David Stuart to Washington, 2 June 1790,
PWP
5:458–64.

45. For Madison’s dramatic shift, see his correspondence in
Madison
13:87–91, 142, 147–48, 151, 184–85, 187. The best secondary account is Elkins and McKitrick,
Age of Federalism,
133–62.

46. 
PWP
11:182–85, 234–39.

47. Anonymous to Washington, 3 January 1792,
PWP
9:369–70. See also
PWP
10:174–75.

48. 
PWP
10:5–10.

49. Thomas Jefferson to Washington, 23 May 1792,
PWP
10:408–14; Tobias Lear to Washington, 21 July 1792, ibid., 556–59.

50. Elizabeth Willing Powel to Washington, 17 November 1792,
PWP
11:395–98.

51. Second Inaugural Address, 4 March 1793,
WW
32:374–75.

52. This is my overly concise synthesis of the situation at the start of Washington’s second term based on
PWP
10 and
PWP
11. The quotation is from Red Jacket in a speech on 31 March 1792,
PWP
10:194.

53. Washington to Henry Lee, 21 July 1793,
WW
33:23–24.

54. 
WW
32:419–20, 430–31, 398–400, 415–16.

55. The best secondary account of Genet’s mission is Elkins and McKitrick,
Age of Federalism,
330–73. See also the editorial note in
WW
33:114.

56. Washington to Richard Henry Lee, 24 October 1793,
WW
33:137–38; on the Germantown move, ibid., 107–9, 112–13, 116–18.

57. 
PWP
11:59–62, 75–77, 122–24;
WW
33:457–61. The most recent scholarly monograph is Thomas P. Slaughter,
The Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier Epilogue to the American Revolution
(New York, 1986)
.
My own interpretation tends to concur with Elkins and McKitrick,
Age of Federalism,
451–88.

58. Washington to Henry Lee, 26 August 1794,
WW
33:477; see also ibid., 507–9, 523–24;
WW
34:3–6.

59. 
WW
34:28–37; Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 28 December 1794,
Jefferson-Madison
2:866–68.

60. The two standard accounts are: Samuel Flagg Bemis,
Jay’s Treaty: A Study in Commerce and Diplomacy
(New Haven, 1962); Jerald Combs,
The Jay Treaty: Political Background of the Founding Fathers
(Berkeley, 1970).

61. 
WW
33:329, 355, 485;
WW
34:226–28, 237–40.

62. An elegant summary is available in Elkins and McKitrick,
Age of Federalism,
406–26.

63. 
WW
34:243–46, 251–56. The Washington quotation is in Washington to Alexander Hamilton, 29 July 1795, ibid., 262–64.

64. Ibid., 244–85, for correspondence on the Randolph affair. Randolph is defended from some of the charges in Irving Brant, “Edmund Randolph. Not Guilty!”
WMQ
7 (1950): 179–98. Again Elkins and McKitrick,
Age of Federalism,
424–31, provides the most acute analysis.

65. 
WW
34:295–97, 397, 477, 505;
WW
35:2–5, 13, 36–37.

66. Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 27 March 1796,
Jefferson-Madison
2:928. For a fuller account of Jefferson’s reaction, see Ellis,
American Sphinx,
191–94.

67. 
WW
35:91–92, 101–4, 142–43, 363–65, 421. The Washington quotation is in the last citation.

68. Washington to Thomas Jefferson, 6 July 1796, ibid., 118–22.

69. Washington to Alexander Hamilton, 15 May 1796, ibid., 48–61. My earlier and fuller version of the Farewell Address, its drafting and multiple meanings, is in
Founding Brothers,
120–61. See also Burton I. Kaufman,
Washington’s Farewell Address: The View from the Twentieth Century
(Chicago, 1969), and Matthew Spaulding and Patrick J. Garrity,
A Sacred Union of Citizens: George Washington’s Farewell Address and the National Character
(Lantham, MD, 1996).

70. Victor H. Palitsis, ed.,
Washington’s Farewell Address
(New York, 1935), 172.

71. Alexander Hamilton to Washington, 30 July 1796, Palitsis, ed.,
Farewell Address,
249–50. For Washington’s meticulous role at the printer’s office, see 288–89.

72. 
WW
35:234.

73. Ibid., 235–36.

74. Arthur A. Markowitz, “Washington’s Farewell Address and the Historians,”
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
94 (1970), 173–91.

75. 
WW
35:224.

76. Talk to the Cherokee Nation, 29 August 1796, ibid., 193–98.

77. Ibid., 310–20.

78. Ibid., 357–60, 370–71, 385–86, 388–91, 394. The last citation contains the quotation by John Quincy Adams.

79. John Adams to Abigail Adams, 9 March 1797, quoted in Ellis,
Founding Brothers,
184;
Diaries
6:236.

CHAPTER SEVEN

 1. Washington to George Washington Parke Custis, 3 April 1797, Washington to James McHenry, 3 April 1797,
PWRT
1:70–71.

 2. Washington to James McHenry, 22 May 1797, ibid., 159–60; Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz,
Under Their Vine and Fig Tree: Travels Through America in 1797–99,
trans. and ed. Metchie Budka (Elizabeth, NJ, 1965), 98–108. This is a telescoped account that draws on several different comments by visitors to re-create a typical day that is, in fact, based on multiple incidents over a much longer stretch of time. See
WW
35:141–42;
PWRT
1:281, 404–5;
PWRT
4:19–20, 402.

 3. Washington to Landon Carter, 5 October 1798,
PWRT
3:79; Washington to William Fitzhugh, 5 August 1798,
PWRT
2:490.

 4. On the livestock at Mount Vernon, see the inventory done in April 1797,
PWRT
2:102.

 5. Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 8 January 1797,
Jefferson-Madison,
2:955.

 6. 
Aurora,
6 March 1797; William Duane,
A Letter to George Washington
(Philadelphia, 1796), 13; Washington to Rufus King, 25 June 1797,
PWRT
1:214–15.

 7. Niemcewicz,
Under Their Vine and Fig Tree,
102; for the marginal comments on Monroe’s pamphlet, see
PWRT
2:169–217; John Langhorne [Peter Carr] to Washington, 25 September 1797,
PWRT
1:373–75, 475–77, for the intrigue by Jefferson’s nephew. See also, Washington to John Nicholas, 8 March 1798,
PWRT
2:127–29.

 8. Washington to Lafayette, 25 December 1798,
PWRT
3:281–83. See also the correspondence in
PWRT
1:327–29, 499–502;
PWRT
2:491, 565–66.

 9. Richard H. Kohn,
Eagle and Sword: The Beginnings of the Military Establishment in America
(New York, 1975), 193–255; for the quotations from Abigail Adams on Jefferson, see Ellis,
Founding Brothers,
189–90.

10. For Washington’s support of the Alien and Sedition Acts, see the correspondence in
PWRT
3:108–10, 216–17, 287. The standard work on the legislation is James Morton Smith,
Freedom’s Fetters: The Alien and Sedition Laws and American Civil Liberties
(Ithaca, 1956).

11. Alexander Hamilton to Washington, 19 May 1789; Washington to Alexander Hamilton, 27 May 1798,
PWRT
2:279–81, 297–300.

12. Timothy Pickering to Washington, 6 July 1798,
PWRT
2:386–87. See also 392–93, 397–400.

13. Washington to John Adams, 13 July 1798, ibid., 402–04; editorial note on Knox’s warning of intrigue, ibid., 409–12; Henry Knox to Washington, 29 July 1798, ibid., 469–72; Henry Knox to Washington, 26 August 1798, ibid., 562–63; Washington to Henry Knox, 9 August 1798, ibid., 502–06.

14. 
PWRT
2:279–81, 297–300, 386–87, 392–93, 397–400, for correspondence between members of Adams’s cabinet and Washington that should have alerted him to Hamilton’s scheme; see
Hamilton
22:452–54, on Hamilton’s plans for using the Provisional army. The Hamilton quotation is in
Hamilton
24:155. Two excellent secondary accounts are Kohn,
Eagle and Sword,
239–55, and Elkins and McKitrick,
Age of Federalism,
714–16. My interpretation here is more critical of Hamilton than most scholarly accounts of this episode, because the evidence strikes me as conclusive that Hamilton regarded the New army as a weapon to wield against the Republicans. What he might actually have done if the New army materialized must remain an open question. The splendid new biography by Ron Chernow,
Alexander Hamilton
(New York, 2004), 546–79, tells the story in gripping detail.

15. Timothy Pickering to Washington, 13 September 1798,
PWRT
2:608–10; see also ibid., 573–77, 589–90,
PWRT
3:14–27, for the clash between Adams and his cabinet over the selection of Hamilton. Washington to John Adams, 25 September 1798, ibid., 42, for the insistence upon Hamilton, and John Adams to Washington, 9 October 1798, ibid., 87–88, for Adams’s eventual acquiescence.

16. Washington to James McHenry, 26 September 1798, ibid., 44–45; Washington to James McHenry, 21 October 1798, ibid., 124–25.

17. Ibid., 191–97, for the agenda of the Philadelphia meeting with Hamilton and Pinckney. The list of candidates for the officers’ corps of the New army, including Washington’s marginal comments on their qualifications, is on 225–40.

18. James Alpin to Washington, 27 June 1799,
PWRT
4:63–64.

19. I have told the story of Adams’s decision to send the second peace commission in
Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams
(New York, 1993), 29–37. For Washington’s response to Adams’s decision, see Washington to Alexander Hamilton, 27 October 1799,
PWRT
4:373.

20. Washington to James McHenry, 17 November 1799, ibid., 409–10.

21. On George Washington Parke Custis, see
PWRT
1:396,
PWRT
2:4–6. On requests for money, see
PWRT
3:111–13.

22. Washington to Alexander Spotswood, 23 November 1794,
WW
34:47–48. As noted earlier, Henry Wiencek’s book on Washington and slavery,
An Imperfect God,
appeared after I had drafted this chapter but in time to influence my revisions. I also benefited from multiple conversations with Philip Morgan, who was preparing an essay for a conference at Mount Vernon in October 2003, “ ‘To Get Quit of Negroes’: George Washington and Slavery.” All three of us agree that, rather inexplicably, the subject has not received the scholarly attention it deserves and that it was a chief focus of Washington during his final retirement. Morgan and I tend to disagree with Wiencek about how Washington’s mind worked on this tortured subject, concluding that moral considerations were always mixed with economic assessments, and that there were no dramatic epiphanies, but rather a gradual and always contested thought process.