THE WRITINGS OF GEORGE WASHINGTON; BEING HIS CORRESPONDENCE, ADDRESSES, MESSAGES, AND OTHER PAPERS, OFFICIAL AND PRIVATE, SELECTED AND PUBLISHED FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS; WITH A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR, NOTES, AND ILLUSTRATIONS. BY JARED SPARKS. VOLUME X. BOSTON: RUSSELL, SHATTUCK, AND WILLIAMS, AND HILLIARD, GRAY, AND CO. 1836. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six, by JARED SPARKS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE: PART FOURTH; CONTAINING CORRESPONDENCE OFFICIAL AND PRIVATE, FROM THE BEGINNING OF HIS PRESIDENCY TO THE END OF HIS LIFE. 136092 CORRESPONDENCE OFFICIAL AND PRIVATE, WHILE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND AFTERWARDS. TO EDWARD RUTLEDGE. MY DEAR SIR, New York, 5 May, 1789.* I cannot fail of being much pleased with the friendly part you take in every thing which concerns me, and particularly with the just scale on which you estimate this last great sacrifice, that I consider myself as having made for the good of my country. When I had judged, upon the best appreciation I was able to form of the circumstances, which related to myself, that it was my duty to embark again on the tempestuous ocean of public life, I gave up all expectations of private happiness in this world. You know, my dear Sir, I had concentred all my schemes, all my views, all my wishes, within the narrow circle of domestic enjoyment. Though I flatter myself the world will do me the justice to believe, that, at my time of life and in my * Having been officially notified by a special messenger from Congress, that he was unanimously elected President of the United States, General Washington left Mount Vernon on the 16th of April, and proceeded to New York where Congress was then sitting. He arrived in that city on the 23d of April, and took the oath of office on the 30th. See APPENDIX, No. I. VOL. X. 1 A |