Showing posts with label George Washington. Show all posts
Showing posts with label George Washington. Show all posts

Saturday, March 9, 2024

Daniel Webster to Josiah Randall & Others, November 14, 1850

Boston, November 14, 1850.

GENTLEMEN,—I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 11th of this month, inviting me, in behalf of the friends of the Constitution and the Union, without distinction of party, resident in the city and county of Philadelphia, to attend a public meeting in that city on the 21st instant. I most sincerely wish that it was in my power to attend that meeting. That great central city is not only full of the friends of the Constitution, but full, also, of recollections connected with its adoption, and other great events in our history. In Philadelphia the first revolutionary Congress assembled. In Philadelphia the Declaration of Independence was made. In Philadelphia the Constitution was formed, and received the signatures of Washington and his associates; and now, when there is a spirit abroad evidently laboring to effect the separation of the Union, and the subversion of the Constitution, Philadelphia, of all places, seems the fittest for the assembling together of the friends of that Constitution, and that Union, to pledge themselves to one another and to the country to the last extremity.

My public duties, gentlemen, require my immediate presence in Washington; and for that reason, and that alone, I must deny myself the pleasure of accepting your invitation.

I have the honor, gentlemen, to be, with great regard, your fellow-citizen and humble servant,

DANIEL WEBSTER.

TO JOSIAH RANDALL, ISAAC HAZLEHURST, ROBERT M. LEE, C. INGERSOLL, JNO. W. FORNEY, JOHN S. RIDDLE.

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, p. 403-4

Thursday, February 22, 2024

Congressman Albert G. Brown’s Speech on Homesteads, July 26, 1850

WHEN arrested in the progress of my remarks yesterday, I was about to say that I approved of the main object of the bill reported by the Committee on Agriculture, and which had been advocated with so much zeal and ability by the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Johnson]. I was about to say that my judgment approved the policy of supplying, by some appropriate means, a home to every citizen.

Ours is essentially an agricultural community. The national prosperity of this country, more than any other, depends upon the production of its soil. Whatever tends to increase that production, enhances the national wealth, and, by consequence, increases the national prosperity. The first care of this nation should be to promote the happiness and prosperity of its citizens; and acting on this hypothesis, it has been my constant aim to promote the passage of all laws which tended to ameliorate the condition of the toiling millions.

I have always thought, and now think, that some salutary reform in our land system, by which a fixed and permanent home should be placed within the reach of every citizen, however humble his condition in life, would promote the national prosperity, add to the wealth of the states, and give fresh impetus to the industry and perseverance of our people.

I repeat, sir, that I am for giving to every man in the United States a home—a spot of earth—a place on the surface of God's broad earth which shall be his against the demands of all the world—a place where, in the full enjoyment of all his senses, and the full exercise of all his faculties, he may look upon the world, and, with the proud consciousness of an American citizen, say, This is my home, the castle of my defence; here I am free from the world's cold frowns, and exempt from the Shylock demands of inexorable creditors. These, sir, are my sentiments, long entertained, and now honestly expressed; nor am I to be deterred from their advocacy by any general outcry. Call these sentiments Socialism, Fourierism, Free-Soilism—call them what you please—say this is the doctrine of "vote yourself a farm"—say it is anti-rentism—say what you please—it is the true doctrine; it embraces great principles, which, if successfully carried out, will lead us on to higher renown as a nation, add to the wealth of the separate states, and do more for the substantial happiness of the great mass of our people than all your other legislation combined.

Congress has been in session nearly eight months, and what have you done?—what have you been trying to do? More than six months of that time has been expended in attacking and defending the institution of slavery—the North depreciating and trying to destroy the sixteen hundred millions of dollars invested in this species of property; and the South, forgetting for a season her party differences, banding together for the defence of this vast interest. Sometimes the monotony of this tedious drama has been relieved by a glance at other matters,—a member has appeared to advocate the manufacturing interests, or possibly to put on foot some grand scheme of internal improvement. But, whatever has been said in all our discussions, or by whomsoever it has been said, "the upper ten" have been constantly in view. No one has thought it worth his while to take account of the wants of the millions who toil for bread. The merchants and the manufacturers, the mariners and the speculators, the professions and the men of fortune everywhere, have their advocates on this floor. I speak to-day for the honest, hard-fisted, warm-hearted toiling millions—I speak here, in the councils of this nation, as I speak in the midst of my constituents; and whilst I do not object to the consideration which you give to other interests and other pursuits, I stand up here to demand even-handed justice for the honest but humble cultivator of the soil.

I cannot forget my allegiance—I know the men whose devotion sustains this government—I know the men whose friendship sustains me against the attacks of slander and the malignity of the interested few. For them I speak, and by no senseless cry of demagoguism, will I be turned from my purpose of vindicating their rights on this floor.

Talk, sir, of your lordly manufacturers, your princely merchants, your professional gentry, and your smooth-tongued politicians. The patriotism of one simple-hearted, honest old farmer would outweigh them all; and, for private friendship, I had rather have the hearty good will of one of those plain old men than the hypocritical smiles of as many of your smooth-tongued oily fellows as would fill this Capitol from its dome to its base.

It is my fortune to represent a constituency in which is mingled wealth and poverty;—whilst some are wealthy, and many possess more than a competency, there are many others on whom poverty has fixed his iron grasp. All, I hope, are patriotic. But, sir, if I were going to hunt for patriots who could be trusted in every emergency; patriots who would pour out their blood like water; and who would think it no privation to lay down their lives in defence of their country, I would go among the poor, the squatters, the preemptors, the hardy sons of toil. Though I should expect to find patriots everywhere, I know I should find them here.

Sir, in the great matter of legislation, shall men like these be neglected? I invoke gentlemen to forget for a moment the loom and the furnace, the storehouse, and the ships on the high seas, and go with me to the houses of these people; listen to the story of their wrongs, and let us together do them justice.

Men in affluent circumstances know but little of the wants of other men, and, unfortunately, care less for the miseries of the poor. Rocked in the cradle of fortune from infancy to manhood, they do not understand why it is that some men toil with poverty all their lives, and die at last in penury. Let gentlemen picture to themselves a man reared in humble life, without education, and with no fortune but his hands; see him going into the wild woods with a wife and a family of small children, there, by his unaided exertions, to rear his humble dwelling, to clear the forest and make way for his planting. See him after the toils of the day are over, returning to that humble dwelling to receive the smiles of his wife and hear the merry prattle of his little children. Watch him as he moves steadily and firmly on from day to day; fancy to yourself his heart buoyant with hope as he marks the progress of his growing crop, and pictures to himself the happiness of his wife and little children when he shall have gathered the reward of his summer's toil, sold it, and with the proceeds secured this his humble home.

Look, sir, at this scene; gaze on that sun-burnt patriot, for he is worthy of your admiration. Now go with me one step further, and behold the destruction of all these fairy visions; blighting seasons, low prices, disease, a bad trade, or some unforeseen disaster has overtaken him. His year of honest industry is gone-the time has come when government demands her pay for this poor man's home. He is without money—government, with a hard heart and inexorable will, turns coldly away, and the next week or the next month she sells her land, and this man's labor, his humble house and little fields, are gone. The speculator comes, and with an iron will, turns him and his family out of doors; and all this is the act of his own government—of a government which has untold millions of acres of land. Now, Mr. Speaker, let me ask you, can this man love a government that treats him thus? Never, sir, never. To do so, he should be more than man, and scarcely less than God. Treatment like this would have put out the fire of patriotism in Washington's breast, and almost justified the treachery of Arnold.

Instead of treating her citizens thus, I would have this government interpose its strong arm to protect them from the iron grasp of the heartless speculator. By doing so, you encourage industry, promote happiness, develope the resources of the soil, make better men and purer patriots. In a word, you perform a vast amount of good without the possibility of doing harm.

Not having seen the bill reported by the committee under circumstances which afforded an opportunity for a critical examination, I am not prepared to say that its details meet my approbation.

I am disinclined to give to the settler an absolute title to lands. I am so, sir, because I would secure him in the possession of his home against his misfortunes, and even against his own improvidence. If he is an honest and industrious man, he should have a home where that honest heart could repose in peace, and where the hand of industry could find employment. If he be dishonest, give him a home where, in the bosom of his family, he may hide his shame, and where they may find shelter from the frowns of a cruel world. If he is idle and worthless, give him a home where his wife and children may toil, and, by their example, bring him back to habits of honest industry. In any and in every event, give him a home, and secure him in the possession of that home, against all the contingencies of life and vicissitudes of fortune. When you have done this, rest satisfied that you have at least made a better man, and done something towards the general prosperity.

My own scheme has been reduced to the form of a bill, and before I take my seat I beg leave to send it to the Clerk's desk, that it may be read—promising that I am wedded to no special plan. The object is a good one; it meets my cordial approbation, and I shall most heartily unite in any scheme which gives reasonable promise of success.

I offer the paper which I hold in my hand as a substitute for the original proposition, and ask that it may be included in the motion to print.

Mr. Brown's proposition was read.

Strike out all after the enacting clause, and insert as follows:

 

That the laws now in force granting preemption to actual settlers on the public lands, shall continue until otherwise ordered by Congress, and that the same be extended to all the territories of the United States.

 

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That from and after the passage of this act, the rights of preemptors shall be perpetuated: that is to say, persons acquiring the right of preemption shall retain the same without disturbance, and without payment of any kind to the United States, but on these conditions: First, The preemptor shall not sell, alienate or dispose of his or her right for a consideration, and if he or she voluntarily abandons one preemption and claims another, no right shall be acquired by such claim, until the claimant shall first have testified, under oath, before the register of the land office when the claim is preferred, that he or she has voluntarily abandoned his or her original preemption, and that no consideration, reward or payment of any kind has been received, or is expected, directly or indirectly, as an inducement for such abandonment; and any person who shall testify falsely in such case, shall be deemed guilty of perjury. Second: Any person claiming and holding the right of preemption to lands under this act, may be required by the state within which the same lies, to pay taxes thereon in the same manner, and to the same extent, as if he or she owned the said land in fee simple; and in case such lands are sold for taxes, the purchaser shall acquire the right of preemption only. Third: Absence of the preemptor and his family for six consecutive months, shall be deemed an abandonment, and the land shall, in such case, revert to the United States, and be subject to the same disposition as other public lands.

 

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That lands preempted, and the improvements thereon, shall not be subject to execution sale, or other sale for debt; and all contracts made in reference thereto, intended in anywise to alienate the right, or to embarrass or disturb the preemptor in his or her occupancy, shall be absolutely null and void.

 

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the preemptor may, at any time, at his or her discretion, enter the lands preempted, by paying therefor to the proper officer of the United States one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre.

 

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That in case of the preemptor's death, if a married man, his right shall survive to his widow and infant children, but the rights of the older children shall cease as they respectively come of age, or when they reach the age of twenty-one years; in all cases the right of preemption shall remain in the youngest child. And in case of the death of both father and mother, leaving an infant child or children, the executor, administrator, or guardian, may at any time within twelve months after such death, enter said preempted lands in the name of said infant child or children, or the said preemption, together with the improvements on the lands, may be deemed property, and as such, sold for the benefit of said infants, but for no other purpose, and the purchaser may acquire the right of the deceased preemptor by such purchase.

 

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

In reply to Mr. Morse, of Louisiana, Mr. BROWN said: Mr. Chairman, the gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Morse], in the progress of his remarks was understood by me to assume the ground that my proposition is unconstitutional. I did not, as you know, Mr. Speaker, undertake to explain, much less to vindicate that proposition. Its provisions are so few and so simple, that it may be well left to speak its own vindication, even against the furious assault of the honorable gentleman.

It proposes simply to perpetuate a law which has stood for years on your statute book, an honorable monument to the wisdom and justice of Congress. To-day, for the first time, it has been discovered to be unconstitutional. The preemption law struggled into existence against the combined opposition of many of the first minds in the country. It has received the repeated sanction of Congress, and to-day I know of no man from the new states who desires its repeal, or who has the boldness to avow such desire if he feels it. Instead of limiting the right of the preemptor to one year or two years, I simply propose to perpetuate that right, and this is the measure which the astute gentleman from Louisiana says is unconstitutional. I shall not stop to vindicate the measure from such a charge. The government has full power to dispose of the public lands, and in the exercise of this power, it has from time to time reduced the price, and in many hundred instances given them away.

I ask the honorable gentleman if the act by which five hundred thousand acres of the public lands were given to the state of Louisiana was unconstitutional? Were the various acts giving lands to the states, Louisiana among the rest, for educational purposes, unconstitutional? Did the honorable gentleman violate the Constitution last year, when he voted to give to his own state five millions of the public lands for works of internal improvement? Did we all violate the Constitution the other day, when we voted bounty lands to the soldiers of the last war with Great Britain and all our Indian wars?

No one knows better than the honorable gentleman, that this government has habitually given away the public lands—given them to the states for internal-improvement purposes; given them to establish colleges and primary schools; given them to railroad and canal companies given them to states and to soulless corporations, for almost every conceivable purpose; and all this has been done within the Constitution; but now, sir, when it is proposed to allow the humble citizen to reside on these lands, the gentleman starts up as though he had just descended from another world, and startles us with a declaration that we are violating the Constitution.

It has pleased the honorable member to denominate this as a villanous measure; and with great emphasis he declares, that its supporters are demagogues. It will not surprise you or others, Mr. Speaker, if I speak warmly in reply to language like this. The gentleman was pleased to extract the poison from his sting, by declaring that he used these words in no offensive sense. In reply, I shall speak plainly, but within the rules of decorum.

"Demagoguing,"—“demagoguing," says the honorable gentleman, "for the votes of the low, ill-bred vagrants and vagabonds." Sir, this is strange language, coming from that quarter. I know something of the gentleman's constituents. Many of the best of them are of this despised caste; many of them are the low, ill-bred vagabonds, of which the gentleman has been speaking. Many, very many, of them are squatters on the public lands. Sir, I should like to hear the honorable gentleman making the same speech in one of the upper parishes of Louisiana, which he has this day pronounced in the American Congress. I can well conceive how his honest constituents the squatters, would stare and wonder, to hear a gentleman, so bland and courteous last year, now so harsh and cruel. Yes, sir, the gentleman's squatter constituents would stand aghast to hear the representative denouncing them as a dirty, ill-bred set of vagabonds and scoundrels—when the candidate, with a face all wreathed in his blandest smile, had told them they were the cleverest fellows in the world!

It may do very well, Mr. Speaker, for gentlemen, when they come on to Washington, to get upon stilts and talk after this fashion. It may sound beautiful in the ears that are here to catch the sound, thus to denounce a measure intended to relieve the poor man's wants as villanous, and its advocates as demagogues. But, sir, I take it upon myself to say there is not a congressional district in the West or Southwest where a candidate for Congress would dare to use such language.

Sir, I know very well how popular electioneering canvasses are conducted, and bold and valiant as the gentleman is, he would scarcely commit the indiscretion of saying to any portion of the voters in his district that they were an ill-bred set of vagabonds, and if he did, they would hardly commission him to repeat the expression in Congress. Let me warn the gentleman, that if the speech made by him to-day shall ever reach his constituents, it will sound his political death-knell. If I owed the gentleman any ill-will, which I take this occasion to say I do not, it would be my highest hope that he would write out and print that speech just as he delivered it. I should at least have a comfortable assurance that the speech would be the last of its kind.

In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I have to repeat that, notwithstanding the maledictions of the gentleman from Louisiana, I am still for this proposition; and though that gentleman may continue to denounce the squatters on the public lands as a worthless, ill-bred set of vagabonds, I am still their friend. They are honest men, pure patriots, and upright citizens. They are worthy of our care. If the candidate can afford to flatter them for their votes, the representative should not skulk the responsibility of voting to protect their interests. I hold but one language, and it shall be the language of honest sincerity. I would scorn to flatter a poor squatter for his vote in the swamps of Louisiana, and then stand up before the American Congress as his representative, and denounce him as a worthless vagabond.

Sir, if the men are worthless the women are not, and I could appeal to the well-known gallantry of the honorable member to interpose in their behalf. If you will do nothing for the ruder sex, interpose the strong arm of the law to shield the women and children, at least, from the rude grasp of the avaricious speculator. If a man be worthless, let the appeal go up for his wife and little children. Secure them a home, and that wife will make that home her castle. It will shelter her and her little children from the rude blasts of winter, and the rude blows of a wicked world. She will toil there for bread, and with her own hand. plant a shrub, perchance a flower. She will make it useful by her industry, and adorn it by her ingenuity. Give it to her, sir, and she will invoke such blessings on your head as a pious woman alone can ask.

I thank the gentleman from Louisiana, not for his speech, but for his courtesy in giving me a part of his time in which to reply.

SOURCE: M. W. Cluskey, Editor, Speeches, Messages, and Other Writings of the Hon. Albert G. Brown, A Senator in Congress from the State of Mississippi, p. 194-9

Saturday, October 7, 2023

Diary of Gideon Welles: Thursday, February 22, 1866

Washington's Birthday. Advantage is taken of it by those who sustain the late veto to assemble and give expression to their feelings, for there is quite as much of feeling, partisan feeling, as of honest opinion in what is done and said on this subject. The leading Radicals, on the other hand, are precipitating themselves into monstrous error and showing their incapacity to govern or even organize a permanent party. Only want of sagacity on the part of their opponents, the Democrats, prevents them from slipping into the shoes which the Radicals are abandoning. It is complained that the President treats the Rebels and the Copperheads kindly. It is not strange that he does so, for kindness begets kindness. They treat him respectfully, while the Radical leaders are arrogant, presuming, and dictatorial. They assume that the legislative branch of the Government is absolute, that the other departments, and especially the executive, are subordinate. Stevens and his secret joint committee or directory have taken into their hands the government and the administration of affairs. It is an incipient conspiracy. Congress, in both branches, or the majority of Congress, are but puppets in the hands of the Directory and do little but sanction and obey the orders of that committee.

To-day both branches of Congress have adjourned and there are funeral solemnities at the Capitol in memoriam of the late Henry Winter Davis, a private citizen, who died in Baltimore two or three months since, but who had been a conspicuous actor among the Radicals. He possessed genius, a graceful elocution, and erratic ability of a certain kind, but was an uneasy spirit, an unsafe and undesirable man, without useful talents for his country or mankind. Having figured as a leader with Thad Stevens, Wade, and others, in their intrigues, extraordinary honors are now paid him. A programme, copied almost literally from that of the 12th in memory of Mr. Lincoln, is sent out. Orders to commemorate this distinguished "Plug Ugly" and "Dead Rabbit" are issued. President and Cabinet, judges, foreign ministers, and other officials have seats assigned them in the Hall of the Representatives for the occasion. The whole is a burlesque, which partakes of the ridiculous more than the solemn, intended to belittle the memory of Lincoln and his policy as much as to exalt Davis, who opposed it. I would not go, could not go without a feeling of degradation. I yesterday suggested to the President my view of the whole proceedings, that they were in derogation of the late President and the Administration. The Radicals wished Davis to be considered the equal or superior of Lincoln.

There was a large gathering of the citizens to-day at the theatre to approve the veto, and they subsequently went to the Executive Mansion, where the President addressed them in quite a long speech for the occasion.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 437-8

Sunday, September 17, 2023

Senator Daniel S. Dickinson to Lydia Knapp Dickinson, June 3, 1850

ANNAPOLIS, June 2, 1850.

MY DEAR LYDIA—I spent yesterday and to-day here very pleasantly with Governor Pratt, Senator, who resides here. This is an old town, and the only one that I ever saw that was entirely finished. It is a beautiful, old-fashioned place, of about three thousand inhabitants, and, though a city, is much less than Binghamton. The houses are large and old-fashioned, built of brick brought from England. Mr. Clay, General Foote, Mr. Dawson, and myself make the company. We went to the old State-House where Washington returned his sword to Congress, and were all called out before a large audience and had to make speeches. We, of course, had a fine time. Mr. Clay, I see, says I beat them all. We return to Washington this evening.

Love to all.
Affectionately,
D. S. DICKINSON.

SOURCE: John R. Dickinson, Editor, Speeches, Correspondence, Etc., of the Late Daniel S. Dickinson of New York, Vol. 2, p. 443-4

Friday, July 21, 2023

Daniel S. Dickinson to the Citizens of New York, Kings, Queens, Richmond & Westchester Counties, June 1, 1850

WASHINGTON, June 1, 1850

GENTLEMEN—I have received, and perused with the most profound sensibility, your esteemed favor of a late date, inviting me to designate an early day when I will partake of a complimentary public dinner with my Democratic Republican fellow-citizens of the city of New York and the adjoining counties.

I trust I suitably appreciate the distinguished honor conferred by this communication, and, although I cannot describe, I will not seek to conceal the gratification experienced in its reception.

By the kind partiality of my Democratic fellow-citizens, it has been my fortune to have held a place in the national councils during a period more fruitful of interesting and extraordinary events than any which has marked the history of our government since the Revolutionary struggle; events which have transpired in rapid and startling succession, almost rivalling in grandeur the dreams of romance, conquering and subduing as well the opinions of the world as enemies upon the field of battle, and transferring within the control of free and happy institutions new States and Empires. But amid the most glorious fruition. that a beneficent Providence ever vouchsafed to man, the country has been painfully excited and unhappily divided, and communities and States, united in political and social bonds, rejoicing in the same sacred recollections, and upheld by a common destiny, have been arrayed against each other upon a subject which the prophectic vision of the Father of his Country discovered would create and foster sectional combinations, and against which he warned his countrymen, as a fearful element of evil. From the commencement of this unholy struggle, I determined, regardless of all personal considerations, to resist the tendency of sectionalism in any and every form; and the approbation of my humble efforts which you so delicately convey, assures me that I have but discharged a sacred duty. I early saw that the subject was surrounded with consequences of fearful import, and determined to meet the responsibilities which my station imposed, according to my own sense of duty, and leave my vindication to a just and generous people, when the war and din of excitement shall become exhausted, and truth and reason shall resume their empire. Upon the great questions which have formed so conspicuous a portion of our history, I have been associated and acted with some of the purest patriots of the land; and, though surrounded by difficulties, I have been sustained by confiding friends, and have neither faltered nor fled.

Those who will approve the course I have pursued may trace it with little effort, and those who would condemn will fortunately not be driven for proof to the inferences of circumstantial evidence.

The institutions under which we live are ours for enjoyment and preservation, and not for the performance of questionable or desperate experiments. We occupy but a point of space in the great current of time, and should transmit to our successors the rich heritage which we have received and hold in trust for others—strengthened and invigorated by the support of superadded numbers, and by the developments of man's capacity for self-government, which time and free institutions cannot fail to produce.

Should the political or social bonds which unite this glorious confederacy of States be permanently sundered, it might justly be denominated the second failure of man—more sinful than that of our common progenitor, because preceded by no temptation; and more fatal, because beyond the prospect of redemption. I have long regretted that I was denied the benefit of free social intercourse with my friends in the commercial emporium, by a remote residence and unceasing engagements; and I embrace the opportunity, which your kind invitation has

presented, to meet you as requested-proposing to do so on Monday, the 17th instant.

I am, gentlemen,
                With high consideration and regard,

Your friend and fellow-citizen,
D. S. DICKINSON.

To Messrs. CHARLES O'CONOR, CORNELIUS W. LAWRENCE, LEROY M. WILEY, FRANCIS B. CUTTING, ANDREW H. MICKLE, ROBERT H. MORRIS, WILLIAM M'MURRAY, and others.

SOURCE: John R. Dickinson, Editor, Speeches, Correspondence, Etc., of the Late Daniel S. Dickinson of New York, Vol. 2, p. 434-6

Isaac Toucey to George Douglas, Schuyler Livingston, Esqs., and others, Committee, &c., June 15, 1850

 NEW HAVEN, June 15, 1850.

GENTLEMEN—I acknowledge with great pleasure the invitation which you have done me the honor to extend to me, to be present at the public dinner to be given by the Democrats of New York, at Tammany Hall, on Monday, the 17th inst., to their distinguished Senator, the Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson.

It would be out of place, even for those who have had the best opportunity of knowing intimately and appreciating most fully the extent and value of his services, to speak of them in terms of merited commendation, because they have been performed in the face of the whole country, on its most conspicuous theatre.

At the present crisis, full of difficulty and danger—the very crisis which the Father of his Country foresaw and foretold, and, in his farewell address to his countrymen, warned us to beware of—it is a source of the highest gratification to observe the strong "evidences of popular approval" manifested towards those who comprehend the interests of the whole country, and stand firm and faithful amidst all the clamors of faction.

I regret that my duties here will necessarily prevent me from being present on the occasion, and I beg you will accept the time-honored sentiment which I annex.

I am, gentlemen,
        With the highest respect,

Your fellow-citizen,
ISAAC TOUCEY.

The Union of the States—Not formed or upheld by force, but by concession and compromise, and a just regard to the interests of the whole country and every part of it.

To GEORGE DOUGLAS, SCHUYLER LIVINGSTON, Esqs., and others, Committee, &c.

SOURCE: John R. Dickinson, Editor, Speeches, Correspondence, Etc., of the Late Daniel S. Dickinson of New York, Vol. 2, p. 442

Sunday, July 9, 2023

The Botetourt Resolutions, December 10, 1860

Offered in a large mass meeting of the people of Botetourt county, December 10th, 1860, by the Hon. John J. Allen, President of the Supreme Court of Virginia, and adopted with but two dissenting voices.

The people of Botetourt county, in general meeting assembled, believe it to be the duty of all the citizens of the Commonwealth, in the present alarming condition of our country, to give some expression of their opinion upon the threatening aspect of public affairs. They deem it unnecessary and out of place to avow sentiments of loyalty to the constitution and devotion to the union of these States. A brief reference to the part the State has acted in the past will furnish the best evidence of the feelings of her sons in regard to the union of the States and the constitution, which is the sole bond which binds them together.

In the controversies with the mother country, growing out of the efforts of the latter to tax the colonies without their consent, it was Virginia who, by the resolutions against the stamp act, gave the example of the first authoritative resistance by a legislative body to the British Government, and so imparted the first impulse to the Revolution.

Virginia declared her independence before any of the colonies, and gave the first written constitution to mankind.

By her instructions her representatives in the General Congress introduced a resolution to declare the colonies independent States, and the declaration itself was written by one of her sons.

She furnished to the Confederate States the father of his country, under whose guidance independence was achieved, and the rights and liberties of each State, it was hoped, perpetually established.

She stood undismayed through the long night of the Revolution, breasting the storm of war and pouring out the blood of her sons like water on almost every battle-field, from the ramparts of Quebec to the sands of Georgia.

By her own unaided efforts the northwestern territory was conquered, whereby the Mississippi, instead of the Ohio river, was recognized as the boundary of the United States by the treaty of peace.

To secure harmony, and as an evidence of her estimate of the value of the union of the States, she ceded to all for their common benefit this magnificent region—an empire in itself.

When the articles of confederation were shown to be inadequate to secure peace and tranquility at home and respect abroad, Virginia first moved to bring about a more perfect union.

At her instance the first assemblage of commissioners took place at Annapolis, which ultimately led to the meeting of the convention which formed the present constitution.

This instrument itself was in a great measure the production of one of her sons, who has been justly styled the father of the constitution.

The government created by it was put into operation with her Washington, the father of his country, at its head; her Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, in his cabinet; her Madison, the great advocate of the constitution, in the legislative hall.

Under the leading of Virginia statesmen the Revolution of 1798 was brought about, Louisana was acquired, and the second war of independence was waged.

Throughout the whole progress of the republic she has never infringed on the rights of any State, or asked or received an exclusive benefit.

On the contrary, she has been the first to vindicate the equality of all the States, the smallest as well as the greatest.

But claiming no exclusive benefit for her efforts and sacrifices in the common cause, she had a right to look for feelings of fraternity and kindness for her citizens from the citizens of other States, and equality of rights for her citizens with all others; that those for whom she had done so much would abstain from actual aggressions upon her soil, or if they could not be prevented, would show themselves ready and prompt in punishing the aggressors; and that the common government, to the promotion of which she contributed so largely for the purpose of "establishing justice and insuring domestic tranquility," would not, whilst the forms of the constitution were observed, be so perverted in spirit as to inflict wrong and injustice and produce universal insecurity.

These reasonable expectations have been grievously disappointed. Owing to a spirit of pharasaical fanaticism prevailing in the North in reference to the institution of slavery, incited by foreign emissaries and fostered by corrupt political demagogues in search of power and place, a feeling has been aroused between the people of the two sections, of what was once a common country, which of itself would almost preclude the administration of a united government in harmony.

For the kindly feelings of a kindred people we find substituted distrust, suspicion and mutual aversion.

For a common pride in the name of American, we find one section even in foreign lands pursuing the other with revilings and reproach. For the religion of a Divine Redeemer of all, we find a religion of hate against a part; and in all the private relations of life, instead of fraternal regard, a "consuming hate," which has but seldom characterized warring nations.

This feeling has prompted a hostile incursion upon our own soil, and an apotheosis of the murderers, who were justly condemned and executed.

It has shown itself in the legislative halls by the passage of laws to obstruct a law of Congress passed in pursuance of a plain provision of the constitution.

It has been manifested by the industrious circulation of incendiary publications, sanctioned by leading men, occupying the highest stations in the gift of the people, to produce discord and division in our midst, and incite to midnight murder and every imaginable atrocity against an unoffending community.

It has displayed itself in a persistent denial of the equal rights of the citizens of each State to settle with their property in the common territory acquired by the blood and treasure of all.

It is shown in their openly avowed determination to circumscribe the institution of slavery within the territory of the States now recognizing it, the inevitable effect of which would be to fill the present slaveholding States with an ever increasing negro population, resulting in the banishment of our own non-slaveholding population in the first instance and the eventual surrender of our country, to a barbarous race, or, what seems to be desired, an amalgamation with the African.

And it has at last culminated in the election, by a sectional majority of the free States alone, to the first office in the republic, of the author of the sentiment that there is an "irrepressible conflict" between free and slave labor, and that there must be universal freedom or universal slavery; a sentiment which inculcates, as a necessity of our situation, warfare between the two sections of our country without cessation or intermission until the weaker is reduced to subjection.

In view of this state of things, we are not inclined to rebuke or censure the people of any of our sister States in the South, suffering from injury, goaded by insults, and threatened with such outrages and wrongs, for their bold determination to relieve themselves from such injustice and oppression, by resorting to their ultimate and sovereign right to dissolve the compact which they had formed and to provide new guards for their future security.

Nor have we any doubt of the right of any State, there being no common umpire between coequal sovereign States, to judge for itself on its own responsibility, as to the mode and measure of redress. The States, each for itself, exercised this sovereign power when they dissolved their connection with the British Empire.

They exercised the same power when nine of the States seceded from the confederation and adopted the present constitution, though two States at first rejected it.

The articles of confederation stipulated that those articles should be inviolably observed by every State, and that the Union should be perpetual, and that no alteration should be made unless agreed to by Congress and confirmed by every State.

Notwithstanding this solemn compact, a portion of the States did, without the consent of the others, form a new compact; and there is nothing to show, or by which it can be shown, that this right has been, or can be, diminished so long as the States continue sovereign.

The confederation was assented to by the Legislature for each State; the constitution by the people of each State of such State alone. One is as binding as the other, and no more so.

The constitution, it is true, established a government, and it operates directly on the individual; the confederation was a league operating primarily on the States. But each was adopted by the State for itself; in the one case by the Legislature acting for the State; in the other "by the people not as individuals composing one nation, but as composing the distinct and independent States to which they respectively belong."

The foundation, therefore, on which it was established was federal, and the State, in the exercise of the same sovereign authority by which she ratified for herself, may for herself abrogate and annul.

The operation of its powers, whilst the State remains in the Confederacy, is national; and consequently a State remaining in the Confederacy and enjoying its benefits cannot, by any mode of procedure, withdraw its citizens from the obligation to obey the constitution and the laws passed in pursuance thereof.

But when a State does secede, the constitution and laws of the United States cease to operate therein. No power is conferred on Congress to enforce them. Such authority was denied to the Congress in the convention which framed the constitution, because it would be an act of war of nation against nation-not the exercise of the legitimate power of a government to enforce its laws on those subject to its jurisdiction.

The assumption of such a power would be the assertion of a prerogative claimed by the British Government to legislate for the colonies in all cases whatever; it would constitute of itself a dangerous attack on the rights of the States, and should be promptly repelled.

These principles, resulting from the nature of our system of confederate States, cannot admit of question in Virginia.

Our people in convention, by their act of ratification, declared and made known that the powers granted under the constitution being derived from the people of the United States, may be resumed by them whenever they shall be perverted to their injury and oppression.

From what people were these powers derived? Confessedly from the people of each State, acting for themselves. By whom were they to be resumed or taken back? By the people of the State who were then granting them away. Who were to determine whether the powers granted had been perverted to their injury or oppression? Not the whole people of the United States, for there could be no oppression of the whole with their own consent; and it could not have entered into the conception of the convention that the powers granted could not be resumed until the oppressor himself united in such resumption.

They asserted the right to resume in order to guard the people of Virginia, for whom alone the convention could act, against the oppression of an irresponsible and sectional majority, the worst form of oppression with which an angry Providence has ever afflicted humanity.

Whilst, therefore, we regret that any State should, in a matter of common grievance, have determined to act for herself without consulting with her sister States equally aggrieved, we are nevertheless constrained to say that the occasion justifies and loudly calls for action of some kind.

The election of a President, by a sectional majority, as the representative of the principles referred to, clothed with the patronage and power incident to the office, including the authority to appoint all the postmasters and other officers charged with the execution of the laws of the United States, is itself a standing menace to the South—a direct assault upon her institutions—an incentive to robbery and insurrection, requiring from our own immediate local government, in its sovereign character, prompt action to obtain additional guarantees for equality and security in the Union, or to take measures for protection and security without it.

In view, therefore, of the present condition of our country, and the causes of it, we declare almost in the words of our fathers, contained in an address of the freeholders of Botetourt, in February, 1775, to the delegates from Virginia to the Continental Congress, "That we desire no change in our government whilst left to the free enjoyment of our equal privileges secured by the constitution; but that should a wicked and tyrannical sectional majority, under the sanction of the forms of the constitution, persist in acts of injustice and violence towards us, they only must be answerable for the consequences."

"That liberty is so strongly impressed upon our hearts that we cannot think of parting with it but with our lives; that our duty to God, our country, ourselves and our posterity forbid it; we stand, therefore, prepared for every contingency."

Resolved therefore, That in view of the facts set out in the foregoing preamble, it is the opinion of this meeting that a convention of the people should be called forthwith; that the State, in its sovereign character, should consult with the other Southern States, and agree upon such guarantees as in their opinion will secure their equality, tranquility and rights within the Union; and in the event of a failure to obtain such guarantees, to adopt in concert with the other Southern States, or alone, such measures as may seem most expedient to protect the rights and insure the safety of the people of Virginia. And in the event of a change in our relations to the other States being rendered necessary, that the convention so elected should recommend to the people, for their adoption, such alterations in our State constitution as may adapt it to the altered condition of the State and country.

SOURCE: Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume I, No. 1, January 1876, p. 13-9

Monday, June 26, 2023

Review: Never Caught

By Erica Armstrong Dunbar

Nearly every American knows the basic outlines of United States’ favorite founding father and his wife, George and Martha Washington, the country’s first President and First Lady. From grade school to high school Americans are taught about the rise of George Washington from soldier to president, his trials on the battlefield and tribulations of the presidency. Martha lurks largely in her husband’s historical shadow, and further back in the shadows are the people of color whom the Washington’s enslaved.

One of the Washington’s enslaved emerges from the shadows of her owners and their fame in Erica Armstrong Dunbar’s book, “Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless pursuit of their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge.”

Upon the death of George Washington, Martha burned all of the correspondence between them, only a had full of letters survived, making details of their relationship and what they discussed vanish in a cloud of smoke. The Washingtons placed a couple of “Fugitive Slave” ads in newspapers, and Ona Judge herself gave a couple of very short newspaper interviews. That is the skeleton on which Ms. Dunbar hangs her narrative. What does survive is the Washington’s correspondence with the rest of the Washington & Custis families and those entrusted with the care of Mount Vernon, which gives muscle to the author’s narrative. Ms. Dunbar relies on educated speculation using phrases such as “possibly” or “could have” to clothe the corpse of her subject with skin. And lastly she breathes life into Ona Judge by placing her in the correct historical light, relating the various laws and social mores of the time in which she lived.

My only criticism is the books’ sensationalistic subtitle, “The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge.” After Ona Judge gained her freedom in Pennsylvania, the Washingtons only made two serious and ultimately unsuccessful attempts to regain custody of their property and return her to Mount Vernon. I suspect this is at the hands of Ms. Dunbar’s publisher, 37 Ink, as a marketing ploy to sell more books.

“Never Caught” is meticulously researched and well written. At 272 pages it is a quick and easy read. It fills a void in the history of American slavery, the lives of George and Martha Washington, and of course Ona Judge herself.

ISBN 978-1501126390, 37 Ink, © 2017, Hardcover, 272 pages, Photograph & Illustrations, End Notes, Selected Bibliography & Index. Cover Price $26.00.  To purchase a copy of this book click HERE.

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Richard Rush to Senator James M. Mason, March 12, 1850

SYDENHAM, [PA.], March 12, 1850.

Accept my thanks, my dear Sir, for the copy of Mr. Calhoun's speech you were so good as to send me. I have read it with deep interest. Pages 7, 8 and 9, deserve to be considered by the whole country more, I fear, than they will be. To the three first paragraphs on page 10, the allusions to Washington are beautiful, logical too, as it strikes me. But I will stop specifying, my marks being on almost every page. It is a very powerful speech, and I think very patriotic.

I beg you to offer my friendly respects to him. I rejoice at the improvement of his health. I regretted my inability to see him when in Washington lately, except once. I should have been truly glad to hear him converse on European affairs; the more, as I found myself agreeing with him on the little there was at one time for him to say when I visited him.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), p. 106

Saturday, May 6, 2023

A Clergyman of Providence Rhode Island to John Brown, November 26, 1859

Providence, Rhode Island, Nov. 26.

My Dear Sir: Permit me, an utter stranger to you, to intrude a moment, just that I may say, God bless you! Be of good cheer. You bore your witness against American Slavery with voice so loud that all the civilized world now listens, all breathless, to its every echo. More than this: by that act four million slaves have learned with such force of impression as never was theirs before, that they have a right to be free. Washington, and those with him, fought for their own homes and their own liberties; but you, with broader benevolence, having no freedom to gain for yourself, took the sword in behalf of a race oppressed infinitely more than our fathers. I do not say that I think it right to appeal to arms, but I do say that if the first was right, then by logical necessity, was the second. It is an axiom in religion that the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church. Jesus baptized his new faith with his own blood. In all ages truth is most advanced by those who most suffer for it. Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for another. Let these thoughts console you. I have read your speeches and letters studiously, and from them verily believe that you have acted from altogether righteous motives. Remember, if you have a truly honest and prayerful conscience towards God, He will accept your intentions. I beseech you to read His Word much, and with all the power of your nature to trust yourself entirely to his infinite care. It may perhaps somewhat cheer you to know that beyond question the greater part of the Christian world will approve your intentions. From tens of thousands of hearts prayer is continually made for you. Posterity will look upon you as the Moses of the American bondmen. Your name will be a watchword henceforth for Freedom. Coming ages will put your statue in high places, and build glorious monuments to the honor of your name. God be with you now, and comfort you, and receive you into the glorious company of confessors and martyrs above.

Yours,
A Clergyman.

SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, p. 401-2

Sunday, April 2, 2023

Congressman Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, April 15, 1866

WASHINGTON, D. C., April 15, 1866.

DEAR UNCLE:— I was at Mount Vernon yesterday for the first time. Washington was a capital judge of fine sites for towns and mansions. His own seat was fitly chosen. The views of the Potomac are beautiful. His farming was on a royal scale. The sentiment merely from "the genius of the place," the tomb, and the like, did not strike me. The truth is, if it were not sacrilege, I should say Lincoln is overshadowing Washington. Washington is formal, statue-like, a figure for exhibition; but both were necessary to complete our history. Neither could have done the other's work.

I bought you a cane which may get to you sometime — a common hickory stick, genuine.

I think some of coming home on a ten days' leave, one of these days. If so will call at Fremont and talk things up with you. I have no plans.

The country will go through all safe. Some dangers ahead, serious dangers, just enough to give interest to what would otherwise be a very dull life.

Sincerely,
R. B. HAYES.
S. BIRCHARD.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 3, p. 23

Congressman Rutherford B. Hayes to Lucy Webb Hayes, April 15, 1866

WASHINGTON, D. C., April 15, 1866.

MY DARLING:—I went to Mount Vernon yesterday. It is a beautiful spot. The extensive views of the Potomac are the great feature. The mere "genius of the place," I hardly thought of. The spot was happily chosen for our great man's home. It was the anniversary of Lincoln's death. It seems to me Lincoln is rather eclipsing Washington. I feel more than ever that, taking him all in all, he was the highest character. But it is like sacrilege to make these comparisons. It is probably

true that neither could have done the other's work, and without the work of both we should have had a different history. Love to all.

Affectionately ever,
R.
MRS. HAYES.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 3, p. 23-4

Thursday, March 30, 2023

A Slave of George Washington! Published January 1, 1847

MR. GARRISON:

I have recently made a visit to one of Gen. Washington’s, or rather Mrs. Washington’s slaves. It is a woman, nearly white, very much freckled, and probably, (for she does not know her age,) more than eighty. She now resides with a colored woman by the name of Nancy Jack, (whose mother was once a slave to a good deacon in Greenland,) at what is called the Bay side in Greenland, in New-Hampshire, and is maintained as a pauper by the county of Rockingham. She says that she was a chamber-maid for Mrs. Washington; that she was a large girl at the time of the revolutionary war; that when Washington was elected President, she was taken to Philadelphia, and that, although well enough used as to work and living, she did not want to be a slave always, and she supposed if she went back to Virginia, she would never have a chance to escape. She took passage in a vessel to Portsmouth, N. H. and there married a man by the name of Staines, and had three children, who, with her husband, are all dead. After she was married, and had one child, while her husband was gone to sea, Gen. Washington sent on a man by the name of Bassett, to prevail on her to go back. He saw her, and used all the persuasion he could, but she utterly refused to go with him. He returned, and then came again, with orders to take her by force, and carry her back. He put up with the late Gov. [John] Langdon, and made known his business, and the Governor gave her notice that she must leave Portsmouth that night, or she would be carried back. She went to a stable, and hired a boy, with a horse and carriage, to carry her to Mr. Jack’s, at Greenland, where she now resides, a distance of eight miles, and remained there until her husband returned from sea, and Basset did not find her.

She says that she never received the least mental or moral instruction, of any kind, while she remained in Washington’s family. But, after she came to Portsmouth, she learned to read; and when Elias Smith first preached in Portsmouth, she professes to have been converted to Christianity.

She, and the woman with whom she lives, (who is nearly of her age,) appear to be, and have the reputation of being imbued with the real spirit of Christianity. She says that the stories told of Washington’s piety and prayers, so far as she ever saw or heard while she was his slave, have no foundation. Card-playing and wine-drinking were the business at his parties; and he had more of such company Sundays than on any other day. I do not mention this as showing, in my estimation, his anti-Christian character, so much as the bare fact of being a slaveholder, and not a hundredth part so much as trying to kidnap this woman; but, in the minds of the community, it will weigh infinitely more.

Great names bear more weight with the multitude, than the eternal principles of God’s government. So good a man as Washington is enough to sanctify war and slavery; but where is the evidence of his goodness? This woman is yet a slave. If Washington could have got her and her child, they were constitutionally his; and if Mrs. Washington’s heirs were now to claim her, and take her before Judge Woodbury, and prove their title, he would be bound, upon his oath, to deliver her up to them. Again—Langdon was guilty of a moral violation of the Constitution, in giving this woman notice of the agent being after her. It was frustrating the design, the intent of the Constitution, and he was equally guilty, morally, as those who would overthrow it.

Mrs. Staines was given verbally, if not legally, by Mrs. Washington, to Eliza Custis, her grand-daughter.

These women live in rather an obscure place, and in a poor, cold house, and speak well of their neighbors, and are probably treated with as much kindness and sympathy as people are generally in their circumstances; but not with half so much as it is the duty and interest of people, in better outward circumstances, to treat them.

I greatly enjoyed my visit to them, and should rather have the benediction they pronounced upon me at parting, than the benediction of all the D. D.’s in Christendom.

BENJAMIN CHASE
Auburn, N. H. Dec. 1846.

SOURCE: “A Slave of George Washington!” The Liberator, Boston, Massachusetts, Friday, January 1, 1847, p. 3

Washington’s Runaway Slave, published May 22, 1845

There is now living in the borders of the town of Greenland, N.H., a runaway slave of Gen. Washington, at present supported by the County of Rockingham. Her name at the time of her elopement was ONA MARIA JUDGE. She is not able to give the year of her escape, but says that she came from Philadelphia just after the close of Washington's second term of the Presidency, which must fix it somewhere in the [early?] part of the year 1797.

Being a waiting maid of Mrs. Washington, she was not exposed to any peculiar hardships. If asked why she did not remain in his service, she gives two reasons, first, that she wanted to be free; secondly that she understood that after the decease of her master and mistress, she was to become the property of a grand-daughter of theirs, by name of Custis, and that she was determined never to be her slave.

Being asked how she escaped, she replied substantially as follows, “Whilst they were packing up to go to Virginia, I was packing to go, I didn't know where; for I knew that if I went back to Virginia, I should never get my liberty. I had friends among the colored people of Philadelphia, had my things carried there beforehand, and left Washington's house while they were eating dinner.”

She came on board a ship commanded by CAPT. JOHN BOLLES, and bound to Portsmouth, N.H. In relating it, she added, "I never told his name till after he died, a few years since, lest they should punish him for bringing me away. . . .”

Washington made two attempts to recover her. First, he sent a man by the name of Bassett to persuade her to return; but she resisted all the argument he employed for this end. He told her they would set her free when she arrived at Mount Vernon, to which she replied, “I am free now and choose to remain so.”

Finding all attempts to seduce her to slavery again in this manner useless, Bassett was sent once more by Washington, with orders to bring her and her infant child by force. The messenger, being acquainted with Gov. [then Senator John] Langdon, then of Portsmouth, took up lodgings with him, and disclosed to him the object of his mission.

The good old Governor. (to his honor be it spoken), must have possessed something of the spirit of modern anti-slavery. He entertained Bassett very handsomely, and in the meantime sent word to Mrs. Staines, to leave town before twelve o'clock at night, which she did, retired to a place of concealment, and escaped the clutches of the oppressor.

Shortly after this, Washington died, and, said she, “they never troubled me any more after he was gone. . . .

The facts here related are known through this region, and may be relied on as substantially correct. Probably they were not for years given to the public, through fear of her recapture; but this reason no longer exists, since she is too old and infirm to be of sufficient value to repay the expense of search.

Though a house servant, she had no education, nor any valuable religious instruction; says she never heard Washington pray, and does not believe that he was accustomed to. "Mrs. Washington used to read prayers, but I don't call that praying.["] Since her escape she has learned to read, trusts she has been made "wise unto salvation," and is, I think, connected with a church in Portsmouth.

When asked if she is not sorry she left Washington, as she has labored so much harder since, than before, her reply is, "No, I am free, and have, I trust been made a child of God by the means.["]

Never shall I forget the fire that kindled in her age-bedimmed eye, or the smile that played upon her withered countenance, as I spake of the Redeemer in whom there is neither "bond nor free," bowed with her at the mercy seat and commended her to Him "who heareth prayer" and who regards "the poor and needy when they cry," I felt that were it mine to choose, I would not exchange her possessions, "rich in faith," and sustained, while tottering over the grave, by "a hope full of immortality," for tall the glory and renown of him whose slave she was.

SOURCE: Rev. T. H. Adams, "Article reporting interview with Ona Judge Staines,” Granite Freeman, Concord, New Hampshire, May 22, 1845," in Martha Washington, Item #4, https://marthawashington.us/items/show/4 (accessed March 30, 2023); and copied in The Liberator, Boston, Massachusetts, Friday, August 22, 1845, p. 1.

George Washington’s Advertisement for the Return of Oney Judge, May 24, 1796

Advertisment.

Absconded from the household of the President of the United States, ONEY JUDGE, a light mulatto girl, much freckled, with very black eyes and bushy hair. She is of middle stature, slender, and delicately formed, about 20 years of age.

She has many changes of good clothes, of all sorts, but they are not sufficiently recollected to be described—As there was no suspicion of her going off, nor no provocation to do so, it is not easy to conjecture whither she has gone, or fully, what her design is; but as she may attempt to escape by water, all masters of vessels are cautioned against admitting her into them, although it is probable she will attempt to pass for a free woman, and has, it is said, wherewithal to pay her passage.

Ten dollars will be paid to any person who will bring her home, if taken in the city, or on board any vessel in the harbour;—and a reasonable additional sum if apprehended at, and brought from a greater distance, and in proportion to the distance.

FREDERICK KITT, Steward.
May 23

SOURCE: The Pennsylvania Gazette, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 24, 1796.

George Washington’s Advertisement for the Return of Oney Judge, May 25, 1796

Ten Dollars Reward.

ABSCONDED from the household of the President of the United States, on Saturday afternoon, ONEY JUDGE, a light Mulatto girl, much freckled, with very black eyes, and bushy black hair—She is of middle stature, but slender and delicately made, about 20 years of age. She has many changes of very good clothes of all sorts, but they are not sufficiently recollected to describe.

 As there was no suspicion of her going off, and it happened without the least provocation, it is not easy to conjecture whither she has gone—or fully, what her design is; but as she may attempt to escape by water, all masters of vessels and others are cautioned against receiving her on board, altho’ she may, and probably will endeavour to pass for a free woman, and it is said has, wherewithal to pay her passage.

Ten dollars will be paid to any person, (white or black) who will bring her home, if taken in the city, or on board any vessel in the harbor; and a further reasonable sum if apprehended and brought  home , from a greater distance, and in proportion to the distance.

FRED. KITT, Steward.
May 24
#3

SOURCE: Erica Armstrong Dunbar, Never Caught: The Washington’s Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave Ona Judge, p. 99 which contains a photograph of the add above, originally published in Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 25, 1796.

Tobias Lear to George Washington, April 5, 1791

Philadelphia April 5th 1791.
Sir,

The enclosed letter from Mr G. Morris, was yesterday put into my hands by Mr R. Morris, having come under cover to him.

I was yesterday asked by the Vice-Presidt if it was true that information had been received of Count Andriani’s having written things to Europe unfavourable to and disrespectful of this Country. I told him that such information had been received—repeating the purport of that contained in Colo. H.’s Letter. He appeared extremely vexed at the Count, and spoke of him in very harsh terms. He said that the Count had brot a letter to him from Dr Price recommending him to his notice, but not having formed a very good opinion of him, he had paid him but little Attention. In future he should make it a point to deny himself if the Count should call upon him, and should he meet him elsewhere he should treat him with a marked contempt. He further added that he should let Dr Price know what an unworthy Character he had introduced to him—and beg in future that he would be more cautious in his recommendations. I relate this conversation, because it struck me as being pointedly introduced.

The Attorney General called upon Mrs Washington today, and informed her that three of his Negroes had given him notice that they should tomorrow take advantage of a law of this State, and claim their freedom—and that he had mentioned it to her from an idea that those who were of age in this family might follow the example, after a residence of six months should put it in their power. I have therefore communicated it to you that you might, if you thought best, give directions in the matter respecting the blacks in this family.

Mrs Washington has just now received your letter from Mount Vernon, where we are happy to hear that you arrived well. She does not write at this time, but desires to be remembered. The family continue in good health. Mrs Lear unites with me in best respects. I have the honor to be with the highest respect & warmest attachment—Sir—Your most Obedt Servt

Tobias Lear.

SOURCE: "To George Washington from Tobias Lear, 5 April 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-08-02-0050. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 8, 22 March 1791 – 22 September 1791, ed. Mark A. Mastromarino. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999, pp. 67–68.]

George Washington to Tobias Lear, 12 April 1791

RICHMOND, April 12th. 1791.
Dear Sir,

Since my last to you from Mount Vernon, your letters of the 3d. and 5th. Instant have been recd., the last at this place where I arrived yesterday to dinner.

If the case is as you suspect, it is expedient and proper to remove Washington to a School in which he will make some progress in his learning; and that it is so, I have had suspicions for some time, principally on account of his fondness of going to the College. Boys of his age are better pleased with relaxed discipline—and the inattention of their tutors, than with conduct that brings them forward. It would have been highly pleasing to me (for the reasons, which I have often expressed) to have continued Washington at the College, but, if after the enquiries you have made, it should appear, that there is either incompetency in the masters from the number of boys in the School, or from other causes, I will not waste his time in compliment to that Seminary,—but before you finally decide on this matter, it is my wish as Colo. Hamilton, Genl. Knox and the Attorney-General have sons in the same predicament (if they are not removed) that you would consult and act in Concert with them; & I shall be satisfied in whatever is done in consequence of it. And should like to have him at the same School that Hamilton's son goes to.

The Attorney-General's case and mine I conceive, from a conversation I had with him respecting our Slaves, is some what different. He in order to qualify himself for practice in the Courts of Pennsylvania, was obliged to take the Oaths of Citizenship to that State; whilst my residence is incidental as an Officer of Government only, but whether among people who are in the practice of enticing slaves even where there is no colour of law for it, this distinction will avail, I know not, and therefore beg you will take the best advise you can on the subject, and in case it shall be found that any of my Slaves may, or any for them shall attempt their freedom at the expiration of six months, it is my wish and desire that you would send the whole, or such part of them as Mrs. Washington may not chuse to keep, home—for although I do not think they would be benefitted by the change, yet the idea of freedom might be too great a temptation for them to resist. At any rate it might, if they conceived they had right to it, make them insolent in a State of Slavery. As all except Hercules and Paris are dower negroes, it behoves me to prevent the emancipation of them, otherwise I shall not only loose the use of them, but may have them to pay for. If upon taking good advise it is found expedient to send them back to Virginia, I wish to have it accomplished under pretext that may deceive both them and the Public;—and none I think would so effectually do this, as Mrs. Washington coming to Virginia next month (towards the middle or latter end of it, as she seemed to have a wish to do) if she can accomplish it by any convenient and agreeable means, with the assistance of the Stage Horses &c. This would naturally bring her maid and Austin and Hercules under the idea of coming home to Cook whilst we remained there, might be sent on in the Stage. Whether there is occasion for this or not according to the result of your enquiries, or issue the thing as it may, I request that these Sentiments and this advise may be known to none but yourself & Mrs. Washington. From the following expression in your letter "that those who were of age might follow the example of his (the Attorney's people) after a residence "of six months"—it would seem that none could apply before the end of May—& that the non age of Christopher, Richmond & Oney is a bar to them.

I offer Mrs. Lear the child and yourself my best wishes—and with Sincere Esteem I am

Your Affecte. friend

SOURCE: Doubleday, Page & Company, Publisher, Letters and Recollections of George Washington: Being Letters to Tobias Lear and others between 1990 and 1799, showing the First American in the management of his estate and domestic affairs. With a diary of Washington's last days, kept by Mr. Lear, p. 37-9

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Last Will and Testament of Martha Washington, March 4, 1802

In the name of GOD, Amen.

I MARTHA WASHINGTON, of Mount Vernon, in the county of Fairfax, being of sound mind and capable of disposing of my worldly estate, do make, ordain, and declare this to be my last Will and Testament, hereby revoking all other Wills and Testaments by me heretofore made.

Imprimis.—It is my desire that all my just debts may be punctually paid, and that as speedily as the same can be done.

Item.—I give and devise to my nephew, Bartholomew Dandridge, and his heirs, my lot in the town of Alexandria, situate on Pitt and Cameron streets devised to me by my late husband, George Washington, deceased.

Item.—I give and bequeath to my four nieces, Martha W. Dandridge, Mary Dandridge, Frances Lucy Dandridge, and Frances Henley, the debt of two thousand pounds due from Lawrence Lewis and secured by his bond, to be equally divided between them or such of them as shall be alive at my death, and to be paid to them respectively on the days of their respective marriage or arrival at the age of twenty-one years, whichsoever shall first happen, together with all the interest on said debt remaining unpaid at the time of my death; and in case the whole, or any part of said principal sum of two thousand pounds shall be paid to me during my life, then it is my will that so much money be raised out of my estate as shall be equal to what I shall have received of the said principal debt, and distributed among my four nieces aforesaid as herein has been bequeathed; and it is my meaning that the interest accruing after my death, on the said sum of two thousand pounds shall belong to my said nieces, and be equally divided between them, or such of them as shall be alive at the time of my death, and be paid annually for their respective uses, until they receive their shares of the principal.

Item.—I give and bequeath to my grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, all the silver plate of every kind of which I shall die possessed, together with the two large plated coolers, the four small plated coolers, with bottle castors, and a pipe of wine, if there be one in the house at the time of my death also the sett of Cincinnati tea and table China, the bowl that has a ——— in it, the fine old China jars which usually stand on the chimney-piece in the new room; also, all the family pictures of every sort and the pictures painted by his sister, and two small screens, worked one by his sister, and the other a present from Kitty Brown; also his choice of prints; also, the two girandoles and lustres that stand on them; also, the new bedstead which I caused to be made in Philadelphia, together with the bed, mattresses, bolsters, and pillows, and the white dimity curtains belonging thereto; also, two other beds with bolsters and pillows, and the white dimity window curtains in the new room; also, the iron chest and the desk in my closet which belonged to my first husband; also, all my books of every kind except the large Bible and Prayer-book; also, the set of tea china that was given me by Mr. Van Braam, every piece having M. W. on it.

Item.—I give and bequeath to my grand-daughter, Martha Peter, my writing table and the seat to it standing in my chamber; also, the print of General Washington hanging in the passage.

Item.—I give and bequeath to my grand-daughter, Elizabeth Parke Law, the dressing table and glass that stands in the chamber called the yellow room, and General Washington's picture painted by Trumbull.

Item.— I give and bequeath to my grand-daughter, Eleanor Parke Lewis, the large looking-glass in the front parlor, and any other looking glass which she may choose; also, one of the new side-board tables in the new room; also twelve chairs with green bottoms, to be selected by herself; also, the marble table in the garret; also, the two prints of the Dead Soldier, a print of the Washington Family in a box in the garret, and the great chair standing in my chamber; also, all the plated ware not heretofore otherwise bequeathed; also, all the sheets, table linen, napkins, towels, pillow-cases remaining in the house at my death; also, three beds and bedsteads, curtains, bolsters, and pillows for each bed, such as she shall choose, and not herein particularly otherwise bequeathed, together with counterpanes and a pair of blankets for each bed; also, all the wine-glasses and decanters of every kind; and all the blue and white china in common use.

Item.—It is my will and desire that all the wine in bottles in the vaults be equally divided between my grand-daughters and grand-son, to each of whom I bequeath ten guineas to buy a ring for each.

Item.—It is my will and desire that Anna Maria Washington, the daughter of my niece, be put into handsome mourning at my death, at the expense of my estate; and I bequeath to her ten guineas to buy a ring.

Item.—I give and bequeath to my neighbor, Mrs. Elizabeth Washington, five guineas to get something in remembrance of me.

Item.—I give and bequeath to Mrs. David Stuart, five guineas to buy her a ring.

Item.—I give and bequeath to Benjamin Lincoln Lear, one hundred pound specie, to be vested in funded stock of the United States, immediately after my decease, and to stand in his name as his property, which investment my executors are to cause to be made.

Item.—When the vestry of Truro Parish shall buy a glebe, I devise, will and bequeath that my executors shall pay one hundred pounds to them in aid of the purchase, provided the said purchase be made in my life-time, or within three years after my decease.

Item.—It is my will and desire that all the rest and residue of my estate, of whatever kind and description, not herein specifically devised or bequeathed, shall be sold by the executors of this, my last will, for ready money, as soon after my decease as the same can be done, and that the proceeds thereof together with all the money in the house and the debts due to me (the debts due from me and the legacies herein bequeathed being first satisfied,) shall be invested by my executors in eight per cent stock of the funds of the United States, and shall stand on the Book in the name of my executors in their character of executors of my will; and it is my desire that the interest thereof shall be applied to the education of Bartholomew Henley and Samuel Henley, the two youngest sons of my sister Henley, and also to the education of John Dandridge son of my deceased nephew, John Dandridge, so that they may be severally fitted and accomplished in some useful trade; and to each of them, who shall have lived to finish his education, or to reach the age of twenty-one years, I give and bequeath one hundred pounds, to set him up in his trade.

Item.—My debts and legacies being paid, and the education of Bartholomew Henley, Samuel Henley and John Dandridge, aforesaid, being completed, or they being all dead before the completion thereof, it is my will and desire that all my estates and interest in whatever form existing, whether in money, funded stock, or any other species of property, shall be equally divided among all the persons hereinafter named, who shall be living at the time that the interest of the funded stock shall cease to be applicable, in pursuance of my will hereinbefore expressed, to the education of my nephews, Bartholomew Henley, Samuel Henley and John Dandridge, namely: among Anna Maria Washington, daughter of my niece, and John Dandridge, son of my nephew, and all my great grandchildren living at the time that the interest of the said funded stock shall cease to be applicable to the education of the said B. Henley, S. Henley, and John Dandridge, and the interest shall cease to be so applied when all of them shall die before arriving at the age of twenty-one years, or those living shall have finished their education or have arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and so long as any one of the three lives who has not finished his education or arrived to the age of twenty-one years, the division of the said residue is to be deferred, and no longer.

Lastly.—I nominate and appoint my grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, my nephews, Julius B. Dandridge and Bartholomew Dandridge, and my son-in-law, Thomas Peter, executors of this, my last will and testament. In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twenty-second day of September, in the year eighteen hundred.

MARTHA WASHINGTON.
[SEAL.]                

Sealed, signed, acknowledged and delivered as her last will and testament, in the presence of the subscribing witnesses, who have been requested to subscribe the same, as such, in her presence.

ROGER FARRELL,
WILLIAM SPENCER,
LAWRENCE LEWIS,
MARTHA PETER.
MARCH 4, 1802.

I give to my grand-son, George Washington Parke Custis, my mulatto man Elish, that I bought of Mr. Butler Washington, to him and his heirs forever.

SOURCE: Benson John Lossing, The Home of Washington; Or, Mount Vernon and Its Associations, Historical, Biographical, and Pictorial, p. 420-5.