A FARMER'S RECORDS AND OTHER PAPERS
Washington was the most methodical man that ever lived. He had a place
for everything and insisted that everything should be kept in its place.
There was nothing haphazard about his methods of business. He kept exact
accounts of financial dealings.
His habit of setting things down on paper was one that developed early.
He kept a journal of his surveying experiences beyond the Blue Ridge in
1748, another of his trip to Barbadoes with his brother Lawrence in
1751-52, another of his trip to Fort Le Boeuf to warn out the French,
and yet another of his Fort Necessity campaign. The words are often
misspelled, many expressions are ungrammatical, but the handwriting is
good and the judgments expressed, even those set down when he was only
sixteen, are the mature judgments of a man.
A year after his marriage he began a formal diary, which he continued
until June 19, 1775, the time of his appointment to command the army of
the Revolution. He called it his _Diary_ and later _Where, & how my time
is Spent_. In it he entered the happenings of the day, his agricultural
and other experiments, a record of his guests and also a detailed
account of the weather.
His attention to this last matter was most particular. Often when away
from home he would have a record kept and on his return would
incorporate it into his book. Exactly what advantages he expected to
derive therefrom are not apparent, though I presume that he hoped to
draw conclusions as to the best time for planting crops. In reading it I
was many times reminded of a Cleveland octogenarian who for fifty-seven
years kept a record twice a day of the thermometer and barometer. Near
the end of his life he brought the big ledgers to the Western Reserve
Historical Society, and I happened to be present on the occasion. "You
have studied the subject for a long time," I said to him. "Are there any
conclusions you have been able to reach as a result of your
investigation?" He thought a minute and passed a wrinkled hand across a
wrinkled brow. "Nothing but this," he made answer, "that Cleveland
weather is only constant in its inconstancy."
We would gladly exchange some of these meteorological details for
further information about Washington's own personal doings and feelings.
Of the latter the diaries reveal little. Washington was an objective
man, above all in his papers. He sets down what happens and says little
about causes, motives or mental impressions. When on his way to Yorktown
to capture Cornwallis he visited his home for the first time in six
weary years, yet merely recorded: "I reached my own Seat at Mount Vernon
(distant 120 Miles from the Hd. of Elk) where I staid till the 12th."
Not a word of the emotions which that visit must have roused!
For almost six years after 1775 there is a gap in the diary, though for
some months of 1780 he sets down the weather. On May I, 1781, he begins
a new record, which he calls a _Journal_, and he expresses regret that
he has not had time to keep one all the time. The subjects now
considered are almost wholly military and the entries reveal a different
man from that of 1775. The grammar is better, the vocabulary larger, the
tone more elevated, the man himself is bigger and broader with an
infinitely wider viewpoint.
From November 5, 1781, for more than three years there is another
blank, except for the journal of his trip to his western lands already
referred to. But on January 1, 1785, he begins a new _Diary_ and
thenceforward continues it, with short intermissions, until the day of
his last ride over his estate.
A few of the diaries and journals have been lost, but most are still in
existence. Some are in the Congressional Library and there also is the
Toner transcript of these records. The transcript makes thirty-seven
large volumes. The diary is one of the main sources from which the
material for this book is drawn.
The original of the record of events for 1760 is a small book, perhaps
eight or ten inches long by four inches wide and much yellowed by age.
Part of the first entry stands thus:
"January 1, Tuesday
"Visited my Plantations and received an Instance of Mr. French's great
Love of Money in disappointing me of some Pork because the price had
risen to 22.6 after he had engaged to let me have it at 20 s."
On his return from his winter ride he found Mrs. Washington "broke out
with the Meazles." Next day he states with evident disgust that he has
taken the pork on French's own terms.
The weather record for 1760 was kept on blank pages of _The Virginia
Almanac_, a compendium that contains directions for making "Indico," for
curing bloody flux, for making "Physick as pleasant as a Dish of
Chocolate," for making a striking sun-dial, also "A Receipt to keep
one's self warm a whole Winter with a single Billet of Wood." To do this
last "Take a Billet of Wood of a competent Size, fling it out of the
Garret-Window into the Yard, run down Stairs as hard as ever you can
drive; and when you have got it, run up again with it at the same
Measure of Speed; and thus keep throwing down, and fetching up, till the
Exercise shall have sufficiently heated you. This renew as often as
Occasion shall require. _Probatum est_."
This receipt would seem worth preserving in this day of dear fuel. As
Washington had great abundance of wood and plenty of negroes to cut it,
he probably did not try the experiment--at least such a conclusion is
what writers on historical method would call "a safe inference."
[Illustration: First Page of Washington's Digest of Duhamel's Husbandry]
There is in the almanac a rhyme ridiculing physicians and above the
March calendar are printed the touching verses:
"Thus of all Joy and happiness bereft,
And with the Charge of Ten poor Children left:
A greater Grief no Woman sure can know,
Who,--with Ten Children--who will have me now."
Also there are some other verses, very broad and "not quite the proper
thing," as Kipling has it. But it must not be inferred that Washington
approved of them.
Washington also kept cash memorandum books, general account books, mill
books and a special book in which he recorded his accounts with the
estate of the Custis children. These old books, written in his neat
legible hand, are not only one of our chief sources of information
concerning his agricultural and financial affairs, but contain many
sidelights upon historical events. It is extremely interesting, for
example, to discover in one of the account books that in 1775 at Mount
Vernon he lent General Charles Lee--of Monmouth fame--£15, and "to Ditto
lent him on the Road from Phila to Cambridge at different times" £9.12
more, a total of £24.12. In later years Lee intrigued against Washington
and said many spiteful things about him, but he never returned the loan.
The account stood until 1786, when it was settled by Alexander White,
Lee's executor.
In the Cash Memorandum books we can trace Washington's military
preparations at the beginning of the Revolution. Thus on June 2, 1775,
being then at Philadelphia, he enters: "By Expences bringing my Horses
from Baltimore," £2.5. Next day he pays thirty pounds for "Cartouch
Boxes &c. for Prince Wm. Comp." June 6, "By Covering my Holsters,"
£0.7.6; "By a Cersingle," £0.7.6; "By 5 Books--Military," £1.12.0. He
was preparing for Gage and Howe and Cornwallis and whether the knowledge
contained in the books was of value or not he somehow managed for eight
years to hold his opponents at bay and ultimately to win. At Cambridge,
July tenth, he spends three shillings and four pence for a "Ribbon to
distinguish myself," that is to show his position as commander; also
£1.2.6 for "a pair of Breeches for Will," his colored body servant.
A vast number of papers bear witness to his interest in agriculture and
with these we are particularly concerned. He preserved most of the
letters written to him and many of these deal with farming matters.
During part of his career he had a copying press and kept copies of his
own important letters, while many of the originals have been preserved,
though widely scattered. When away from home he required his manager to
send him elaborate weekly reports containing a meteorological table of
each day's weather, the work done on each farm, what each person did,
who was sick, losses and increases in stock, and other matters of
interest. Scores of these reports are still in existence and are
invaluable. He himself wrote--generally on Sunday--lengthy weekly
letters of inquiry, direction, admonition and reproof, and if the
manager failed in the minutest matter to give an account of some phase
of the farm work, he would be sure to hear of it in the proprietor's
next letter.
Washington's correspondence on agricultural matters with Arthur Young
and Sir John Sinclair, eminent English agriculturists, was collected
soon after his death in a volume that is now rare. In it are a number of
letters written by other American farmers, including Thomas Jefferson,
relative to agriculture in their localities. These letters were the
result of inquiries made of Washington by Young in 1791. In order to
obtain the facts desired Washington sent out a circular letter to some
of the most intelligent farmers in the Middle States, and the replies
form perhaps our best source of information regarding agricultural
conditions in that period.
Because of this service and of his general interest in agricultural
matters Washington was elected a foreign honorary member of the English
Board of Agriculture and received a diploma, which is still preserved
among his papers.
Some of Washington's other agricultural papers have been printed in one
form and another, but a great number, and some the most interesting, can
still be consulted only in manuscript.
Washington bequeathed his books and papers, along with his Mansion
House, to his nephew, Bushrod Washington, an associate justice of the
Federal Supreme Court. Judge Washington failed to appreciate fully the
seriousness of the obligation thus incurred and instead of safeguarding
the papers with the utmost jealousy gave many, including volumes of the
diary, to visitors and friends who expressed a desire to possess
mementoes of the illustrious patriot. In particular he permitted
Reverend William Buel Sprague, who had been a tutor in the family of
Nelly Custis Lewis, to take about fifteen hundred papers on condition
that he leave copies in their places. The judge also intrusted a
considerable portion to the historian Jared Sparks, who issued the first
considerable edition of Washington's writings. Sparks likewise was
guilty of giving away souvenirs.
Bushrod Washington died in 1829 and left the papers and letter books for
the most part to his nephew John Corbin Washington. In 1834 the nation
purchased of this gentleman the papers of a public character, paying
twenty-five thousand dollars. The owner reserved the private papers,
including invoices, ciphering book, rules of civility, etc., but in 1849
sold these also to the same purchaser for twenty thousand dollars. The
papers were kept for many years in the Department of State, but in the
administration of Theodore Roosevelt most of them were transferred to
the Library of Congress, where they could be better cared for and would
be more accessible.
Bushrod Washington gave to another nephew, John Augustine Washington,
the books and relics in the dining-room of the Mansion House. In course
of time these were scattered, some being bought for the Boston
Athenaeum, which has decidedly the larger part of Washington's library;
others were purchased by the state of New York, and yet others were
exhibited at the Centennial Exposition and were later sold at auction.
Among the relics bought by New York was a sword wrongly said to have
been sent to the General by Frederick the Great.
One hundred and twenty-seven of his letters, mostly to William Pearce,
his manager at Mount Vernon during a portion of his presidency, were
bought from the heirs of Pearce by the celebrated Edward Everett and now
belong to the Long Island Historical Society. These have been published.
His correspondence with Tobias Lear, for many years his private
secretary, are now in the collection of Thomas K. Bixby, a wealthy
bibliophile of St. Louis. These also have been published. The one
greatest repository of papers is the Library of Congress. Furthermore,
through the unwearying activities of J. M. Toner, who devoted years to
the work, the Library also has authenticated copies of many papers of
which it does not possess the originals.
All told, according to Mr. Gaillard Hunt, who has them in charge, the
Washington manuscripts in the Library of Congress is the largest
collection of papers of one person in the world. The collection contains
about eighteen thousand papers in his own hand, press copies, or drafts
in the writing of his secretaries, and many times that number of others.
As yet all except a small part are merely arranged in chronological
order, but soon it is to be sumptuously bound in royal purple levant.
The color, after all, is fitting, for he was a King and he reigns still
in the hearts of his countrymen.
Benjamin Franklin knew the great men of earth of his time, the princes
and kings of blood royal. Near the close of his life he wrote in his
will: "My fine crabtree walking-stick with a gold head, curiously
wrought in the form of a cap of Liberty, I give to my friend, and the
friend of mankind, General Washington. If it was a sceptre, he has
merited it, and would become it."
And thus Thackeray, who knew the true from the false, the dross from
pure gold: "Which was the most splendid spectacle ever witnessed, the
opening feast of Prince George in London or the resignation of
Washington? Which is the noble character for ages to admire--yon fribble
dancing in lace and spangles, or yonder hero who sheathes his sword
after a life of spotless honor, a purity unreproached, a courage
indomitable, and a consummate victory? Which of these is the true
gentleman? What is it to be a gentleman? Is it to have lofty aims, to
lead a pure life, to keep your honor virgin; to have the esteem of your
fellow-citizens, and the love of your fireside; to bear good fortune
meekly; to suffer evil with constancy; and through evil or good to
maintain truth always? Show me the happy man whose life exhibits these
qualities, and him will we salute as gentleman, whatever his rank may
be; show me the prince who possesses them, and he may be sure of our
love and loyalty."
'Tis often distance only that lends enchantment, but it is Washington's
proud pre-eminence that he can bear the microscope. Having read
thousands of his letters and papers dealing with almost every
conceivable subject in the range of human affairs, I yet feel inclined,
nay compelled, to bear witness to the greatness of his heart, soul and
understanding. He was human. He had his faults. He made his mistakes.
But I would not detract a line from any eulogium of him ever uttered.
Words have never yet been penned that do him justice.