WASHINGTON, George. Autograph letter signed ("G: o Washington"), as former President, to Col. Israel Shreve (1739-1799), Mount Vernon, 10 January 1799. 3 pages, folio, with Washington's watermark; show-through; inlaid and silked (with loss of some words along folds and along right edge of signature page) .
WASHINGTON, George. Autograph letter signed ("G: o Washington"), as former President, to Col. Israel Shreve (1739-1799), Mount Vernon, 10 January 1799. 3 pages, folio, with Washington's watermark; show-through; inlaid and silked (with loss of some words along folds and along right edge of signature page) . "TO BE PLAIN, I NEVER EXPECT TO OBTAIN WHAT IS DUE FROM YOU TO ME BUT BY RESORT TO A COURT OF JUSTICE" Washington issues a stiff rebuke to a debtor, in a rare expression of harshness--even bitterness--from the normally temperate and punctilious Virginian. The resentment is particularly stinging as the debt arose as a consequence of Washington's "inadequate" salary as President. "You know full well," he tells Shreve, "because you have often been told it in serious and solemn terms, that the only inducement I had to sell the land on which you live, was necessity; to raise money, to enable me to pay the expenses of my public office; to which the compensation was inadequate...I am now obliged to borrow money at the banks" at an interest double what he would receive from Shreve's debt. The matter is all the more galling as Shreve then sold the land for "double what you gave me, and had always time to prepare for my demands." But, Washington says, "there are people in this world (of which I fear you are one) who from inattention to engagements, or disinclination to pay debts, but by compulsion...never are, nor never will be prepared, and when this is the case, endulgences are unavailing." Having made repeated prior demands for payment, Washington tells Shreve he is putting the matter in the hands of the sheriff if payment is not received by June first. "You have no right to distress me by withholding the money, and ought to be as unwilling." Shreve had been an annoyance and disappointment to Washington ever since the Revolutionary War, when the commander-in-chief found him to be an incompetent commander, and refused to promote him to brigadier general ("Here I drop the curtain," he said of Col. Shreve's rank). Published in Fitzpatrick 37:85-87.
WASHINGTON, George. Autograph letter signed ("G: o Washington"), as former President, to Col. Israel Shreve (1739-1799), Mount Vernon, 10 January 1799. 3 pages, folio, with Washington's watermark; show-through; inlaid and silked (with loss of some words along folds and along right edge of signature page) .
WASHINGTON, George. Autograph letter signed ("G: o Washington"), as former President, to Col. Israel Shreve (1739-1799), Mount Vernon, 10 January 1799. 3 pages, folio, with Washington's watermark; show-through; inlaid and silked (with loss of some words along folds and along right edge of signature page) . "TO BE PLAIN, I NEVER EXPECT TO OBTAIN WHAT IS DUE FROM YOU TO ME BUT BY RESORT TO A COURT OF JUSTICE" Washington issues a stiff rebuke to a debtor, in a rare expression of harshness--even bitterness--from the normally temperate and punctilious Virginian. The resentment is particularly stinging as the debt arose as a consequence of Washington's "inadequate" salary as President. "You know full well," he tells Shreve, "because you have often been told it in serious and solemn terms, that the only inducement I had to sell the land on which you live, was necessity; to raise money, to enable me to pay the expenses of my public office; to which the compensation was inadequate...I am now obliged to borrow money at the banks" at an interest double what he would receive from Shreve's debt. The matter is all the more galling as Shreve then sold the land for "double what you gave me, and had always time to prepare for my demands." But, Washington says, "there are people in this world (of which I fear you are one) who from inattention to engagements, or disinclination to pay debts, but by compulsion...never are, nor never will be prepared, and when this is the case, endulgences are unavailing." Having made repeated prior demands for payment, Washington tells Shreve he is putting the matter in the hands of the sheriff if payment is not received by June first. "You have no right to distress me by withholding the money, and ought to be as unwilling." Shreve had been an annoyance and disappointment to Washington ever since the Revolutionary War, when the commander-in-chief found him to be an incompetent commander, and refused to promote him to brigadier general ("Here I drop the curtain," he said of Col. Shreve's rank). Published in Fitzpatrick 37:85-87.
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