George Washington

Washington's papers in volume six of the series reveal him giving meticulous attention to his personal affairs at Mount Vernon and turning his mind to the new role he should, and must, play in establishing the new government.

This volume documents the events of the final phase of the New York campaign and the ensuing New Jersey campaign. The work opens with Washington's withdrawal of most of his army from Manhattan Island and ends with his daring counterstrokes against a Hessian brigade and a British detachment.

This volume of the papers of George Washington covers the period when his attention was devoted to several matters of national significance: the Residence and Funding Acts; Indian affairs; Harmar's expedition in the Northwest Territory; and intrigues of foreign agents on America's frontiers.

Volume 5 covers the first half of 1790 and focuses on Washington's continued concentration on the problems facing the new government. North Carolina had ratified the Constitution in late 1789, and Rhode Island held its ratifying convention in early 1790. Many documents in this volume reflect the president's concern with the establishment of ties to the federal government in both states, especially in the matter of appointments to the federal civil service. Also treated in detail in the volume are Washington's near-fatal illness in May 1790 and his difficult recovery. The heavy incoming correspondence concerns matters as diverse as the administratin's attempts to deal with escalation of Indian hostilities on the northern frontier, negotiations concerning military medals issued for achievement during the Revolutionary War, establishment of a coinage system for the young nation, petitions from Quakers concerning abolition, events surrounding the arrival of American vessels on the coast of Oregon, Gouverneur Morris's diplomatic mission to London, and the formation of the Scioto Company.

This is the fourth of six volumes of the papers of George Washington in the Confederation period. The series begins on 1st January 1784 and ends in September 1788, the eve of Washington's return to public life as President. This set of papers deals largely with private affairs.

This volume carries Washington through the critical 15 months immediately prior to his appointment as commander-in-chief of the American army during the Revolutionary War. It focuses on his increasing political involvement in events leading up to the Revolution.

Documents Washington's decisions and actions during the heart of the New York campaign, from late summer to early fall 1776, when his opponent, General William Howe, took the offensive and outmanoeuvred the American forces in and around New York City by amphibious landings.

The third of six volumes of Washington's papers in the Confederation period, this book looks at the time when Washington ventured from his house and farms at Mount Vernon only for occasional trips into Alexandria and periodic forays up to the Potomac to meet officers of the Potomac River Company.

In the two-year span covered by this volume, Washington continues to be concerned with personal and local matters - the expansion of his Mount Vernon acreage, the development of the flour and fishing industries there, and his promotion of schemes for the navigation of the Potomac River.

Covers the preliminary phase of the New York campaign, the period when the stage was set for Washington's greatest challenge yet as commander-in-chief of the Continental army. The importance of Washington's inseparable roles as military commander and political leader is demonstrated.

Volume 4 of the ""Presidential Series"" continues the fourth chronological series of ""The Papers of George Washington"". The ""Presidential Series"", when complete, will cover the eight precedent-setting years of Washington's presidency and his brief retirement at Mount Vernon until his death in 1799. These volumes deal with the public papers either written by Washington or presented to him during both of his administrations. Among the documents are Washington's messages to Congress, addresses to him from public and private bodies, applications for public office, and documents concerned with diplomatic and Indian affairs as well as Washington's private papers, which include family letters, farm reports, political letters from friends and acquaintances, and documents relating to the administration of Mount Vernon plantation. Volume 4 covers the fall and early winter of 1789-90 and focuses on the problems facing the new administration. Many documents in this volume deal with the difficulties Washington encountered in his attempt to staff the federal judiciary and his fears that failure to attract viable candidates for the Supreme Court and the federal courts would damage the reputation of the new government. There is extensive correspondence dealing with the administration's unsuccessful attempt to negotiate a treaty with the Creek chief Alexander McGillivray and with the growing threat from Indian tribes in the Northwest. Applications for office continued to pour in, often illustrating the private difficulties and public aspirations of the Revolutionary generation. Letters to Washington come from a cross section of Americans and foreign dignitaries and present a rich resource on such diverse topics as foreign affairs, overseas trade and public attitudes toward the new government. In October 1789, Washington undertook a trip through the New England states to attract support for his administration. His triumphal journey is richly documented by the numerous letters of private and public support. Private letters deal with topics ranging from his attempts to furnish his new greenhouse at Mount Vernon with exotic plants and his acquisition of mares to stock the plantation's paddocks to the settlement of the financial affairs of his stepson's estate and his gift of a bit of chintz to the young daughters of a Connecticut innkeeper.

In the late 1760s and early 1770s, George Washington more and more was drawn from affairs of home and hearth by involvement in colonial resistance to British policy and by the lure of western lands. This correspondence documents the evolution of Washington's ideas about economic and political relationships within the empire, and helps to explain how he came to hold his particular vision of the West, both things that were to figure largely in his view of the new nation that he helped to create. Most of the correspondence from these four years, however, has to do with matters both more personal and more local: the acquiring of new farms to enlarge the plantation of Mount Vernon, the management of the complex affairs within the plantation and the sale of its products, the construction of a house in Alexandria, a mill on Dogue Run, and a new church at Pohick, moving Mary Washington into Fredericksburg, arranging for the schooling of John Parke Custis, coping with the Colvill estate's complexities, Mrs Savage's mistreatment, John Posey's fecklessness, Benjamin Moore's bankruptcy, and with the revival of the Dunbar suit, and taking the lead in a movement to improve navigation of the Potomac. The two final volumes in the Colonial Series will trace the emergence of Washington as a revolutionary leader and a major figure in western expansion.

This is part of a series which begins on 1 January 1784 with the hero of the American Revolution back at Mount Vernon under his own ""fig tree and vine"", and ends in September 1788 on the eve of his return to public life as president under the new Constitution. The Confederation Series is composed almost entirely of personal letters and includes very few official documents. Volume 2 documents Washington's emergence as the extraordinarily active leader of the move to open the upper reaches of the Potomac to navigation and to use it to tie the fast-settling West to the seaboard states. Besides documents relating to Washington's presidency of the Potomac River Company and to the routine managment of his private affairs, there are letters dealing with such things as the famous Spanish jacks, the plight of both Patrick Henry and Nathanael Greene, histories by Jeremy Belknap and William Gordon, Lafayette's visit, William Byrd's letters, and David Humphrey's poetry.

This is part of a series which begins on 1 January 1784 with the hero of the American Revolution back at Mount Vernon under his own ""fig tree and vine"", and ends in September 1788 on the eve of his return to public life as president under the new Constitution. The Confederation Series is composed almost entirely of personal letters and includes very few official documents. Documents printed in Volume 1 reflect Washington's main concerns during the first months of peace. Many letters related directly to his resumption of the management not only of his house and farms at Mount Vernon, as well as of his tenanted land in Frederick and Berkeley counties and in Pennsylvania, but also of his vast holdings on the banks of the Great Kanawha and Ohio. Other letters deal with such things as the settlement of his military accounts, his activities as both president and determined reformer of the Society of the Cincinnati, and his preliminary notions about making the Potomac the connecting link between the East and the transmontane West.

The ten-volume Colonial Series, covering the years 1748-1775, takes the young Washington through his command of the Virginia Regiment during the French and Indian War and then focuses on his political and business activities as a Virginia planter during the fifteen years before the American Revolution.

Volume three of the Presidential Series continues the fourth chronological series of ""The Papers of George Washington"". The Presidential Series when complete, will aim to cover the eight precedent-setting years of Washington's presidency and his brief retirement at Mount Vernon until his death in 1799. These volumes deal with the public papers either written by Washington or presented to him during both of his administrations. Among the documents are Washington's messages to Congress, addresses to him from public office and documents concerned with diplomatic and Indian affairs as well as Washington's private papers which include family letters, farm reports, political letters from friends and acquaintances, and documents relating to the administration of the Mount Vernon plantation. Volume three covers most of the summer of 1789 and focuses primarily on the problems facing the new administration. Because of the president's serious illness during this period, a larger proportion of the documents than previously are letters and papers sent to Washington, including massive reports from the Board of Treasury describing the financial status of the new nation, detailed descriptions of Indian and military affairs from Henry Knox, and a plethora of applications for public office. The letters to Washington come from a cross section of Americans and present a resource on such diverse topics as foreign affairs, overseas trade and public attitudes toward the new government. Washington in these months was establishing the great departments of the federal government, and he devoted a considerable amount of his time to appointments and to the staffing of the new civil service.

Volume 3 covers the final months of the siege of Boston. It opens with General Washington proclaiming the commencement of the remodeled Continental army on New Year's Day 1776 and closes at the end of March as he prepares to depart for New York in the wake of the British evacuation of Boston. Washington's correspondence and orders for this period reveal an uncompromising attitude toward reconciliation with Britain and a single-minded determination to engage the enemy forces in Boston before the end of the winter. Washington's bold proposal to attack Boston across the frozen back bay in the middle of February was rejected as too risky by a council of war, but the council did approve occupying the strategic Dorchester Heights overlooking the city and harbor. During the last weeks of February and the first days of March, Washington devoted himself to mobilizing artillery and gunpowder for a massive cannonade of Boston and assembling materials for portable fortifications to be erected on the frozen soil of Dorchester Heights. The successful execution of this operation on the night of 4 March failedto provoke General William Howe into assaulting the American lines and thereby open the way to counterattack on the city as Washington hoped it would. It did, however, compel the British to withdraw from Boston in haste a few days later, giving Washington and his army a spirit of confidence with which to embark on the New York campaign. The volume also includes a number of documents relating to Washington's private affairs in Virginia, the most important of which are eight letters from his Mount Vernon manager Lund Washington.

The ten-volume Colonial Series, covering the years 1748-1775, takes the young Washington through his command of the Virginia Regiment during the French and Indian War and then focuses on his political and business activities as a Virginia planter during the fifteen years before the American Revolution.

The ten-volume Colonial Series, covering the years 1748-1775, takes the young Washington through his command of the Virginia Regiment during the French and Indian War and then focuses on his political and business activities as a Virginia planter during the fifteen years before the American Revolution.

George Washington speaks for himself on behalf of liberty and the emerging American republic in this book, the only one-volume compilation in print of his vast writings. This volume includes correspondence, all of his presidential addresses, various public proclamations, his last will and testament, and the most comprehensive recompilation of the "discarded first inaugural" ever printed.