MADAM, TO MARY WOOSTER. * New York, 21 May, 1789. I have duly received your affecting letter, dated the 8th day of this month. Sympathizing with you as I do in the great misfortunes, which have befallen your family in consequence of the war, my feelings as an individual would forcibly prompt me to do every thing in my power to repair those misfortunes. But as a public man, acting only with reference to the public good, I must be allowed to decide upon all points of my duty, without consulting my private inclinations and wishes. I must be permitted, with the best lights I can obtain, and upon a general view of characters and circumstances, to nominate such persons alone to offices, as in my judgment shall be the best qualified to discharge the functions of the departments to which they shall be appointed. Hitherto I have given no decisive answers to the applications of any candidates whatsoever. Nor would it be proper for me, before offices shall be created, and before I can have a general knowledge of the competitors for them, to say any thing that might be construed as intended to encourage or discourage the hopes, which individuals may have formed of success. I only wish, so far as my agency in this business is concerned, that candidates for offices would save themselves the trouble and consequent expense of personal attendance. All that I require is the name and such testimonials with respect to abilities, integrity, and fit ness, as it may be in the power of the several ap * The widow of General Wooster, who died of the wounds he received in an action with the enemy when the British made an incursion to Danbury in April, 1777. See Vol. IV. p. 405. plicants to produce. Beyond this, nothing with me is necessary, or will be of any avail to them in my decisions. In the mean time I beg you will be persuaded, Madam, that, let the result be whatsoever it may, I can have no interest to promote but that of the public; and that I remain in all personal considerations, with the highest respect, your most obedient servant. SIR, TO JAMES WARREN. New York, 23 May, 1789. I have duly received your very friendly letter of the 2d instant, and beg you to accept of my sincere acknowledgment and best thanks for the kind congratulations and good wishes, which were contained in it. It affords me peculiar satisfaction to see the union of sentiment, which seems to prevail in favor of our new system of government. I find that the good and respectable characters from every quarter are determined to give it their countenance and support, notwithstanding some of them apprehended, that evils might arise from particular parts of it. Those, who opposed the constitution before its adoption from principle, were pretty generally convinced of the necessity of a change in our former confederation; but its being accepted by so large a part of the community, the harmony which prevails in the legislature, and the prospect of having those apprehensions done away by some alteration, have induced them to say with you, that "it is the duty of every good citizen to rejoice in every measure calculated to carry it into operation, agreeably to the principles on which it was adopted." It gives me no small pleasure to find, that former friendships have not been destroyed by a difference of opinion on this great political point. It is a proof of the good dispositions, which govern the people of this country, and which, if properly improved, will make us a happy people. With great regard and esteem, I am, Sir, &c. TO COUNT DE MOUSTIER. Confidential. New York, 25 May, 1789. SIR, What circumstances there may be existing between our two nations, to which you allude, on account of their peculiarity, I know not. But, as those nations are happily connected in the strictest ties of amity, not less by inclination and interest, than by the solemnity of a treaty, and as the United States are too remote from Europe to take any share in the localpolitics of that continent, I had concluded, that commerce was the only subject of negotiations, which could at present be very interesting to the inhabitants of the two countries. In two letters, which I had the pleasure of writing to you before I returned into public life, I stated (if I remember rightly, for I have not the copies of the letters with me), that I was so little acquainted with commercial affairs, that I should very much distrust my own judgment, even in the opinions which I might be obliged to hazard in treating casually of them. This fact, if there had been no other circumstance that merited a consideration, would be a conclusive reason for preventing me individually from entering upon any kind of negotiations upon that subject. For while I find myself incompetent to it, I really believe, that much reciprocal advantage might be acquired, if that subject could be candidly and intelligently managed. This I should hope, too, might be the case; and so far shall I be from throwing any obstacles in the way, that I shall certainly take a great pleasure in removing, as far as lies in my power, such as may Occur. Every one, who has any knowledge of my manner of acting in public life, will be persuaded that I am not accustomed to impede the despatch or frustrate the success of business by a ceremonious attention to idle forms. Any person of that description will also be satisfied, that I should not readily consent to lose one of the most important functions of my office, for the sake of preserving an imaginary dignity. But perhaps, if there are rules of proceeding, which have originated from the wisdom of statesmen, and are sanctioned by the common consent of nations, it would not be prudent for a young state to dispense with them altogether, at least, without some substantial cause for so doing. I have myself been induced to think, possibly from the habits of experience, that in general the best mode of conducting negotiations, the detail and progress of which might be liable to accidental mistakes, or unintentional misrepresentations, is by writing. This mode, if I was obliged myself to negotiate with any one, I should still pursue. I have, however, been taught to believe, that there is in most polished nations a system established, with regard to the foreign as well as the other great departments, which, from the utility, the necessity, and the reason of the thing, provides, that business should be digested and prepared by the heads of those departments. The impossibility that one man should be able to perform all the great business of the state, I take to have been the reason for instituting the great departments, and appointing officers therein, to assist the supreme magistrate in discharging the duties of his trust. And perhaps I may be allowed to say of myself, that the supreme magistrate of no state can have a greater variety of important business to perform in person, than I have at this moment. Very many things will doubtless occur to you, Sir, as being incident to the office of President in the commencement of the government, which cannot be done by the intervention of a third person. You will give me leave to say, likewise, that no third person (were there a disposition for it) shall ever have it in his power to erect a wall between me and the diplomatic corps, that is to say, to prevent necessary communications. Nor has any body insinuated, that it would be beneath the dignity of a President of the United States occasionally to transact business with a foreign minister. But in what light the public might view the establishment of a precedent for negotiating the business of a department, without any agency of the head of the department, who was appointed for that very purpose, I do not at present pretend to determine; nor whether a similar practice in that case must not of right be extended hereafter to all diplomatic characters of the same rank. Here you will be pleased to observe, Sir, that I am writing as General Washington to the Count de Moustier. Happy am I, that my regard for yourself and your nation is so far from being equivocal, that I have had several occasions of making it known to you, both in conversation and writing. And I hope you will consider this confidential letter as an evidence of the extreme regret, which I should feel, in being obliged |