Beschreibung:

WASHINGTON, GEORGE, President. Autograph letter signed ("G: Washington") as President, to Howell Lewis, overseer at Mount Vernon, Germantown, [Pennsylvania], 10 November 1793. 3 1/2 pages, 4to, 250 x 200mm. (9 7/8 x 9 7/8 in.), both leaves separated along vertical folds into three narrow strips, remains of old tape repairs have discolored those folds on pages 1 and 4, the text intact, the leaves probably repairable. PRESIDENT WASHINGTON'S INSTRUCTIONS FOR MOUNT VERNON President Washington, who had left Mount Vernon on 28 October to return to Philadelphia for the convening of Congress in December, gives detailed directions to his overseer. He is pleased to hear of "...the fine rain" which he hopes has "put the ground in a good state for plan[n]ing," for "it is of essential importance to have the fields...broke up in the course of the fall,...[so] that the ground may be turned apart in the Spr[ing]...As the wheat farm is the most important of all, to me, continue to inform me how it comes on in all your letters...What I mention in my last about sowing Rye, I still wish to have done...as I then mentioned, that I may have Rye straw for Thatching..." Washington exhorts Lewis to keep detailed records, for "the great object of these reports is to let me know the occurrences and true state of things on the Farms once a week; and none can be more interesting than the ascertainment of the crops..." In a passage on household servants, possibly slaves, Washington writes "Patt had better be struck off the Mansion house list altogether, and if there be a younger one there who has never had a child, she may come to the Mansion...in her place..." He advises that "the old Bull commonly called the Callico Bull" be brought to the "Mansion House" for winter breeding. Lewis is then instructed to "write in my name to Lawrence Washington to come immediately to Mount Vernon, in order to proceed on to this place or Philadelpia..." Not in Writings , ed. J.C. Fitzpatrick, and apparently unpublished.