Washington and the American Republic Part 44

One covering horse, 5 carriage horses, 4 riding horses, 6 brood mares, 20 working horses and mares, 2 covering jacks and 3 young ones, 10 she-a.s.ses, 42 working mules, 15 younger ones, 329 head of horned cattle, 640 head of sheep, and a large stock of hogs, the precise number unknown. [Symbol: Hand with pointing finger.] My manager has estimated this live stock at 7000; but I shall set it down, in order to make a round sum, at 15,653 -------- Aggregate amount, $530,000

NOTES.

(_a_) This tract, for the size of it, is valuable, more for its situation than the quality of its soil; though that is good for farming, with a considerable proportion of ground that might very easily be improved into meadow. It lies on the great road from the city of Washington, Alexandria, and Georgetown, to Leesburgh and Winchester, at Difficult Bridge, nineteen miles from Alexandria, less from the city of Georgetown, and not more than three from Matildaville, at the Great Falls of Potomac. There is a valuable seat on the premises, and the whole is conditionally sold for the sum annexed in the schedule.

(_b_) What the selling prices of lands in the vicinity of these two tracts are, I know not; but, compared with those above the Ridge, and others below them, the value annexed will appear moderate; a less one would not obtain them from me.

(_c_) The surrounding land, not superior in soil, situation, or properties of any sort, sells currently at from twenty to thirty dollars an acre. The lowest price is affixed to these.

(_d_) The observations made in the last note apply equally to this tract; being in the vicinity of them, and of similar quality, although it lies in another county.

(_e_) This tract, though small, is extremely valuable. It lies on Potomac River, about twelve miles above the town of Bath, or Warm Springs, and is in the shape of a horseshoe; the river running almost around it. Two hundred acres of it are rich low grounds, with a great abundance of the largest and finest walnut trees; which, with the produce of the soil, might (by means of the improved navigation of the Potomac) be brought to a shipping port with more ease, and at a smaller expense, than that which is transported thirty miles only by land.

(_f_) This tract is of second-rate Gloucester low ground. It has no improvements thereon, but lies on navigable water, abounding in fish and oysters. It was received in payment of a debt (carrying interest), and valued in the year 1789, by an impartial gentleman, at 800. N. B. It has lately been sold, and there is due thereon a balance, equal to what is annexed in the schedule.

(_g_) These 373 acres are the third part of an undivided purchase made by the deceased Fielding Lewis, Thomas Walker, and myself, on full conviction that they would become valuable. The land lies on the road from Suffolk and Norfolk, touches (if I am not mistaken) some part of the navigable water of Nansemond River. The rich Dismal Swamp is capable of great improvement, and from its situation must become extremely valuable.

(_h_) This is an undivided interest, which I hold in the Great Dismal Swamp Company, containing about 4000 acres, with my part of the plantation and stock thereon, belonging to the Company in the said swamp.

(_i_) These several tracts of land are of the first quality, on the Ohio River, in the parts where they are situated; being almost, if not altogether, river bottoms. The smallest of these tracts is actually sold at ten dollars an acre, but the consideration therefor not received. The rest are equally valuable, and sold as high; especially that which lies just below the Little Kenhawa, and is opposite to a thick settlement on the west side of the river. The four tracts have an aggregate breadth upon the river of sixteen miles, and are bounded thereby for that distance.

(_k_) These tracts are situated on the Great Kenhawa River, and the first four are bounded thereby for more than forty miles. It is acknowledged by all who have seen them (and of the tract containing 10,990 acres, which I have been on myself, I can a.s.sert), that there is no richer or more valuable land in all that region. They are conditionally sold for the sum mentioned in the schedule, that is, 200,000 dollars; and, if the terms of that sale are not complied with, they will command considerably more. The tract, of which the 125 acres is a moiety, was taken up by General Andrew Lewis and myself, for and on account of a bituminous spring which it contains, of so inflammable a nature as to burn as freely as spirits, and is nearly as difficult to extinguish.

(_l_) I am but little acquainted with this land, although I have once been on it. It was received (many years since) in discharge of a debt to me from Daniel Jenifer Adams, at the value annexed thereto, and must be worth more. It is very level; lies near the river Potomac.

(_m_) This tract lies about thirty miles above the city of Washington, not far from Kittoctan. It is good farming land; and, by those who are well acquainted it, I am informed that it would sell at twelve or fifteen dollars per acre.

(_n_) This land is valuable on account of its local situation, and other properties. It affords an exceeding good stand on Braddock's Road from Fort c.u.mberland to Pittsburgh, and, besides a fertile soil, possesses a large quant.i.ty of natural meadow, fit for the scythe. It is distinguished by the appellation of the Great Meadows, where the first action with the French in 1754 was fought.

(_o_) This is the moiety of about 2000 acres, which remains unsold of 6071 acres on the Mohawk River (Montgomery County), in a patent granted to Daniel c.o.xe, in the township of c.o.xborough and Carolina, as will appear by deed from Marinus Willett and wife to George Clinton, late governor of New York, and myself. The latter sales have been at six dollars an acre, and what remains unsold will fetch that or more.

(_p_) The quality of these lands, and their situations, may be known by the surveyor's certificates, which are filed along with the patents.

They lie in the vicinity of Cincinnati; one tract near the mouth of the Little Miami; another seven, and the third ten miles up the same. I have been informed, that they will command more than they are estimated at.

(_q_) For the description of these tracts in detail, see General Spotswood's letters, filed with the other papers relating to them.

Besides the general good quality of the land, there is a valuable bank of iron ore thereon, which, when the settlement becomes more populous (and settlers are moving that way very fast), will be found very valuable, as the Rough Creek, a branch of Green River, affords ample water for furnaces and forges.

LOTS.

CITY OF WASHINGTON.

(_r_) The two lots near the Capitol, in square 634, cost me 963 dollars only. But in this price I was favored, on condition that I should build two brick houses, three stories high each. Without this reduction, the selling prices of those lots would have cost me about 1350 dollars.

These lots, with the buildings thereon, when completed, will stand me in 15,000 dollars at least.

(_s_) Lots Nos. 5, 12, 13, and 14, on the Eastern Branch, are advantageously situated on the water; and, although many lots, much less convenient, have sold a great deal higher, I will rate these at 12 cents the square foot only.

ALEXANDRIA.

(_t_) For this lot, although unimproved, I have refused 3500 dollars. It has since been laid out into proper sized lots for building on; three or four of which are let on ground rent for ever, at three dollars a foot on the street, and this price is asked for both fronts on Pitt and Prince streets.

WINCHESTER.

(_u_) As neither the lot in the town or common have any improvements on them, it is not easy to fix a price; but, as both are well situated, it is presumed that the price annexed to them in the schedule is a reasonable valuation.

BATH.

(_v_) The lots in Bath (two adjoining) cost me, to the best of my recollection, between fifty and sixty pounds, twenty years ago; and the buildings thereon, one hundred and fifty pounds more. Whether property there has increased or decreased in its value, and in what condition the houses are, I am ignorant; but suppose they are not valued too high.

STOCK.

(_w_) These are the sums which are actually funded; and though no more in the aggregate than 7566 dollars, stand me in at least ten thousand pounds, Virginia money; being the amount of bonded and other debts due to me, and discharged during the war, when money had depreciated in that rate,--[symbol of hand with pointing finger] and was so settled by public authority.

(_x_) The value annexed to these shares is what they have actually cost me, and is the price affixed by law; and, although the present selling price is under par, my advice to the legatees (for whose benefit they are intended, especially those who can afford to lie out of the money) is, that each should take and hold one; there being a moral certainty of a great and increasing profit arising from them in the course of a few years.

(_y_) It is supposed that the shares in the James River Company must be productive. But of this I can give no decided opinion, for want of more accurate information.

(_z_) These are the nominal prices of the shares in the Banks of Alexandria and Columbia; the selling prices vary according to circ.u.mstances; but, as the stocks usually divide from eight to ten per cent. per annum, they must be worth the former, at least, so long as the banks are conceived to be secure, although from circ.u.mstances they may sometimes be below it.

The value of the live stock depends more upon the quality than quant.i.ty of the different species of it, and this again upon the demand, and judgment or fancy of purchasers.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

MOUNT VERNON, _July_ 9, 1799.

[135] It appears that the testator omitted the word "nine,"--Sparks.

[136] As General Washington never had any children, he gave the larger part of his property to his nephews and nieces, and the children of Mrs.

Washington's son by her first marriage. The princ.i.p.al heir was Bushrod Washington, son of his brother, John Augustine Washington.--SPARKS.

[137] This paragraph answers the question which has sometimes been asked, with an unfriendly spirit, "Why did not Washington manumit his slaves during his lifetime?" He was ever anxious to give them freedom, and to see the system abolished from the republic. In 1783, he wrote to Lafayette: "The scheme which you propose, as a precedent to encourage the emanc.i.p.ation of the black people in this country, from the state of bondage in which they are held, is a striking evidence of the benevolence of your heart. I shall be happy to join you, in so laudable a work."

To Robert Morris he wrote in October 1786: "There is not a man living, who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery; but there is only one proper and effectual mode by which it can be accomplished, and that is, by legislative authority; and this, as far as my suffrage will go, shall never be wanting. But when slaves, who are happy and contented with their present masters, are tampered with and seduced to leave them; when masters are taken unawares by these practices; when a conduct of this kind begets discontent on one side and resentment on the other; and when it happens to fall on a man whose purse will not measure with that of the Society [Quakers], and he loses his property for want of means to defend it; it is oppressive in such a case, and not humanity in any, because it introduces more evils than it can cure."

To John F. Mercer, of Virginia, he wrote, a few months later: "I never mean, unless some particular circ.u.mstances should compel me to it, to possess another slave by purchase, it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery in this country may be abolished by law."

In 1794, he wrote to Tobias Lear, his private secretary, then in England, endeavoring to negotiate the sale of some of Washington's wild lands, that one object he had in view in making sales was to place himself in a position to emanc.i.p.ate his slaves. "Another motive," he wrote--"which is, indeed, more powerful than all the rest--is, to liberate a certain species of property, which I possess, very reluctantly to my own feelings, but which imperious necessity compels,"

&c.

In 1797, he wrote to his nephew, Lawrence Lewis: "I wish, from my soul that the legislature of this state could see the policy of a gradual abolition of slavery. It might prevent much future mischief."