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WASHINGTON TO WILLIAM STRICKLAND, FROM MOUNT VERNON, JULY 15, 1797 



This letter was v;ritten in response to the Englishman's criticism 

 of the agricultural methods which were being followed in 

 the United States at the end of the eighteenth century. 



w 



I have been honored with yours of the 30th of May and 5th of 

 '^ September of last year. As the first v/as in part an answer to a 

 letter I took the liberty of writing to you, and the latter arrived 

 in the middle of an important session of Congress . . . .1 postponed, 

 from the pressure of business occasioned thereby, the acknowledgment 

 of all private letters, which did not require immediate answers, until 

 I should be seated under my own vine and fig-tree, v/he re I supposed I 

 should have abundant leisure to discharge all my epistolary obliga- 

 tions. 



o^i ; In this, however, I have hitherto found myself mistaken; for at no 

 'period have I been more closely employed in repairing the ravages of 

 an eight years' absence. Engaging workmen of different sorts, pro- 

 viding and looking after them, together with the necessary attention 

 to my farms, have occupied all my time since I have been at home, 



I was far from entertaining sanguine hopes of success in my attempt 

 to procure tenants from Great Britain; but, being desirous of render- 

 ing the evening of my life as tranquil and free from care as the nature 

 of things would admit, I was willing to make the experiment. 



Your observation, with respect to occupiers and proprietors of land 

 has great weight, and, being congenial with my own ideas on the sub- 

 ject, was one reason, though I did not believe it would be so con- 

 sidered, why I offered my farms to be let. Instances have occurred, 

 and do occur daily, to prove that capitalists from Europe have injured 

 themselves by precipitate purchases of free-hold estates, immediately 

 upon their arrival in this country, while others have lessened their 

 means in exploring States and places in search of locations; whereas, 

 if on advantageous terms they could have been first seated as tenants, 

 they would have had time and opportunities to become holders of land, 

 and for making advantageous purchases. But it is so natural for man 

 to wish to be the absolute lord and master of what he holds in oc- 

 cupancy, that his true interest is often made to yield to a false 

 ambition. Among these, the emigrants from the New England States may 

 be classed, and this will account, in part, for their migration to the 

 westv/ard. Conviction of these things having left little hope of 



