APPENDIX I. 



LETTERS TO THE SECOND GOVERNOR TRUMBULL FROM 

 GENERAL WASHINGTON AND MARTHA WASHINGTON. 



GENERAL WASHINGTON TO GOVERNOR TRUMBULL.* 



MOUNT VERNON, December 4, 1788. 



MY DEAR SIR, It is some time since I had the pleasure to 

 receive your favor of the 28th of October, but as I had nothing 

 particular to send in return, I postponed writing until the present 

 time, to see whether anything new would turn up. Nothing of 

 importance has occurred ; but in the mean time, I was extremely 

 happy to find that your State was going on so well as to Federal 

 affairs ; and you will permit me to say, that I have been not a little 

 pleased with observing that you have stood so high in the nomina 

 tion for representatives to Congress. 



In general, the appointments to the Senate seem to have been 

 very happy. Much will depend upon having disinterested and 

 respectable characters in both Houses ; for if the new Congress 

 should be composed of characters in whom the citizens will natu 

 rally place confidence, it will be a most fortunate circumstance for 

 conciliating their good-will to the government, and then if the 

 government can be carried on without touching the purses of the 

 people too deeply, I think it will not be in the power of the adver 

 saries of it to throw everything into confusion, by effecting pre 

 mature amendments. A few months will, here even, show what 

 we are to expect. 



I believe you know me sufficiently well, my dear Trumbull, to 

 conceive that I am very much perplexed and distressed in my own 

 mind, respecting the subject to which you allude. If I should 

 (unluckily for me) be reduced to the necessity of giving an an 

 swer to the question, which you suppose will certainly be put to 



* This letter was written a few months before the new government went 

 into operation. Washington was inaugurated, April 30, 1789. F. 



