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. 



