MAY 21st
share on:
“However you may have succeeded in imposing upon, and deceiving others, you shall not practice the like game with me, with impunity.”
“To contract new Debts, is not the way to pay old ones.”
To James Welch
Mount Vernon, 7 April 1799
Sir,
I have received your letters of the 10th. of March from Rockingham County, and although I have no expectation of deriving any payment from your Kentucky Expedition, yet, I will (inconvenient as it is to me) wait a while longer to know the result of it: desiring you to be persuaded, in the meantime, that you have not got a person now, that will be trifled with in your dealings.
It would be uncandid, Mr. Welch, not to inform you, that I have heard too much of your character lately, not to expect tale after tale, and relation after relation, of your numerous disappointments, by way of excuses for the non-compliance of your agreement with me: but this I can assure you will not answer your purposes.
It is not difficult for a person who has no ground on which to expect a thousand cents, to talk with facility and ease of his expectation of receiving ten times as many dollars; the relation of disappointments in which, according to his account, he conceives is quite sufficient to ward off the payment of his own solemn Contracts, and to satisfy his Creditors.
Western Lands. Adobe Firefly
I am not unacquainted, Sir, with your repeated declarations of your having PURCHASED my Lands on the Great Kanawa, and endeavouring by that means, and such like impositions, and misrepresentations, to obtain extensive credit where you were not known. Letters, to enquire into the truth of these things, have been written to me on the Subject. Be cautious therefore how you provoke explanations that must, inevitably, end in your disgrace and entire loss of character. A character is valuable to all men, and not less so to a Speculator.
I will, before I conclude, assure you in the most unequivocal terms of two things.
First, that I am in extreme want of the money which you gave me a solemn promise I should receive the first of January last; and secondly, that however you may have succeeded in imposing upon, and deceiving others, you shall not practice the like game with me, with impunity.
To contract new Debts, is not the way to pay old ones. Nor is it a proof that you have any disposition to do it, when you are proposing to buy lands &ca. &ca. on credit (or partial advances) which can answer no other purpose than that of speculation; or (if you have them) of withholding the means which ought to be applied in the discharge of engagements, and debts, proceeding therefrom, which you are bound by every tie to do.
Consider this letter well; and then write without any deception to Sir, Your Very Hble Servt
G:o Washington
GEORGE WASHINGTON:
THE INTERVIEW POWERED BY A.I.
In the hallowed halls of history, a voice echoes once more as “George Washington: The Interview” unfurls a never-before-seen side of America’s first President. This electrifying book transcends the boundaries of time, employing state-of-the-art technology and primary source material to bring you face-to-face with the man who laid the cornerstone of the nation we know today. Journey through the intimate details of Washington’s life as he reveals the victories and defeats, the triumphs and tragedies of his storied past.
Are you ready to step into the past and meet the man behind the myth?