August 3rd
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“Your future character and reputation will depend very much, if not entirely, upon the habits and manners, which you contract in the present period of your life; they will make an impression upon you which can never be effaced.”
To George Steptoe Washington*
Mount Vernon, 5 May 1788
Dear George,
I yesterday received a letter from Mr. Hanson, informing me that you slept from home three nights successively, and one contrary to his express prohibition. Complaints of this nature are extremely painful to me, as it discovers a degree of impropriety in your conduct, which, at your time of life your good sense and discretion ought to point out to you and lead you to avoid. Although there is nothing criminal in your having slept with a companion of good manners and reputation as you say you have, yet your absenting yourself from your own lodgings under that pretence may be productive of irregularities and disagreeable consequences; and I now insist upon it, in the most pointed terms, that you do not repeat it without the consent and approbation of Mr. Hanson.
One strong motive for my placing you in your present lodgings was that you might, in your conduct out of school, be guided by Mr. Hanson’s advice and directions, as I confide very much in his discretion and think that he would require nothing of you but what will conduce to your advantage; and at the age to which you have now arrived you must be capable of distinguishing between a proper and improper line of conduct, and be sensible of the advantages or disadvantages which will result to you through life from the one or the other.
George Washington, 1787
PAFA
Your future character and reputation will depend very much, if not entirely, upon the habits and manners, which you contract in the present period of your life; they will make an impression upon you which can never be effaced. You should therefore be extremely cautious how you put yourself into the way of imbibing those customs which may tend to corrupt your manners or vitiate your heart. I do not write to you in this style from knowing or suspecting that you are addicted to any vice, but only to guard you against pursuing a line of conduct which may imperceptibly lead on to vicious courses. Mr. Hanson has done you and Lawrence** justice in saying, that your behavior since you have been last with him has been unexceptionable except in this instance and one more which he has not mentioned, and I hope this is the last complaint I shall ever hear while you remain in your present situation at least, as it will prevent me from using means to regulate your behaviour, which will be disagreeable to us both. I am your sincere friend and affectionate uncle.
G:o Washington
* George Steptoe Washington was nearly 17 years old (Samuel Washington’s son, and nephew of George Washington)
** Lawrence Augustine Washington was 14 years old (Samuel Washington’s son, and nephew of George Washington)
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