MAY 12th
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ON THIS DAY IN 1790
ILLNESS PROGRESSES TO PNEUMONIA
“As a token of remembrance and a mark of friendship, I receive this legacy with pleasing sensations and a grateful heart.”
Benjamin Franklin’s crab-tree walking stick
National Museum of American History
To Henry Hill
New York, 3 June 1790
Sir,
The severe indisposition from which I am just recovering* will excuse this late acknowledgment of your letter of the 7th. instant, which accompanied the cane left me by the great and invaluable Dr. Franklin.**
As a token of remembrance and a mark of friendship, I receive this legacy with pleasing sensations and a grateful heart, and the words in which it was conveyed were highly flattering, as coming from a man, of whom the world justly entertained an exalted opinion, and whose favorable sentiments could not fail of being grateful to the person upon whom they were bestowed.
To you, Sir, my best acknowledgments are due for the polite manner in which you have executed your trust, and I beg you to accept the thanks of Your &c.
G:o Washington
* “Washington was indisposed with a bad cold on May 9 and on May 10 suffered a severe illness which, from its violence, duration, and after effects seems to have been pneumonia. On May 15 his life was despaired of, according to William Maclay; but by May 24 the President had so far recovered as to ride out in his carriage.” — Fitzpatrick, et al., WGW
** “Hill had written from Philadelphia (May 7): ‘I have the honor as one of the Executors of the late Doctor Franklin to present you by the hands of Major Clarkson a token left by him in the following words: ‘My fine Crabtree walking stick with a gold head curiously wrought in the form of the cap of Liberty I give to my friend and the friend of Mankind General Washington. If it were a sceptre, he has merited it, and would become it.’ Hill’s letter is in the Washington Papers. The cane is now in the United States National Museum [National Museum of American History], Washington, D.C.” — Fitzpatrick, et al., WGW
