MAY 26th
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“How much more delightful to an undebauched mind is the task of making improvements on the earth, than all the vain glory which can be acquired from ravaging it, by the most uninterrupted career of conquests.”
“I should be very unhappy to have anything done on my behalf (however distant in itself from impropriety) which should give occasion for one officious tongue to use my name with indelicacy. For I wish most devoutly to glide silently and unnoticed through the remainder of life.”
To Arthur Young
Mount Vernon, 4 December 1788
Sir,
I have been favored with the receipt of your letter dated the 1st. day of July; and have to express my thanks for the three additional Volumes of the Annals which have also come safely to hand.
The more I am acquainted with agricultural affairs the better I am pleased with them. Insomuch that I can no where find so great satisfaction, as in those innocent and useful pursuits. In indulging these feelings, I am led to reflect how much more delightful to an undebauched mind is the task of making improvements on the earth, than all the vain glory which can be acquired from ravaging it, by the most uninterrupted career of conquests. The design of this observation is only to shew how much, as a member of human Society, I feel myself obliged by your labours to render respectable and advantageous an employment, which is more congenial to the natural dispositions of mankind than any other.*
. . .
Autobiography of Arthur Young
As to what you suggest at the close of your letter, respecting the publication of extracts from my correspondence in your Annals, I hardly know what to say. I certainly highly approve the judicious execution of your well-conceived project of throwing light on a subject, which may be more conducive than almost any other to the happiness of mankind. On the one hand, it seems scarcely generous or proper that any farmer, who receives benefit from the facts contained in such publications, should withhold his mite of information from the general stock. On the other hand, I am affraid it might be imputed to me as a piece of ostentation, if my name should appear in the work. And surely it would not be discreet for me to run the hazard of incurring this imputation; unless some good might probably result to Society, as some kind of compensation for it. Of this I am not a judge. I can only say for myself, that I have endeavoured in a state of tranquil retirement to keep myself as much from the eye of the world as I possibly could. I have studiously avoided, as much as was in my power, to give any cause for ill-natured or impertinent comments on my conduct: and I should be very unhappy to have anything done on my behalf (however distant in itself from impropriety) which should give occasion for one officious tongue to use my name with indelicacy. For I wish most devoutly to glide silently and unnoticed through the remainder of life. This is my heart felt wish; and these are my undisguised feelings. After having submitted them confidentially to you, I have such a reliance upon your prudence, as to leave it with you to do what you think, upon a full consideration of the matter shall be wisest and best. I am with very great regard and esteem Sir Your Most Obedt and obliged Hble Servt
G:o Washington
* After serving as president of the Constitutional Convention, and later seeing the Constitution ratified on 21 June 1788, Washington had retired from public life. He would be recalled from retirement in 1789 to serve as President of the United States.
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?