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THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES,

THE FOLLOWING

LETTERS,

WRITTEN BY

THE ILLUSTRIOUS WASHINGTON,

WHO MUST EVER BE REVERED,

AS

AN HONOUR TO THE COUNTRY WHERE HE WAS BORN,

AND

AN ORNAMENT TO HUMAN NATURE,

ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED,

BY

THEIR SINCERE FRIEND, AND WELL-WISHER,

JOHN SINCLAIR.

PREFACE.

A VARIETY of motives, which it may be proper briefly to state, have induced me to submit the following Letters to the attention of the public.

It could not but be highly gratifying to me, to be possessed of so many interesting communications from such a distinguished character as the President of the United States; and it was natural to suppose, that the public at large, but more especially those individuals who revered his memory, would wish to have in their possession copies of a correspondence which displayed to such advantage the superior talents, the generous views, and the unbounded philanthropy of that celebrated statesman.

The peculiar predilection which General WASHINGTON has so strongly and so frequently expressed, in the subsequent letters, for agricultural improvement, which he preferred to every other pursuit, is another circumstance which I was anxious should be recorded for the benefit both of the present and of future times, from a desire that it may make a due impression upon the minds of those who might otherwise be induced to dedicate themselves entirely, either to the phantoms of military fame, or the tortures of political ambition.

The praises which this distinguished statesman has bestowed on the establishment

of the British Board of Agriculture, ("an Institution," he remarks, "of the utility of which he entertained the most favourable idea from the first intimation of it; and that the more he had seen and reflected on the plan since, the more convinced he was of its importance, in a national point of view, not only to Great Britain, but to all other countries,"*) I was solicitous to record, as one means of protecting that valuable establishment from the risk to which it may be exposed from the ignorance or inattention of future ministers, who, incapable of estimating the merits of such an Institution themselves, or conceiving the advantages that may be derived from it, might heedlessly, either diminish the sphere of its utility, or terminate its existence.

The wishes which the founder of the American Republic has expressed for having a similar establishment in America, I also judged it expedient to publish, in the hope that the recommendation of so great a man will ultimately be adopteď as soon as the necessary arrangements for that purpose can be made by the government of the United States.

It may now be proper to give a brief account of the origin of the following correspondence.

About the year 1790, I began to be engaged in those extensive inquiries relating to the general state of my native country, and the means of promoting its improvement, which were not only interesting to Great Britain, but to every civilized part of the world; and having resolved to send the first papers which were

*See Letter No. III., 10th July, 1795.

printed on those subjects to several distinguished characters in foreign and distant countries, I could not think of neglecting an individual so pre-eminently conspicuous as the President of the United States of America. In answer to the first letter I had the honour of addressing to him, I received the communication No. I., dated the 20th day of October, 1792.

I embraced every opportunity of transmitting, from time to time, the additional papers which were afterwards printed on the subjects of our correspondence, accompanied by letters, of only one of which I have a copy, in which I endeavoured to demonstrate the advantages which might be derived from establishing a Board of Agriculture in America. Of that letter, I beg leave to subjoin the following extract, as it tends to explain more fully General WASHINGTON's answer of the 6th day of March, 1797, stating the circumstances which at that time prevented the immediate adoption of that measure.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM SIR JOHN SINCLAIR TO GENERAL WASHINGTON, DATED WHITEHALL, LONDON, 10TH SEPTEMBER, 1796.

"The people of this country, as well as of America, learn, with infinite regret, that you propose resigning your situation as President of the United States. I shall not enter into the discussion of a question of which I am incompetent to judge; but, if it be so, I hope that you will recommend some Agricultural establishment on a great scale before you quit the reins of government. By that I mean a Board of Agriculture, or some similar institution, at Philadelphia, with Societies of Agriculture in the capital of each state, to correspond with it. Such an establishment would soon enable the farmers of America to acquire agricultural

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