Thirty-three years after the first volume, the 21st and final volume of the Presidential Series of The Papers of George Washington has been published by the University of Virginia Press. One of six chronological series that serve to organize letters and other documents written and received by Washington, the Presidential Series consists of 21 volumes and more than 8,000 documents.
Volume 21 chronicles the final months of Washington’s presidency from September 22, 1796, through March 3, 1797. As Washington’s term drew to a close, citizens across the nation addressed heartfelt letters to the president in which they expressed regret at the departure of a great leader and praised Washington’s voluntary retirement from office, a spectacle rarely seen in the annals of history. Washington’s responses to a number of these letters acknowledged his devotion to the nation’s “freedom and prosperity,” while warning that the survival of those “blessings” required the preservation of “virtue, fortitude and union” among its citizens.
One of the most significant documents in the volume is Washington’s annual message to Congress, which he delivered on December 7, 1796. Keenly aware that the message would provide one last opportunity to mold the nation’s domestic and foreign policy, Washington dedicated most of the second half of 1796 preparing for the speech. He advocated for the establishment of a naval force, a national university, and a military academy, and for the creation of agricultural boards. The scholarly annotation accompanying the document provides eyewitness accounts of Washington’s delivery of the speech. For instance, Henrietta Marchant Liston, the wife of British minister Robert Liston, described the president’s “natural unaffected dignity,” while opining that Washington “Writes better than He reads.”
Washington’s final months in the highest office of the land illustrate his strong leadership, as he strove to maintain peace with foreign powers, cultivate improved relations with Native tribes, and promote investment in the Federal City. Just weeks before 1796 drew to a close, Washington congratulated Congress on the success of the republican experiment and expressed the hope that the “Government ... instituted, for the protection of their [people’s] liberties, may be perpetual.”
The 21 volumes that make up the Presidential Series contain a wide range of public and private letters and addresses that include Washington’s correspondence with Cabinet secretaries, agriculturists, foreign ministers, family members, and farm managers. The countless letters and accompanying scholarly annotation illuminate important and defining events of Washington’s presidency: his efforts to establish a precedent concerning the integrity and dignity of the office of president; his leadership during the controversies surrounding the 1794 Jay Treaty and the Whiskey Rebellion; the Neutrality Proclamation of 1793, which guided foreign policy; and Washington’s numerous dealings with the commissioners for the District of Columbia relating to the development of the Federal City and the construction of public buildings such as the United States Capitol.
The Papers of George Washington project, begun in 1968, has been made possible through the generosity of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, National Historical Publications and Records Commission, National Endowment for the Humanities, Packard Humanities Institute, and other funders.
Explore the project at washingtonpapers.org