VI. BUSINESS AND FINANCES
A. Business
1. Doing Business Well
a) To THE SECRETARY OF WAR, Mount Vernon, July 13, 1796.
“Let me, in a friendly way, impress the following maxims upon the Executive Officers. In all important matters, to deliberate maturely, but to execute promptly and vigorously. And not to put things off until the Morrow which can be done, and require to be done, to day. Without an adherence to these rules, business never will be well done, or done in an easy manner; but will always be in arrear, with one thing treading upon the heels of another.”
2. System
a) To JAMES ANDERSON, Mount Vernon, December 21, 1797.
“If a person only sees, or directs from day to day what is to be done, business can never go on methodically or well, for in case of sickness, or the absence of the Director, delays must follow. System to all things is the soul of business. To deliberate maturely, and execute promptly is the way to conduct it to advantage. With me, it has always been a maxim, rather to let my designs appear from my works than by my expressions. To talk long before hand, of things to be done, is unpleasant, if those things can as well be done at one time or another; but I do not mean by this to discourage you from proposing any plans to me which you may conceive to be beneficial, after having weighed them well in your own mind; on the contrary, I request you to do it with the utmost freedom, for the more combined, and distant things are seen, the more likely they are to be turned to advantage.”
3. Fair Business Practices
a) To JAMES ANDERSON, Mount Vernon, September 10, 1799.
“For at the same time that I should expect a reasonable compensation for the use of the property it would be equally my wish that you should find your account in the profit, arising there from. Live, and let live, is, in my opinion, a maxim founded in true policy; and is one I am disposed to pursue.”
4. Commerce
a) To MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE, Mount Vernon,
August 15, 1786 (vol. 28).
“As a Philanthropist by character, and (if I may be allowed the expression) as a Citizen of the great republic of humanity at large; I cannot help turning my attention sometimes to this subject. I would be understood to mean, I cannot avoid reflecting with pleasure on the probable influence that commerce may hereafter have on human manners and society in general. On these occasions I consider how mankind may be connected like one great family in fraternal ties. I indulge a fond, perhaps an enthusiastic idea, that as the world is evidently much less barbarous than it has been, its melioration must still be progressive; that nations are becoming more humanized in their policy, that the subjects of ambition and causes for hostility are daily diminishing, and, in fine, that the period is not very remote, when the benefits of a liberal and free commerce will, pretty generally, succeed to the devastations and horrors of war.”
5. Self Interest
a) To ROBERT CARY & COMPANY, Mount Vernon, May 28, 1762.
“As I have ever laid it down as an established Maxim to believe, that every person is, (most certainly ought to be) the best judges of what relates to their own Interest and concerns I very rarely undertake to propose Schemes to others which may be attended with uncertainty and miscarriage.”
b) To DOLPHIN DREW, Mount Vernon, February 25, 1784.
“From the first I laid it down as a maxim, that no person who possessed Lands adjoining, should hold any of mine as a Lease, and for this obvious reason, that the weight of their labour, and burden of the crops, whilst it was in a condition to bear them, would fall upon my Land, and the improvement upon his own, in spite of all the covenants which could be inserted to prevent it.”
c) To JOHN AUGUSTINE WASHINGTON, Mount Vernon,
March 27, 1786.
“I had established it as a maxim to accept no Tenants that did not mean to reside on the Land; or who had land of their own adjoining to it, not expecting, in either case, much improvement on, or much justice to mine under these circumstances.”
d) To JOHN LAURENS, July 10, 1782.
“It is not the public, but the private interest, which influences the generality of mankind, nor can the Americans any longer boast an exception.”
6. Time
a) To DOCTOR JAMES ANDERSON, Philadelphia,
December 24, 1795.
“The truth, is so little time is at my disposal for private gratifications, that it is but rarely I put pen to paper for purposes of my own.”
b) To JAMES MCHENRY, September 14, 1799.
“What to me is more valuable, my time, that I most regard.”
c) To JAMES ANDERSON, December 10, 1799.
“Time is of more importance than is generally imagined.”
7. Time and Money
a) To JAMES ANDERSON, Mount Vernon, December 21, 1797.
“The man who does not estimate time as money will forever miscalculate; for altho’ the latter is not paid for the former, it is nevertheless a sure item in the cost of any undertaking.”
8. Workmen
a) To JAMES ANDERSON, Federal City, May 22, 1798.
“I had no intention then, nor have I any desire now, to part with you as a manager; but having made this declaration I shall add (what I believe I then did) that I have no wish to retain any person in my Service who is discontented with my conduct . . . Strange, and singular indeed would it be, if the Proprietor of an Estate . . . should have nothing to say in, or controul over, his own expenditures; Should not be at liberty to square his oeconomy thereto; Nor should, without hurting the feelings of a Manager, point to such alterations . . .
“Where have I been deficient? or in what have you just cause to complain? If I cannot remark upon my own business, passing every day under my eyes, without hurting your feelings, I must discontinue my rides, or become a cypher on my own Estate. . . If your feelings have been hurt by my remarks on the bad clover Seed that was purchased, I cannot help that; my views and plan have been much more hurt by it . . . it is not my wish to hurt the feelings of any one, where it can be avoided, or to do injustice in any respect whatsover;”
b) To WILLIAM GORDON, October 14, 1797.
“Workmen in most Countries I believe are necessary plagues—in this [country] where entreaties as well as money must be used to obtain their work and keep them to their duty they baffle all calculation in the accomplishment of any plan or repairs they are engaged in;—and require more attention to and looking after than can be well conceived.”
c) To HENRY KNOX, September 24, 1792.
“My observation on every employment in life is, that, wherever and whenever one person is found adequate to the discharge of a duty by close application thereto, it is worse executed by two persons, and scarcely done at all if three or more are employed therein.”
d) To TENCH TILGHMAN, March 24, 1784.
“If they are good workmen, they may be from Asia, Africa or Europe; they may be Mahometans, Jews or Christians of any sect, or they may be Atheists. I would, however, prefer middle aged to young men, and those who have good countenances, and good characters . . . to others who have neither.”
C. Finances
1. Borrowing
