Synopses & Reviews
This is the first volume of an eight-volume edition ofWashington's papers in the Confederation period. Unlike the series devoted toWashington's Revolutionary War and presidential papers, theConfederation Series is composed almost entirelyof personal letters and includes very few officialdocumemts.
Documents printed in volume 1 reflectWashington's main concerns during the first months of peace. Many letters relatedirectly to his resumption of the management not only of his house and farms atMount Vernon, as well as of his tenanted land in Frederick and Berkeley counties inPennsylvania, but also of his vast holdings on the banks of the Great Kanawha andOhio. Other letters deal with such things as the settlement of his militaryaccounts, his activities as both president and determined reformer of the Society ofthe Cincinnati, and his preliminary notions about making the Potomac the connectinglink between the East and the transmontane West.