George Washington to Governor Henry Lee

Since my arrival at this place I have been favored with your letters of the 17th. Ulto. and 7th. instt. For your kind attentions to me I pray you to receive my sincere acknowledgments.

I have always (from the accts. given of it) entertained a high opinion of Colo. Taliaferros threshing machine but knew at the sametime I had no stream that could supply water for one on any of my Farms. This was confirmed when Mr. Payne came hither and exam’d them. The model brought over by the English Farmers may also be a good one, but the utility of it among careless Negros and ignorant Overseers will depend absolutely upon the simplicity of the Constructn; for if there is any thing complex in the machinery it will be no longer in use than a mushroom is in existance. I have seen so much of the beginning and ending of these new inventions, that I have almost resolved to go on in the old way of treading until I get settled again at home, and can attend myself to the management of one. As a proof in point of the almost impossibility of putting the Overseers of this Country out of the track they have been accustomed to walk in, I have one of the most convenient Barns in this, or perhaps any other Country, where 30 hands may with great ease be employed in threshing; half of the Wheat of the Farm was actually stowed in this Barn in the straw by my order for threshing; notwithstanding, when I came home about the Middle of September, I found a treading yard not 30 feet from the Barn door, the Wheat again brought out of the Barn and horses treading it out in an open exposure liable to the vicissitudes of weather. I am now erecting a building for the express purpose of treading. I have sanguine expectations of its utility; and if I am not deceived in them it may afford you some satisfaction when you come into this part of the Country to call and look at it.

I have a grateful sense of your kind offer of Mr. Workman; previous however to the communication I had engaged a Manager from the Eastern shore of Maryland but the impression on my mind for the favor intended me is not lessened on that acct.

I have not, as you will perceive, touched the subject of Politics in this letter. The reasons are, your letter of the 17th. has expressed precisely my ideas of the conduct, and views of those, who are aiming at nothing short of the subversion of the Government of these States, even at the expence of plunging this Country in the horrors of a disastrous War; and because I wish to await a little longer to see what may be the sense of legally constituted bodies at the meetings¹which are about to take place.

The public service requiring it, I shall set off in about ten days for Philadelphia or vicinity. Though unknown to your lady, I beg my respectful compliments may be presented to her. I wish you an agreeable and harmonious Session,

and am with much truth Your Affecte. Hble. Servt.