Gail Hamilton.]

* * * * *

LATER MISCELLANEOUS WRITERS.

=_George Washington[61], 1732-1799._=

From a Letter to Sir John Sinclair.

=_249._= NATURAL ADVANTAGES OF VIRGINIA.

The United States, as you well know, are very extensive, more than
fifteen hundred miles between the northeastern and southwestern
extremities; all parts of which, from the seaboard to the Appalachian
Mountains, which divide the eastern from the western waters, are
entirely settled; though not as compactly as they are susceptible of;
and settlements are progressing rapidly beyond them.

Within so great a space, you are not to be told, that there is a great
variety of climates, and you will readily suppose, too, that there
are all sorts of land, differently improved, and of various prices,
according to the quality of the soil, its contiguity to, or remoteness
from, navigation, the nature of the improvements, and other local
circumstances....

Notwithstanding these abstracts, and although I may incur the charge of
partiality in hazarding such an opinion at this time, I do not hesitate
to pronounce, that the lands on the waters of the Potomac will in a few
years be in greater demand and in higher estimation, than in any other
part of the United States. But, as I ought not to advance this doctrine
without assigning reasons for it, I will request you to examine a
general map of the United States; and the following facts will strike
you at first view; that they lie in the most temperate latitude of
the United States, that the main river runs in a direct course to the
expanded parts of the western country, and approximates nearer to the
principal branches of the Ohio, than any other eastern water, and of
course must become a great, if not (under all circumstances), the best
highway into that region; that the upper seaport of the Potomac is
considerably nearer to a large portion of Pennsylvania, than that
portion is to Philadelphia, besides accommodating the settlers thereof
with inland navigation for more than two hundred miles; that the amazing
extent of tide navigation, afforded by the bay and rivers of the
Chesapeake, has scarcely a parallel.

When to these it is added, that a site at the junction of the inland and
tide navigations of that river is chosen for the permanent seat of the
general government, and is in rapid preparation for its reception;
that the inland navigation is nearly completed, to the