into any
combinations for supplanting those in authority [meaning the upper
servants]. The attempt would be futile, and must recoil upon themselves;
and next, admitting that they were to make the lives of the present
steward and housekeeper so uneasy as to induce them to quit, others
would be got, and such, too, as would be equally if not more rigid in
exacting the duty required of the servants below them; the steward and
housekeeper were indispensably necessary in taking trouble off of Mrs.
Washington's hands and his own, and would be supported in the line of
their duty, whilst any attempt to counteract them would be considered as
the strongest evidence the other servants could give of their
unworthiness. A good and faithful servant, he adds, was never afraid of
having his conduct looked into, but the reverse.

Mount Vernon, June 19, 1791. He acknowledges the receipt of several
letters from Mr. Lear, and approves what he has done. He tells him that
in the fall he shall want blankets for his servants and people[C] at
Mount Vernon; and the summer being the best time for buying them, he
wishes inquiry to be made on this subject, saying he should want about
two hundred. He wants to see Paine's answer to Burke's pamphlet on the
French Revolution, and requests it may be sent to him. He says that
"Paris" has grown to be so lazy and self-willed that John, the coachman,
says he has no sort of government of him, as he did nothing that he was
told to do, and everything he was not. The General adds that his
incapacity as a postilion was such that he had determined to leave him
behind when returning to Philadelphia, which would make one or two boys
necessary in his stable at that place, as assistants, and asks whether
it might not be possible to find emigrant Germans to answer the purpose.
He concludes, "Be assured of the esteem and regard of yours
affectionately, G.W."

Mount Vernon, September 26, 1791. He refers to the house in
Philadelphia; says that he never expressed any dissatisfaction at want
of accommodation in it since he got rid of the workmen; and that that
supposition must _not_ be adduced as a motive for causing a _public
edifice_ to be built for his use or occupancy; that he has no intention
of interfering with the politics of Pennsylvania, or the household
accommodations of his successors in the Presidency; but that, for
himself, personally, he had wholly declined living in any public
building. This subject appears