cture more
favorable for Virginia, than for any other state in the Union, to fix
these matters. The jealous and untoward disposition of the Spaniards on
the one hand, and the private views of some individuals, coinciding with
the general policy of the court of Great Britain on the other, to retain
as long as possible the posts of Detroit, Niagara, and Oswego (which,
though done under the letter of the treaty, is certainly an infraction
of the spirit of it, and injurious to the Union), may be improved to the
greatest advantage by this state, if she would open the avenues to the
trade of that country, and embrace the present moment to establish it.
It only wants a beginning. The western inhabitants would do their part
toward its execution. Weak as they are, they would meet us at least
halfway, rather than to be driven into the arms of foreigners, or to
be made dependent upon them; which would eventually either bring on a
separation of them from us, or a war between the United States and one
or the other of those powers, most probably with the Spaniards."

Washington's letter had a powerful effect upon the public mind. Governor
Harrison laid it before the Virginia legislature, and that body received
it with the greatest favor. Thus encouraged in his scheme, Washington
hastened to Richmond to give his personal attention to the matter; and
on the morning after his arrival (November sixteenth) he was waited upon
by a committee of the assembly, with Patrick Henry at their head, who,
in the name of the body whom they represented, testified their reverence
for his character and affection for his person.

The Virginia assembly proceeded to appoint a commission to make the
requisite surveys, and Washington returned to Mount Vernon, accompanied
by Lafayette, whom he had met in Richmond. The marquis remained there a
few days, and then departed for the seaboard, never to visit the United
States again, until he became an old man, and the republic he had
assisted in founding, had grown fifty years older.

Washington's scheme for internal improvements occupied much of his
attention, and he corresponded largely upon the subject. His plan, at
first, contemplated more especially the interests of Virginia and
Maryland, but it expanded in his mind so as to embrace the whole Union.
In a letter written on the fourteenth of December, to Richard Henry Lee,
then recently elected president of Congress, he urged the necessity of
action by that bo