not valued too high.

STOCK.

(_w_) These are the sums which are actually funded; and though no more
in the aggregate than 7566 dollars, stand me in at least ten thousand
pounds, Virginia money; being the amount of bonded and other debts due
to me, and discharged during the war, when money had depreciated in that
rate,--[symbol of hand with pointing finger] and was so settled by
public authority.

(_x_) The value annexed to these shares is what they have actually cost
me, and is the price affixed by law; and, although the present selling
price is under par, my advice to the legatees (for whose benefit they
are intended, especially those who can afford to lie out of the money)
is, that each should take and hold one; there being a moral certainty of
a great and increasing profit arising from them in the course of a few
years.

(_y_) It is supposed that the shares in the James River Company must be
productive. But of this I can give no decided opinion, for want of more
accurate information.

(_z_) These are the nominal prices of the shares in the Banks of
Alexandria and Columbia; the selling prices vary according to
circumstances; but, as the stocks usually divide from eight to ten per
cent. per annum, they must be worth the former, at least, so long as the
banks are conceived to be secure, although from circumstances they may
sometimes be below it.

The value of the live stock depends more upon the quality than quantity
of the different species of it, and this again upon the demand, and
judgment or fancy of purchasers.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.
MOUNT VERNON, _July_ 9, 1799.

[135] It appears that the testator omitted the word "nine,"--Sparks.

[136] As General Washington never had any children, he gave the larger
part of his property to his nephews and nieces, and the children of Mrs.
Washington's son by her first marriage. The principal heir was Bushrod
Washington, son of his brother, John Augustine Washington.--SPARKS.

[137] This paragraph answers the question which has sometimes been
asked, with an unfriendly spirit, "Why did not Washington manumit his
slaves during his lifetime?" He was ever anxious to give them freedom,
and to see the system abolished from the republic. In 1783, he wrote to
Lafayette: "The scheme which you propose, as a precedent to encourage
the emancipation of the black people in this country, from the state of
bondage in which they are held, is a striking evidence of the
benevolence of