George Washington letter on God and the Constitution surfaces

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https://www.foxnews.com/science/george-washington-letter-on-god-and-the-constitution-surfaces

By James Rogers | Fox News

A letter on God and the Constitution written by George Washington is up for sale after spending decades in a private collection.

The letter to Richard Peters, speaker of the Pennsylvania Constitution, is signed Sept. 7, 1788, and praises God for the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

Written a week after Washington told Alexander Hamilton that he would likely accept calls to assume the presidency, the letter came at a time when the Constitution was under attack. Some states wanted to hold a second Convention that may have undermined the Constitution.

“It would seem from the public Gazettes that the Minority in your State are preparing for another attack of the – now – adopted Government; how formidable it may be; I know not,” Washington wrote. “But that Providence which has hitherto smiled on the honest endeavors of the well meaning part of the People of this Country will not, I trust, withdraw its support from them at this crisis.”


The letter praises God for the ratification of the U.S. Constitution (The Raab Collection)

The letter, which is priced at $140,000, is up for sale at Ardmore, Pa.-based historical document dealer The Raab Collection.

“Washington, who was the General in Chief of the Continental Army during the war and President of the Constitutional Convention makes a remarkable statement in this powerful letter: his victory in battle and his stewardship over the Convention that led to our Constitution came with the guiding influence of a higher power,” said Nathan Raab, President of the Raab Collection, in a statement.


The letter was written to Richard Peters, speaker of the Pennsylvania Constitution. (The Raab Collection)

Washington artifacts have attracted plenty of attention in recent memory. A lock of the founding father’s hair, for example, was recently sold at auction for $35,000.

Dubbed “the first Oval Office,” Washington’s Revolutionary War tent is a key exhibit at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. Used as a mobile field headquarters, the canvas tent was used during many of the Revolutionary War’s key moments, such as the Siege of Yorktown, the war’s last major battle.

 

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Thats a cool pice and fetched some big bucks

 

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Is there a typed version that is readable?

 

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https://www.raabcollection.com/presidential-autographs/washington-god-constitution


“Occasional absences from home – and occurrences – unimportant to any except myself – added to the want of matter wherewith to trouble you – are the reasons for my not having acknowledged the receipt of your favor of the 27th of June at an earlier period. I was sorry to hear from the above letter that the crops of wheat in the lower parts of your state were indifferent. The cause assigned for it, aided by the uncommonly wet spring, produced the same effect with us. Is it to the difference of climate – our continental situation – that added changes in the temperature of the air – or to the different modes of cultivating the land, that the wheat in this country, more than in England, is so apt to be injured by the winter? Has no remedy been suggested yet to the Agricultural Society of Philadelphia for preventing the evils which result from the heaving of the ground, by which the roots of the wheat are exposed to, and perish after frost? Against this, and the Hessian-fly [a significant pest of cereal crops], if it has advanced so near you, it is time, indeed to arm yourselves. For the latter, it is said, spreads desolation where ever he goes. But it is not the Yellow bearded wheat an antidote against the venom of these destructive insects? Colonel Morgan and others have informed us that it is. That fact, ought, in my opinion, to be ascertained by repeated experiments; because, if true, the remedy is at hand – is easy – and can be applied with little additional expense; and, perhaps, no diminution in the crops.

“The Buck Wheat which I sowed in the Spring (or in the early part of Summer) for manure, was, I apprehend, put in too late, and stood too long before it was plowed in; for I have been amazingly plagued with it. Perhaps the extreme wetness of the season may have contributed as much, or more than either, to my difficulties. Buck Wheat, in many places yielded to a super advance of weeds (distinguished with us by the name of Carrot and Hog Weeds) and in low places to a coarse grass which subdued everything else. None of these, more than the Buck Wheat could I plow in till after Harvest; before which, all of them has passed the Meridian of their bloom, and that succulent state which must have fitted them both for speedy putrefaction and fermentation. They were not buried so well at the first plowing as they ought and now, that I am crossing the former plowing I find it next to impossible to make tolerable work; or to go ten steps together before the plow is choked. How this might have been in a season not more that usually wet, I will not undertake to decide; but the inference I am inclined to draw from the whole, is, that the Buck Wheat should be sown in April – plowed in before it begins to seed; in June the ground when this takes place being again sown. The expense of which, in my opinion, will be amply compensated by the succulency of the plant – seasonable plowings in – and superior preparation. The plants having time to rot, and ameliorate the soil.

“The harrows which you were so obliging as to provide for me came safe; but my fields being in a manner always under water, I could make no use of them. I am not less pleased with them, however, on that account, for I think them well calculated for the cultivation of corn in my mode, with potatoes and carrots intermixed. Of the advantages of which husbandry I am more and more convinced as I advance in my experiments, having tried this mixture with success in very dry – very wet- and in ordinary seasons. The greatest difficulty lies in judiciously working the corn, as the plows can never cross their last furrow, and the hoe harrow after a good plowing before the ground gets foul or hard – will I conceive effectively do this.

“I do not know what cause to attribute it, but my plants of scarcity have not answered (fully) my expectations – probably from improper management; for the leaves never having never grown to the size I have been taught to expect, have not, I presume, been often enough pulled. I shall thank you, however, for a little seed for next year. – And beg leave to remind you of the potato cleaner. The sooner it comes to me now the better. My cabbages between the corn rows have failed entirely. They will not do in this mode of cultivation – and for that reason I am disposed to discard them altogether. Potatoes and carrots will, I am certain, succeed in it, and are a very good substitute for this vegetable. Peas also I am afraid will not be a beneficial one in my rotation system. One of two things I have had demonstrative proof of this season, namely that peas exhaust, as Irish potatoes enrich the soil considerably. I mean that when the first are sown broad – and carried off the ground. A field which was in these articles last year was sown with oats & clover this year. The difference in quality of them, though there was no perceivable in the quality of the soil previous to the preceding crops, was so apparent as to be discovered almost as far as the field could be seen. – Those on the potatoes ground being so much the most luxuriant.

“It would seem from the public Gazettes that the Minority in your State are preparing for another attack of the – now – adopted Government; how formidable it may be; I know not. But that Providence which has hitherto smiled on the honest endeavors of the well meaning part of the People of this Country will not, I trust, withdraw its support from them at this crisis.

“With best respects to Mrs. Peters & yourself, in which Mrs. Washington joins me, I am, dear Sir, your most overt. Humble servant. G. Washington.”