1199. CHARITY, Rules in bestowing. [continued].
The general relation in
which I, some time since, stood to the citizens
of all our States, drew on me such multitudes
of applications as exceeded all resource.
Nor have they abated since my retirement
to the limited duties of a private
citizen, and the more limited resources of a
private fortune. They have obliged me to
lay down as a law of conduct for myself, to
restrain my contributions for public institutions
to the circle of my own State, and for
private charities to that which is under my
own observation; and these calls I find more
than sufficient for everything I can spare.—
To Charles Christian. Washington ed. vi, 44.
(M.
1812)