University of Virginia Library

K

4244. KAMES, Writings of Lord.—

Your
objection to Lord Kames, that he is too metaphysical,
is just, and it is the chief objection to
which his writings are liable. It is to be observed,
also, that though he has given us what
should be the system of equity, yet it is not the
one actually established, at least not in all its
parts.—
To Peter Carr. Washington ed. iii, 452. Ford ed., vi, 92.
(Pa., 1792)

4245. KENTUCKY, Asks separation.—

We have transmitted a copy of a petition
from the people of Kentucky to Congress
praying to be separated from Virginia. Congress
took no notice of it. We[delegates] sent the copy to the Governor desiring it to
be laid before the Assembly. Our view was
to bring on the question. It is for the interest
of Virginia to cede so far immediately, because
the people beyond that will separate
themselves, because they will be joined by all
our settlements beyond the Alleghany if they
are the first movers. Whereas if we draw
the line, those at Kentucky having their end,
will not interest themselves for the people of
Indiana, Greenbriar, &c., who will of course
be left to our management, and I can with certainty
almost say that Congress would approve
of the meridian of the mouth of the
Kanawha, and will consider it as the ultimate
point to be desired from Virginia. I form
this opinion from conversation with many
members. Should we not be the first
movers, and the Indianians and Kentuckians
take themselves off and claim to the Alleghany,
I am afraid Congress would secretly
wish them well.—
To James Madison. Ford ed., iii, 401.
(A. Feb. 1784)

4246. KENTUCKY, Danger of secession.—

I fear, from an expression in your
letter, that the people of Kentucky think of
separating, not only from Virginia (in which
they are right), but also from the confederacy.
I own I should think this a most calamitious
event, and such a one as every good
citizen should set himself against.—
To Archibald Stuart. Washington ed. i, 518. Ford ed., iv, 188.
(P. Jan. 1786)

4247. KENTUCKY, Independence declared.—

The General Assembly of Virginia,
at their session in 1785, passed an act declaring
that the district, called Kentucky,
shall be a separate and independent State, on
these conditions. 1. That the people of that
district shall consent to it. 2. That Congress
shall consent to it, and shall receive them
into the Federal Union. 3. That they shall

take on themselves a proportionable part of
the public debt of Virginia. 4. That they
shall confirm all titles to lands within their
district, made by the State of Virginia, before
their separation.—
To M. de Meunier. Washington ed. ix, 258. Ford ed., iv, 162.
(P. 1786)

4248. KENTUCKY, Independence declared.—[continued].

Virginia has declared
Kentucky an independent State, provided its
inhabitants consent to it, and Congress will
receive them into a union.—
To William Carmichael. Ford ed., iv, 244.
(P. 1786)

4249. KENTUCKY, Statehood.—

I wish
to see that country in the hands of people
well disposed, who know the value of the
connection between that and the maritime
States, and who wish to cultivate it. I consider
their happiness as bound up together,
and that every measure should be taken which
may draw the bands of union tighter. It will
be an efficacious one to receive them into
Congress, as I perceive they are about to desire.
If to this be added an honest and disinterested
conduct in Congress, as to everything
relating to them, we may hope for a
perfect harmony.—
To John Brown. Washington ed. ii, 395. Ford ed., v. 16.
(P. May. 1788)

4250. KENTUCKY, Statehood.—[continued].

There are now 100,000
inhabitants at Kentucky. They have accepted
the offer of independence on the terms
proposed by Virginia, and they have decided
that their independent government shall begin
on the 1st day of the next year. In the
meantime, they claim admittance into Congress.—
To William Carmichael. Ford ed., v, 23.
(P. June. 1788)

4251. KENTUCKY, Union and.—

Faithful
to the Federal compact, according to the
plain intent and meaning in which it was understood
and acceded to by the several parties,
* * * Kentucky is sincerely anxious
for its preservation.—
Kentucky Resolutions. Washington ed. ix, 468. Ford ed., vii, 300.
(1798)

4252. KENTUCKY, Union and.—[continued].

This Commonwealth continues in the same esteem of their[the
States] friendship and union which it has
manifested from that moment at which a
common danger first suggested a common
union.—
Kentucky Resolutions. Washington ed. ix, 468. Ford ed., vii, 300.
(1798)

4253. KENTUCKY, Vermont and.—

Congress referred the decision as to the independence
of Kentucky to the new government.
Brown ascribes this to the jealousy of
the northern States, who want Vermont to
be received at the same time, in order to preserve
a balance of interests in Congress.
He was just setting out for Kentucky, disgusted,
yet disposed to persuade to an acquiescence,
though doubting they would immediately
separate from the Union. The
principal obstacle to this, he thought, would
be the Indian war.—
To William Short. Washington ed. ii, 480. Ford ed., v, 50.
(P. Sep. 1788)

4254. KENTUCKY, Virginia and.—

I am deeply impressed with the importance of
Virginia and Kentucky pursuing the same
track at the ensuing sessions of their Legislatures.—
To Wilson C. Nicholas. Washington ed. iv, 304. Ford ed., vii, 389.
(M. Aug. 26, 1799)

4255. KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS (1798), Draft of.—

I enclose you a copy of
the draft [271] of the Kentucky resolves. I think
we should distinctly affirm all the important
principles they contain, so as to hold to that
ground in future, and leave the matter in such
a train as that we may not be committed absolutely
to push the matter to extremities, and yet
may be free to push as far as events will render
prudent.—
To James Madison. Washington ed. iv, 258. Ford ed., vii, 288.
(M. Nov. 17, 1798)

4256. KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS (1798), History of.—

At the time when the
Republicans of our country were so much
alarmed at the proceedings of the Federal ascendency
in Congress, in the Executive and
the Judiciary departments, it became a matter
of serious consideration how head could be
made against their enterprises on the Constitution.
The leading Republicans in Congress
found themselves of no use there, browbeaten,
as they were, by a bold and overwhelming majority.
They concluded to retire from that field,
take a stand in the State Legislatures, and endeavor
there to arrest their progress. The
Alien and Sedition laws furnished the particular
occasion. The sympathy between Virginia
and Kentucky was more cordial, and more intimately
confidential, than between any other
two States of Republican policy. Mr. Madison
came into the Virginia Legislature. I was
then in the Vice-Presidency, and could not leave
my station. But your father, Colonel W. C.
Nicholas, and myself happening to be together,
the engaging the cooperation of Kentucky in
an energetic protestation against the constitutionality
of those laws, became a subject of
consultation. Those gentlemen pressed me
strongly to sketch resolutions for that purpose,
your father undertaking to introduce them to
that Legislature, with a solemn assurance, which
I strictly required, that it should not be known
from what quarter they came. I drew and delivered
them to him, and in keeping their origin
secret, he fulfilled his pledge of honor. Some
years after this, Colonel Nicholas asked me if I
would have any objection to its being known
that I had drawn them. I pointedly enjoined
that it should not. Whether he had unguardedly
intimated it before to any one, I know
not; but I afterwards observed in the papers
repeated imputations of them to me; on which,
as has been my practice on all occasions of
imputation, I have observed entire silence.
The question, indeed, has never before been
put to me, nor should I answer it to any other
than yourself; seeing no good end to be proposed
by it, and the desire of tranquillity inducing
with me a wish to be withdrawn from public
notice. [272] —
To—Nicholas. Washington ed. vii, 229.
(M. Dec. 1821)

4257. KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS (1798), Phrasing of.—

The more I have reflected
on the phrase in the paper you showed
me, the more strongly I think it should be
altered. Suppose you were instead of the
invitation to cooperate in the annulment of the
acts, to make it an invitation “to concur with
this commonwealth in declaring, as it does
hereby declare, that the said acts are, and were

ab initio, null, void, and of no force, or effect”,
I should like it better.—
To W. C. Nicholas. Ford ed., vii, 312.
(Nov. 1798)

4258. KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS (1798), Presentation of.—

I entirely approve
of the confidence you have reposed in Mr.
Breckenridge, as he possesses mine entirely.
I had imagined it better these resolutions should
have originated with North Carolina. But perhaps
the late changes in their representation
may indicate some doubt whether they could
have passed. In that case, it is better they
should come from Kentucky. I understand you
intend soon to go as far as Mr. Madison's. You
know of course I have no secrets from him. I
wish him, therefore, to be consulted as to these
resolutions.—
To W. C. Nicholas. Ford ed., vii, 281.
(M. Oct. 5, 1798)

4259. KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS (1799), Outlines of.—

I thought something
essentially necessary to be said, in order to
avoid the inference of acquiescence; that a resolution
or declaration should be passed: 1. Answering
the reasonings of such of the States
as have ventured into the field of reason, and
that of the Committee of Congress, taking some
notice, too, of those States who have either
not answered at all, or answered without reasoning.
2. Making firm protestation against the
precedent and principle, and reserving the right
to make this palpable violation of the Federal
Compact the ground of doing in future whatever
we might now rightfully do should repetitions
of these and other violations of the compact render it expedient. 3. Expressing in
affectionate and conciliatory language our warm
attachment to union with our sister States,
and to the instrument and principles by which
we are united; that we are willing to sacrifice
to this everything but the rights of self-government
in those important points which we have
never yielded, and in which alone we see liberty,
safety and happiness; that not at all
disposed to make every measure of error or of
wrong a cause of scission, we are willing to look
on with indulgence, and to wait with patience
till those passions and delusions shall have
passed over, which the Federal Government
have artfully excited to cover its own abuses
and conceal its designs, fully confident that
the good sense of the American people, and their
attachment to those very rights which we are
now vindicating, will, before it shall be too late,
rally with us round the true principles of our
Federal compact. This was only meant to give
a general idea of the complexion and topics of
such an instrument. Mr. Madison * * * does
not concur in the reservation proposed above;
and from this I recede readily, not only in deference
to his judgment, but because, as we
should never think of separation but for repeated
and enormous violations, so these, when
they occur, will be cause enough of themselves.
To these topics, however, should be
added animadversions on the new pretensions
to a common law of the United States. * * * As to the preparing anything, I must decline it,
to avoid suspicions (which were pretty strong
in some quarters on the late occasion), and because
there remains still (after their late loss)
a mass of talents in Kentucky sufficient for
every purpose. The only object of the present
communication is to procure a concert in the
general plan of action[as it is extremely desirable
that Virginia and Kentucky should pursue
the same track on this occasion [273] ]. Be
sides, how could you better while away the road
from hence to Kentucky, than in meditating
this very subject, and preparing something
yourself, than whom nobody will do it better.—
To Wilson C. Nicholas. Washington ed. iv, 305. Ford ed., vii, 390.
(M. Sep. 5, 1799)

— KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS, Text of.—

See Appendix.

4260. KINGS, Abhorrence of.—

Let us
turn with abhorrence from these sceptered
scelerats, and disregarding our own petty
differences of opinion about men and measures,
let us cling in mass to our country and
to one another, and bid defiance, as we can if
united, to the plundering combinations of the
old world.—
To Dr. George Logan. Washington ed. vii, 20.
(M. 1816)

4261. KINGS, Absolutism and.—

There
is no king, who, with sufficient force, is not
always ready to make himself absolute.—
To George Wythe. Washington ed. ii, 8. Ford ed., iv, 270.
(P. 1786)

4262. KINGS, American.—

It is lawful to
wish to see no emperor or king in our hemisphere.—
To James Monroe. Ford ed., x, 244.
(M. 1822)

4263. KINGS, Bourbon.—

France has now
a family of fools at its head, from whom,
whenever it can shake off its foreign riders,
it will extort a free constitution, or dismount
them, and establish some other on the solid
basis of national right.—
To Benjamin Austin. Washington ed. vi, 554. Ford ed., x, ii.
(M. Feb. 1816)

4264. KINGS, Breeding.—

When I observed
that the King of England was a
cipher, I did not mean to confine the observation
to the mere individual[George III.] now
on that throne. The practice of kings marrying
only in the families of kings, has been
that of Europe for some centuries. Now,
take any race of animals, confine them in idleness
and inaction, whether in a sty, a stable or
a state-room, pamper them with high diet,
gratify all their sexual appetites, immerse
them in sensualities, nourish their passions, let
everything bend before them, and banish
whatever might lead them to think, and in a
few generations they become all body, and no
mind; and this, too, by a law of nature, by
that very law by which we are in the constant
practice of changing the characters and propensities
of the animals we raise for our own
purposes. Such is the regimen in raising
kings, and in this way they have gone on for
centuries.—
To John Langdon. Washington ed. v, 514.
(M. 1810)

— KINGS, Cannibal.—

See 1123.

4265. KINGS, Character of European.—

While in Europe, I often amused myself
with contemplating the characters of the then
reigning monarchs of Europe. Louis XVI.
was a fool, of my own knowledge, and in
despite of the answers made for him at his
trial. The King of Spain was a fool, and
of Naples the same. They passed their lives
in hunting, and despatched two couriers a
week, one thousand miles, to let each other

know what game they had killed the preceding
days. The King of Sardinia was a fool. All
these were Bourbons. The Queen of Portugal,
a Braganza, was an idiot by nature. And
so was the King of Denmark. Their sons,
as regents, exercised the powers of government.
The King of Prussia, successor to the
great Frederick, was a mere hog in body as
well as in mind. Gustavus of Sweden, and
Joseph of Austria, were really crazy, and
George of England, you know, was in a
straight waistcoat. There remained, then,
none but old Catherine, who had been too
lately picked up to have lost her common
sense. In this state Bonaparte found Europe;
and it was this state of its rulers which lost
it with scarce a struggle. These animals had
become without mind and powerless; and so
will every hereditary monarch be after a few
generations. Alexander, the grandson of
Catherine, is as yet an exception. He is able
to hold his own. But he is only of the third generation. His race is not yet worn out.
And so endeth the Book of Kings, from all
of whom the Lord deliver us.—
To John Langdon. Washington ed. v, 514.
(M. 1810)

4266. KINGS, Common sense and.—

No
race of kings has ever presented above one
man of common sense in twenty generations.—
To Benjamin Hawkins. Washington ed. ii, 221. Ford ed., iv, 426.
(P. 1787)

4267. KINGS, Confederacy of.—

I am not
* * * for joining in the confederacy of
kings to war against the principles of liberty,—
To Elbridge Gerry. Washington ed. iv, 268. Ford ed., vii, 328.
(Pa., 1799)

4268. KINGS, Enemies to happiness.—

These descriptions of men[kings, nobles, and
priests] are an abandoned confederacy
against the happiness of the mass of the people.—
To George Wythe. Washington ed. ii, 7. Ford ed., iv, 269.
(P. 1786)

4269. KINGS, Evil passions of.—

The
pride, the dissipations, and the tyranny of
kings, keep this hemisphere constantly embroiled
in squabbles.—
To Mr. Bellini. Washington ed. ii, 440.
(P. 1788)

4270. KINGS, Extirpation of.—

Our
young Republic * * * should besiege the
throne of Heaven with eternal prayers, to extirpate
from creation this class of human
lions, tigers and mammoths called Kings;
from whom, let him perish who does not say,
“Good Lord deliver us”.—
To David Humphreys. Washington ed. ii, 253.
(P. 1787)

4271. KINGS, Lessons from.—

If anybody
thinks that kings, nobles, or priests are good conservators of the public happiness,
send them here[France]. It is the best
school in the universe to cure them of that
folly. They will see with their own eyes that
these descriptions of men are an abandoned
confederacy against the happiness of the mass
of the people.—
To George Wythe. Washington ed. ii, 7. Ford ed., iv, 268.
(P. 1786)

4272. KINGS, Ministers of.—

No race of
kings has ever presented above one man of
common sense in twenty generations. The
best they can do is to leave things to their
ministers; and what are their ministers but a
committee badly chosen? If the king ever
meddles it is to do harm.—
To Benjamin Hawkins. Washington ed. ii, 221. Ford ed., iv, 426.
(P. 1787)

4273. KINGS, Representative Government and.—

Representative government is
now well understood to be a necessary check
on kings, whom they will probably think it
more prudent to chain and tame, than to
exterminate.—
To John Adams. Washington ed. vii, 307. Ford ed., x, 270.
(M. 1823)

4274. KINGS, Republicanism.—

If all
the evils which can arise among us from the
republican form of our government, from this
day to the day of judgment, could be put into
a scale against what this country[France] suffers from its monarchical form in a week,
or England in a month, the latter would predominate.—
To Benjamin Hawkins. Washington ed. ii, 221. Ford ed., iv, 426.
(P. 1787)

4275. KINGS, Scaffolds for.—

Over the
foreign powers I am convinced the French
will triumph completely, and I cannot but
hope that that triumph, and the consequent
disgrace of the invading tyrants, is destined,
in the order of events, to kindle the wrath of
the people of Europe against those who have
dared to embroil them in such wickedness,
and to bring at length kings, nobles, and
priests to the scaffolds which they have been
so long deluging with human blood. I am
still warm whenever I think of those scoundrels,
though I do it as seldom as I can, preferring
infinitely to contemplate the tranquil
growth of my lucerne and potatoes. I have
so completely withdrawn myself from these
spectacles of usurpation and misrule, that I do
not take a single newspaper, nor read one a
month; and I feel myself infinitely the happier
for it.—
To Tench Coxe. Washington ed. iv, 104. Ford ed., vi, 507.
(M. May. 1794)

— KINGS, Self-government and.—

See Self-government.

4276. KINGS, Servants of the People.—

Kings are the servants, not the proprietors of
the people.—
Rights of British America. Washington ed. i, 141. Ford ed., i, 446.
(1774)

4277. KINGS, Stupidity of.—

There is
not a crowned head in Europe, whose talents
or merits would entitle him to be elected a
vestryman by the people of any parish in
America.—
To General Washington. Washington ed. ii, 375. Ford ed., v, 8.
(P. 1788)

4278. KINGS, Vicious.—

I am much indebted
to you for the memoirs of the Margrave
of Bayreuth. This singular morsel of
history has given us a certain view of kings,
queens and princes, disrobed of their formalities.
It is a peep into the state of the Egyptian
God Apis. It would not be easy to find
grosser manners, coarser vices, or more meanness
in the poorest huts of our peasantry. The
princess shows herself the legitimate sister of

Frederick, cynical, selfish and without a heart.—
To Madame de Tesse. Washington ed. vi, 271. Ford ed., ix, 437.
(M. 1813)

4279. KINGS, Vulgarity.—

The memoirs
of Mrs. Clarke and of her darling prince, and
the book, emphatically so called, because it is
the Biblia Sacra Deorum et Diarum subc
œlestium, the Prince Regent, his Princess and
the minor deities of his sphere, form a worthy
sequel to the memoirs of Bayreuth; instead
of the vulgarity of the court of Berlin, giving
us the vulgarity and profusion of that of
London, and the gross stupidity and profligacy
of the latter, in lieu of the genius and misanthropism
of the former. The whole might
be published as a supplement to M. de Buffon,
under the title of the “Natural History of
Kings and Princes”, or as a separate work
and called “Medicine for Monarchists”. The “Intercepted Letters”, a later English
publication of great wit and humor, has put
them to their proper use by holding them up
as butts for the ridicule and contempt of
mankind. Yet by such worthless beings is a
great nation to be governed and even made to
deify their old king because he is only a fool
and a maniac, and to forgive and forget his
having lost to them a great and flourishing
empire, added nine hundred millions sterling
to their debt, for which the fee simple of the
whole island would not sell, if offered farm
by farm at public auction, and increased
their annual taxes from eight to seventy
millions sterling, more than the whole rentroll
of the island. What must be the dreary
prospect from the son when such a father is
deplored as a national loss? But let us drop
these odious beings and pass to those of an
higher order, the plants of the field.—
To Madame de Tesse. Washington ed. vi, 271. Ford ed., ix, 437.
(M. 1813)

4280. KINGS, Wishing for.—

If any of
our countrymen wish for a king, give them
Æsop's fable of the frogs who asked a king;
if this does not cure them, send them to Europe.
They will go back good republicans.—
To David Ramsay. Washington ed. ii, 217.
(P. 1787)

— KING'S MOUNTAIN, Battle of.—

See 1085.

4281. KNOWLEDGE, Diffusion of.—

The most important bill in our whole [Virginia] code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure
foundation can be devised for the preservation
of freedom and happiness.—
To George Wythe. Washington ed. ii, 7. Ford ed., iv, 268.
(P. 1786)

4282. KNOWLEDGE, Honesty and.—

An honest heart being the first blessing, a
knowing head is the second.—
To Peter Carr. Washington ed. i, 397.
(P. 1785)

4283. KNOWLEDGE, Pursuit of.—

A
patient pursuit of facts, and cautious combination
and comparison of them, is the drudgery
to which man is subjected by his Maker, if
he wishes to attain sure knowledge.—
Notes on Virginia. Washington ed. viii, 314. Ford ed., iii, 170.
(1782)

See Education and Science.

4284. KNOX (Henry), Cabinet opinions.—

We[the Cabinet] determined unanimously
that Congress should not be called.
* * * I believe Knox's opinion was never
thought worth offering or asking for.—
The Anas. Washington ed. ix, 143. Ford ed., i, 227.
(1793)

4285. KNOX (Henry), Financial failure.—

General Knox has become bankrupt for
$400,000, and has resigned his military commission.
He took in General Lincoln for $150,
000, which breaks him. Colonel Jackson also
sunk with him.—
To James Madison. Washington ed. iv, 262. Ford ed., vii, 314.
(Pa., Jan. 1799)

4286. KNOX (Henry), Gossip of.—

Knox[at a Cabinet meeting] told some little
stories to aggravate the President, to wit, that
Mr. King had told him, that a lady had told
him, that she had heard a gentleman say that
the President was as great a tyrant as any of
them, and that it would soon be time to chase
him out of the city[Philadelphia].—
The Anas. Ford ed., i, 247.
(1793)

4287. KNOX (Henry), Hamilton and.—

Knox, for once, dared to differ from Hamilton,
and to express, very submissively, an opinion,
that a convention named by the whole body of
the[French] nation, would be competent to do
anything.—
The Anas. Washington ed. ix, 126. Ford ed., i, 209.
(1792)

4288. KNOX (Henry), Hamilton and.—[continued].

Knox joined Hamilton
in everything.—
The Anas. Washington ed. ix, 184. Ford ed., i, 271.
(1793)

4289. KNOX (Henry), Hamilton and.—[further continued].

Knox subscribed at once
to Hamilton's opinion [274] that we ought to declare
the[French] treaty void, acknowledging
at the same time, like a fool that he is, that
he knew nothing about it.—
The Anas. Washington ed. ix, 143. Ford ed., i, 227.
(1793)

4290. KNOX (Henry), Hamilton and.—[further continued] .

Knox, according to custom,
jumped plump into all Hamilton's opinions.—
The Anas. Washington ed. ix, 169. Ford ed., i, 259.
(1793)

4291. KNOX (Henry), Indiscreet.—

Knox[at a Cabinet meeting] said we[the Administration] should have had fine work if
Congress had been sitting these last two months.
The fool thus let out the secret. Hamilton endeavored
to patch up the indiscretion of this
blabber by saying “he did not know; he rather
thought they would have strengthened the Executive
arm”.—
The Anas. Washington ed. ix, 165. Ford ed., i, 255.
(Aug. 1793)

4292. KNOX (Henry), Naval opinions.

—I think General Washington approved of
building vessels of war to the extent of a force
sufficient to keep the Barbary States in order.
General Knox, I know, did. [275] —
To John Adams. Washington ed. vii, 264. Ford ed., x, 240.
(M. 1822)

4293. KNOX (Henry), View of Federal Government.—

In the course of our[the Cabinet] conversation[with respect to the manner
and place of swearing in the President], Knox,
stickling for parade, got into great warmth, and

swore that our Government must either be
entirely new modeled, or it would be knocked
to pieces in less than ten years; and that as it
is at present, he would not give a copper for it;
that it is the President's character, and not
the written Constitution, which keeps it together.—
The Anas. Washington ed. ix, 139. Ford ed., i, 222.
(Feb. 1793)

4294. KOSCIUSKO (General), Affection for.—

For yourself, personally, I May
express with safety as well as truth, my great
esteem, and the interest I feel for your welfare.
From the same principles of caution, I do not
write to my friend Kosciusko. I know he is
always doing what he thinks is right, and he
knows my prayers for his success in whatever
he does. Assure him of my constant affection
* * *.—
To Julian V. Niemcewicz. Washington ed. v, 72. [276]
(April. 1807)

4295. KOSCIUSKO (General), Disinterested patriot.—

May heaven have in store for
your country a restoration of the blessings of
freedom and order, and you be destined as the
instrument it will use for that purpose. But
if this be forbidden by fate, I hope we shall be
able to preserve here an asylum where your love
of liberty and disinterested patriotism will be
forever protected and honored, and where you
will find, in the hearts of the American people,
a good portion of that esteem and affection
which glow in the bosom of the friend who
writes this * * *.—
To General Kosciusko. Washington ed. iv, 295.
(Pa., Feb. 1799)

4296. KOSCIUSKO (General), Emancipation for slaves.—

The brave auxiliary of my country in its struggle for liberty, and from
the year 1797, when our particular acquaintance
began, my most intimate and much beloved
friend. On his last departure from the United
States in 1798, he left in my hands an instrument
appropriating after his death all the property
he had in our public funds, the price of his
military services here, to the education and
emancipation of as many of the children of
bondage in this country as it should be adequate
to.—
To M. Julien. Washington ed. vii, 107.
(M. 1818)

4297. KOSCIUSKO (General), Emancipation for slaves.—[continued].

You have seen the death of General Kosciusko announced in the papers.
He had in the funds of the United States a
very considerable sum of money on the interest
of which he depended for subsistence. On
his leaving the United States, in 1798, he placed
it under my direction by a power of attorney
which I executed entirely through Mr. Barnes,
who regularly remitted his interest. But he
left also in my hands an autograph will, disposing
of his funds in a particular course of
charity, and making me his executor.—
To William Wirt. Washington ed. vii, 98. Ford ed., x, 96.
(M. 1818)

4298. KOSCIUSKO (General), Hopes for Poland.—

General Kosciusko has been disappointed
by the sudden peace between France.
and Austria. A ray of hope seemed to gleam
on his mind for a moment, that the extension
of the revolutionary spirit through Italy and
Germany might so have occupied the remnants
of monarchy there, as that his country might
have risen again.—
To Horatio Gates. Washington ed. iv, 213. Ford ed., vii, 205.
(Pa., 1798)

4299. KOSCIUSKO (General), Son of liberty.—

He is as pure a son of liberty as I
have ever known, and of that liberty which is to
go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone.—
To Horatio Gates. Washington ed. iv, 212. Ford ed., vii, 304.
(Pa., 1798)

4300. KOSCIUSKO (General), Tribute to.—

Your principles and dispositions were
made to be honored, revered and loved. True
to a single object, the freedom and happiness
of man, they have not veered about with the
changelings and apostates of our acquaintance.—
To General Kosciusko. Washington ed. iv, 249.
(1798)