It wasn’t easy to pick a patriotic document for the July Fourth weekend. I decided not to do the Declaration of Independence because, apparently, 26 percent of Americans don’t know who we actually declared independence from. I thought about the Constitution, but was afraid my post would end up as just another passionate defense of whatever I imagined the document said. I looked at docs on the Tea Act, the Stamp Act, the Molasses Act, the Wool Act, the Iron Act, the Quartering Act, and even the Hat Act –but none struck my fancy.
Finally I found it. A letter from our fifteenth President George Washington (no that was not a typo) to Doctor Baker in Philadelphia. See if you can decipher Washington’s script by yourself before reading the transcription. I think his handwriting is actually very neat.
Below’s the transcription kindly provided by the Clements Library at the University of Michigan, which houses the document.
