Lear to get the best information he can as to those who it is thought
would fill them "with the greatest ability and integrity." Several
meritorious persons, he adds, have already been brought to his view.
He is glad to hear that the affairs of his household in Philadelphia go
on so well, and tells Mr. Lear it might not be improper for him to hint
how foolish it would be in the servants left there to enter into any
combinations for supplanting those in authority [meaning the upper
servants]. The attempt would be futile, and must recoil upon themselves;
and next, admitting that they were to make the lives of the present
steward and housekeeper so uneasy as to induce them to quit, others
would be got, and such, too, as would be equally if not more rigid in
exacting the duty required of the servants below them; the steward and
housekeeper were indispensably necessary in taking trouble off of Mrs.
Washington's hands and his own, and would be supported in the line of
their duty, whilst any attempt to counteract them would be considered as
the strongest evidence the other servants could give of their
unworthiness. A good and faithful servant, he adds, was never afraid of
having his conduct looked into, but the reverse.
Mount Vernon, June 19, 1791. He acknowledges the receipt of several
letters from Mr. Lear, and approves what he has done. He tells him that
in the fall he shall want blankets for his servants and people[C] at
Mount Vernon; and the summer being the best time for buying them, he
wishes inquiry to be made on this subject, saying he should want about
two hundred.
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