The Papers of George Washington: Confederation Series Washington Series, v.2: July 1784 May 1785

First in an eight-volume edition of Washington's papers in the Confederation period. The series begins on January 1 1784 with the hero of the American Revolution back at Mount Vernon, and ends in September 1788 on the eve of his return to public life as president under the new Constitution. This is part of a series which begins on 1 January 1784 with the hero of the American Revolution back at Mount Vernon under his own ""fig tree and vine"", and ends in September 1788 on the eve of his return to public life as president under the new Constitution. The Confederation Series is composed almost entirely of personal letters and includes very few official documents. Volume 2 documents Washington's emergence as the extraordinarily active leader of the move to open the upper reaches of the Potomac to navigation and to use it to tie the fast-settling West to the seaboard states. Besides documents relating to Washington's presidency of the Potomac River Company and to the routine managment of his private affairs, there are letters dealing with such things as the famous Spanish jacks, the plight of both Patrick Henry and Nathanael Greene, histories by Jeremy Belknap and William Gordon, Lafayette's visit, William Byrd's letters, and David Humphrey's poetry.