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This article originally appeared in Mount Vernon magazine, published three times a year by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association.
Newly elected president George Washington, aware that he was the singular unifying figure in America, set out to visit the new nation.
By Warren L. Bingham
As the calendar turned to spring and the frozen roads of southeastern Pennsylvania thawed, President George Washington departed his Philadelphia residence at 190 High Street on March 21, 1791. But the president wasn’t just leaving on errands or to make a local call—he wouldn’t return home until July 6. President Washington was departing on his Southern Tour, a formal visit to Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia.
The journey was not a spur-of-the-moment decision, but, rather the last in a series of trips meant to satisfy a desire Washington stated in his letter to Vice President John Adams in May of 1789, shortly after the duo assumed office. In musing about the role of the president, Washington wondered,
Whether, during the recess of Congress, it would not be advantageous to the interests of the Union for the President to make the tour of the United States, in order to become better acquainted with their principal characters and internal circumstances, as well as to be more accessible to numbers of well-informed persons, who might give him useful informations and advices on political subjects.
Washington was shrewd; his tours were an excellent political device. He was well aware of his popularity and influence with Americans, and he knew his presence in the states would benefit national unification. No one could better promote the federal government and the newly ratified Constitution than the hero of the American Revolution.
Remarkably, by the fall of 1790, after only 17 months in office, Washington had made ceremonial visits to nine of the 13 states. Only the South, including his native Virginia, remained on his itinerary. As 1790 closed, southern leaders anxiously awaited word if the first president would call on them in the year ahead. Edward Rutledge of Charleston, South Carolina, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a veteran of the American Revolution, wrote the president in November, “I have lately received letters from some of my friends in Congress, which give me reason to hope that the time is not far distant when we will have the happiness of seeing you in this state.”
Indeed, in January 1791, Washington committed to going south that spring—if Congress adjourned by early March. The prudent and practical president wanted to start his trip by mid-March in order to visit Georgia and low country South Carolina ahead of the “warm and sickly” months.
Washington liked details. He was a planner who liked to know exactly where he was going. Hence, he worked closely with his secretaries in making the travel arrangements for the Southern Tour and consulted with southern friends who knew the ways of travel. Gentlemen, those with business in various places—such as judges, elected officials, and clergy—made most of the round trips and repetitious travel during this era. Settlers, on the other hand, were trying to reach a destination and remain there. For mutual benefit, gentlemen shared information on distances, where to cross bodies of water, and the availability and the quality of inns and taverns.