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This article originally appeared in Mount Vernon magazine, published three times a year by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association.
What did Elizabeth Powel say to George Washington to convince the reluctant president to run for a second term?
On November 4, 1792, Elizabeth Powel sat down at her desk in her elegant Georgian townhouse in Philadelphia and drafted a letter that she knew could change the future of the fragile United States government.
Just three days earlier, her good friend President George Washington had confided in her that he was thinking of resigning. Powel was worried. Washington had voiced his hesitations to her before, but now the month-long election process was about to begin.
Since Washington was running unopposed, Powel believed that his resignation would be injurious to the order of society. In response to their latest conversation, she decided the best way to convey the sheer “impropriety … or the Impracticability of carrying his Intentions into Effect” was to write a letter. Powel filled it with strongly worded “sentiments that would be inconsistent to their friendship to withhold.”
It is the only surviving document written by a woman, and non-Cabinet member, on the subject of his resignation. It is also the one dated closest to the actual election.
Elizabeth Willing Powel was a force in late 18th-century Philadelphia. She was a political power player, in a time when women were not supposed to be involved with politics. Although she could not run for office, she used her home as her public stage, situating herself at the center of a robust network of powerful individuals.
As her 1830 obituary would note, Powel had a “mind cast in an unusual mold of strength and proportion,” which drew people to her home for conversation and entertainment. She and her husband Samuel Powel, an intellectual and wealthy politician, developed a social network of elites by hosting events and salons at their home in the Society Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia. Powel directed these salons, participating in informal discussions that influenced decisions about the founding of the United States government.
Samantha Snyder is the reference librarian at the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon, where she is responsible for developing the library's general collections and electronic resources, as well as managing all reference inquiries. She is currently at work on a biography of the life of Elizabeth Willing Powel.
The Washington Library’s Samantha Snyder and Kayla Anthony, Executive Director of The Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks discuss the intimate friendship between the Powels and the Washingtons.