‘George Washington Slept Here’: The First President’s Historic Tour through Connecticut

On April 30, 1789, at Federal Hall in New York City, George Washington — the hero of the American Revolution — was sworn in as the United States’ first president after being unanimously elected under the new U.S. Constitution. Although the office’s responsibilities filled him with “great anxiety,” the former general nevertheless sacrificed a peaceful life tending to his Virginian estate, Mount Vernon, because the “voice of my Country called me.” 

Washington was concerned about the precedents he would set for future generations as the “first days in office were dominated by seemingly trivial symbolic issues that spoke to the larger questions about the character of the new government,” according to Ron Chernow’s Washington: A Life. One of the more exhausting undertakings was creating the Executive Branch’s structure, especially the first cabinet members and other federal appointments.  

More troublesome, however, was that less than two months into his presidency, a “very large and painful tumor” appeared on Washington’s thigh, preventing him from “walking or sitting.” The tumor was removed but he took six weeks to heal.  

According to Chernow, toward the year’s end, the restless Washington wanted to “monitor public opinion” and see “whether citizens embraced their new experiment in republican government” by visiting every state in the union. The president also wished to “educate himself about the ‘principal character and internal circumstances’ of each section of the country and meet ‘well-informed persons, who might give him useful informations [sic] and advises on political subjects.’”   

In short, the concept was a “fact-finding and promotional tour,” as described by Mount Vernon.  

He settled on touring the New England states first — except for Rhode Island (since it had yet to ratify the Constitution), Vermont or Maine (since the latter two were not states at the time). 

From Oct. 15 to Nov. 13, 1789, Washington visited sixty towns across New England, starting and ending in Connecticut. This is the story of his time in the Constitution State during the historic tour. 

‘The Machinery of Fame’ 

Washington was not fond of the limelight, especially at 57 years old. He had “no flair for impromptu public speaking or small talk,” and he worried over his dentures “popping out unexpectedly,” Chernow notes. However, the first president understood the need to be seen firsthand by the citizenry.  

Always conscious of appearances, Washington avoided pomp, instead favoring republican modesty, especially when compared to modern-day presidential motorcades. His only company included personal secretaries Major William Jackson and Tobias Lear, and six slaves. Along the country roads, he rode in an open carriage, accompanied by a baggage wagon and his white horse, which he would ride once entering a new town “with magnificent solemnity,” Chernow describes. Meanwhile, instead of lodging with private citizens, Washington primarily stayed at local inns and taverns to prevent “inflaming local political rivalries,” according to Connecticut History. 

On Oct. 15, he was escorted out of the then-nation’s capital, New York City, by cabinet members John Jay, Alexander Hamilton and Henry Knox. The following day, the president began his New England Tour through Connecticut. Throughout the journey, Washington kept extensive records of his whereabouts and observations in his diaries, particularly on the landscape (after all, he was a surveyor in his youth).  

The first day, he breakfasted at a “tolerable good house” in Stamford and made his way through Norwalk and into Fairfield. Apart from a “very rough Road” at one point, Washington remarked on the “superb Landscape” and Connecticut farmers who were “busily employed in gathering, grinding, and expressing the Juice of their Apples; the Crop of which they say is rather above Mediocrity.” And even though the Revolutionary War ended hostilities on Sept. 3, 1783, the “Destructive evidences of British cruelty” were still “visible both in Norwalk & Fairfield,” adding “there are the Chimneys of many burnt houses standing in them yet.”   

Washington stayed the night in Fairfield, allegedly at the Sun Tavern. Just after sunrise on Oct. 17, the presidential tour departed, all the while admiring the “decent looking Churches” in East Fairfield and breakfasting in the “pretty village” of Stratford. Upon his arrival to the latter, he was received by a military parade and U.S. Senator William Samuel Johnson — who was one of Connecticut’s delegates to the Constitutional Convention. He was shown the town’s ferry and the manufacturing of duck (a closely woven fabric made of cotton) before heading to Milford. Unlike previous towns, Milford had only one church, but had grist and sawmills near the river that when “Rays of the Sun [struck] upon it as we passed, [they] had a pretty effect upon the foaming Water as it fell.” 

En route to New Haven, then a state capital (from 1701-1874), Washington’s entourage “took the lower road” to circumvent an assembly waiting to escort him into the city, as he “clung to the hope that he might avoid fanfare and enter cities unobtrusively,” according to Chernow’s biography. However, he could not bypass separately addressing New Haven’s Congregational ministers and state dignitaries, including Roger Sherman — who orchestrated the “Connecticut Compromise” that was instrumental in the Constitution’s ratification. To the latter, Washington thanked state leaders for their congratulations on his election and praised Connecticut’s industries, writing (as recorded by the Oct. 26, 1789, Connecticut Courant): 

“If the prosperity of our common country has in any degrees been promoted by my military exertions, the toils which attended them, have been amply rewarded by the approving voice of my fellow citizens. I was but the humble agent of favoring Heaven, whole benign interference was so often manifested in our behalf, and to whom the praise of victory alone is due. In launching again on the ocean of events, I have obeyed a summons to which I can never be insensible. When my country demands the sacrifice, personal care will always be a secondary consideration. …May industry like theirs, ever receive its reward, and may the smile of Heaven, crown all endeavors which are prompted by virtue, among which it is justice to estimate your assurance of supporting our equal government.” 

He had time to walk through New Haven, noting how 4,000 “Souls” lived in the city; the 120 students at Yale; how the harbor is “not good for large Vessels”; and that the linen manufacturer “does not appear to be of so much importance as I had been led to believe.”    

On Monday Oct. 19, Washington left the Elm City at 6 a.m., refraining from traveling on Sundays in observance of the Sabbath. He rode to Hartford on a “very pleasant” road. Along the way, the ever-aware president was impressed by the “exceedingly good” lutestring fabric (a glossy silk cloth) industry in Wallingford and the more than twenty sea vessels in Middletown, of which he viewed from the town’s heights while on a walk before an afternoon dinner. He was captivated by the towns along the river, writing in his diary:  

“The Country hereabouts is beautiful and the Lands good. An average Crop of wheat from an Acre of fallowed Land is estimated at 15 bushels; sometimes they get as high as 25 and 30 bushls. to the Acre from their best lands—Indian Corn from 20 to 40 bushls. pr. Acre. Their exports are the same as from other places; together with Pot ash.” 

He arrived in the capital after sundown, met by a “party of the Hartford light horse, and a Number of Gentlemen” before lodging at Bulls Tavern. 

The next day, Tuesday, Oct. 20, was equally as busy as his first in New Haven, as he was escorted around Hartford by Jeremiah Wadsworth (a Connecticut congressman), Oliver Ellsworth (a U.S. Senator and delegate to the Constitutional Convention) and Jesse Root (a lawyer, who was a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1778-1783). He visited the Hartford Woolen Manufactory, writing that the “Broadcloths are not of the first quality, as yet, but they are good”; however, in a show of good faith and manners, Washington purchased a suit for himself and “a whole piece to make breeches for my servants.” At 7 p.m., he addressed Hartford’s mayor, aldermen and common council.  

The rain on the following morning, “proving very wet,” delayed a meeting with Ellsworth until well-after 10 a.m.; after an hour-long discussion, Washington left for the next leg of his journey into Massachusetts and New Hampshire. He would cross into Connecticut again almost twenty days later. 

The Road Home 

Washington was greeted by “grandiose celebrations” in every town he entered, from Boston, Mass., to Portsmouth, N.H. Yet in the adulatory tour, he found a quiet moment to visit Lexington where he “viewed the Spot on which the first blood was spilt in the dispute with great [sic] Britain on the 19th. of April 1775.” 

Although he was appreciative of the fanfare, he was tired from the journey after several weeks on the road and staying in public houses that did not meet his standards. His diary entries from Nov. 7, 1789, until the tour’s end on the 13th are not as extensive or effusive as opposed to the first leg, nor did addressing large assemblies occupy his time. Throughout this trip back to New York City, his initial stops were in Thompson, Pomfret, Ashford, Mansfield, Bolton and East Hartford. 

The morning of Nov. 7 did not begin to Washington’s liking. He breakfasted at “Jacobs in Thompson” which was “not a good House,” and traveled on an “intolerable” road through a “poor and uncultivated Country covered chiefly with woods.” However, conditions improved as the land looked “tolerably good and the Farms look well,” but Ashford was “very hilly and mixed with Rock Stone.” As he writes, the only reason he took this road was to see Gen. Israel Putnam — a general from the Revolutionary War. Washington discovered, however, that “he lived 5 Miles out of my road, and that without deranging my plan & delaying my journey, I could not do it.”  

Washington stayed at Squire Perkins Tavern in Ashford which he also found disagreeable. As explained by Connecticut History, the “hospitality industry in New England during this time was still in its infancy and road-weary travelers often found it difficult to find accommodations of any consistent quality.” Regardless, Washington was in Ashford for two nights, as he did not travel on Sunday, Nov. 8. Instead, he attended morning and evening church services that he also found to be lackluster, as he “heard very lame discourses from a Mr. [Enoch] Pond.” 

On. Nov. 9, the president and his entourage set off early. The first 24 miles had “hilly, rocky and disagreeable Roads,” but the remaining 10 miles to Hartford were “level and good, but in places Sandy.” He seemed in better spirits as he complimented the silk production in Mansfield and East Hartford’s landscape. Washington also found time to converse with local farmers. Much like Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America nearly 50 years later, the president journaled how the locals fared, capturing life in early America: 

“I find by Conversing with the Farmers along this Road that a medium Crop of Wheat to the Acre is about 15 bushels—of Corn 20—of Oats the same—and in their strong & fresh Lands they get as much Wheat as they can Rye to the Acre—but in worn, or Sandy Land the latter yields most. They go more however upon grasing than either; & consequently Beef Butter & Cheese—with Porke are the articles which they carry to Market.” 

Washington did not explore Hartford as during his first visit, instead leaving for Berlin where he breakfasted with a man named Fuller (who is more than likely Ephraim Fuller) and then met with U.S. Congressman Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts in New Haven who “gave me the first certn. acct. of the health of Mrs. Washington.” On Nov. 11, he traveled on the “upper Road to Milford” where he breakfasted at the Ye Old Clark Tavern, passed through Fairfield and lodged at Ozias Marvin’s Tavern on King’s Highway, another ill-equipped public house “though the People of it were disposed to do all they cou’d to accommodate me.” Supposedly, the president only had bread and milk. 

On his final day in Connecticut, Nov. 12, Washington only stopped in Stamford for breakfast. He ended the day in Rye, N.Y. The tour would be the final time he visited Connecticut. 

‘The Greatest Man in the World’ 

The 1789 New England Tour was not the first time Washington traveled through Connecticut, and many towns have markers claiming America’s Founding Father “slept here.”  

Not even ten years earlier, in May 1781, the then-general had spent five nights at the home of Joseph Webb in Wethersfield where he “participat[ed] in a conference with the patriots’ French allies on a plan that would lead to the surrender five months later in Yorktown, Virginia” that sealed America’s victory in the Revolutionary War, according to Connecticut History. 

Nevertheless, the tour’s significance, like the war, was no less consequential or delicate. With the U.S. Constitution effective on March 4, 1789, Washington intended to demonstrate and defend the newly established federal government, thereby building confidence among those states who were at the American War for Independence’s epicenter only several years before. Ordinary civilians “address[ed] their hopes and fears” to him, as tens of thousands cheered for him across New England, as noted by Mount Vernon. 

To that end, Washington’s trip was “an undisputed triumph” further consolidating his “popularity and giving citizens a sense of belonging to a single nation,” according to Chernow. It also revived his health, though it wouldn’t be the last health scare during his two-term presidency.  

One of the more notable aspects of Washington’s travel log entries is his fascination with the land’s geology and manufacturing in a time when federal leaders — led by Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson — debated whether the U.S. economy should be more industrialized or agrarian. He was truly conscious of America’s future, believing that its republican government could achieve transcendent goals beyond his imagination.  

Yet someone had to take the first step. Someone had to lead. And Washington, as Chernow writes, “poured his last ounce of passion into the creation of his country.” Even as to slavery, which degrades his reputation in 21st century eyes, he eventually did the right thing by freeing his slaves with the hopes that others would follow his lead, because he understood that the evil institution “threatened the American union to which he had so nobly consecrated his life,” according to Washington: A Life.      

To afford the Founding Father no grace — which history may deny us, too — is unequivocally misguided. His legacy is not only confined to the presidency but is found in the lives of millions and millions of people who came to America to escape persecution or to seek opportunities for a better life. Without Washington, the world would be a decidedly worse place.  

He is certainly the greatest American and, to paraphrase King George III when he learned Washington relinquished power, one of the greatest men the world has ever known. 

Till next time — 

Your Yankee Doodle Dandy, 

Andy Fowler