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To: Kaslin

I’m guessing he got along with his legitimate neighbors just fine as long as there were no other disputes.

Most of my neighbors are much wealthier but we all get along fine since no one is trying to claim someone else’s is theirs. I also have a longstanding policy of not buying or selling to neighbors.


4 posted on 07/04/2012 8:15:56 AM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: cripplecreek
Well, there is a lot of backstory to Washington's land dealings in the Ohio Valley and Kentucky beginning in 1754, when he helped instigate the French & Indian War by his actions at Fort Necessity.

Before the Rev War, he was a scheming land speculator who associated with some of the biggest land jobbers of that time and even cheated his F&I war veterans out of their land for pennies on the dollar (in today's terms). He violated British law by sending his agents, most notably William Crawford and George Croghan west of the 1763 Proclamation Line to illegally survey prime agricultural land from Pittsburgh to Louisville. He and the others (including his friends Andrew and Charles Lewis, William Preston, and even the royal governor Lord Dunmore of Virginia) wanted to either stake it out for new plantations for themselves or sell it through land companies to make huge profits. So, most people do not realize it, but Washington had a vested economic interest in overthrowing British rule in America and opening up the western lands so that his patents could be legalized. The Rev War of course put his land jobbing on hold, but after he retired from the Continental Army in 1783, he turned his attention back to his claims. Hence, this story.

All of this is documented in Washington's published correspondence (and that of his business partners), but no one bothers to read any of it except hard core Washington researchers (like me).

6 posted on 07/04/2012 8:29:19 AM PDT by Timber Rattler (Just say NO! to RINOS and the GOP-E)
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