During the Presidency, scarcely anything of a public nature was penned by Washington,—­Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and Randolph acting as his draughtsmen.  “We are approaching the first Monday in December by hasty strides,” he wrote to Jefferson.  “I pray you, therefore, to revolve in your mind such matters as may be proper for me to lay before Congress, not only in your own department, (if any there be,) but such others of a general nature, as may happen to occur to you, that I may be prepared to open the session with such communication, as shall appear to merit attention.”  Two years later he said to the same, “I pray you to note down or rather to frame into paragraphs or sections, such matters as may occur to you as fit and proper for general communication at the opening of the next session of Congress, not only in the department of state, but on any other subject applicable to the occasion, that I may in due time have everything before me.”  To Hamilton he wrote in 1795, “Having desired the late Secretary of State to note down every matter as it occurred, proper either for the speech at the opening of the session, or for messages afterwards, the inclosed paper contains everything I could extract from that office.  Aid me, I pray you, with your sentiments on these points, and such others as may have occurred to you relative to my communications to Congress.”

The best instance is furnished in the preparation of the Farewell Address.  First Madison was asked to prepare a draft, and from this Washington drew up a paper, which he submitted to Hamilton and Jay, with the request that “even if you should think it best to throw the whole into a different form, let me request, notwithstanding, that my draught may be returned to me (along with yours) with such amendments and corrections as to render it as perfect as the formation is susceptible of; curtailed if too verbose; and relieved of all tautology not necessary to enforce the ideas in the original or quoted part.  My wish is that the whole may appear in a plain style, and be handed to the public in an honest, unaffected, simple part.”  Accordingly, Hamilton prepared what was almost a new instrument in form, though not in substance, which, after “several serious and attentive readings,” Washington wrote that he preferred “greatly to the other draughts, being more copious on material points, more dignified on the whole, and with less egotism; of course, less exposed to criticism, and better calculated to meet the eye of discerning readers (foreigners particularly, whose curiosity I have little doubt will lead them to inspect it attentively, and to pronounce their opinions on the performance).”  The paper was then, according to Pickering, “put into the hands of Wolcott, McHenry, and myself ... with a request that we would examine it, and note any alterations and corrections which we should think best.  We did so; but our notes, as well as I recollect, were very few, and regarded chiefly the grammar and composition.”  Finally, Washington revised the whole, and it was then made public.