Curious distinctions were made oftentimes.  Thus, in the contract with an overseer, one clause was inserted to the effect, “And whereas there are a number of whiskey stills very contiguous to the said Plantations, and many idle, drunken and dissolute People continually resorting to the same, priding themselves in debauching sober and well-inclined Persons, the said Edd Voilett doth promise as well for his own sake as his employers to avoid them as he ought.”  To the contrary, in hiring a gardener, it was agreed as part of the compensation that the man should have “four dollars at Christmas, with which he may be drunk for four days and four nights; two dollars at Easter to effect the same purpose; two dollars at Whitsuntide to be drunk for two days; a dram in the morning, and a drink of grog at dinner at noon.”

With more true kindness Washington wrote to one of his underlings, “I was very glad to receive your letter of the 31st ultimo, because I was afraid, from the accounts given me of your spitting blood,... that you would hardly have been able to have written at all.  And it is my request that you will not, by attempting more than you are able to undergo, with safety and convenience, injure yourself, and thereby render me a disservice....  I had rather therefore hear that you had nursed than exposed yourself.  And the things which I sent from this place (I mean the wine, tea, coffee and sugar) and such other matters as you may lay in by the doctor’s direction for the use of the sick, I desire you will make use of as your own personal occasions may require.”

Of one Butler he had employed to overlook his gardeners, but who proved hopelessly unfit, Washington said, “sure I am, there is no obligation upon me to retain him from charitable motives; when he ought rather to be punished as an imposter:  for he well knew the services he had to perform, and which he promised to fulfil with zeal, activity, and intelligence.”  Yet when the man was discharged his employer gave him a “character:”  “If his activity, spirit, and ability in the management of Negroes, were equal to his honesty, sobriety and industry, there would not be the least occasion for a change,” and Butler was paid his full wages, no deduction being made for lost time, “as I can better afford to be without the money than he can.”

Another thoroughly incompetent man was one employed to take charge of the negro carpenters, of whom his employer wrote, “I am apprehensive ... that Green never will overcome his propensity to drink; that it is this which occasions his frequent sickness, absences from work and poverty.  And I am convinced, moreover, that it answers no purpose to admonish him.”  Yet, though “I am so well satisfied of Thomas Green’s unfitness to look after Carpenters,” for a time “the helpless situation in which you find his family, has prevailed on me to retain him,” and when he finally had to be discharged for drinking, Washington said, “Nothing but compassion for