Alexandria Gazette

From the Family Magazine.
WASHINGTON ON MATRIMONIAL ADVICE.
We accidentally fell upon the following excellent epistolary essay of Gen. Washington, upon the subject of advising ladies in relation to matrimony, in Sparks' 5th volume of Washington's Letters. We recommend it to our readers as an interesting evidence of the complete discretion and wisdom that always characterized Washington's mind. Its plain sense and familiar knowledge of human nature is admirable; while at the same time it discloses the versatility of a mind that could unbend itself from the graver matters of war and state, and thus playfully and affectionately commune with the privacies of domestic life. The letter is directed to Lund Washington, Mount Vernon.
"Rocky Hill, 20th Sept., 1783.
Dear Lund:-Mrs. Custis has never suggested in any of her letters to Mrs. Washington, (unless ardent wishes for her return, that she might then disclose it to her, can be so construed) the most distant attachment to D. S.; but if this should be the case, and she wants advice upon it, a father and a mother, who are at hand, and competent to give it, are at the same time the most proper to be consulted on so interesting an event. For my own part, I never did, nor do I believe I ever shall, give advice to a woman who is setting out on a matrimonial voyage; first, because I never could advise one to marry without her consent; and secondly, because I know it is to no purpose to advise her to refrain when she has obtained it. A woman very rarely asks an opinion or requires advice, on such occasions, until her resolution is formed; and then it is with the hope and expectation of obtaining a sanction, not that she means to be governed by your disapprobation, that she applies. In a word, the plain English of the application may be summed up in these words; "I wish you to think as I do; but, if unhappily you differ from me in opinion, my heart, I must confess, is fixed, and I have gone too far now to retract."
If Mrs. Custis should ever suggest any thing of the kind to me, I will give her my opinion of the measure, not of the man, with candor, and to the following effect: "I never expected you would spend the residue of your days in widowhood; but in the matter so important and so interesting to yourself, children and connexions, I wish you would make a prudent choice; to do which many considerations are necessary, such as the family and connexions of the man, his fortune, (which is not the most essential in my eye.) the line of conduct he has observed, and the disposition and frame of his mind. You shall consider what prospect there is of his proving kind and affectionate to you; just, generous and attentive to your children, and how far his connexions will be agreeable to you—for when they are once formed, agreeable or not, the die is cast, your fate is fixed." Thus far and no farther I shall go in my opinions.
I am, dear Lund, &c."