Writings
George Washington's Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation
This is his earliest known work (c. 1744–1747), a handwritten list of 110 rules of etiquette copied as a young teenager from an earlier French manual. It is frequently published as a short book or pamphlet.​
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This famous public letter announced his retirement after two terms as president and offered advice on national unity, avoiding political parties, foreign entanglements, and more. Primarily drafted with input from James Madison (1792 version) and heavily revised by Alexander Hamilton, with Washington's final edits. Published as a newspaper article in Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser on September 19, 1796.
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The Washington Papers was established in 1968 at the University of Virginia, under the joint auspices of the University and the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union, to publish a comprehensive edition of George Washington’s correspondence. Forty years later, the project broadened that scope to include other significant editions, such as the George Washington’s Financial Papers, the Martha Washington Papers, and Washington Family Papers projects.