Source: marijuana.com
“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth. The checks he endeavors to give it, however warrantable by ancient usage, will, more than probably, kindle a flame, which may not be easily extinguished; tho’ for a while it may be smothered by the Armies at his command, and the Nobility in his interest.”
-George Washington Letter to James Madison – March 02, 1788
Washington fox hunt at Mount Vernon by John Ward Dunsmore 1922
America had just declared its independence as Gen. George Washington frantically prepared New York for the impending invasion of British troops gathering off of Staten Island. Sitting by a flickering light of a candle on the eve of the Revolutionary War, Washington’s mind wandered to one thought: his garden.
Mere days before the Battle of New York, Washington sat down to calmly write a letter to his cousin and estate manager Lund Washington with his instructions and plans for a new garden.
“Plant Trees in the room of all dead ones in proper time this Fall. and as I mean to have groves of Trees at each end of the dwelling House… these trees to be planted without any order or regularity (but pretty thick, as they can at any time be thin’d) and to consist that at the North end, of locusts altogether. & that at the South, of all the clever kind of Trees (especially flowering ones)”
– Letter From George Washington to Lund Washington, August 19, 1776
“Washington as a Farmer” engraving from The illustrated life of Washington by Joel Tyler Headley in 1859
Perhaps from laden remorse for the slain cherry tree, Washington’s preoccupation with “flowering trees” just may have come from his early days as the gentleman grower of hemp.
Following his service in the French and Indian War, Washington returned home to his family’s farm in Mount Vernon, Virginia, to continue life as a gentleman grower. His farm’s cash crop was primarily tobacco, with a large portion exported each year for sale in Europe.
By 1765, Washington was becoming tired of the heavy toll tobacco was taking on his land and resources. Looking for a more sustainable and profitable crop, Washington turned to a plant he would continue to grow his entire life — hemp.
On his Muddy Hole Farm, one of five farms owned by Washington on Mount Vernon, he decided to sow an experimental field of hemp. By August, as the hemp plants were just starting to show their sex, Washington made a curious decision for industrial farmers. He pulled the males.
On August 7, 1765, sacrificing yield and profit, Washington wrote in his diary that he “began to separate the male from the female,” realizing some pollination had already occurred, he added “rather too late.” The decision was against industrial practice at the time, which makes one wonder what Washington’s motivations were with this experimental crop.
The following year, impressed with his experiment, Washington decided to expand his hemp operation and planted hemp on three of his Mount Vernon farms including Muddy Hole, the mill, and Dogue Run farms.
In a diary entry marked August 29, 1766, Washington wrote he “began to pull hemp at the mill and at Muddy Hole.” He remarked “too late for the blossom hemp by three weeks or a month,” which indicates he intended for the hemp plants to flower.
Page from George Washington’s diary – day 7 “began to separate the male from the female .. rather too late” (August 7, 1765)
“I use the freedom also to send a very small specimen of a curious artificial preparation of hemp which comes from Silesia in Germany — It is at least a matter of curiosity, as it shews how far the ingenuity of man will go when stimulated with the hope of gain.”Letter from James Anderson to George Washington – August 15, 1793
Following the Revolutionary War, as the first President of the United States Washington continued to grow hemp at his farms on Mount Vernon. Washington not only grew hemp while he was president, but he also actively corresponded with growers throughout the world seeking new hempseed and techniques.
After initial conversations, in 1793 a Scottish grower named James Anderson sent President Washington a special package from overseas. The package contained both seeds and “a curious artificial preparation of hemp” which came from Silesia, a region within today’s Poland, Czech Republic and Germany.
Taking the time to personally write Anderson back after receiving his hempen package, President Washington thanked him for sending the seeds adding “The artificial preparation of Hemp, from Silesia, is really a curiosity”.
“I thank you as well for the Seeds as for the Pamphlets which you had the goodness to send me. The artificial preparation of Hemp, from Silesia, is really a curiosity; and I shall think myself much favored in the continuance of your correspondence.”– George Washington letter to James Anderson 1794
Letter from George Washington to James Anderson – May 26, 1794
“I am very glad to hear that the gardener has saved so much of the St. Foin seed, and that of the India hemp. Make the most you can of both, by sowing them again in drills. The hemp may be sown anywhere.”— George Washington, in a letter to his farm manager William Pearce, Feb. 24, 1794
As his presidency continued, so did his passion for growing hemp. By 1794, Washington had found a interesting new strain of hemp that he called “India hemp.”
Going back into antiquity, hemp from India, or Indian hemp, was associated with genetics used for edible bhang, smokable ganja and hand-rubbed hash called “charas.”
In a letter to his new farm manager William Pearce, Washington was stoked to hear his gardener was able to save this new seed of the India hemp from the 1793 season. Telling Pearce to make the most of it he can, he advised his new manager that, “The hemp may be sown anywhere.”
Just months before his farewell address declining a third term as President, Washington’s mind wandered to his retirement garden and his newly found India hemp genetics.
Washington wrote his farm manager May 29, 1796 asking about his India hemp grown in the 1795 season, sharing with Pearce his desire to breed the seed for others to grow.
“What was done with the Seed saved from the India Hemp last Summer? It ought, all of it, to have been sown again; that not only a stock of seed sufficient for my own purposes might have been raised, but to have disseminated the seed to others; as it is more valuable than the common Hemp.”
Letter from George Washington to William Pearce dated May 29, 1796
Letter from George Washington to William Pearch – Feb. 24, 1794
Washington continued growing hemp throughout his entire life, eventually planting the crop on all five of his Mount Vernon farms: Mansion House, River, Dogue Run, Muddy Hole and Union.
Not only did George Washington grow cannabis, he made it truly American to grow this flowering tree.
George Washington at the battle of Princeton by Charles Willson Peale in 1779
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