Tobias Lear

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Tobias Lear (born 1762 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire - died 1816 in Washington, D.C.) was an American who served as President George Washington's personal secretary. Lear would serve as Washington's secretary from 1784 until Washington's death in 1799. Through Lear's journal entries, we receive the account of Washington's final moments and his last words: 'Tis well.

Tobias Lear also served as President Thomas Jefferson's peace envoy in the Mediterranean during the Barbary Wars and was responsible for concluding a peace that ended the first Barbary War.

Contents 1 Birth 2 Education 3 Career 4 Family life 5 Controversy 6 Rank 7 Further controversy 8 Washington's death 9 Missing Washington papers 10 Jefferson as ally 11 Appointment 12 Death 13 Notes 14 References 15 Further reading 16 External links

[edit] Birth

Lear was born in the seaport town of Portsmouth, NH in 1762, a fifth generation American and the fifth named Tobias Lear.^[1]

[edit] Education

Instead of joining the Continental Army, as many of his contemporaries did, Lear attended Harvard during the American Revolutionary War. He graduated with 30 classmates in 1783.^[1]

[edit] Career

He began his career by teaching school until his uncle, Benjamin Lincoln, recommended him for the job of tutoring George Washington's grandchildren and to the post of his personal secretary both to which he was hired in 1784. He was integrated into Washington's house and his post quickly evolved beyond clerk to being Washington's right hand man, doing whatever Washington needed (i.e. tutoring, filling out expense reports, and writing letters.) He performed all his duties well. Lear moved with Washington to New York when Washington became President and they often dined alone together during his presidency. Lear was responsible for filling out Washington's expense reports as president which Washington had wisely chosen instead of pay of $25,000, as the expenses turned out to be much more.^[1]

In 1793, at the start of Washington's second term, Lear decided to leave Washington and start out on his own (albeit with help from Washington). He started a company, T. Lear & Company, which focused on two things: working with Washington's Potomac Company to promote river traffic to the soon-to-be nation's capitol and participating in Washington, D.C. land speculation. Lear traveled to Europe to sell parcels of land in Washington, DC but was unsuccessful. His engineering work related to the Potomac Company also failed to enable navigation around two waterfalls on the Potomac River. He lost money in this failed venture despite his wealthy partners.^[1]

[edit] Family life

Lear married Mary Long in 1790 but she died 1793. In 1795, he remarried, this time to Martha Washington's niece Fanny, Frances Bassett Washington, recent widow of George Augustine Washington, but she died in 1796.^[1]

[edit] Controversy

In the late 1790s, Lear's finances become more distraught. During this period, he continued to run unpaid errands for Washington. On one of these errands, Lear collected rent from one of Washington's tenants but pocketed the funds. Washington found out when he questioned his tenant as to why they had not paid. Washington was furious for at least two days but Lear apologized and was quickly forgiven.^[1]

[edit] Rank

The next year, Lear was given the rank of Colonel as chief aid to Washington, who had been reappointed by congress to command the troops during a period when a French attack was feared. He preferred to be addressed as Colonel Lear for the rest of his life despite the fact that the French never attacked by land and he never faced active duty.^[1]

[edit] Further controversy

Lear collected funds for the sale of a business partner's real estate and kept the funds. He feigned illness for several months before meeting the man and apologizing, confessing and agreeing to reimburse him.^[1]

[edit] Washington's death

In 1799, Washington unexpectedly died while Lear was visiting him at Mount Vernon, leading to Lear's famous diary entry: About ten o'clk, Saturday December 14, 1799, Washington made several attempts to speak to me before he could effect it, at length he said,--"I am just going. Have me decently buried; and do not let my body be put into the Vault in less than two days after I am dead." I bowed assent. He then looked at me again and said, "Do you understand me?" I replied "Yes." 'Tis well" said he.^[1]

Lear oversaw the funeral arrangements, even to the detail of measuring the corpse at 6 feet 3.5 inches long and 1 foot 9 inches from shoulder to shoulder. Lear inherited a lifetime interest in Walnut Tree Farm.^[1]

[edit] Missing Washington papers

Lear's only biographer, Ray Brighton, was convinced that Lear destroyed many of Washington's letters and diary entries, which he had possession of for about a year after Washington's death. Lear was to work on a Washington biography with Bushrod Washington, a Washington nephew, who had contacted Lear about collecting Washington's papers and collaborating on a Washington biography. Swaths of Washington's diary (especially sections during the presidency and the war) and a few key letters were discovered missing about a year after their transfer to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall who had instead volunteered to write the biography. Lear denied destroying any papers in a long letter to Marshall; however, Lear's own correspondence casts this into doubt. Lear wrote Alexander Hamilton offering to suppress Washington documents: There are as you well know among the several letters and papers many which every public and private consideration should withhold from further inspection. Lear explicitly asked Hamilton in that letter if he desired any military papers removed. Suspiciously, almost all the presidential diary entries are gone except for those which covered Washington's 1789 visit to Lear's family home in Portsmouth. Six key Washington letters are also missing.^[1]

[edit] Jefferson as ally

Many biographers believe that Thomas Jefferson and Washington had a big falling out over a letter Jefferson sent to a friend in Italy which called Washington's administration as Anglican, monarchical, and aristocratical and claimed that Washington had appointed as military officers all timid men that prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty. The letter was eventually published overseas and then retranslated back into English by Noah Webster and published in America. Its publication is thought to have sparked a nasty correspondence of three rounds of letters between Jefferson and Washington. In conversation with friends over wine, Lear admitted the existence of the letters but subsequently denied having said such. Albin Rollins, a Mount Vernon overseer, stated to a nephew of Washington that he had seen the letters and that the second round was so strong that it made the hair on his head rise and that a duel must surely follow. The missing letters loss brought large benefit to Thomas Jefferson as they would have been fuel for Jefferson's political enemies. Brighton believes (without direct evidence) that Jefferson requested Lear to destroy the letters and that Jefferson rewarded Lear for their destruction for the rest of his life.^[1]

[edit] Appointment

Jefferson appointed the financially struggling Lear with the potentially lucrative assignment of American commercial agent in Saint Domingue at the start of his term of president. During this job, Lear appointed Rollins to oversee Walnut Tree Farm. Unfortunately, Lear arrived right before France was about to clamp down on the slave rebellion there. In a January 17, 1802 long letter of gratitude to Jefferson, Lear predicted the long anticipated French response was still six months out. One week later, a French armada arrived at Cape Francois and captured the main port there from Toussaint L'Ouverture. Lear attempted to help the Americans during the ensuing French embargo. However, with the Louisiana Purchase looming large for Jefferson, Lear was asked not to irritate the French commanders, and after a suggestion from James Madison left.^[1]

[edit] Death

On October 11, 1816, Lear apparently committed suicide by shooting himself with a pistol. Although it was known that he suffered severe headaches and stints of depression, as well as being vilified by the media, the specific reasons for his suicide are unknown. It is curious that this "scrupulous record keeper" left behind no suicide note.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Notes

[edit] References