Autograph letter signed : Washington, to his daughter Martha, 1808 Jan. 5.

Relating the current status of his tooth-ache; discussing at length the perils of financial imprudence and referring to the difficulties faced by Mr. Randolph; expressing his disappointment in his expectations for his financial security after retiring from office so that now he has "the gloomy prospect of retiring from office loaded with serious debts which will materially affect the tranquility of my retirement. however, not being apt to deject myself with evils before they happen, I nourish the hope of getting along;" expressing his wish that she and her family would live with him at Monticello and hoping that his "lands, if we preserve them, are sufficient to place all the children in independance. but I know nothing more important to inculcate into the minds of young people than the wisdom, the honor, and the blessed comfort of living within their income, to calculate in good time how much less pain will cost them the plainest stile of living which keeps them out of debt, then after a few years of splendor above their income, to have their property taken away for debt..;" encouraging her to warn her children "against the rocks on which they see so many shipwrecked."