Deed Of Trust Washington State: Fill & Download for Free

This is my letter of resignation from my position as a Republican precinct chair in the Houston area, submitted the day after the 2016 presidential election. It answers the question above quite clearly.My Resignation As Precinct ChairDear Paul;It is with a heavy heart that I submit my resignation from my position as Republican precinct chair of Harris County Precinct 333. To paraphrase the hero of my youth, Ronald Reagan, "I am not leaving the Republican Party -- the Republican Party has left me." The presumptive Electoral College victory of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States is the irrefutable evidence of this -- and I cannot in good conscience be a part of the leadership of the Trump GOP.My Republican Party was a party that sought to include all Americans, regardless of race or religion. The Trump GOP is one which, like the Democrats, seeks to exploit the racial and religious divides of this country.My Republican Party was a party which believed in limited constitutional government based upon originalist principles. The Trump GOP is a party that embraced a man whose model for leadership is Vladimir Putin rather than Washington, Lincoln, or Reagan.My Republican Party was a party that believed in a robust free press. The Trump GOP believes that the press should be muzzled when it fails to support the leader.My Republican Party was a party that believed in free trade as an engine of economic prosperity. The Trump GOP is one which has adopted the protectionist model of the worst elements of the Democrat Party.My Republican Party was a party that honored our military. The Trump GOP is one that attacks our professional officer corps and insults Gold Star families for daring to participate in the political process.My Republican Party was a party that was unambiguously pro-life. The Trump GOP is less so, led by a man who praises Planned Parenthood and has a long history of financially supporting that organization.My Republican Party was one which supported honesty and integrity. The Trump GOP has put in the Oval Office a man who is a well known for his unethical, dishonest, and fraudulent business activity -- promising that he will run the country like he has run his businesses.My Republican Party held to traditional family values. The Trump GOP is led by a man whose sexually predatory behavior is similar to that which led Republicans to impeach a Democrat president less than 20 years ago.My Republican Party was one which put forward men of honor for the White House -- Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole, George W. Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney -- and win or lose, I could feel pride in my vote. The Trump GOP has given us Donald J. Trump, based upon the notion that "at least he isn't Hillary."I have, over the past 18 months, been a publicly anti-Trump voice within the Republican Party. It was my hope that I could help lead the restoration of my Party to the values and principles I outlined above after what I believed to be a temporary deviation from them.Last night's Trump victory makes it clear that no such restoration will be forthcoming. I therefore do not belong in the leadership of the GOP, and as a matter of principle and integrity must resign. I return to you a precinct that is much as I found it in 2002 -- solidly Republican, with a tradition of honest, well-run elections. I hope my stewardship will not be found to be lacking.On a personal note, I would like to thank you for many years of trust and friendship. It was an honor to help elect you as Harris County GOP chairman, and to serve as your appointee on the Vacancy Committee. I wish you well, and continue to hold you in high esteem.Sadly, most of what I had to say in this letter has been confirmed by the deeds of this president and his administration. In fact, in some ways it has been worse then I had imagined. I know that I made the right choice, and see no way that I can ever go back to the Republican Party without selling out my values or the Republican Party fundamental of reforming itself.

A depiction of George Washington during a harvest.(George Washington and slavery - Wikipedia)When he was just 11 years old, George Washington inherited 10 slaves from his father’s estate.[1] He would acquire many more in the years to come, whether through the death of other family members or by purchasing them from slave markets and neighboring plantations. When he married the wealthy widow Martha Dandridge Custis in 1759, she brought more than 80 enslaved workers along with her,[2] bringing the total number of enslaved men, women and children at Mount Vernon to more than 150 before the start of the Revolutionary War.[3]Despite having been an active slave holder for 56 years, George Washington struggled with the institution of slavery and spoke frequently of his desire to end the practice. At the end of his life, Washington made the decision to free all his slaves in his 1799 will - the only slave-holding Founding Father to do so. Yet, despite his best intentions, the fate of his slaves was determined by an incident that happened decades earlier.The story of Oney Judge — Working Out LoudOna Judge was born around 1773. Her mother, Betty, was a mulatto, the enslaved daughter of an enslaved African American, who was a “dower slave,” part of the estate of Martha’s first husband.[4] Her father, Andrew Judge, was a white indentured servant who had recently arrived in America from Leeds, England.[5] After fulfilling his four-year work contract at Mount Vernon during which he reportedly was responsible for Washington's military uniform, Andrew Judge moved off the plantation to start his own farm.[6] As children born to enslaved women were considered property of the slaveholder, according to Virginia law, his daughter remained in bondage.At the age of 9, Oney, moved into the mansion house, likely as a "playmate" for Martha Washington's (family of George Washington) granddaughter Nelly Custis.[7] . Like her mother, she became a talented and highly valued seamstress, and was later promoted to become Martha Washington’s personal maid. When Washington headed to New York City in 1789 for his inauguration as president, Oney was one of only a handful of enslaved people the couple took with them.[8] Late the following year, when the federal capital moved to Philadelphia, the presidential household followed shortly.[9]George Washington's Mount VernonWith an active and growing free black community of some 6,000 people, Philadelphia had become the nation’s leading hotbed of abolitionism. Oney was in the minority as a enslaved woman in Philadelphia; fewer than 100 slaves lived within city limits in 1796[10] In 1780, Pennsylvania passed the Gradual Abolition Act, a law that freed people after they turned 28 and that automatically freed any slave who moved to the state and lived there for more than six months.[11] To evade the law, the Washingtons made sure to transport their enslaved workers in and out of the state every six months to avoid them establishing legal residency.[12]As the first lady’s bodyservant, Oney helped dress her mistress for special events, traveled with her on social calls and ran errands for her. For over five years in Philadelphia, Oney encountered and became acquainted with members of the city’s free black community and former enslaved workers who had gained their freedom under the gradual abolition law.[13] Such interactions undoubtedly fueled her thinking about slavery, the changing laws regarding the institution and the possibilities of freedom.Martha WashingtonIn the spring of 1796, when she was 22 years old, Judge learned that Martha Washington planned to give her away as a wedding gift to her famously temperamental granddaughter, Elizabeth Parke Custis.[14] Martha Washington’s decision to turn Judge over to Eliza was a reminder to Judge and everyone enslaved at the Executive Mansion that they had absolutely no control over their lives, no matter how loyally they served.In an 1845 interview published in the abolitionist newspaper The Granite Freeman (May 22, 1845), Judge sais:"Whilst they were packing up to go to Virginia, I was packing to go, I didn't know where; for I knew that if I went back to Virginia, I should never get my liberty. I had friends among the colored people of Philadelphia, had my things carried there beforehand, and left Washington's house while they were eating dinner."[15]So, as the household prepared for the Washingtons’ return to Mount Vernon for the summer, Judge made plans for her escape. On May 21, 1796, she slipped out of the mansion while the president and first lady were eating their supper. Members of the free black community helped her get aboard a ship commanded by Captain John Bowles, who sailed frequently between Philadelphia, New York and Portsmouth, New Hampshire.[16] After a five-day journey, Judge disembarked in that coastal city, where she would begin her new life.When Martha learned of Ona’s self-emancipation, she felt betrayed and claimed that Ona must have been abducted and seduced by a Frenchman.[17] She wrote that Ona had always been well-treated, and even had a room of her own. The First Lady urged the President to advertise a reward for Ona’s recapture. Notices offering a $10 reward for her return appeared on May 24 in the Philadelphia Gazette and Universal Daily Advertiser and, a day later, in Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser.[18]Advertisement for the return of Ona Judge, Pennsylvania Gazette, May 24, 1796 (DAMS 9594), Historical Society of Pennsylvania. (Resistance and Punishment)In the advertisement, Ona was described as:“a light [mixed-race] girl, much freckled, with very black eyes and bushy black hair, she is of middle stature, slender, and delicately formed.” The ad also noted that Ona has “many changes of good clothes, of all sorts.”[19]The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 passed overwhelmingly by Congress and was signed into law by Washington — established the legal mechanism by which a slaveholder could recover his property.[20] The Act made it a federal crime to assist an escaped slave or to interfere with his capture, and allowed slave-catchers into every U.S. state and territory. Washington would resort to the legislation that he himself signed several times in his attempts to recapture his lost slaves.With a free black population of some 360 citizens and virtually no enslaved workers, Portsmouth was different from any place Judge had ever known. She found lodging within the free black community, which was accustomed to aiding fugitive slaves, and supported herself doing domestic work, one of the few opportunities available for women of color.[21]During the summer after she escaped, Judge was walking in Portsmouth when she saw Elizabeth Langdon, the daughter of New Hampshire Senator John Langdon. Betsy Langdon recognized Oney, having encountered her before when calling on Martha Washington, a family friend, or her granddaughter Nelly Custis.[22] After Judge passed by without acknowledging her, Betsy likely told her father of the sighting, and her father felt obligated to notify Washington of his fugitive slave’s whereabouts.George Washington to Joseph Whipple, 28 November 1796Philadelphia 28th Novr 1796.SirUpon my return to this City the latter end of October, after an absence of some weeks at Mount Vernon, Mr Wolcott presented me with your letter of the 4th of that month.I regret that the attempt you made to restore the girl (Oney Judge as she called herself while with us, and who, without the least provocation absconded from her Mistress) should have been attended with so little success. To enter into such a compromise, as she has suggested to you, is totally inadmissible, for reasons that must strike at first view: for however well disposed I might be to a gradual abolition, or even to an entire emancipation of that description of People (if the latter was in itself practicable at this Moment) it would neither be politic or just, to reward unfaithfulness with a premature preference; and thereby discontent, beforehand, the minds of all her fellow Servants; who by their steady adherence, are far more deserving than herself, of favor.I was apprehensive (and so informed Mr Wolcott) that if she had any previous notice, more than could be avoided, of the intention to send her back, that she would contrive to elude it; for whatever she may have asserted to the contrary, there is no doubt in this family, of her having been seduced and enticed off by a Frenchman, who was either really, or pretendedly deranged; and under that guize, used frequently to introduce himself into the family; & has never been seen here, since the girl decamped. We have indeed lately been informed, through other channels, that she did go to Portsmouth with a Frenchman, who getting tired of her, as is presumed left her, and that she had betaken herself to the Needle—the use of which she well understood—for a livelihood.About the epoch I am speaking, she herself was desirous of returning to Virginia; for when Captn Prescot was on the point of Sailing from Portsmouth for the Federal City with his family, she offered herself to his Lady as a waiter—told her she had lived with Mrs Washington (without entering into particulars)—and that she was desirous of getting back to her native place & friends. Mrs Prescot either from having no occasion for her services, or presuming that she might have been discarded for improper conduct (unluckily for Mrs Washington) declined taking her.If she will return to her former Service, without obliging me to resort to compulsory means to effect it, her late conduct will be forgiven by her Mistress; and she will meet with the same treatment from me, that all the rest of her family (which is a very numerous one) shall receive. If she will not, you would oblige me, by pursuing such measures as are proper, to put her on board a Vessel bound either to Alexandria or the Federal City; Directed in either case, to my Manager at Mount Vernon, by the door of which the Vessel must pass; or to the care of Mr Lear at the last mentioned place, if it should not stop before it arrives at that Port.I do not mean however, by this request, that such violent measures should be used as would excite a mob or riot, which might be the case if she has adherents, or even uneasy sensations in the minds of well disposed Citizens. rather than either of these shd happen, I would forego her services altogether; and the example also, which is of infinite more importance. The less is said before hand, and the more celerity is used in the act of Shipping her, when an opportunity presents, the better chance Mrs Washington (who is desirous of receiving her again) will have to be gratified.We had vastly rather she should be sent to Virginia than brought to this place; as our stay here will be but short; and as it is not unlikely that she may, from the circumstance I have mentioned, be in a state of pregnancy. I should be glad to hear from you on this subject, and am Sir Your Obedt Hble ServtGo: Washington[23].Trying to act discreetly, Washington got in contact with Joseph Whipple, the collector of customs in Portsmouth and the brother of famed Revolutionary General William Whipple.[24] When Whipple tracked Judge down (by falsely advertising that he was seeking a female domestic for his home), he asked her about her reasons for fleeing bondage, and offered to negotiate on her behalf. He subsequently wrote to Washington that she had agreed to return, on the condition that she be freed when Martha Washington died.Though he might be in favor of gradual abolition of slavery, the president continued, he didn’t want to reward Judge’s “unfaithfulness” and inspire other enslaved people to try and escape. Oney never intended to honor this agreement. She told Whipple what he wanted to hear, agreed to return to her owners, and left his presence with no intention of ever keeping her word.[25]Oney Judge was not the first of Washington's slaves unwilling to wait for their master's death to acquire freedom. Mount Vernon’s enslaved community took opportunities, when possible, to physically escape the bonds of slavery. For example, in April of 1781 during the American Revolution, seventeen members of the Mount Vernon enslaved population—fourteen men and three women—fled to the British warship. HMS Savage anchored in the Potomac off the shore of the plantation.[26]The painting “A Cook for George Washington” might be of Hercules, but he is not named. (Gilbert Stuart Hercules Posey - Wikipedia)In other instances, members of the enslaved community who were directly connected to the Washingtons either attempted to or were successful in their escape plans. These individuals included Washington’s personal assistant. Christopher Sheels (a dower slave as well), whose plan to escape with his fiancée was thwarted[27] and the family cook Hercules Posey.[28]By the 1780s, Washington’s feelings about slavery had changed, and he expressed his uneasiness with the institution to close friends, including his Revolutionary War comrade the Marquis de Lafayette.[29] But as his reaction to Judge’s escape made clear, Washington was not ready to give up on the bound labor on which his Virginia plantation and his life was built. Far from a passive bystander in the perpetuation of slavery, Washington at this point was actively engaged in returning Judge to his Martha's possession.[30] This was a financial issue, not a moral one.With antislavery sentiment growing in New Hampshire, and Washington’s influence waning as his term ended, Whipple did little more to pursue Judge on his behalf. Safe for the time being, she started building a life in Portsmouth, and married Jack Staines, a free black sailor, in early 1797.[31]In a scathing letter to Whipple in late 1796, Washington wrote:“I regret that the attempt you made to restore the Girl…should have been attended with so little Success. o enter into such a compromise with her, as she suggested to you, is totally inadmissible, for reasons that must strike at first view: for however well disposed I might be to a gradual abolition, it would neither be politic or just to reward unfaithfulness with a premature preference [of freedom]; and thereby discontent before hand the minds of all her fellow-servants who by their steady attachments are far more deserving than herself of favor.”[32]Though marriage gave her some additional legal protection, Ona remained vigilant and with good reason. In August 1799, Washington asked his nephew, Burwell Bassett Jr., to try and seize Judge and any children she may have had on his upcoming business trip to New Hampshire.[33] Bassett revealed his intentions during a dinner hosted by Senator Langdon, who quickly warned Oney through one of his servants.[34] Jack Staines was at sea at the time, but Ona managed to escape to the neighboring town of Greenland, where she and her infant daughter hid with a free black family, the Jacks, until Bassett left Portsmouth, empty-handed.“Negros are growing more & more insolent & difficult to govern…”--GEORGE WASHINGTON, 1798[35]Four months later, George Washington died, freeing all of his enslaved workers according to his will. Though the gesture was far from meaningless, it didn’t go far enough. Martha Washington, who lived until 1802, couldn’t even legally have emancipated her enslaved workers upon her death (including, technically, Oney Judge Staines and her children), as they were part of her inheritance from her first husband and by law went to her surviving grandchildren.[36] In the end, Washington and his fellow founders would push the hard decisions about slavery off onto future generations of Americans–with explosive consequences.London newspaper Bell’s Weekly Messenger praised the first U.S. president’s decision to free his slaves in his will:“He emancipates his slaves after his wife’s death,” Improving upon this direction of her husband, Mrs. Washington, to whom we know not that we can pay a more acceptable tribute than to say, that she was worthy of such a man, has, it is said, already emancipated them.”[37]Journal entry listing the slaves owned by Washington at the time of his death (Why Did Martha Washington Free Her Husband’s Slaves Early?)Of the 317 enslaved people living at Mount Vernon in 1799, a little less than half (123 individuals) were owned by George Washington himself.[38] Martha instead signed a deed of manumission in December 1800, and the slaves were free on January 1, 1801.[39]Another 153 slaves at Mount Vernon in 1799 were dower slaves from the Custis estate. When Martha Washington's first husband, Daniel Parke Custis, died without a will in 1757, she received a life interest in one-third of his estate, including the slaves.[40] Neither George nor Martha Washington could free these slaves by law and upon Martha’s death these individuals reverted to the Custis estate and were divided among her grandchildren. Upon the death of George and Martha Washington, ownership of Oney along with that of her children, transferred to the Custis estate forcing Judge to live the rest of her life as a fugitive slave.[41]Ona Judge Staines lived with her husband and their three children until Jack’s death in 1803.[42] After briefly holding a live-in position with the Bartlett family in Portsmouth, Ona left and moved with her children into the home of the Jacks family, where they remained. Work was scarce, and Ona’s son, William, is believed to have left home in the 1820s to become a sailor, like his father.[43] Her two daughters, Eliza and Nancy, were sadly forced into indentured servitude; dying before their mother.[44] After she became too old for physical labor, Ona herself lived in poverty, relying on donations from the community.Despite all the hardships, Ona enjoyed the benefits of a life of freedom: She taught herself to read and write, embraced Christianity and worshiped regularly at a church of her choice.[45] Several years before her death in 1848, she granted two interviews to abolitionist newspapers recounting her journey from bondage, alleging that the Washingtons administered brutal punishments to rebellious bondpeople, and tried to circumvent Pennsylvania’s 1780 gradual abolition law by moving bondpeople to and from the state every six months.[46]When a reporter from the Granite Freeman asked her if she regretted leaving the relative luxury of the Washingtons’ household, as she had worked so much harder after her escape, Ona Judge Staines memorably replied:“No, I am free, and have, I trust been made a child of God by the means.”[47]Footnotes[1] George Washington[2] List of Martha Dandridge Custis's Dower Slaves, 1760[3] Slavery[4] http://The February 18, 1786 Mount Vernon slave census lists "Oney" as Betty's child and "12 yrs. old". Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds., The Diaries of George Washington, vol. 4, (Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia), p. 278.[5] ONEY Judge....father ANDREW Ju[6] Austin[7] The President's House Revisited[8] Ona Judge, President Washington’s fugitive slave[9] The Nine Capitals of the United States[10] Never Caught[11] An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, 1780[12] https://www.google.com/amp/s/constitutioncenter.org/amp/blog/on-the-road-to-freedom-one-gradual-step-at-a-time[13] Meet the slave who escaped from George Washington's Philly mansion and was never caught[14] Martha Washington[15] Ona Judge Escapes to Freedom (U.S. National Park Service)[16] Ona Judge – George Washington’s Runaway Slave[17] Ona Judge: The First Lady’s personal maid who freed herself from bondage and was ‘Never Caught’[18] Resistance and Punishment[19] Ona Judge: The First Lady’s personal maid who freed herself from bondage and was ‘Never Caught’[20] Congress enacts first fugitive slave law, Feb. 12, 1793[21] https://blackheritagetrailnh.org/nh-history/[22] Buried Lives[23] Founders Online: From George Washington to Joseph Whipple, 28 November 1796[24] Founders Online: From George Washington to Joseph Whipple, 28 November 1796[25] Ona Judge's Fight for Freedom[26] H.M.S. Savage[27] Christopher Sheels[28] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/the-man-who-fed-the-first-president-and-hungered-for-freedom/2017/02/24/7897d572-f475-11e6-b9c9-e83fce42fb61_story.html%3foutputType=amp[29] Lafayette and Slavery - Lafayette Society[30] Fugitive Slaves and American Courts[31] Runaway Slave Ona Judge Staines[32] George Washington, a Letter, and a Runaway Slave[33] Founders Online: From George Washington to Burwell Bassett, Jr., 11 August 1799[34] Ona Judge Escapes to Freedom (U.S. National Park Service)[35] Resistance and Punishment[36] Why Did Martha Washington Free Her Husband’s Slaves Early?[37] The Atlantic Slave Trade in World History[38] The President's House: Slavery[39] George Washington Pamphlets[40] Why Did Martha Washington Free Her Husband’s Slaves Early?[41] Ona “Oney” Judge (1773-1848)[42] Judge, Oney (ca. 1773-1848)[43] Ona “Oney” Judge (1773-1848)[44] Runaway Slave Ona Judge Staines[45] Escaping George Washington: Oney Judge's 'amazing story' of courage[46] Ona Judge: The First Lady’s personal maid who freed herself from bondage and was ‘Never Caught’[47] Global African History Newspapers, Magazines, and Journals

At least here in the State of Washington, and nearly every other state I’m familiar with, you don’t need it. That piece of paper serves no useful purpose once it has been recorded by the County Clerk. If you wish to sell or refinance, the buyer or lender will require a title search and title insurance. That will produce a copy of the deed.That having been said, Louisiana has different rules, given that it’s laws follow the Napoleonic rather than English law. Also, Eastern states more often have attorneys prepare “Abstracts of Title”. But western states have a far faster and efficient system and are less prone to mistakes.When I started in real estate in 1974, we had “Real Estate Contracts”, where holding the deed was important. In the 80’s, the legislature changed that to put REC’s on the same footing as Deeds of Trust, where recording became the key element and physical possession of the actual deed became unimportant. Too often, by the time the last payment was finally made, the deed had been lost. Up until then, I would always specify that both parties have the deed delivered into a “True and Living Escrow” which would deliver the deed to the buyer when the last payment was made.