Can a historical linguist explain why George Washington capitalized so many words?

by Raidicus

I found this link of a letter George Washington wrote in 1775 to Nicholas Cooke. What immediately stood to me was that nouns were by and large capitalized.

Can anyone explain this to me?

Link here

Searocksandtrees

hi! this question do better in /r/linguistics, but there are a few historical linguists here. Meanwhile, here are a couple of previous discussions on the topic to get started on

Why did Enlightenment- and Victorian-era writers capitalize words in a seemingly arbitrary manner?

Why did written American English become much simpler and more direct between the 18th and 19th centuries?