―243―

To the present number of this work is prefixed a head of Washington. It is the
Editor's intention to select, for the embellishment of this publication, the por-
traits of all eminent and illustrious men among his countrymen. Justice obvi-
ously demands that in doing this he should pay no regard to party animosities
and divisions. Washington, however, will hardly fail of being acceptable to all,
and his portrait will be followed by those of his successors in the presidency, in
their due order.

FOR THE LITERARY MAGAZINE.

ON THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON, NOW PUBLISHING.

To the Editor, &c.

sir,

I HAVE been waiting, with great
impatience, for the first volume of
the Life of Washington, which has
been so long expected, and my wishes
have just been gratified. I have
eagerly perused this great work, and
cannot forbear sending you a few
thoughts concerning it. It is an
affair in which every enlightened
American must deem his own ho-
nour, and that of his country, parti-
cularly concerned. There probably
never was a work yet published, in
which we should feel a deeper inte-
rest, not merely from our reverence
for the memory of him whose actions

it records, but from the influence on
our literary reputation which such
a work cannot fail to have, among
the learned of all nations.

It will be reasonably expected,
that the historian of Washington
was selected under the liveliest, per-
suasions of this kind; that in him
were thought to be united the great-
est number of intellectual accom-
plishments. As the subject of the
work had just expired, his biogra-
pher would, of course, be selected
from those who had partaken as an
agent of the same events, been a
witness of the same transactions,


―244―

and enjoyed, in the highest degree,
and for the longest period, the pub-
lic confidence and private intimacy
of the general. These were quali-
fications attainable in the choice of
a historian of such recent events, and
therefore they were indispensible.
As every excellence cannot be com-
bined in one person; as one per-
fectly qualified, in some respects,
may be deficient in others; as they
who are willing may not be able,
either from the pressure of personal
infirmities or duties, or from the
want of suitable knowledge or indus-
try; and as they who are able may
not be willing, he will, of course, be
chosen that is best qualified among
those who are both able and willing.

It is easy to perceive what a
heavy and arduous office the select-
ed writer has assumed. Where the
demands and the expectations of the
world are so very high, and where
the notions of merit are so numerous
and various, what mortal can hope
to give universal satisfaction? Who,
indeed, can hope to escape severe
censure? The work will be, to
some, too concise, to others too pro-
lix. Some will think the writer has
been too sparing of Washington's
own memorandums and letters;
while others will perhaps believe it
better for the compiler to have ex-
tracted less, and to have digested
and related in his own person more.
Some will discover too much vene-
ration for the deceased hero, too
prodigal and indiscriminate a pane-
gyric; while others will probably
resent the cold and envious modera-
tion with which the author has tem-
pered praise with blame.

There is a very numerous class
of readers, who were extremely dis-
pleased with the scheme, when first
suggested, of any biographical com-
pilation whatever. All the world
knows Washington possessed, among
innumerable virtues, that of order
and method. He had a just regard
for posthumous fame; and knowing,
likewise, that no collection of docu-
ments, relative to a single person,
would reflect so much light upon the
history of his native country, and of

human nature, as that which had
grown up under his own pen, and
that of his numerous correspondents,
he had taken care to arrange his
papers in exact order, and thus to
facilitate the task of their publica-
tion. Men seldom leave papers be-
hind them which they do not desire
to rescue from oblivion; and from
the length of the period of Wash-
ington's retirement, and his known
prudence and foresight, it cannot be
thought that he left any papers in
his collection unworthy to be pre-
served. His admirable modesty pre-
vented him, perhaps, from enjoin-
ing his survivors to publish all that
they found, but surely his judgment
would have prompted him to des-
troy what he fully believed to be
improper or unsuitable for publica-
tion. At any rate, whatever he him-
self may have thought, the world at
large cannot fail to entertain the
liveliest curiosity concerning these
inestimable manuscripts.

A numerous class of readers, be-
ing acquainted with this circum-
stance, demanded from Washing-
ton's heirs the publication of nothing
less than the whole collection left by
him. They firmly believe that the
deceased left nothing behind him, to
the publication of which he would
object, because this is the necessary
consequence of his known generosity
and prudence; and they no less
fondly believe that every thing
which Washington wrote bears the
peculiar stamp of his genius and his
wisdom.

Should it be objected that this col-
lection contains many things of little
value or moment; that many of his
correspondents were inconsiderable
people, induced to write to him by
their wants or their impertinence,
and the answers, therefore, mere
matters of course and common-place,
it will be replied, that, though a
selection ought to be made among
the letters of his correspondents, his
own letters ought to be printed with-
out exception or condition. As
Washington himself is the great object
of enlightened curiosity, the
reader would find little difficulty in


―245―

dispensing altogether with that part
of his collection consisting of letters
from others; and yet, since his cor-
respondence must have compre-
hended a large number of the most
illustrious and enlightened person-
ages of the age, would not a liberal
curiosity eagerly accept these letters,
by which so much light would be
thrown upon the characters and his-
tory of the writers, on the affairs
of the world at large, and on many
important topics of science?

No one will allow any force to
the objection that the publication
would be too voluminous; for what
possible inconvenience can arise from
a large number of volumes? If pe-
cuniary considerations are to have
weight, there was surely no reason
to apprehend that the work, how-
ever voluminous, would want buy-
ers. The name of Washington could
hardly fail to recommend it to bound-
less and perpetual popularity, in
both the new world and the old;
and it is much to be dreaded, that
the plan actually adopted will be
much less advantageous, in a pecu-
niary view. Whatever may be the
fame or merit of other names, the
works of Washington himself would
surely lay claim to higher curiosity
than the production of any other;
and his own life would be read in
his own documents, memorandums,
and letters, with infinitely more in-
terest than in the compilation of any
other pen.

This plan, however, having been
unalterably rejected, the admirers
of the deceased hero and sage had
only to console themselves with the
hope of having, in the projected bio-
graphy, a very great deal of Wash-
ington's own penning. This hope
was somewhat damped, by the news
that the work was to be limited to
three octavo volumes. Had it
extended to six or eight, it would
still surely have borne a very small
proportion to the bulk of the mate-
rials, and would by no means have
greatlyexceeded what has been pub-
lished in relation to men in, Clarendon
and Walpole for example, very
much inferior to Washington in the

magnitude, variety, splendour, or
duration of the parts they have act-
ed on the theatre of human life.

What was the disappointment of
such readers, on finding, in the vo-
lume just published, one third of the
projected work entirely devoted to
a general history of North America,
anterior to the revolution! No one
can deny the utility and merit of
such a theme; and though the exe-
cution be not equal to the perform-
ances of Hume and Robertson, very
great praise may yet be justly the
writer's due. They who expected
in the life of Washington nothing
more than a general history of North
America, from the original settle-
ment to his death, and all, whose
notions of pleasure or instruction to
be reaped from it were connected
with the reputation for skill, dili-
gence, and impartiality of Mr. Mar-
shall, will no doubt be highly grati-
fied by this preliminary narrative,
and that which is to follow. But
those, whose chief curiosity related
to the individual Washington, and
who were anxious to see him as
pourtrayed by his own pen; who
think that the general history of the
nation has been sufficiently discussed
by other hands, or ought to be de-
ferred to a future time, and a differ-
ent occasion, will experience great
impatience and vexation at their
disappointment. They will be ex-
tremely loth to allow to any other
judgment the task of culling and
selecting from a heap, every particle
of which is, in their eyes, of inesti-
mable value; but since they must
submit to this, their remaining hope
will be, that the culling will be very
large, and that if three volumes must
constitute the narrow limits of this
selection, Washington himself, or his
most illustrious correspondents and
compeers, will speak in every page.

From the specimen now afforded,
it is evident that these views will
be frustrated. The utmost that can
be hoped is, that the two remaining
volumes will be devoted to the fa-
vourite hero of America. This
hope, however, is a groundless one,
since it is evident, from what has


―246―

already appeared, that the remain-
der is merely to constitute a gene-
ral history of the United States, and
that the Washington papers are
merely designed to furnish the ma-
terials of this history.

It is devoutly to be hoped, that,
after they have performed this office
to a single writer, they will not be
consigned to the flames, or, what is
nearly as bad, shut up in private
garrets and closets from public cu-
riosity. Such documents are by no
means rendered useless by the in-
tended publication, since other his-
torians and compilers may entertain
different notions of their compa-
rative value, make different selections,
and form different conclusions, from
those formed by the present writer.
Such papers are, in the strictest
sense, the property of the curious
and enlightened among all nations,
or at least among the countrymen of
Washington. It is the duty, there-
fore, of those who now possess them,
to deposit them in a place most con-
venient and accessible to liberal en-
quirers, and to subject their exami-
nation to no difficulties and re-
straints, but such as are indispensible
to their safety.

There can be no doubt that this
was the design of the illustrious de-
ceased. In his eyes, it was the duty
of a good and great man not only to
make his life serviceable to man-
kind, but to extract a public advan-
tage from his death; and how can
any man more eminently contribute
to the public good than to leave a
benevolent example to posterity?

The most obvious mode of diffus-
ing and perpetuating the knowledge
of these precious remains was evi-
dently to multiply the copies of them,
in the most cheap, manageable, and
commodious form of publication……
Thus would all the world have been
enabled to judge of Washington and
his transactions, at first hand, to cull
and select for themselves, and de-
duce their own theories and infer-
ences. A history or biography, ex-
tracted from these papers, would always
be, useful and acceptable, but
this ought to come merely in the

shape of supplement, appendix, or
addition, and not as a substitute.

Beautiful examples of this mode
of communicating great men to the
public may be found in the two
works of the ingenious and impartial
Mr. Coxe: one the life of sir Ro-
bert Walpole, and the other of lord
Walpole. In both these cases, the
history, or compilation, is merely
subsidiary or supplemental. The
great body of the work is a very
large collection of original papers.
Those, truly desirous of knowing
these eminent men, could easily dis-
pense with the lucubrations of Coxe,
but the original papers were indis-
pensible. It was the possession of
these that enabled Coxe to think and
to write upon this subject, and every
judicious reader will imperiously
demand the same means and oppor-
tunities of judging for himself. The
world will as much more earnestly
deplore the adoption of a different
plan in “The Life of Washington,”
as Washington's character, and the
veneration it has gained from man-
kind, exceed the fame and merits
of any minister or ambassador of
Great Britain.

curioso.