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Editor’s Note

THE MATERIALS reproduced here derive almost entirely from John C. Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington. Where feasible, his versions have been checked against the manuscripts. Some other materials derive directly from manuscripts or other published sources.

With the exception of Chapter Eleven, where the major addresses of Washington’s presidency are brought together, the materials here are presented in a straightforwardly chronological order. Critical apparatus has been held to an absolute minimum in this collection. This work is designed to be a tool of general information rather than a tool of critical study. While this work has been thoroughly checked to conform to the most recent critical judgments, readers seeking a tool of critical analysis should consult the multivolume Papers of George Washington in progress under the editorship of W. W. Abbot at the University of Virginia Press.

The reader will note bracketed words and phrases in the text. Except in the discarded inaugural, these are Fitzpatrick’s, used to indicate that portions of the text have been crossed out, mutilated, or left out inadvertently by Washington or an aide to whom he dictated his words. Brackets sometimes enclose words that Fitzpatrick provides to fill the gap, sometimes enclose variant wordings, and sometimes indicate that the handwriting has suddenly shifted to that of another person. In the discarded inaugural, brackets have been inserted by the present editor to indicate similar textual conditions.

Modernization of spelling and grammar were applied inconsistently in Fitzpatrick. However, because it remains the most complete collection of Washington’s writings published to date, we have adhered to Fitzpatrick. Changes have been introduced only in those very few cases where it is conceived that meaning would otherwise be lost. Of course, materials reprinted from other sources have not been forced to conform to the Fitzpatrick standard.

ABOUT THE FRONTISPIECE

This “best” representation of Washington remains clouded in mystery as to its provenance. Said to be the work of David d’Angers, it has also been termed a fake by some scholars. The difficulty is that this particular work, which is in marble, was uncovered earlier in this century as the “lost” David gift to the United States that, reportedly, had burned in a fire at the Library of Congress in 1851. When it surfaced, it was purchased by Henry Huntington and now forms part of the collection at The Huntington Library in San Marino, California. Because of the controversy surrounding it, it had never been publicly exhibited prior to September 1985, when it was resurrected from storage as a consequence of our researches.

Apart from the technical difficulties touching the improbability of so fine a representation in marble having survived a fire without noticeable damage, the major obstacle to considering this the work of David is the possibility that the David statue was in bronze. Indeed, a committee of French artists and statesmen in 1904 replaced the “lost” statute with a bronze copy, which now rests in the rotunda of the Capitol. Further, records of the Library of Congress contemporaneous with the fire either refer to the original as bronze or make no mention of it at all. Nor are there any other extant records uncovered to this date which make any reference to the statue. The bronze copy of 1904 was fashioned from a cast model reportedly located at David d’Angers’ studio in France.

The story of the marble bust (as well as the story of the original gift), therefore, remains inconclusive. One may nevertheless attest to the extraordinarily high merit of the bronze bust attributed to David and to the virtually pinpoint precision with which its dimensions and attitudes are reproduced in the marble version now in California.

THE SOURCES OF THE TEXT

The following is a list of sources for all materials that do not derive from the Fitzpatrick edition.

Letter number 4, to Robert Hunter Morris, is from the Stanford University Library and contains minor revisions by the editor.

Letter number 86, Washington’s “Circular Letter,” is edited from two versions: Fitzpatrick’s and the South Carolina copy (thirteen manuscripts were produced—one for each state), to which I referred courtesy of the Winthrop College Archives, Dacus Library, Rock Hill, South Carolina.

Letter number 117, to John Jay, and letter number 132, to Henry Knox, are both in the collection of the University of Virginia Washington Papers Project, Alderman Library. Letter number 133, the summary Washington made of letters from Jay, Knox, and Madison, is reprinted from North American Review LVII, October 1827.

Letter number 155 is taken from Noah Webster, A Collection of Papers on Political . . . Subjects, 1843.

For letter number 167, the fragments of the discarded inaugural address, a full explanation of the sources of the fragments appears immediately after the reconstructed text. With the exception of the discarded first inaugural address and the “Farewell Address,” all the material in Chapter Eleven appears as it did in the first compilation of American State Papers, as ordered by Congress. This editor’s decision to follow those texts reflects Washington’s own decision in general not to allow the publication of his official papers prior to a specific order for that purpose being given by Congress.

Letter number 188, to the Hebrew congregation, and letter number 189, to the Roman Catholics, are derived from manuscripts MH;ns70584 and 81529, respectively, from the Washington Papers Project.

Letter number 190, to the Hebrew congregation in Newport, and letter number 191, to the Hebrew congregation in Savannah, are as printed in Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society (3), 1895.