... are his own
draught.... I have even reason to believe that not only the _composition_,
the _clothing of the ideas_, but the _ideas themselves_, originated
generally with the writers; that Hamilton and Harrison, in particular,
were scarcely in any degree his amanuenses. I remember, when at
head-quarters one day, at Valley Forge, Colonel Harrison came down
from the General's chamber, with his brows knit, and thus accosted me, 'I
wish to the Lord the General would give me the heads or some idea, of what
he would have me write.'"

[Illustration: CORRECTED LETTER OF WASHINGTON SHOWING LATER CHANGES.]

After the Revolution, a visitor at Mount Vernon said, "It's astonishing
the packet of letters that daily comes for him from all parts of the
world, which employ him most of the morning to answer." A secretary was
employed, but not so much to do the actual writing as the copying and
filing, and at this time Washington complained "that my numerous
correspondencies are daily becoming irksome to me." Yet there can be
little question that he richly enjoyed writing when it was not for the
public eye. "It is not the letters of my friends which give me trouble,"
he wrote to one correspondent; to another he said, "I began with telling
you that I should not write a lengthy letter but the result has been to
contradict it;" and to a third, "when I look back to the length of this
letter, I am so much astonished and frightened at it myself that I
have not the courage to give it a careful reading for the purpose of
correction. You must, therefore, receive it with all its imperfections,
accompanied with this assurance, that, though there may be inaccuracies in
the letter, there is not a single defect in the friendship." Occasionally
there was, as here, an apology: "I am persuaded you will excuse this
scratch'd scrawl, when I assure you it is with difficulty I write at all,"
he ended a letter in 1777, and in 1792 of another said, "You must receive
it blotted and scratched as you find it for I have not time to copy it. It
is now ten o'clock at night, after my usual hour for retiring to rest, and
the mail will be closed early to-morrow morning."

To his overseer, who neglected to reply to some of his questions, he told
his method of writing, which is worth quoting:

"Whenever I set down to write you, I read your letter, or letters
carefully over, and as soon as I come to a part that requires to be
noticed, I make a short note on the