l letters from General Washington on matters, for the most part,
purely domestic and personal, addressed to Colonel Tobias Lear, his
private Secretary for a part of the time he was President; and then, and
during periods much longer, his confidential friend. They came into my
hands through the voluntary kindness of Mrs. Lear, of the city of
Washington, the estimable relict of Colonel Lear, and niece of Mrs.
Washington, whose friendship it was my good lot and that of my family to
enjoy; as we did that of Colonel Lear while he lived. The latter died in
Washington in 1816. Mrs. Lear first informed me of these letters ten or
twelve years ago when in Washington, and offered them to my perusal and
examination, telling me to take them home and retain them as long as I
chose, and use them as I thought best, for she knew I would not abuse
this privilege. I brought them home as requested, being then too much
engaged in the business of the Smithsonian Institution as one of the
Regents on its first organization, to examine them while in Washington.
She afterwards read, approved, and for some time had in her hands the
paper I drew up from them.

It consisted of notices of, and extracts from these original letters,
the matter being abridged, connecting links used, and omissions made
where the great author himself marked them private or from parts
otherwise not necessary to go before the world. So guarded and prepared,
and with a commentary interwoven, Mrs. Lear left its publication to my
discretion. I returned the original letters, in number more than thirty,
in the state I received them from her. I never allowed any one of them
to be copied; but gave one away, or two, for I am not at this day
certain which, to Mr. Polk while he was President of the United States,
having first asked and obtained Mrs. Lear's consent for that purpose.
She also gave me two of them not very long before her decease, which I
prize the more as her gift. I have other original letters from the same
immortal source, the valued donation in 1830, of the son of Colonel
Lear, Lincoln Lear, Esquire.

This excellent lady, who long honored me with her friendship and
confidence in the above and other ways, after surviving Colonel Lear
forty years, died last December in Washington. There she had continued
to live as his widow; being all this time in possession of, and as I
supposed owning, these original letters. There she lived, beloved as a
pattern of the Christian