as formally made, nor
officially announced. The letter of the constitution was adhered to, and
the people were called upon to choose electors only, who, when they
should meet at the time specified by the constitution, should ballot for
whomsoever they pleased for president. Yet the politicians and the
leaders of parties in the Congress usually held up to the view of the
people candidates who afterward received the consideration of the
electoral college. The electors were therefore chosen in reference,
first, to their partisan character, and secondly, to their partiality to
some particular man prominent in the political field.

It was well known to Washington's more intimate friends, that he would
not consent to re-election. His reserve on that subject, and the long
delay in making a public announcement of his intention to retire to
private life puzzled the politicians. The president's political enemies
were more active than ever. We have already noticed the publication of
certain queries proposed by Washington to his cabinet, respecting the
reception of Genet, by which it was hoped to prejudice him in the
public mind by proving, by implication, his hostility to France. Another
weapon used by his unscrupulous enemies, for the purpose of degrading
him in the eyes of the American people, was the republication of a
series of spurious letters, purporting to have been written by
Washington. They were first published in London, in 1777, and
republished in Rivington's _Royal Gazette_, in February, 1778. These
letters, it was charged, were written by Washington from the army to
members of his family, in which he expressed private views of public
affairs quite inconsistent with his acts as commander-in-chief, or his
professions as a patriot. It was alleged that Billy, his body-servant,
had been captured, and that these letters, or copies of them, were found
in a portmanteau in the servant's possession. But the original
fabricator of the letters missed his aim. It was well known that Billy
had never been in the hands of the enemy;[107] and, in a short time, this
attempt to injure Washington was forgotten, and the letters were buried
in oblivion. But the hyena of political partisanship dragged them from
the grave almost twenty years later, and they were republished with a
new title,[108] and put forth as genuine, very soon after the appearance
of two volumes of Washington's official letters, which had been copied,
by permission, in