the office of the secretary of state, carried to
London, and there printed.

In order to give more force to the intended effect of these spurious
letters, a preface to the new edition was carefully written, which
contained the following paragraph:--

"Since the publication of the two volumes of General Washington's
'Original Letters to the Congress,' the editor has been repeatedly
applied to for the general's 'Domestic and Confidential Epistles,'
first published soon after the beginning of the American war. These
epistles are here offered to the public, together with a copious
appendix, containing a number of official letters and papers, not
to be found in the general's original letters above noticed; but
the collection must certainly be looked upon as in a mutilated
state, so long as it remains unaccompanied with the epistles, etc.,
which are now respectfully submitted to the patronage of the
public, and which form a supplement absolutely necessary to make
the work complete. That this collection of 'Domestic and
Confidential Epistles' will be regarded as a valuable acquisition
by a very great majority of the citizens of the United States, is
presumable from the prevailing taste of all well-informed people.
Men not precluded by ignorance from every degree of literary
curiosity, will always feel a solicitude to become acquainted with
whatever may serve to throw light on illustrious personages.
History represents them acting on the stage of the world, courting
the applause of mankind. To see them in their real character we
must follow them behind the scenes, among their private connections
and domestic concerns."

Nothing in our modern political warfare has equalled, in meanness and
moral turpitude, this assassin-stab at the character of a public man.
Washington, with proper dignity, treated it as he had done other
slanders, with that contemptuous silence which it deserved. But that
very silence was construed into an acknowledgment of the truth of the
words of the calumny. "The malignant commentators on this spurious
text," says Marshall, "would not admit the possibility of its being
apocryphal."

While political and partisan abuse was pouring most copiously upon the
head of the president, his Farewell Address appeared. It was published,
as we have seen, at about the middle of September, and produced a great