WASHINGTON IN DOMESTIC LIFE.

From Original Letters and Manuscripts. By Richard Rush.

GENTLEMEN:—

In confiding to your house the publication of this brief paper on some points in the character of Washington, I beg leave to say, that for any deficiency in the cost of publishing, after all your charges in having it fitly done are defrayed, I will be responsible.

And in the very remote probability of the sale of a production so limited as this, in the face of a thousand better things on Washington's character already before the world, ever yielding anything in the way of profit after your proper expenditures are all satisfied, it will go, however small, to the Washington Monument Fund, existing in the metropolis of our country.

I am, gentlemen,

Your very faithful

And obedient servant,

RICHARD RUSH.

SYDENHAM, NEAR PHILADELPHIA, February 28, 1857.

To MESSRS.

J.B. LIPPINCOTT AND CO.,

PUBLISHERS,

PHILADELPHIA.

This literary trifle is hardly worth a dedication; yet it has dared to touch, though with incompetent hands, a high subject, and, trifle as it is, I dedicate it to you. At an agreeable little dinner at your table lately, where we had the new Vice-President, Mr. Breckenridge, whose maternal stock, the Stanhope Smiths and Witherspoons, so rich in intellect, we knew at Princeton, you said we had been friends for upwards of sixty years. You were right, for we were merry boys together in Philadelphia before our college days at Princeton; and I may here add, that our friendship never has been interrupted.

RICHARD RUSH.

INTRODUCTORY EXPLANATION.

The manuscript or paper here published was prepared from a collection of original 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 virtues, and enjoying the esteem of the circle around her as an interesting relict of days becoming historical; but ever elevating in the associations they recall. Now that she is gone, I am induced to give to the public the paper in question. In doing so I have the best grounds for believing that I perform an act that would have been grateful to her were she living. She was fully informed of my intention to publish it and could not but be sensible that the long respect and affectionate attachment of General Washington which her husband enjoyed, as so indelibly stamped upon these letters, is a record of his probity, capacity, and sterling worth, than which none could ever be more precious, or be likely to endure longer. This consideration it might be thought affects only the descendants of Colonel Lear or others devoted to his memory; but I have ventured to think that the publication may not be wholly unacceptable on broader grounds. Nothing, indeed, in authentic connection with Washington's great name can ever be unwelcome to the American people; and although it may have happened that some few of these letters have heretofore found their way into print in whole or in part, the number, as far as was known to Mrs. Lear, is believed to be very small. Hence the publication need not be forborne on that account; more especially if it should be found to carry with it the slightest general interest in the form now presented.

In regard to the narrative of Arnold's treason as given by the great Chief at his table at Mount Vernon and afterwards written down by Colonel Lear, which I have appended to the synopsis of the letters, it was not within Mrs. Lear's knowledge, nor is it within mine at present, that it has ever been in print before.

RICHARD RUSH.

SYDENHAM, NEAR PHILADELPHIA, February, 1857.

WASHINGTON IN DOMESTIC LIFE.

When first I opened and cursorily read the original letters from General Washington, mentioned in the foregoing introductory explanation, and noticed the domestic topics which ran so largely through them, they struck me as possessing peculiar interest. They were of value as coming from that venerated source, and doubly so, considering how little is known, through his own correspondence, of his domestic life; scarcely, in fact, any of its details. Reading the letters again, I found the matter to be somewhat more varied than my first eager inspection of them, as hastily unfolded, had led me to suppose; but they were desultory, and much broken as to dates. The occasional mixture of other matter, especially public matter, with the domestic topics, did not diminish the interest of the letters, but the contrary. In this publication I follow the order of the dates. Where wide chasms occur, I have merely supplied a link in the chain by an explanatory remark here and there, in aid of the reader, not hazarding other remarks until all the letters are mentioned. Thus much as to the plan. I proceed to speak of the letters themselves.

The first in date is of the fifth of September, 1790. It is written in Philadelphia, where Washington had just then arrived from New York, Mr. Lear, as may be inferred from it, being in New York. He states that he would proceed onward to Mount Vernon on the day following if Mrs. Washington's health would permit, as she had been indisposed since their arrival in Philadelphia; that