The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

PART I.] INTRODUCTION. Xl
writings, by contributing matter for brief notes, and
more full explanations inI the Appendix. For this object I have likewise consulted such other manuscript
authorities as could be obtained, relating to the period
in question, and the best printed records and documents, such as the journals of assemblies, statutes at
large, proclamations, governors' messages, and the correspondence of officers high in rank, both military and
civil, English and French. It has in all cases been my
endeavour to establish facts, as far as possible, by original
testimony, and to take nothing at second hand where the
means existed of ascending to a more authentic source.
As this aim has been pursued with a scrupulous care
and persevering diligence, it is believed, that as much
accuracy has been attained, as the nature of such inqui —
ries will admit, and that nothing has been passed over,,
which would serve to illustrate the character of Washington, or explain the transactions in which he took an
important part.
After he resigned his commission in the army, and
retired to his plantation at Mount Vernon, he devoted
himself for fifteen years almost exclusively to his private
affairs. He was usually a member of the Virginia House
of Burgesses, but few traces remain of his public acts in
that body. A list of the voters at his several elections,
denoting the persons for whom they voted, has been
preserved, from which it appears, that he was uniformly
chosen by a large majority over all his competitors.
Two manuscript volumes contain the copies of letters,
which were written between the time of his leaving the
army and the beginning of the revolution. They are
copied out with peculiar neatness in his own handwriting.
As these letters were directed chiefly to his mercantile
agents in London, employed to sell his tobacco and the
other produce of his plantations, and to purchase such