hardly legible, being faded copies, on thin paper, taken in a copying press. Some are autograph letters, filled and endorsed by the same hand, and tied in bundles with red tape; others are bound books, larger or smaller, according as they were intended for mere memoranda or for letters written out at length. Others are journals and registers, giving at one time, by their characteristic perseverance, for year after year, a lifelike picture of the even tenor of their owner's agricultural life; and again, vivid suggestions of more public import by their sudden breaking off, as at the memorable time when he left Mount Vernon for some post of public duty, such as the first Convention, or the Presidential chair. These diaries are written on the interleavings of the old Virginia Almanac, on the titlepage of which the date is announced as "in the year of our Lord God."

The memoranda commence January 1, 1768, without other preface than this:-" Where, how, and with whom my Time is spent." The Almanac professes, as usual, to contain "The Lunations, Conjunctions, Eclipses, the Sun and Moon's Rising and Setting, the Rising, Southing and Setting of the Heavenly Bodies; true Places and Aspects of the Planets; Weather, &c., calculated according to Art." Also, Entertaining Observations for Each Month, and other Pieces of Amusement. By T. T. Philomath." On the title-page we read

LETTERS AND DIARIES-PARCHMENTS.

"Thus Year by Year the Reader we present
Something new matter for to give content;
You'll find here, besides the Calendar Part,
Rare Observations, written with much Art,
With Verses which to each Month do agree,

And other things of Mirth and merry glee.”

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There are, among the Washington papers, many of these books, perhaps forty in all; each containing, first, a calendar, and over and below the calendar on each page a verse of sententious wisdom, homely advice, or satirical observations on human nature, all couched in wretched rhyme. Secondly, ten blank pages, of which the first two or three are filled, in Washington's hand, with a journal of his own; the next two by a regular register of the weather; and then one or two by observations on farm business.

The poetry and anecdotes are such as were, doubtless, palatable at that day, though in ours they might be thought a little homely, if not coarse. Very many of the books were probably intended to be carried in the capacious pockets of their time. One almost wonders where Washington acquired so much taste and delicacy as he possessed, when we see how totally devoid of these qualities were many publications, that seem to have been accepted by society in his youth.

One considerable parcel in the box consists of diplomas and honorary testimonials from corporations; some of them parchments, with great seals and flowing ends of ribbon.

He wished to have added his own commission as Commander in Chief to the number; and after he had in due form returned it to Congress at Annapolis, he wrote to a government official, requesting that it might be sent him, saying, playfully, that it might amuse his grand children. But the parchment had been filed among state papers, and could not be had. It is now among the interesting relics of Washington and the Revolution, at the Patent office, at the seat of govern

ment.

Intermixed with the letters in Washington's handwriting, are a few addressed to him on various business; but in general the papers are his own, and afford the most unquestionable picture of his mind and character that we could possibly desire.

Besides the papers contained in the box, there are in the Department, arranged in presses which occupy one entire side of a large room, more than two hundred bound volumes of letters to and from Washington; a collection including some of the most interesting documents connected with our history; such as the letters of Major André, and the correspondence of the traitor Arnold. The whole includes a complete view of the state of things during the revolutionary war and the presidencies of Washington.

These papers and parchments belong to the United States. Those contained in the box were purchased of the heirs of Washington by the government, for the sum of twenty thousand dollars, and the whole pre

IMPORTANCE OF THE PAPERS TO HISTORY.

5

cious deposite is confided to the care of the keeper of the Rolls Office, who most courteously shows them to any one who comes properly introduced.

Washington himself prepared the greater part of his papers for the public eye, observing that the history of the country during his time could not be properly written without a reference to those papers. All who have been engaged in writing our history have gladly availed themselves of these inestimable materials; and chiefly Judge Marshall and Mr. Sparks, the latter having, with infinite labor, given to his country and the world a larger portion of Washington's more important letters, with ample notes and appendixes, making eleven volumes, besides a Life of their author, in one large octavo volume. More recently, Mr. Irving has studied the manuscripts, and drawn from them and other sources the Life of Washington, now publishing in several large volumes.

Many other of the biographies of Washington have been drawn more or less from the papers in the Rolls Office, which must ever, of course, be the most reliable and the most ample source of information on the subject.

Yet, after all these researches, so minute and so voluminous are the records of his daily life which Washington thought it worth while to make, and not only to make, but to leave ready for inspection, that there remained still some personal matter, which, though not exactly fitted for the use of the historian, is yet available to the biographer, especially to one desirous above

all things to find out and exhibit traits of the man, rather than of the soldier or the statesman. Washington is far better known to his countrymen in the two last mentioned characters than in his private one. It has even been said that he "had no private character.” But this opinion is contrary to all the traditions of the Washington family, who love to dwell upon the domestic traits of their august relative, and who think of him in his character of uncle, guardian, friend, and neighbor, with mingled reverence and affection.

If there could be any doubt about Washington's having intended that all his papers should be at the service of the public, motives of delicacy might be supposed to interfere with the publication of private journals and the details of family affairs; but the arrangement and preservation of the papers sufficiently show that it was the intention of the writer to lay his entire life open; to offer materials to future biographers, and to withhold nothing that might aid the world in forming a just estimate of his character.

How else account for these private papers having been left mingled with those of public interest, by a man so methodical, so cautious, and so free from all suspicion of vanity? A careful examination of the ground leads rather to the conclusion, that having been the subject of unbounded calumny, Washington thought the best and most complete answer to these sinister imputations, would be to show without reserve what manner of man he had been, from the beginning, and