Beschreibung:

WASHINGTON, George (1732-1799), President . Autograph manuscript account of his early military career, entitled "Remarks," prepared as additions to a draft biography by Colonel David Humphreys, [Mount Vernon], n.d. [1786-1789]. 11 pages, folio, 322 x 200mm. (10 11/16 x 7 7/8in.). written on rectos and versos of three bifolios of laid paper watermarked "L I C," pages 2, 3, 6, 7 and 9 professionally reinforced with tissue to protect weakened folds, with an early cover sheet of a different paper (also reinforced) bearing note of an 1829 owner (see Provenance); enclosed in red morocco gilt folder, silk linings, quarter red morocco gilt folding box . WASHINGTON'S VIVID ACCOUNT OF HIS SERVICE IN THE FRENCH & INDIAN WARS, WITH HIS IMPORTANT NARRATIVE OF THE CATASTROPHIC DEFEAT AND DEATH OF GENERAL BRADDOCK DURING THE FORT DUQUESNE EXPEDITION; A MANUSCRIPT THAT WASHINGTON REQUESTED BE BURNED A very remarkable autograph manuscript: one of Washington's only direct, autobiographical writings and a manuscript which Washington himself asked his biographer to burn: "The information given in these sheets, tho related from Memory, Is it is believe[d] to be depended upon It is earnestly requested that after Col.0 Humphrey[s], has extracted what he shall judge necessary, and given it in his own language, that the whole of what is here contained may be returned to G W, or committed to the flames." Humphreys (1752-1818), a Yale graduate, poet and one the Connecticut Wits, joined the Continental cause in 1776, and became an aide to General Israel Putnam, then to General Nathaniel Greene, and finally, in 1780, aide-de-camp to the Commander-in-Chief of the American forces, General Washington. The General's friendship with the younger man persisted long after the conclusion of the Treaty of Paris. In subsequent years Humphreys was a frequent house guest at Mount Vernon. He became Washington's private secretary upon his election as President and later held important diplomatic posts during his Presidency. On several occasions from 1784 on, Humphreys urged Washington to furnish an autobiographical account of his life and public career, and proposed himself as biographer. In a letter of 25 July 1785, Washington agreed to Humphreys' plan, promised access to what papers he had a Mount Vernon, and praised Humphreys' suitability for the task. Visiting Mount Vernon in 1786, and becoming a permanent resident there from 1787 until 1789, when the newly elected President departed for New York, Humphreys prepared at least two drafts of his biography of the hero of the War of Independence, one of which he submitted to Washington for suggestions and additions. Washington responded by composing (from memory, as he asserts in two places) these 11 pages of notes, directly keyed by page and note numbers into Humphreys' text. Humphreys' drafts, believed lost for many years, survived in the Rosenbach Museum and Library, Philadelphia, (the draft to which Washington's "Remarks" are keyed) while another, earlier draft is in the Humphreys-Marvin-Olmstead Papers at Sterling Library, Yale University. Throughout his "Remarks" Washington refers to himself in the third person wherever possible, but reverts to the initials "G W" in places where the nominative case is demanded by his narrative. Page 1 contains six notes, the first recording that "My father dies when I was only 10 years old" (in 1742); another adding information on Washington's mission, in 1753, as envoy from Virginia's Governor Dinwiddle to the French at Presque Isle, which was accomplished "at a most inclement Season, for he travelled over the Apalacheon Mountains, and passed 250 miles thro an uninhabited Country in the depth of winter while the face of the Earth was covered with snow and the waters covered with Ice; the whole dist[anc]e from W[illia]msburgh at least 500 miles." (This difficult journey was the subject of Washington's only other autobiographical writing for publication, his Journal of Major Georg