3740. HISTORY (American), Inaccuracies.—
Botta * * * has put his own speculations
and reasonings into the mouths of
persons whom he names, but who, you and I
know, never made such speeches. In this he
has followed the example of the ancients, who
made their great men deliver long speeches, all
of them in the same style, and in that of the author
himself. The work is nevertheless a good
one, more judicious, more chaste, more classical,
and more true than the party diatribe of
Marshall. Its greatest fault is in having taken
too much from him.
To John Adams. Washington ed. vi, 489.
Ford ed., ix, 527.
(M.
1815)
