6422. PARTIES, History.—
Let me implore
you to finish your history of parties, leaving
the time of publication to the state of
things you may deem proper, but taking especial
care that we do not lose it altogether. We
have been too careless of our future reputation,
while our tories will omit nothing to place us in
the wrong. Besides the five-volumed libel
which represents us as struggling for office,
and not at all to prevent our government from
being administered into a monarchy, the Life
of Hamilton is in the hands of a man who, to
the bitterness of the priest, adds the rancor of
the fiercest federalism. Mr. Adams's papers,
too, and his biography will descend, of course,
to his son whose pen, you know, is pointed,
and his prejudices not in our favor. And,
doubtless, other things are in preparation, unknown
to us. On our part, we are depending
on truth to make itself known, while history is
taking a contrary set which may become too
inveterate for correction. Mr. Madison will
probably leave something, but, I believe, only
particular passages of our history, and these
chiefly confined to the period between the dissolution
of the old and commencement of the
new government, which is peculiarly within his
knowledge. After he joined us in the administration,
he had no leisure to write. This, too,
was my case. But although I had not time to
prepare anything express, my letters (all preserved )
will furnish the daily occurrences and
views from my return from Europe in 1790,
till I retired finally from office. These will
command more conviction than anything I could
have written after my retirement; no day having
ever passed during that period without a
letter to somebody. Written, too, in the moment,
and in the warmth and freshness of fact
and feeling, they will carry internal evidence
that what they breathe is genuine. Selections
from these, after my death, may come out successively
as the maturity of circumstances May
render their appearance seasonable. But multiplied
testimony, multiplied views will be necessary
to give solid establishment to truth.
Much is known to one which is not known to
another, and no one knows everything. It is
the sum of individual knowledge which is to
make up the whole truth, and to give its correct
current through future time. Then, do not
* * * withhold your stock of information;
and I would moreover recommend that you
trust it not to a single copy, nor to a single
depositary. Leave it not in the power of any
one person, under the distempered view of an
unlucky moment, to deprive us of the weight of
your testimony, and to purchase, by its destruction,
the favor of any party or person.—
To William Johnson. Washington ed. vii, 277.
Ford ed., x, 247.
(M.
1823)
