University of Virginia Library

TO J. K. PAULDING.

Dear Sir I have recd. your letter of the 6th inst; and feel
myself very safe in joining your other friends in their advice
on the Biographical undertaking you meditate. The plan
you adopt is a valuable improvement on the prevailing
examples, which have too much usurped the functions of the
historian; and by omitting the private features of character,
and anecdotes, which as condiments, always add flavour, and
sometimes nutrition to the repast, have forfeited much of the
due attraction. The more historical mode has been recommended,
probably by the more ready command of materials,
such as abound in the contributions of the Press, & in the
public archives. In a task properly biographical, the difficulty
lies in the evanescent or inaccessible information which it
particularly requires. Autographic memorials are rare, and
usually deficient on essential points, if not otherwise faulty;
and at the late periods of life the most knowing witnesses may
have descended to the tomb, or their memories become no
longer faithful depositories. Where oral tradition is the resort,
all know the uncertainties, and inaccuracies which beset it.

I ought certainly to be flattered by finding my name on the
list of subjects you have selected; and particularly so, as I can
say with perfect sincerity, there is no one, to whose justice,
judgment, and every other requisite, I could more willingly
confide, whatever of posthumous pretension, my career thro'
an eventful period, may have, to a conservative notice.
Yet I feel the awkwardness of attempting "a sketch of the

principal incidents of my life," such as the partiality of your
friendship has prompted you to request. Towards a compliance
with your object I may avail myself of a paper, tho' too
meagre even for the name of a sketch, wch. was very reluctantly
but unavoidably drawn up a few years ago for an absortive
biography. Whether I shall be able to give it any
amplification, is too uncertain to admit a promise.[135] My
life has been so much of a public one, that any review of it must
mainly consist, of the agency which was my lot in public
transactions; and of that agency the portions probably the
most acceptable to general curiosity, are to be found in my
manuscript preservations of some of those transactions, and in
the epistolary communications to confidential friends made
at the time & on the spot, whilst I was a member of Political
Bodies, General or Local. My judgment has accorded with
my inclination that any publicity, of which selections from
this miscellany may be thought worthy, should await a
posthumous date. The printed effusions of my pen are
either known or of but little bulk.

For portraits of the several characters you allude to, I
know not that I can furnish your canvas with any important
materials not equally within your reach, as I am sure that
you do not need if I could supply any aid to your pencil
in the use of them. Everything relating to Washington is
already known to the world, or will soon be made known
thro' Mr. Sparks; with the exception of some of those inside
views of character and scenes of domestic life which are apart
from ordinary opportunities of observation. And it may
be presumed that interesting lights will be let in even on
those exceptions through the private correspondences in the
hands of Mr. Sparks.

Of Franklin I had no personal knowledge till we served together
in the Federal Convention of 1787, and the part he
took there has found its way to the public, with the exception

of a few anecdotes which belong to the unveiled part of the
proceedings of that Assembly. He has written his own life,
and no man had a finer one to write, or a better title to be
himself the writer. There is eno' of blank however for a
succeeding pen.

With Mr. Jefferson I was not acquainted till we met as
members of the first Revolutionary Legislature of Virginia, in
1776. I had of course no personal knowledge of his early life.
Of his public career, the records of his Country give ample
information and of the general features of his character with
much of his private habits, and of his peculiar opinions, his
writings before the world to which additions are not improbable,
are equally explanatory. The obituary Eulogiums,
multiplied by the Epoch & other coincidences of his death, are
a field where some things not unworthy of notice may perhaps
be gleaned. It may on the whole be truly said of him,
that he was greatly eminent for the comprehensiveness &
fertility of his genius, for the vast extent & rich variety of his
acquirements; and particularly distinguished by the philosophic
impress left on every subject which he touched. Nor
was he less distinguished for an early & uniform devotion to the
cause of liberty, and systematic preference of a form of Govt.
squared in the strictest degree to the equal rights of man.
In the social & domestic spheres, he was a model of the
virtues & manners which most adorn them.

In relation to Mr. John Adams, I had no personal knowledge
of him, till he became V. President of the U. S. and then saw
no side of his private character which was not visible to all;
whilst my chief knowledge of his public Character & career
was acquired by means now accessible, or becoming so to all.
His private papers are said to be voluminous; and when
opened to public view, will doubtless be of much avail to a
biographer. His official correspondence during the Revolutionary
period, just published will be found interesting both in
a historical & biographical view. That he had a mind rich in
ideas of his own, as well as its learned store; with an ardent

love of Country, and the merit of being a colossal champion of
its Independence, must be allowed by those most offended
by the alloy in his Republicanism, and the fervors and
flights originating in his moral temperament.

Of Mr. Hamilton, I ought perhaps to speak with some restraint,
though my feelings assure me, that no recollection of
political collisions, could control the justice due to his memory.
That he possessed intellectual powers of the first order, and
the moral qualifications of integrity & honor in a captivating
degree, has been decreed to him by a suffrage now universal.
If his Theory of Govt. deviated from the Republican Standard,
he had the candor to avow it, and the greater merit of cooperating
faithfully in maturing & supporting a system which
was not his choice. The criticism to which his share in the
administration of it, was most liable was, that it had the
aspect of an effort to give to the instrument a constructive
& practical bearing not warranted by its true & intended
character. It is said that his private files have been opened
to a friend who is charged with the task you contemplate.
If he be not a Citizen of N. York, it is probable that in collecting
private materials from other sources your opportunities
may be more than equal to his.

I will, on this occasion take the liberty to correct a statement
of Mr. H. which contradicts mine on the same subject; and
which as mine, if erroneous could not be ascribed to a lapse
of memory, might otherwise be an impeachment of my veracity.
I allude to the discrepancy between the memorandum given
by Mr. H. to Mr. Benson, distributing the Nos. of the "Federalist"
to the respective writers, and the distribution communicated
by me at an early day to a particular friend, & finally
to Mr. Gideon for his Edition of the Work at Washington
a few years ago.[136]

The reality of errors in the statement of Mr. H. appears
from an internal evidence in some of the papers. Take

for an example No. 49, which contains a Eulogy on Mr. Jn,
marking more of the warm feelings of personal friendship in the
writer, than at any time belonged to Mr. Hamilton. But there
is proof of another sort in No. 64, ascribed in the memorandum
to Mr. H. That it was written by Mr. Jay, is shewn by a passage
in his Life by Delaplaine, obviously derived directly or
indirectly from Mr. Jay himself. There is a like proof that
N. 54, ascribed to Mr. Jay, was not written by him. Nor is it
difficult to account for errors in the memorandum, if recurrence
be had to the moment at which a promise of such a one was
fulfilled; to the lumping manner in which it was made out;
and to the period of time, not less than years, between
the date of the "Federalist," and that of the memorandum;
And as a proof of the fallibility to which the memory of Mr.
H. was occasionally subject, a case may be referred to so
decisive as to dispense with every other. In the year [1803]
Mr. H., in a letter answering an inquiry of Col. Pickering
concerning the plan of Govt. which he had espoused in the
Convention of 1787, states that at the close of the Convention
he put into my hands a draught of a Constitution; and in
that draught he had proposed a "President for three years."
[See the letter in Niles's Register.[137] ] Now the fact is that in
that plan, the original of which I ascertained several years ago
to be among his papers, the tenure of office for the President
is not 3 years, but during good behaviour. The error is the more
remarkable, as the letter apologizes, according to my recollection,
for its being not a prompt one; and as it is so much
at variance with the known cast of Mr. H's political tenets,
that it must have astonished his political & most of all his
intimate friends. I shd. do injustice nevertheless to myself as
well as to Mr. H. if I did not express my perfect confidence that
the misstatement was involuntary, and that he was incapable
of any that was not so.

I am sorry sir that I could not make a better contribution

to your fund of biographical matter. Accept it as an evidence
at least of my respect for your wishes; & with it the cordial
remembrances & regards in which Mrs. M. joins me as I do
her in the request to be favorably presented to Mrs. Paulding.

Much curiosity & some comment have been excited by the
marvellous [similarity] in a Plan of Govt. proposed by Chs.
Pinckney in the Convn. of 1787, as published in the Journals
with the text of the Constitution as finally agreed to. I find
among my pamphlets a copy of a small one entitled "Observations
on the Plan of Govt. submitted to the Fedl. Convention
in Phila. on the 28th of May by Mr. C. P. a Delegate
from S. C. delivered at different times in the Convention."

My Copy is so defaced & mutilated that it is impossible to
make out eno' of the Plan as referred to in the Observation,
for a due comparison of it, with that presented in the Journal.
The pamphlet was printed in N. Y. by Francis Childs. The
year is effaced: It must have been not very long after the close of
the Convention, and with the sanction at least of Mr. P. himself.
It has occurred that a copy may be attainable at the Printing
office if still kept up, or examined in some of the Libraries,
or Historical Collections in the City. When you can snatch
a moment in y. walks with other views; for a call at such
places, you will promote an object of some little interest as
well as delicacy, by ascertaining whether the article in question
can he met with. I have among my manuscript papers,
Lights on the subject. The pamphlet of Mr. P. could not fail
to add to them.

Apl. 1831.[138]