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3731. HISTORY, Private letters and.—[continued].

Although I decline all
newspaper controversy, yet when falsehoods
have been advanced, within the knowledge of
no one so much as myself, I have sometimes
deposited a contradiction in the hands of a
friend, which, if worth preservation, may, when
I am no more, nor those whom I might offend,
throw light on history, and recall that into the
path of truth.—
To Martin Van Buren. Washington ed. vii, 372. Ford ed., x, 315.
(M. 1824)