COLLECTED BY
CONTAINING THE
CADWALADER PAMPHLET, VALLEY FORGE LETTERS
etc., etc., etc.
PHILADELPHIA:
HORACE W. SMITH, 20 SOUTH SIXTH STREET.
1856.
For some years I had been engaged in collecting material for a life of mygreat grandfather, the Rev. William Smith, D. D., Provost of the Universityof Pennsylvania, and in doing so, I read all the Bibliographical andHistorical works which I thought could in any way make mention of him. Inno case did I find anything said against his character as a man, until Iread Wm. B. Reed's Life of his grandfather, Gen. Joseph Reed. His remarkswere uncalled for and ungentlemanly; what they were, amount to nothing,as they were untrue; and therefore not worth repeating. My first idea wasto speak of Gen. Joseph Reed in the same manner, though with more truth;but finding the truth had been suppressed, and that to publish all I couldwish in regard to Reed, would take up too much room in my work, and bedeparting from my original design, I therefore, concluded to publish allthe historical facts in regard to Reed in a small volume by itself, and to[Pg 4]publish such an edition, that it could not be bought up and destroyed.
I have taken the liberty of using the following extracts from an articlepublished in the Fireside Visitor—by J. M. Church. Whom it was written byI do not know, but the writer evidently understood his subject.
"When it was announced that Mr. Irving was about to present to the public alife of Washington, we hailed the information with feelings of delight, notunmingled with gratitude, that the illustrious author of 'Columbus,' theSketch Book, and Knickerbocker should make the crowning work of his lifeand literary labors, the history of the greatest and purest of patriots, sodear to the hearts of all his countrymen, and one who, the more time andinvestigation develop and explain his motives and actions, the greater andnobler he appears. Our expectations were great when we contemplated thevast field that time had laid open to the historian; and though Marshalland Sparks had left but little to do, we felt there was still enough tomake Mr. Irving's the greatest history of that greatest of men.
On the appearances of the first volume, a number of errors were noticed bythe press, which were subsequently corrected. The most important one, thatin relation to Major Stobo, we are glad to see fully explained andcorrected in a note at the end of the second volume. In the early part ofthe second volume, however, a far graver error occurs, we mean Mr. Irving'sestimate of the conduct and character of Gen. Reed, and is it mainly the[Pg 5]object of this communication to set that matter in its true light.
Who can read without emotion of the trials and difficulties that besetWashington throughout the whole of his career? A Congress so corrupt, thatLivingston writes, 'I am so discouraged by our public mismanagement, andthe additional load of business thrown upon me by the villainy of those whopursue nothing but accumulating fortunes, to the ruin of their country,that I almost sink under it.' False friends and traitors intrigue againsthim—even Gen. Reed, the very man Mr. Irving so delighted to honor, and aninmate of his household, writes a letter to Gen. Lee, the aspiring rival ofWashington, reflecting, with harsh severity, on the con