WASHINGTON IN DOMESTIC LIFE.
From Original Letters and Manuscripts. By Richard Rush.
1857.
GENTLEMEN:—
In confiding to your house the publication of this brief paper on some points in the character of Washington, I beg leave to say, that for any deficiency in the cost of publishing, after all your charges in having it fitly done are defrayed, I will be responsible.
And in the very remote probability of the sale of a production so limited as this, in the face of a thousand better things on Washington's character already before the world, ever yielding anything in the way of profit after your proper expenditures are all satisfied, it will go, however small, to the Washington Monument Fund, existing in the metropolis of our country.
I am, gentlemen,
Your very faithful
And obedient servant,
RICHARD RUSH.
SYDENHAM, NEAR PHILADELPHIA, February 28, 1857.
To MESSRS.
J.B. LIPPINCOTT AND CO.,
PUBLISHERS,
PHILADELPHIA.
TO
CHARLES J. INGERSOLL.
This literary trifle is hardly worth a dedication; yet it has dared to touch, though with incompetent hands, a high subject, and, trifle as it is, I dedicate it to you. At an agreeable little dinner at your table lately, where we had the new Vice-President, Mr. Breckenridge, whose maternal stock, the Stanhope Smiths and Witherspoons, so rich in intellect, we knew at Princeton, you said we had been friends for upwards of sixty years. You were right, for we were merry boys together in Philadelphia before our college days at Princeton; and I may here add, that our friendship never has been interrupted.
RICHARD RUSH.