happy to do justice to the unparalleled exertions of the individual States on many interesting occasions.

I have thus freely disclosed what I wished to make known, before I surrendered up my public trust to those who committed it to me. The task is now accomplished. I now bid adieu to your Excellency as the chief magistrate of your State, at the same time I bid a last farewell to the cares of office, and all the employments of public life.

It remains, then, to be my final and only request, that your Excellency will communicate these sentiments to your legislature at their next meeting, and that they may be considered as the legacy of one, who has ardently wished, on all occasions, to be useful to his country, and who, even in the shade of retirement, will not fail to implore the Divine benediction upon it.

I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection; that he would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government; to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the field; and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.

I have the honor to be, with much esteem and respect, Sir, your Excellency's most obedient and most humble servant. GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Washington's Circular Letter addressed to the Governors of all the States on disbanding the Army was felt by him to be so important that, supposing himself at the time to be finally retiring from public life, he spoke of it as his legacy-"the legacy of one who has ardently wished, on all occasions, to be useful to his country, and who, even in the shade of retirement, will not fail to implore the Divine benediction upon it." The feelings with which it was written, as well as its own contents and character, naturally prompt a comparison of it with the Farewell Address of 1796. The occasion of the letter was a much more critical occasion than that of the Farewell Address. It was the time, as Washington well said, of the "political probation" of the American people. "This is the moment," he said, "when the eyes of the whole world are turned upon them; this is the moment to establish or ruin their national character forever. With this conviction of the importance of the present crisis, silence in me would be a

crime." He then proceeds to the discussion of those things which he considered essential to the well-being and to the existence of the United States as an independent power. The effect of the letter upon the country, in the disordered condition of the time, was important. The legislatures that were then in session passed resolves in honor of the Commander-in-chief; and the Governors of the States wrote letters expressing the public gratitude for his great services.

For the conditions under which this address appeared, see Irving's Life of Washington, iv, 426. For an account of the discontents in the Army just previous, which for a time threatened such serious dangers, see Irving, iv, 406, Marshall, iv, 585, and Sparks, viii, appendix xii, on “The Newburg Addresses." See in this general connection Washington's letters to the President of Congress, March 19 and April 18, 1783, to Benjamin Harrison, Governor of Virginia, March 18, 1783, to Lafayette, April 5, 1783, and his Farewell Address to the Armies, Nov. 2, 1783 (Sparks viii, 396, 403, 411, 421, 491). Washington's deep sense of the obligations of the country to the officers and soldiers of the Army, which finds such strong expression in this circular letter, may be further studied in the Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, vol. i, chap. iv, in Cone's Life of General Rufus Putnam, and in the St. Clair Papers.

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

With Bibliographical and Historical Notes and Outlines for Study.
PREPARED BY EDWIN D. MEAD.

This manual is published by the Directors of the Old South Studies in History and Politics, for the use of schools and of such clubs, classes and individual students as may wish to make a careful study of the Constitution and its history. The societies of young men and women now happily being organized everywhere in America for historical and political study can do nothing better to begin with than to make themselves thoroughly familiar with the Constitution. It is especially with such societies in view that the table of topics for study, which follows the very full bibliographical notes in this manual, has been prepared. A copy of the manual will be sent to any address on receipt of twenty-five cents; one hundred copies, fifteen dollars. Address Directors of Old South Studies, Old South Meeting House, or D. C. Heath & Co., 5 Somerset street, Boston.

OLD SOUTH LEAFLETS, GENERAL SERIES.

No. 1. Constitution of the United States. 2. Articles of Confederation. 3. Declaration of Independence. 4. Washington's Farewell Address. 5. Magna Charta. 6. Vane's "Healing Question." 7. Charter of Massachusetts Bay, 1629. 8. Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, 1638. 9. Franklin's Plan of Union, 1754. 10. Washington's Inaugurals. 11. Lin

coln's Inaugurals and Emancipation Proclamation. 12. The Federalist, Nos. 1 and 2. 13. The Ordinance of 1787. 14. The Constitution of Ohio.* 15. Washington's Circular Letter to the Governors of the States, 1783. 16. Washington's Letter to Benjamin Harrison, 1784. etc. Price, five cents per copy; one hundred copies, three dollars. Directors of Old South Studies, Old South Meeting House, Boston.

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PUBLISHED FOR SCHOOLS AND THE TRADE BY

D. C. HEATH & CO., 5 Somerset St., Boston

Upon my return from the western country a few days ago, I had the pleasure to receive your favor of the 17th ultimo. It has always been my intention to pay my respects to you, before the chance of another early and hard winter should make a warm fireside too comfortable to be relinquished. And I shall feel an additional pleasure in offering this tribute of friendship and respect to you, by having the company of the Marquis de Lafayette, when he shall have revisited this place from his eastern tour, now every day to be expected.

I shall take the liberty now, my dear Sir, to suggest a matter, which would (if I am not too short-sighted a politician) mark your administration as an important era in the annals of this country, if it should be recommended by you and adopted by the Assembly.

It has long been my decided opinion, that the shortest, easiest, and least expensive communication with the invaluable and extensive country back of us would be by one or both of the rivers of this State, which have their sources in the Apalachian mountains. Nor am I singular in this opinion. Evans, in his Map and Analysis of the Middle Colonies, which, considering the early period at which they were given to the public, are done with amazing exactness, and Hutchins since, in his Topographical Description of the western country, a good part of which is from actual surveys, are decidedly of the same sentiments; as indeed are all others, who have had opportunities, and have been at the pains, to investigate and consider the subject.

But that this may not now stand as mere matter of opinion and assertion, unsupported by facts (such at least as the best maps now extant, compared with the oral testimony, which my opportunities in the course of the war have enabled me to obtain), I shall give you the different routes and distances from Detroit, by which all the trade of the northwestern parts of the united territory must pass; unless the Spaniards, contrary to their present policy, should engage part of it, or the British should attempt to force nature, by carrying the trade of the Upper Lakes by the River Utawas into Canada, which I scarcely think they will or could effect. Taking Detroit then (which is putting ourselves in as unfavorable a point of view as we can be well placed in, because it is upon the line of the British territory) as a point by which, as I have already observed, all that part of the trade must come, it appears from the statement enclosed, that the tide waters of this State are nearer to it by one hundred and sixty-eight miles, than those of the River St. Lawrence; or than those of the Hudson at Albany, by one hundred and seventy-six miles.

Maryland stands upon similar ground with Virginia. Pennsylvania, although the Susquehanna is an unfriendly water, much impeded, it is said, with rocks and rapids, and nowhere communicating with those, which lead to her capital, has it in contemplation to open a communication between Toby's Creek, which empties into the Allegany River ninety-five miles above Fort Pitt, and the west branch of the Susquehanna, and to cut a canal between the waters of the latter and the Schuylkill; the expense of which is easier to be conceived, than estimated or described by me. A people, however, who are possessed of the spirit of commerce, who see and who will pursue their advantages, may achieve almost any thing. In the mean time, under the uncertainty of these undertakings, they are smoothing the roads and paving the ways 'for the trade of that western world. That New York will do the same as soon as the British garrisons are removed, which are at present insurmountable obstacles in their way, no person, who knows the temper, genius, and policy of those people as well as I do, can harbour the smallest doubt.

Thus much with respect to rival States. Let me now take a short view of our own; and, being aware of the objections which are in the way, I will, in order to contrast them, enumerate them with the advantages.

The first and principal one is, the unfortunate jealousy, which ever has, and it is to be feared ever will prevail, lest one part of the State should obtain an advantage over the other