OCR Text |
Show "The Writings Of George Washington" The United States George Wash ington Bicentennial Commission announces that four volumes of ihe set of approximately 25 volumes vol-umes of the Definitive Edition of the Writings of George Washington, Washing-ton, are now ready for distribution. distribu-tion. This publication of a complete com-plete collection of Washington's personal, military and state papers pa-pers has been one of the majot activities which Congress assigned the Federal Bicentennial Commission, Commis-sion, as part of the nation's honors hon-ors to Washington during this Two Hundredth year since his birth. Nothing like this comprehensive edition of the Washington writings writ-ings has been attempted heretofore, hereto-fore, partly because private publishing pub-lishing houses recoiled at the expense. ex-pense. Fifty years after Washington's Washing-ton's death, Jared Sparks, then president of Harvard, issued an edition of 12 volumes, in which he omitted numerous passages and "improved" Washington's diction dic-tion in others. Sixty years after the Sparks edition, Worthington C. Ford brought out another 14 volumes taken directly from the Washington manuscripts. But as Washington left a larger number of papers than any other president, presi-dent, these editions, large as they are, contain less than 50 percent of the whole, represented in 400 folders in the Edbrary of Congress. As pointed out by Dr. John C. Fitzpatrick, editor of this great compilation and noted" authority on Washingon's writings, "The lack of a complete publication of Washington's . letters has .made possible the slanderous belittle -ment of his character by present day writers. In one way we are indebted to Sparks and Ford for the hundreds of biographies of Washington now available. The pity of it is, however, that most of these biographies, so unsatisfactory unsatis-factory because of their lack of complete information, have been, read with avidity by the American Ameri-can public and so have been responsible res-ponsible for the vast amount of existent misconception regarding Washington. It is not surprising, therefore, that one of our present pres-ent day eminent historians, John Bach McMaster, should have stated that George Washington is an unknown man." The present Bicentennial edition of the Washington Writings, according ac-cording to Dr. Fitzpatrick, is noi, only an honor to the first American, Ameri-can, but- will enable America to-understand to-understand her own history more clearly, for the farmative period of the United States is so enmeshed en-meshed with the life of Washington Washing-ton that it is impossible to obtain ob-tain a clear picture of the founding found-ing of the Nation without full knowledge of George Washington, the man himself, his personal as well as his public life. The Bicentennial edition will now make this available. It will contain all the papers included in the Sparks and Ford editions, all the papers in the Library ol Congress, besides many letters and groups of letters in the possession of various libraries, historical societies, so-cieties, State archives, and private owners. In fact Washington papers pap-ers have been found in every State of the Union and in nearly every country of the world. The present Bicentennial edition was begun in 1930. The volumes, as ready, will be published by the Government Printing Office on 100. percent rag - paper, durably bound, 500 pages to the volume, and each containing about 300 letters. Each volume will be separately sep-arately indexed and foot-noted with names and records of aU individuals referred to. In addition addi-tion to the 4 volumes now ready, it is hoped to have five or six others completed by the close of the Bicentennial year. The editing of this collection has been done by Dr. John Clement Cle-ment Fitzpatrick, of the Manuscript Manus-cript Division, Library of Congress editor of the George Washington Diaries. Dr. Fitzpatrick's entire life has been devoted to pure scholarship, and he stands foremost fore-most among authorities in presenting pre-senting the facts of Washington's life as drawn from his own hand. |