To George Washington from John Carey, 2 April 1795
From John Carey
London, April 2, 1795
Sir
By the ship Friends, captain Bacon,1 I have the honor of transmitting to Your Excellency a copy of your letters to Congress, written during the first four years of that memorable contest, which, under your auspices, so happily terminated in the establishment of American Independence.2
If, in any passage, I have mistaken your sense, if, by any errors of the press, it is obscured, permit me, Sir, to hope that such mistakes will be excused, when with great truth I declare that I have used my best endeavours to guard against them, and intend to rectify in a second edition whatever I can discover to be wrong in the first.
Respecting the plan of publication I have adopted, which I fear Your Excellency will at first sight disapprove, and which is far from being satisfactory to myself, I would beg leave to refer to the copy herewith transmitted, which contains some manuscript remarks expressive of the motives that influenced me on the occasion.3
With sincere and ardent wishes for Your Excellency’s health, and that the indulgence of heaven may long preserve you a blessing to that happy country which is so much indebted to you for the happiness it enjoys, I have the honor to be Your Excellency’s most obedient humble servant,
John Carey.
P.S. I have also delivered into the hands of captain Bowen, of the ship Factor, bound for Philadelphia, two copies of the book, which he has promised carefully to convey to Your Excellency, one for Your Excellency’s library, the other containing the same manuscript observations as that now committed to the care of captain Bacon.4
ALS, DLC:GW.
Carey wrote a nearly identical letter to GW on 31 March in which he gave notice of the two copies of his work placed aboard the ship Factor under Capt. Ezra Bowen. That letter contains no postscript (ALS, DLC:GW).
1. The brig Friends, under Capt. Samuel D. Bacon, arrived at New York in June (American Minerva and the New-York Advertiser, 18 June).
2. Two-volume editions of Carey’s work with slightly variant titles appeared this year in London and Boston. The title of the edition published in Boston reads Official Letters to the Honourable American Congress, Written during the War between the United Colonies and Great Britain, by His Excellency, George Washington, Commander in Chief of the Continental Forces, Now President of the United States. Copied, by Special Permission, from the Original Papers preserved in the Office of the Secretary of State, Philadelphia. A New York printing and a second Boston edition appeared in 1796. At least one copy of the book remained in GW’s library at the time of his death (see 274–75, 525).
3. Carey wrote two undated notes, subsequently designated Note A and Note B, to explain the absence of numerous enclosures and passages in the published letters (see 525–26). In Note A, Carey wrote: “I at first intended to have copied them regularly as I proceeded: but I found the files in such confusion as rendered this impracticable … I was soon obliged to postpone the copying of them, until I should have completed my transcript of the principal letters.” Carey had hoped to complete GW’s correspondence as commander-in-chief of the Continental forces before he returned to Europe, but his work remained incomplete when the time came to leave. “This plain statement,” Carey hoped, would “plead my apology to the illustrious writer of these letters, for the manner in which I have ventured to begin their publication; and also induce him to pardon me, if, without being able to preserve the necessary connexion, I proceed to publish the remainder of what is in my possession, viz.—the contents of the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th volumes of the record, beginning with August 16, 1779.” Carey then described his plan for an improved future publication.
In Note B, Carey wrote: “The omissions are of such passages as might have a tendency to excite jealousy or uneasiness in the bosoms of persons now living under the Federal Government.” This belief prompted Carey “to act cautiously” and conclude: “if I should err in the business, to err on the safe side,—it being very easy, in a second edition or an Appendix, to supply any unnecessary omission” as well as “less important occurrences” not included in the first publication. Carey’s manuscript notes are tipped in at the end of volume II of GW’s copy, which is currently located in the National Library of Scotland.
4. Bowen and the ship Factor arrived in Philadelphia by mid-June (Philadelphia Gazette & Universal Daily Advertiser, 24 June 1795).
Ezra Bowen (1770–1824) was a native of Providence. He later served as master of the ship Voltaire, owned by Philadelphia merchant Stephen Girard, with whom Bowen continued a long association (Philadelphia Gazette & Universal Daily Advertiser, 20 Feb. 1796). Bowen died when a wave washed him overboard the ship Sarah Ralston (Boston Commercial Gazette, 17 June 1824).
Edmund Randolph wrote to Carey on 23 June and conveyed GW’s appreciation for the two sets of volumes (DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters).