case he should fall in the French war. He willed that all his negro
slaves should be set free on the death of his wife. He said that he
earnestly wished that it might be done before this, but he feared it
would cause trouble on account of their intermarriages with the dower
negroes who came to Mrs. Washington from her first husband, and whom he
had no right to free. He willed also that such should be comfortably
clothed and fed by his heirs. To his five nephews he left his swords,
with the injunction that they were "not to unsheath them for the purpose
of shedding blood, except it be in self-defense, or in defense of their
country and its rights; and in the latter case to keep them unsheathed,
and prefer falling with them in their hands to the relinquishment
thereof."

Washington's life is an open book. He knew that he was making history,
and he kept careful copies of all his most important letters and
writings, so that it is impossible that there should be doubts on any
very important point. So jealous was he of his own honorable reputation,
that his last act as President was to file a denial of the authenticity
of some spurious letters which were attributed to him by his political
enemies. These letters were first published during the Revolution by the
English, and purported to be written by Washington to Lund Washington,
to Mrs. Washington, and to John Parke Custis. The person who wrote them
knew something of Washington's private affairs, but he made the American
general say things which represented him as opposed to the independence
of the colonies. It was asserted that Washington in his retreat from New
York left his servant Billy behind, and that these papers were found in
a handbag which the valet carried. As it was well known in the army that
Billy had never been captured, Washington did not then think it needful
to deny having written these letters; but when they were brought forward
again by his enemies during the last years of his Presidency, he was