principal part, that they ought not to be omitted, and respecting
which his correspondence cannot be expected to furnish satisfactory
information.

Such facts have been taken from the histories of the day, and the
authority relied on for the establishment of their verity has been
cited. Doddesly's Annual Register, Belsham, Gordon, Ramsay, and
Stedman have, for this purpose, been occasionally resorted to, and are
quoted for all those facts which are detailed in part on their
authority. Their very language has sometimes been employed without
distinguishing the passages, especially when intermingled with others,
by marks of quotation, and the author persuades himself that this
public declaration will rescue him from the imputation of receiving
aids he is unwilling to acknowledge, or of wishing, by a concealed
plagiarism, to usher to the world, as his own, the labours of others.

In selecting the materials for the succeeding volumes, it was deemed
proper to present to the public as much as possible of general
Washington himself. Prominent as he must be in any history of the
American war, there appeared to be a peculiar fitness in rendering him
still more so in one which professes to give a particular account of
his own life. His private opinions therefore; his various plans, even
those which were never carried into execution; his individual
exertions to prevent and correct the multiplied errors committed by
inexperience, are given in more minute detail; and more copious
extracts from his letters are taken, than would comport with the plan
of a more general work.

Many events too are unnoticed, which in such a composition would be
worthy of being introduced, and much useful information has not been